THE IfESPERfAiW
The Century for this month contains a very interesting
short story entitled, "The Longworth Mystery." The
scene is laid in the editorial rooms of a great newspaper, and
the descriptions of the various vexations of a. newspaper
man's life, put humorously as it is, makes very interesting
reading. Any one seeking to "kill time'1 merely for the
killing can not do better than to read it.
The publishers of "Looking Uackward" must find it diffi
cult to keep their announcements of the edition up with the
sales. It leaped fiom the seventy-fifth to the hundredth,
then almost immediately to the hundred nnd twclth; and now
the hundred and twenty second edition is on the market.
Literary World.
The above is at least one argument why one should read
Edward Bellamy's book. It is wonderfully popular 1o read
it is fashionable; some even go so far as to exalt Bellamy
above all living authors. Hut seriously the book is one that
will repay careful reading. As for the story, it is worthless,
except as a means to bring out the real object of the book.
There is nothing startling in the talc of "Julian West." Peo
ple (in fiction) haac often slept for one hundred and thirteen
years, and have awakened to find conditions existing as
strange as those which West found on his returning to con
sciousness in the year of grace 2000. All this is simply a
more or less ingenious way to place West (and the reader
with him) in a position to "look backward," which is but
another way to "look forward." That this position is not
gained in a better way is one of the weak points the book.
Hut still if more care had been expended on the machinery
of the work, the idea might have become entangled, and
then lost. It is the social scheme outlined by liellamy, that
has made his book so popular.
And that scheme is elaborated in a scries of conversations
between Julian West, the resurrected man of a byegone age,
and Doctor Lceth, the product of the new order of things.
West in relating his expciicnccs, and detailing the social,
political and industrial conditions of his time furnishes a
cause for the change. The desirability and the advanced
condition of the civilization of one hundred years from now
arc shown by the contrast between 1887 and 2000 A. D.
National control of labor and capital is the principle laid
down. Instead of howling and raving against the corpora
tion pr nciplc, Bellamy only enlarges that idea, until the
whole nation is one vast corporation, with peace, goodwill,
and prosperity for its subjects. The mighty power of the
the nation is brought to bear on the perplexing question of
this country and the men oi one hundred years from this
time live for their fellow men, not for themselves. The way
this was brought about was something as follows. From the
time when money became massed enough to deserve the
name of capital, the tendency had been to combination.
Truts, pools, combines, with a tendency toward still greater
combinations, increasing vastly, the wealth-producing power
of capital, were the result. This of course necessitated the
loss of individuality in the citizens. A single laborer was a
verys mall drop in a very large ocean, and to gain the
attention he felt himself entitled to, he was forced
to unite with his fellow laborers. Hence the labor organiza
tion. From this state of things,this antagonism between con
centrated capital and organized labor, grew strikes, lockouts,
and the manifold evils of the nineteenth century civilization.
Hut although bitterly opposed, and cordially hated, capital
went on combining, till all the railroads, telegraph lines and
great industries were in the hands of a few men. From this
it was but a step to the time when "the evolution was com
pleted by the final consolidation of the entire capital of the
nation. The industry and commerce of the country, ceasing
to be conducted by a set of irresponsible corporations and
and syndicates of private persons, at their caprice nnd for
their profit, were entrusted to a single syndicate representing
the people, to be conducted in the common interest for the
common profit. The nation, that is to say, organized as the
one great business corporation, in which all other corpora
tions were absorbed became the one capitalist in the
place of all other capitalists; the sole employer, the final
monopoly in which all persons and lesser monopolies were
swallowed up; a monopoly in the profits nnd economics of
which all citizens shared. The epoch of trusts had ended in
the great trust. In a word, the people of the United Stales
concluded to assume the conduct of their own business, just
as one hundred odd years before they had assumed the con
duct of their own government, organizing now for industrial
purposes on precisely the same grounds that they had then
organized for political purposes. At last, strangely late in
the world's history, the obvious fact was perceived that no
business is so essentially the public business as the industry
and commerce on which the people's livelihood depends, and
that to intrust it to private persons to be managed for
private profit is n folly similar in kind, thought vastly greater
in magnitude, to that of surrendering the function of political
government to kings and nobles to be conducted for their
personal glorification."
So without bloodshed or violence, but by the simple
working out of a tendency in the institutions of the nations,
the great change was accomplished. Wages of course were
regulated, and fixed, each citizen receiving the same as his
fellow; the nation fully believing that one man's best efforts
are as worthy of reward as another's. The necessaries of
life as well as the luxuries were supplied by the government.
In short the whole daily life of the individual citizen was
under the direct control of the government. Hellamy very
ingeniously describes the many ways in which those things
arc accomplished, and the labor saving applianctjwhich were
used to render them efficient. If there arc any points in
which his scheme seems farfetched or impractical, they arc to
be expected, not set down as grave mistakes, for it is no easy
task to describe in detail an ideal form of government.
It docs seem, however as if Hellamy has been too san
guine, for at the time his story opens, 2000 A. D., the ideal
government had been in operation nearly a hundred years or
since "early in the 20th century." I seems hardly possible
that in twenty, thirty or forty years from now, anything like
so marvelous a progress should be made. Bellamy admits
that he is peculiarly sensitive to the secret and subtle forces
now existing in society. May it not be that he has overesti
mated the growth of public opinion, that he las ascribed to
influence and tendencies, a power not theirs, and that he
has placed his "millennium" too near the Hay Market mas
sacre and the Illinois strikes. Hut the effort made, in
"Looking Backward," to depict an ideal, and to show us
how that ideal may be reached by the use of materials ready
to our hands, is far more worthy of commendation, however
weak that effort be, then the selfish, morbid spirit which pro
claims the constantly increasing depravity of man, and yet
does nothing to check or retard its growth.
It pjys students to get their shoes at Briscoe & Cooks,
1329 O St.
Wc build pants for gentlemen only" at Browning, King
& Co's
cheap.
agency, 11S north Tenth street. Overcoats dirt
WUSUSk
