The assembly proposed:
"Article I. of the constitution of the new State of Ventura as follows:
"Every citizen of the State must labour according to his ability. Those who can work and will not shall be made to work."
No man who voted this simple and obviously just law could dream of the tremendous results. It was merely the enactment into statutory law of the first principle of an effective Socialism:
"From every man according to his ability, unto every man according to his needs."
The first obvious requirement of such a law was an immediate increase of the police and detective force at the command of the regents and the board of governors.
Norman thanked the assembly for the promptness and thoroughness which had characterized their work, and closed his congratulations with a sentence of peculiarly sinister meaning to the man who had ears to hear.
"Hereafter, comrades, we can move forward without another pause. There can never be another strike on the island of Ventura. The State is now supreme."
The Wolfs, who had modestly declined all office, were omnipresent during the long sessions of the assembly, which had lasted two days. Everywhere they had counselled compromise, forbearance, good fellowship, moving quietly from group to group in the big hall, and always winning new friends.
Wolf's gnarled hand gripped Norman's at the close of the meeting as he bent his massive head and whispered: