"The entire history of Altruria as an independent republic belongs to the Transition Period in the progress of the world and in a larger, but not so well defined a sense it extends to the discovery of the continent, and even to an earlier period, distinguished by the breaking up of the ancient religious hierarchy and the introduction of a constantly increasing number of warring sects. These were the evolutionary forces developed under the operations of natural law, in strict accordance with the constitution of the human mind, which always tends towards the utmost possible development of the race, physically, mentally and morally. These forces in the early stages of human development, work so slowly, that even the best trained intellects do not discover their existence and hence have no power to intelligently co-operate with them, with a view to accelerating their own progress upward toward the highest possible planes of development. But, it was during the last fifty years of this Transition Period, that all these forces became more apparent to the careful historian, and it is these to which I have more particularly directed your attention.
"Human selfishness on the lower planes of development constitutes the first step in the development of that higher selfhood, which is the predominating characteristic on the higher planes. During the last fifty years of the Transition Period, human selfishness, in the baser sense, was making its last struggle for existence as the controlling factor in human affairs. All classes of people were inspired to action by selfish interests, and these interests could not fail to clash. Out of this clashing between forces they ultimately learned that the best and highest interest of every individual could always be secured by carefully guarding the interest of every other individual. Out of this was evolved our present universal rule, which governs our relations towards each other, of 'each for all and all for each,' and hence all are equally secure in the exercise of every natural right and in the possession of absolute economic independence.
"The Gold Power sought for and secured universal dominion over all the nations of the earth and there being no other nations to conquer, in its inordinate greed, it continued to impose additional burdens upon the people. This met opposition, first from one class and then from another, but all these movements were animated by the same element of selfishness which characterized the Gold Power. The farmers organized to secure better conditions for themselves without any regard to the interests of the millions of wage workers and others upon whom they depended for a market. The workmen organized to secure better wages for the members of their unions with no regard for any other class of people, or even for other workmen who did not belong to their fraternity. At the close of the old system the small dealers and manufacturers were unanimous against the encroachments of the vast combines who could undersell them, but they ignored the interests of the great mass of consumers upon whom they depended for a market. Selfishness, in the baser sense, guaranteed the failure of all these movements. No one class of people, seeking to promote its own selfish interests was able to hold its own against the superior intelligence of the great financiers who had planned to financially conquer the world by controlling the world's supply of gold through an organized system of creating debts both actual, for borrowed money, and constructive as investments which exacted tribute from the wealth producing classes. This process of debt creating continued until in this country the entire volume of sixteen hundred millions of money of all kinds would have paid but a fraction of the annual charge for interest, dividends, etc., upon investments and all the gold in the world, about $4,000,000,000 would have paid but a fraction of the principal.
"But another, and in the end the most potent evolutionary force which was destined to emancipate the people, was the arousing of the moral sense of large numbers who had never turned their attention to the study of economic science but whose souls revolted at the conditions imposed upon vast multitudes of people. The Gold Power while still a mighty factor in the control of the religious press and a large number of the leading religious teachers of the country, was not able to still the voice of the truest disciples of Krystus, and these demanded that the spirit of the founder of their religion should be exemplified in the practical every day affairs of life. They well understood that if the people were doing to each other as they would have others do to them, there could be no such thing as poverty, with all its tendencies towards vice and crime. These pioneers of a Diviner Civilization, with nothing but a theological training, were perhaps not clear in their own minds, as to just how this Golden Rule could be applied in business under the prevailing financial and commercial systems of the country, but they did believe that the ideal in every human relation could be realized, and they insisted that the effort should be made by every true follower of Krystus, to establish the dominion of good upon earth to the end that righteousness might prevail in human affairs.
"For this grand culmination, the operation of the evolutionary forces for the last fifty years had been a post-graduate course for the workers who were to set the machinery in motion, on the material plane, by which all the crushing burdens imposed by Greed could be easily and speedily removed. And in this course, the mistakes made by the people had been the most potent educators. The producing classes had been induced to organize because they felt that they were not getting their just share in the distribution of wealth; but to save that which was lost in the distribution, they made the strange mistake of organizing as producers. The farmer had no need of an organization, to enable him to produce more wealth. The soil would produce just as much without such organization as with it. The same thing was true of mechanics, miners and other wage-workers, who organized in their capacity of wealth producers. But as consumers they could all stand on one platform, and being the market upon which all producers must depend, they would be masters of the situation. With an equal distribution of the benefits of such organization of consumption, it would be just as easy to pay dividends to labor, and thus increase their share in the distribution, as it was to pay dividends on capitalistic investments.
