“You do not mean to say, that the condition of the people of the nineteenth century was better than that of the present generation?” I asked with some curiosity.
“That is my opinion”, said Mr. Forest.
“The only way I can understand you holding such extraordinary views, is that you are personally quite unacquainted with the civilization of which you speak so highly,” I declared.
“I have as a matter of course, drawn my information from our libraries, and I am forced to admit that you can support your argument in regard to the civilization of the last century by pointing to your personal knowledge. But I am afraid that you are not so familiar with the present state of affairs, at the fountain of your information in regard to the twentieth century is only one man, Dr. Leete. I may therefore claim that my information of the civilization of your days is better than yours of our institutions, because mine is based on the testimony of more witnesses than one.”
“Then you must of course disapprove the views developed in my lecture?”
“Your address will undoubtedly be published in extenso in all the administration organs, that is, in nearly every newspaper in the land”, said Mr. Forest, evading a direct answer to my question.
“Administration organs you say”, I asked with surprise: “Has the administration organs, and why does it need them?”
“Of course the administration has organs”, answered Forest. “And it is both difficult and unpleasant to edit an opposition paper. Therefore we have only a few of them.”
“But Dr. Leete said: “We have no parties or politicians and as for demagoguery and corruption, they are words having only a historical significance.”[5] And yet you speak of opposition and of administration papers?” I said this very likely with an expression of some doubt in my eyes.
[5] Page 60.