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There follow extracts from the inaugural of G. P. M. C.[60] Lasalle Brown, which begin with the sentiment:
Of old ye were enslaved by those who said: Work! Save! Study! We emancipate you by saying: Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!
The first right of everyone born on this earth is the right to enjoy. The Coöperative Commonwealth assures this right to all its members.
We have not abolished private property. We only hold that every man is considered to have devoted his property to public use. We have not abolished landlords, capitalists, employers, or captains of industry. We retain and use them. Such members of a society are useful and necessary if only they be held firmly in check and forced to contribute to the public good.
We need “history” and “statistics” to batter down all the old system, but we should be the dupes of our own processes if we used them against ourselves. All sensible coöperators should know that history and statistics are far greater swindles than science.
There are dangers in the Coöperative Commonwealth which demand vigilance. There is danger of jealousy and division amongst coöperators. Harmony is essential to the Coöperative Commonwealth and we must have it at any price.
Some say that our Commonwealth is weak. It is the strongest state that ever existed. No one before our time ever knew the power of a “mob,” as it used to be called. At a tap of the bell, every coöperator is at hand. Our only danger is factious division of this power. Let every coöperator have rewards for harmony and penalties for faction—strict, sure, and heavy!
There is danger from science. The evolution heresy is a worse foe to coöperation than the old Christian dogma. Stamp it out!
There is danger from the virus of the old anarchism—worst of all because it is often enough like the truth to deceive the elect. It means liberty and individualism. Stamp it out!