Man should be given an opportunity for perfect development. That is the purpose of human association. So he must not remain tied down to the spot where he has been placed by the chance of birth. One should become acquainted with the world and people not only through books and newspapers, but also by personal observation and practical experience. So future society must enable all to do what many are able to do even in present-day society, though at present the force of want usually forms the motive. The desire for change in all human relations is deeply rooted in human nature. This is due to the impulse of seeking perfection that is innate in every living being. The plant that is placed in a dark room extends and stretches, as if conscious of the ray of light that penetrates some crevice. It is the same with man. An instinct, that is innate in man, must find rational satisfaction. The desire for change will not be opposed by the conditions prevailing in the new society; the satisfaction of this desire will, on the contrary, become possible to all. The highly developed system of communication will make it easy, and the international relations will demand it. In the future far more persons will travel through the world, for the most varied purposes, than heretofore.
Society will require an ample supply of all the necessities of life to meet all demands. Society will therefore regulate its hours of work according to the needs. It will lengthen or shorten them, as the demands or the season of the year make this appear desirable. During one season it will devote more time to agriculture, and during another it will devote more time to industry and to artistic crafts. It will direct the labor forces as the needs may let it appear desirable. By combining various labor forces with the most perfect technical appliances, it will be able to carry out large undertakings playfully, that seem practically impossible to-day.
As society provides for the young, so also will it provide for the old, the sick and invalid. If any one has, by some misfortune, become incapacitated for work, society will provide for him. This will not be an act of charity, but a simple performance of duty. The assistance will not be a morsel graciously given, but support and care provided with every possible consideration, bestowed as a matter of course upon him who performed his duty toward society as long as he was able to do so. The evening of life will be made beautiful by all that society has to offer. For every one will hope himself to receive some day what he bestows upon other aged persons. No old person will be harassed by the thought that others are awaiting their death to inherit their possessions. They are also freed from the terror of being cast aside like a squeezed lemon when they have become old and helpless. They must neither depend on the kindness and support of their children, nor on public charity.[264] How unfortunate is the position of most parents who in old age must depend upon the support of their children, is a well-known fact. And how demoralizing to children and to relatives is the hope of inheriting! What degrading passions are aroused and how many crimes are caused thereby—murder, suppression, legacy-hunting, perjury and blackmailing!
The moral and physical condition of society, the nature of its work, homes, food, dress, its social life, all will tend to prevent accidents, sickness and debility. Dying a natural death, the normal decline of the vigor of life, will become the rule more and more. The conviction that heaven is upon earth and that death means the end, will cause people to lead a rational life. He who enjoys longest, enjoys most. The clergy themselves, who prepare people for “the hereafter,” know how to value a long life. Their care-free existence enables them to attain the highest average age.
[264] “The person who has worked hard and honestly until old age, should not depend upon the benevolence of his children or that of bourgeois society. An independent, easy and care-free old age is the natural reward for continuous exertions during the days of health and strength.” v. Thuenen—The Isolated State. But how are the aged treated in bourgeois society? Millions look forward with dread to the time when they will be cast out into the street because they have grown old; and our industrial system makes people age before their time. The much boasted old age and invalid pension in the German Empire is only a very scanty substitute; even its most ardent supporters admit that. The assistance rendered is still much more insufficient than the pensions allowed by the municipalities to the majority of their pensioned officials.
[2.—Changes in the Methods of Nutrition.]
