The Next Step: A Plan for Economic World Federation

by Scott Nearing

The issues arising between industrial groups, and those problems common to all groups, will best be handled by federations having a jurisdictional scope parallel to that of the separate groups of which the federations are composed. If these component groups are local economic units, the federation will be local in character. If they are district economic units, the federation will have a district as its sphere, and so on. By this means, there will be created a series of federations or joint organizations, beginning with the federation of local economic units, and ending with a federation of world industries. Throughout this enlarging series of federations the principle of local autonomy will be maintained in all of its rigor, and no matter will be referred to a federation that can be handled by a local group. At the same time, the principle of federal authority will be asserted, and those matters that concern the welfare of more than one group of parallel jurisdiction, will be referred automatically to the federal authority under whose control the group in question falls.

The most elemental of the federations would be the local producers' federation, which would correspond, quite accurately, to the town or the city of the present day, save that its size and character would of necessity be much better regulated than the character and size of the present-day town or city. The modern city has been built as a profiteer's paradise. From the construction of houses to the erection of office buildings, the one foremost question: "What per cent will it yield?" has been the guiding principle behind city construction. The local industrial federation will have, as its chief task, the provision of a living and working place for people, hence the character of the industrial community will be determined with a view to the well-being of the inhabitants rather than to the profit of landlords.

The local federation would be under the control of a local council, the members of which would be elected by the producing units or groups composing the local federation, very much as the modern city is managed by a council elected by wards or aldermanic districts. Except for the choice of representatives on the council by occupational groups, rather than by geographic divisions, the local federation would closely resemble the municipal government of the present day. In addition to its present functions, however, it would assume the task of dealing with issues arising between two or more of the local producing groups. That is, it would have economic as well as political functions, although it would not necessarily carry on any more productive enterprises (gas, water, house-construction, abbatoirs) than do municipalities at the present time.

The local producers' federation would be responsible for two chief lines of activity. On the one hand, it would seek to maintain working relations between the various local economic groups by adjudicating those local questions that affected two or more of the groups. On the other hand, it would take charge of, and administer, those matters of common concern, such as the water supply, the local educational institutions, and so on. This second group of functions would be similar to those now performed by the city council, the board of health, the board of education.

There would be a local producers' federation wherever a number of local industrial units agreed to function together. Counties, cities, boroughs, and school districts are, at the present time, organized very much in that way.

The local producers' federation would therefore differ little from the existing local groups, such as towns and cities, save that its constituent elements would be occupational groups rather than geographic divisions, and that it would be functioning in the economic as well as in the political field.

The second series of federations might be called the producers' district federations. They would include all district industrial groups within a given economic field. Such a district federation would correspond, roughly, to the present state as it exists in Mexico or Australia, or to the provinces in Canada.

The district federation would function in three ways. First, there would be the issues arising between the industrial organizations that composed the district federation; second, there would be the issues arising between local federations within the district, and third, there would be those common matters, like health, education, highways and so on.

The third series of federations would be the divisional producers federations, which would correspond, roughly, to such aggregations of states as the Commonwealth of Australia or the United States of America. The boundaries of such a federation would follow the boundaries of the principal land areas and the chief population centers. North America, South America, South Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, Northern Europe, Northern Asia, Eastern Asia, Southern Asia and Australia would furnish a working basis for separating the world into such geographical divisions. Each of these divisional federations would function along the same general lines as the local and district groups.

The fourth, in the series of federations, would be the world producers' federation, which would be an organization composed of all of the major industrial groups. These groups, each of which would be organized on a world-wide basis, would unite in the world producers' federation in order to further those interests that were of consequence to two or more of them, as well as those common interests that were of concern to all alike. The world producers' federation would be built on the same principle as the local producers' federation, but unlike this latter federation, the world federation has no prototype existing at the present time.