"So it was, that at a time when every thing seemed hopeless, the few who never yield to disappointments, and who had made an exhaustive study of existing economic conditions reinforced the earnest followers of Krystus who were demanding the application of the Golden Rule in business by formulating methods by which this much desired result could be attained. They had studied the moral problem that confronted the religionists, from the objective side, and understood just how it must be solved along business lines. Inasmuch as all material wealth was created by labor, and distributed by being bought and sold, it followed as a logical sequence, that there was but one way by which every useful worker could secure a just share in the distribution, and that was to take charge of the business of exchange (buying and selling) and divide the benefits equally among all who united their efforts to establish the largest possible round of exchange between producers and consumers. This was simply the organization of the market for the express purpose of establishing Equity in Distribution, by paying dividends to labor. The people had at last discovered the vital truth upon which the application of the Golden Rule depends, that Organized Consumption Controls Distribution.
"Organizations of consumers were effected with a view to concentrating their purchasing power through channels of their own, not to reduce prices, but to pool the net profits into a common fund for the equal benefit of all the members. A portion of this was set aside as an educational fund to extend the work, and the remainder was used to pay dividends to the members who, as customers, had paid the profits into the common treasury. This was known as the "Dividend to Labor," and it was always distributed equally, as it had been secured by the united purchasing power of all the members. And, in order to secure this fund, which belonged alike to all, no member had added one cent to his or her cost of living. It was all a saving, as between the new equitable system of exchange and the old and wasteful profit system. This was a PROFIT-SAVING BUSINESS MACHINE of which the PRODUCERS who constituted, in the main, the great markets of the world, COULD NOT BE DEPRIVED, and WITH THIS, it became a matter of indifference as to who had immediate control of the LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY of PRODUCTION.
"This movement had its origin in the West where the people were more inclined to think for themselves, but the benefits were so decided and so easily secured, that it spread rapidly. The first exchanges demonstrated that the use of money could be very largely minimized, and banks were established as depositories for all the money that came into their hands, and to facilitate their financial relations with unorganized communities where money was still a necessity. These savings of money, were held as a sacred trust, to enable the members to pay taxes, and debts, in cases where the creditor could not be induced to take products at a fair price. Among themselves they used exchange certificates which were issued on the deposit of products or money, and for necessary labor. These certificates being issued on values which were seeking a market and redeemed in products needed for consumption and cancelled, constituted an ideal currency that was always just equal to the demand,—neither more nor less.
"The people learned by experience how easy it was to minimize the use of money, and the tendency of this decrease in the demand for money, was to relatively increase the amount in circulation. It was easy now, for the most unfamiliar with business methods, to understand how the large operators, under the old system, had enriched themselves by making their settlements through great clearing houses where one obligation cancelled another and only two or three per cent. of money had been used to pay balances; and they could see how even this balance among wealth producers, could take the shape of a check against future production and money be entirely eliminated as a medium in the exchange of wealth.
"All the people who were doing their buying and selling through these exchanges were regularly supplied with carefully prepared literature on economic questions and business methods, and of general information as to the trend of current events, the progress of the new order which placed business on an ethical basis and all matters of advantage for an independent, cultured citizenship to understand. Then for the first time, the multitudes began to realize the weakness of the fragile thread by which they had been bound to the triumphal car of Capitalism. Their experience gave them confidence. They used the same business methods for the benefit of the many that had enabled the few to concentrate in their own hands four-fifths of the wealth of the country. It was therefore no untried experiment. They were only exercising the same kind of business sagacity that had been used by the money kings to financially conquer the world. Just in proportion as they decreased the demand for money, it flowed in upon them in exchange for their products at a steadily increasing price. They had established a DEBT-PAYING instead of a DEBT-CREATING system of business, and in the course of time their debts were all paid, the necessity for legal money had disappeared, the people were free from its exactions, and all they had to do was to produce what they consumed and consume what they produced, exchanging equivalent for equivalent for the equal benefit of all. And thus the world had been saved from its thralldom to Greed by the establishment of the 'Kingdom of God and His Righteousness' as had been enjoined by Krystus at the beginning of the old religious system two thousand years before. This which was enjoined at the beginning of the Dispensation was REALIZED at its close and hence the First became the Last, because the Last was the First reduced to practice in human affairs."