“Since the bondholder is solely interested in the security of his principal, and regular payment of his interest, and since both security and interest depend upon the permanence [pg 196] of income, other things being equal the companies with the most stable earnings or a market ... furnish the best security for bonds. Stability of earnings depends upon (1) the possession of a monopoly.... Monopoly is exclusive or dominant control over a market. The more complete this control, the more valuable is the monopoly. The advantage of monopoly lies in the fact that the prices of services or commodities are controlled by the producers (meaning owners—Author), rather than by the consumer.... Monopolies are of various origins. The most familiar are (1) franchises, the right to use public property for private purposes, for example, the furnishing of light, water and transportation, (2) control of sources of raw material ... , (3) patents, ... (4) high cost of duplicating plant.... In manufacturing industries, for example, those enterprises which produce raw materials and the necessities of life have a more stable demand.... Railroads furnish perhaps the best basis of bond issue because of the stability of the demand for the transportation service ... the high cost of duplicating the railroad plant, ... enables them to fix their rates on freight and passenger traffic.... The security of the creditors is here the profitableness of the business which is carried on in the factory. Furthermore, a business is not an aggregate of physical property but consists of physical property—buildings, boilers, machine tools—plus an industrial opportunity, plus the organization and ability to operate business.” (Italics indicated by the author.)
There we see the animal standards in their studied perfection. Comment would be superfluous.
In the period of humanity's manhood, the so-called “science” of economics, the “dismal science” of political economy, will become a genuine science based upon the laws of the time-binding energies of [pg 197] humanity; it will become the light of Human Engineering—promoter, guardian, and guide of human weal. For it will discover, and will teach that a human life, a time-binding life, is not merely a civilized life but a civilizing life; it will know and will teach that a civilizing life is a life devoted to the production of potential and kinetic use-values—to the creation, that is, of material and spiritual wealth; it will know and will teach that wealth—both material and spiritual wealth—is a natural phenomenon—offspring of the marriage of Time and human Toil; it will know and will teach that the wealth in the world at any given moment is almost wholly the inherited fruit of time and the labor of the dead; and so it will ask: To whom does the inheritance rightly belong? Does it of right belong to Smith and Brown? If so, why? Or does it of right belong to man—to humanity? If so, why? And what does “humanity” include? Only the living, who are relatively few? Or both the living and unborn? The Economics of humanity's manhood will not only ask these questions but it will answer them and answer them aright. In seeking the answers, it will discover some obvious truths and many old words will acquire new meanings consistent with the time-binding nature of man. It will discover and will teach that the time-binders of a given generation are posterity and ancestry at once—posterity of the dead, ancestry of [pg 198] all the generations to come; it will discover and will teach that in this time-binding double relationship uniting past and future in a single living growing Reality, are to be found the obligations of time-binding ethics and the seat of its authority; economics will know and will teach that human posterity—time-binding posterity—can not inherit the fruits of time and dead men's toil as animals inherit the wild fruits of the earth, to fight about them and to devour them, but only as trustees for the generations to come; it will know and will teach that "capitalistic" lust to keep for self and “proletarian” lust to get for self are both of them space-binding lust—animal lust—beneath the level of time-binding life. The economics of humanity's manhood will know and will teach that the characteristic energies of man as man are by nature civilizing energies, wealth-producing energies, time-binding energies, the peaceful energies of inventive mind, of growing knowledge and understanding and skill and light; it will know and will teach that these energies of existing men united with one billion six hundred million available “sun-man” powers united with the ten billion living “man-powers of the dead,” if they be not wasted by ignorance and selfishness, by conflict and competition characteristic of beasts, are more than sufficient to produce a high order of increasing prosperity [pg 199] everywhere throughout the world; in the period of its manhood economics will discover and will teach that to produce world prosperity, cooperation—not the fighting of man against man—but the peaceful cooperation of all is both necessary and sufficient; it will know and will teach that such cooperation demands scientific leadership and a common aim; it will know, however, and will teach, for the lesson of Germany is plain, that scientific knowledge and a common aim are not alone sufficient; it will know and teach and all will understand that the common aim, the unifying principle, the basis of cooperation, cannot be the welfare of a family nor that of a province or a state or a race, but must be the welfare of all mankind, the prosperity of humanity, the weal of the world—the peaceful production of Wealth without the destruction of War.
In humanity's manhood, patriotism—the love of country—will not perish—far from it—it will grow to embrace the world, for your country and mine will be the world. Your “state” and mine will be the Human State—a Cooperative Commonwealth of Man—a democracy in fact and not merely in name. It will be a natural organic embodiment of the civilizing energies—the wealth-producing energies—characteristic of the human class of life. Its larger affairs will be guided by the science and art [pg 200] of Human Engineering—not by ignorant and grafting “politicians”—but by scientific men, by honest men who know.
Is it a dream? It is a dream, but the dream will come true. It is a scientific dream and science will make it a living reality.
How is the thing to be done? No one can foresee all the details, but in general outline the process is clear. Violence is to be avoided. There must be a period of transition—a period of adjustment. A natural first step would probably be the establishment of a new institution which might be called a Dynamic Department—Department of Coordination or a Department of Cooperation—the name is of little importance, but it would be the nucleus of the new civilization. Its functions would be those of encouraging, helping and protecting the people in such cooperative enterprises as agriculture, manufactures, finance, and distribution.
The Department of Cooperation should include various sections, which might be as follows:
(1) The Section of Mathematical Sociology or Humanology: composed of at least one sociologist, one biologist, one mechanical engineer, and one mathematician. Their work would be the development of human engineering and mathematical sociology or humanology; promoting the progress of science; providing and supervising instruction in the theory [pg 201] of values and the rudiments of humanology for elementary schools and the public at large. The members of the section would be selected by the appropriate scientific societies for a term fixed by the selectors.
(2) The Section of Mathematical Legislation: composed of (say) one lawyer, one mathematician, one mechanical engineer, selected as above. Their task would be to recommend legislation, to provide means for eliminating “Legalism” from the theory and practice of law, and to bring jurisprudence into accord with the laws of time-binding human nature and the changing needs of human society. Their legislative proposals, if ratified in a joint session of sections (1) and (2), would then be recommended to the appropriate legislative bodies.
(3) The Educational Section: composed of two or three teachers, one sociologist, one mechanical engineer, one mathematician, selected as above. They would elaborate educational projects and revise school methods and books; their decisions being subject to the approval of the joint session of sections (1), (2), and (3).