“But, you said that about twelve years ago the government lost an election. That shows, that it can be beaten in a square fight, and you further said that the present rulers are better citizens than the men that formed the last administration”.
“There is certainly some improvement, but it is nothing very remarkable. It amounted, in substance, to a change of men, but not to a change of system. Favoritism, corruption and prostitution have decreased somewhat, but they have not been stamped out. They still flourish. People who were very enthusiastic at the time of the election and hoped for a clean and popular administration, have now lost all confidence, that under the communistic rule there can be such a thing as a just government. In substance, it has been, as I said, merely a change of personalities and, therefore, the confidence of the people in the prevailing system has been destroyed. Consequently, the change has actually done more harm than good. The strongest and most reliable element to-day in favor of good government is the farming population; but although the farmers are very numerous, they represent one guild only. They have but one general and one department chief, and are outvoted by the representatives of the other guilds. And on account of the opposition of the farmers to the administration they are not treated as well as the members of the other guilds”.
“Do they not receive the same credit cards as other people”? I queried.
“They do, but they complain that they receive the poorest goods, and that their share of public improvements and benefits is comparatively small; and whenever there is a chance to discriminate against their representatives, that chance is not lost. The farmers would be the most reliable opponents to the Radicals, but the treatment they are receiving from the administration, has created so much dissatisfaction amongst the farming population, that we cannot count upon them in a fight for the maintenance of the present system or the present government. To give you an instance of the discrimination against the farmers, I will mention the erection of music halls, theatres and other places of evolution, recreation and amusement. It is, of course, impossible to build a theatre or a concert hall at every country crossroad, but the number of such public places erected in the cities is entirely out of proportion to those erected in the country towns and villages. The administration relies for its support upon the city people, upon such guilds as are recruited from the population of the cities, and, therefore bends all its energies to benefitting them. Then there is another thing to be taken into account. The nation is frequently left with small lots of goods on its hands, through changes of taste, unseasonable weather and various other causes. These have to be disposed of at a sacrifice, and the loss charged up to the expenses of the business[20]. These goods the administration can dispose of at any time when it chooses to claim that the best prices can be realized. The members of the administration are also judges as to what goods are to be sold at a sacrifice. It has been charged by the representatives of the farming population that such of these goods as are of poor quality are largely given out to farmers, while other things that are in first-class condition are disposed of in the storehouses of the cities, at reduced prices, and that in such instances favoritism and corruption are coming in. I do not care to endorse all the complaints, our farmers make. They may lack foundation to a great extent, but they prove the existence of a deep dissatisfaction, and such charges could simply not be made if our administration were not clothed with power hitherto unheard of in the history of mankind. It is the system itself that breeds all these evils”.
[20] Page 186.
“Have you not, besides the radical and the administration parties, other organizations fighting for the control of the government”?
“We have the temperance people who have organized themselves; but they are simply striving within the administration party to secure the control of the government. The administration does not discriminate against the members of this organization. It gives them a chance to do their very best, but so far they have not succeeded in making much headway”.
“I notice that you are not giving the present system of society much credit for anything done under its auspices. Don’t you think that the abolition of absolute poverty, the elevation of all men and women to a standard at least nearly equal, is a great and priceless gain to humanity? I remember too well the inexpressible sufferings of some of the poor people of my days, and while I am not sufficiently familiar with the present state of society, to endorse or to contradict your statements, yet I prize the abolishment of poverty so high, that I still cling to the hope, in spite of your arguments to the contrary, that the present form of society and of production may overcome all the difficulties inseparable from all human efforts and institutions”.
“My dear Mr. West, I am glad to see you using now in your last remarks in defense of communism the same arguments the defenders of the old form of production used against the communists of your days. This simply proves two facts, viz.: that nothing is perfect under God’s sun, and that every form of government is forced to admit this. The abolition of absolute poverty could have been accomplished as I can and will prove later on, beyond a reasonable doubt, without a descent into communism and the terrible consequences of this worst system of production. The fact, that the members and the officers of the administration may, at their pleasure, treat the friends of their opponents, members of the industrial army, like slaves; that even the friends of the government’s opponents who have gained comparatively good positions, can be placed in the second class of the third grade at the yearly regradings, and that favoritism is shown to all friends of the administration, has caused adulation, servility, calumny and corruption, and there was never a time in the history of the Saxon race when there were in public business and social life so little independence and manhood among the citizens. When two hundred and thirty years ago England tried to levy a tax upon tea, the Americans rose up in arms, because they would not permit the government to collect a tax unless it granted to the Americans representation in the parliament which imposed this tax. To-day the government controls the labor of all men and women for twenty-four long years, without giving the flower of the American people a chance to cast a vote, which shall shape the form and policy of the government in conformity with the wishes of those who produce the wealth of the nation. This state of slavery which never existed before in the history of civilized nations, can not last many years longer. It will go down in an ocean of blood. For as the German poet Schiller says: Fear not outrages from free men; but tremble when slaves break their chains”.