The Government takes it upon itself, first to prevent idleness, and second to furnish work to the unemployed; so that there is no vagrancy.
In every city of importance, as well as in the minor towns, the planting of trees on the streets is compulsory; and if a lot-holder does not plant and maintain on his street line the kind and number of trees for which the laws call, they are planted there by the local authorities, at his charge.
Trial by jury was abolished in 1910 with scarcely a dissenting vote; and instead of ignorant or prejudiced juries, learned judges, who hold their office during life or until impeached by their peers, decide questions of law and evidence. The statute law has been greatly amended, and the common law superseded by principles of equity.
The enactments concerning marriage and divorce are the same in all civilized nations, and their enforcement most strict.
Only the physically perfect are permitted to marry, and stirpiculture is made a common and honored study. The local government being responsible for the maintenance of cripples and others physically as well as mentally ill, keeps strict watch over health and morals. Surgical and other hospitals are kept up at great expense, and any one meeting with an accident, or becoming ill, is treated at the hospital instead of at home.
Elections are held in a quiet and orderly manner; and the cumulative system having been universally adopted in 1904, the minority has a voice in proceedings of local, as well as National bodies.
Female suffrage has taken the place of female suffering. The education of the young is largely confided to the direction of intelligent and refined ladies, who consider their educational duties as on a par with those which they owe to religion proper.
The new generations, better educated and better looked after than those which preceded them, find at once fewer inducements to crime, and more reasons for not committing it; so that imprisonment is not so common as formerly, and execution is far more rare. Asphyxiation by carbonic acid gas is the kindly and unrevolting method chosen.
Trades unions flourish, but their basis is most praiseworthy. The cardinal quality which every member must possess is competence in his trade. No one is admitted to membership in any “degree” of the guild, unless he has been properly instructed and proved capable and competent to do what is called for by that degree of advancement in his craft; and those of the highest proficiency receive pay according to the value of their services. Thus there is confidence in and respect for the trade organizations; and their members have some inducement to excel in their chosen crafts.
In religion, there has been a fusion of the various sects into a vast Church in which Charity in its broadest sense is the leading principle, and the golden rule inscribed upon the mental tablets of all good people. A man’s religion is deemed as of his inmost private life; as bearing upon his confidential personal relations with his God, and no more to be inquired into nor discussed than his most sacred domestic life. Rancor and hatred engendered by religious differences are of the unregretted past, and mission-work, begun at home, and thoroughly prosecuted with a view to physical improvement and mental advancement, as well as spiritual enlightenment, is carried to the heathen on the wings of mercy and healing.