Food and drink are prime necessities of life. People who believe in the so-called “natural manner of living” frequently ask why Socialists remain indifferent to vegetarianism. Everyone lives as best he may. Vegetarianism, that is, the doctrine of an exclusive vegetable diet, found its chief supporters among the persons who are so comfortably situated that they are able to choose between a vegetable and an animal diet. But the great majority of persons have no choice. They must live according to their means, and the scantiness of their means compels them to live on a vegetable diet almost exclusively and often on one of the poorest quality. For the German laboring population in Silesia, Saxony, Thuringia, etc., the potato is the principal article of food; even bread comes only second. Meat only rarely appears on their tables, and then it is meat of the poorest quality. The greater part of the rural population, although they raise cattle, also rarely eat meat; for they must sell the cattle, and, with the money obtained, must satisfy other needs. To these numerous people who are obliged to live as vegetarians, a solid beefsteak or a good leg of mutton would mean a decided improvement in their nourishment.[265] If vegetarianism opposes the overeating of an animal diet, it is right. If it combats the partaking of meat as harmful and detrimental, mainly for sentimental reasons, it is wrong; when it is claimed, for instance, that natural feelings forbid to kill an animal and to partake of a “corpse.” The desire to live in peace compels us to wage war upon and destroy a great many living creatures, such as vermin, and, in order not to be devoured ourselves, we must kill and exterminate wild beasts. If we could allow “the good friends of man,” the domestic animals, to live undisturbed, these “good friends” would multiply to such a degree that they would “eat” us by robbing us of nourishment. The assertion that vegetable diet creates a gentle disposition is false, too. Even in the gentle, vegetarian Hindoos the “beast” was aroused, when the severity of the English drove them to rebellion. The nutritive value of an article of food cannot be estimated only by the amount of albumen that it contains. It must be taken into consideration how large a quantity of the albumen consumed remains undigested. Considered from this view-point, we find, for instance, meat and rice, or potatoes, as 2.5 to 20 or 22. In other words, of 100 grammes of albumen consumed with meat, 2.5 grammes will pass out of the system undigested. Of 100 grammes consumed with rice or potatoes, respectively, 20 and 22 grammes will pass out. The famous Russian physiologist, Pawlow, and his scholars have shown that, with the digestion of bread, there is much more ferment than with the digestion of meat. Pawlow has furthermore shown that the gastric juices produced by the pancreas glands are of two kinds. They are produced through stimulation of the mucous membrane by the food itself, and are also produced as “appetite juices” by stimulation of the senses. The quantity of our appetite juice depends upon our psychic condition for the time being; for instance, on hunger, grief, annoyance, joy, etc., and it also depends upon the nature of the food. But the importance of the appetite juice differs with different articles of food. Some foods, as, for instance, bread, boiled albumen, as contained in eggs, or pure starch, cannot be digested at all, unless the digestion is introduced by the appetite juice, as has been directly proved by experiments. They can only be digested when they are eaten with an appetite, or together with other food. But meat, as Pawlow has shown, can be partly digested without appetite juice, although, with the aid of appetite juice, meat is digested much more rapidly (five times as fast). “We must therefore take factors into consideration that depend upon the psychology of man. Here a connection has been established between facts of the physiology of nutrition and social conditions. The modern residents of large cities, especially the masses of the working class, live under social conditions that are bound to destroy their normal appetite. Work in the squalid factory, the constant worry over their daily bread, absence of mental repose and pleasant impressions, complete physical exhaustion, all these are factors that are destructive of appetite. In this psychological condition we are unable to furnish the appetite juice required for the digestion of vegetable food. But in meat we possess an article of food that—if we may thus express it—provides for its own digestion. A considerable quantity of meat can be digested without appetite; it also acts as a stimulant and a creator of appetite. So meat aids the digestion of vegetables consumed at the same time, and thereby insures a better assimilation of the consumed matter. This appears to be the great advantage of an animal diet to modern man.”[266]
Sonderegger hits the nail on the head when he says: “There is no order of rank among articles of food, but there is an immutable law regarding the combination of their nutritive qualities.” It is true that no one can live on an animal diet exclusively, while one can live on a vegetable diet, provided that the diet can be properly selected. On the other hand, no one would care to content himself with one specific kind of vegetable food, no matter how nutritive it might be. Thus, beans, peas, lentils, in one word, the leguminosæ, are the most nutritive of all articles of food. But to live on them exclusively—which is said to be possible—would be a torture. Karl Marx mentions, in his first volume of “Capital,” that the mine-owners in Chili compel their workingmen to eat beans all the year round, because this nourishment gives them an unusual amount of strength and enables them to carry loads as no other nourishment will. The workingmen refuse the beans, notwithstanding their nutritive value, but are compelled to content themselves with this diet. Under no circumstances does the happiness and welfare of man depend upon a definite kind of food, as the fanatics among vegetarians claim. Climate, social conditions, custom and personal taste are the determining factors.[267]