The Socialistic Method. 283 



shall labor, and how long they shall labor ; the control of 

 all religion so far as it shall be manifested in institutions ; 

 the control of all instruction so far as it shall be outside of 

 the home. For example : An unwillingness to engage in 

 the production of food, successfully manifested, must pro- 

 duce famine. The teaching of doctrines contrary to the 

 scheme in vogue would be equivalent to the spreading of 

 anti-slavery doctrines in the South in the days before the 

 war. To tolerate it would be to expose the State to inev- 

 itable destruction. Some systems propose to pay alike for 

 all kinds of labor, others propose to pay in some propor- 

 tion to the value of services, this value of course to be de- 

 termined by the same officials who indicate the kind and 

 extent of the labor. Mr Bellamy proposes to pay all alike, 

 but to require shorter service in certain kinds of labor than 

 in others. The individual becomes of necessity the servant 

 of society, or of those who for the time being represent 

 society, and must obey their behests. He becomes the 

 slave of the State rather than the servant, for service may 

 imply voluntary contract, and there is nothing really vol- 

 untary in the attitude of the individual under the proposed 

 system. He may submit to the inevitable, but it is the in- 

 evitable and he has no choice but to submit. From a 

 phalanstery or any local socialistic body he may escape, 

 but there is no escape from the international socialistic 

 State except out of the world. 



If there is any way in which the socialistic State can be 

 carried on without the exercise of this control by the au- 

 thorities, I am unable to conceive it. And how are the 

 persons to be selected who are to exercise this control ? By 

 popular suffrage ! Imagine it if you can. Think of what 

 is the present result of popular suffrage tempered by all 

 that can be done to qualify it, and think of wliat it would 

 be were all the interests of life dependent upon it ! Our 

 main reliance to-day is and must be upon the sturdy in- 

 dependence which has been fostered by our mvdtifarious 

 individual development, which cliallenges merely official 

 authority at every point. The Socialists tell us, " Oh, but 

 under our system the best men would be chosen to perform 

 the various functions." To this remark there is really no 

 reply. One must simply gaze in mute despair at the 

 speaker and feel of his own head to ascertain whether it 

 is still upon his slioulders. 



