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REALITY: or law and
ORDER VS. ANARCHY
AND SOCIALISM
A REPLY TO
Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward and Equality
BY
GEORGE A. SANDERS, M. A
Author of "Orations, Addresses, and Club Essays," etc
CLEVELAND: TTbe JBurrowfl JBrotbctfl
Company, publishers, mdcccxcviii
f
Copyright, 1898
BY
George A. Sanders
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Tkts book is copyrighted in foreign countries in accordance
wtth the provisions of their laws and of the International Coi,y.
right Law. ^-^
„^ ^ I Q N
To Law and Order
wisely and lovingly administered in the interests of all
the people, world without end, I
dedicate this book
GEORGE A. SANDERS
50^219
CONTENTS
Preface .....
Dreaming and Dreamers
Character and Culture the Basis of Civili
ZATION ....
The Present Industrial System
Some Real Statistics for Dreamers and Pes
simists ....
Evolution — In Law
Mammonism, Its Perils and Advantages
The Masters of Bread
Brotherly Love
What God Might Have Done
Index .....
PAGE
9
II
57
79
93
113
149
183
203
213
229
50^819
PREFACE
In these days of feverish unrest and of fierce con-
flict along some lines of thought and action, it gives
pain to the patriot and humanitarian to read or hear
of anything that adds fuel to the flame.
I have read with deepest interest Mr. Bellamy's
books, Looking Backward and Equality^ and can only
conclude that they quicken the pulse of the unrestful
and offer no cooling waters to quench the flame.
I was born and reared on a farm among the rocks
and hills of New England, and know from experi-
ence what hard, long-continued manual labor means.
I am not a millionaire, a bloated bondholder or
plutocrat, or president of any corporation. My
deepest sympathies are, and always have been, with
the poor, the laborers, and those who suffer under
any and every form of oppression. I will at all times
support, to the extent of my ability, any and all
measures, legal, governmental, or industrial, that
promise permanent or even temporary relief: but from
a careful study of Mr. Bellamy's theories as laid down
in his books reviewed, they offer neither temporary
nor permanent relief for the poor and the laborers.
If they assured relief it could be obtained only
through a social and anarchistic revolution. There
are no evils now existing that could at all compen-
sate for such unimagined misery and suffering as this
would produce. I endeavor as far as possible to
evade the shadows and enjoy the sunshine, and will
10 PREFACE
probably be called too sanguine and optimistic by-
many; but, while painfully conscious of the vast
amount, in the aggregate, of the sufferings of the
race, yet I rejoice with those who see much in this
beautiful world of joy, beauty, and hope ; and I must
still believe in the wonderful progress made in hu-
man achievement, that God still reigns, that all
possible perfection of the race will be attained under
the present forms of development, that science,
intellection, and true altruistic love will solve all the
serious questions that now hinder our individual and
race development.
My aim in this book has been to do absolute justice
to all men, all interests, and all questions considered;
to suggest a better understanding of all the vexed
problems of capital and labor; to quicken and
energize the patriotism of the citizens of our mighty
Republic ; and to arouse a genuine brotherly love for
the poor, the suffering, and the laborers of the nation,
for their culture and highest possible development.
If I have in any degree accomplished this object, I'
shall feel that I have not written in vain. To this
end I invoke the charitable consideration of the
reading public.
G. A. S.
DREAMING AND DREAMERS
^^MctJiinks I see in my mind a noble ayid puissant nation
rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking
her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle meiv-
ing Jur mighty youth, and kindling her tindazzled eyes at
the full mid-day beam, purging and unsealing her long-
abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance;
while the ivhole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with
those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at
what she means.'' — MiLTON.
Dreaming is a most delightful experience, and
oftentimes beneficial. To be freed from every pos-
sible limitation of the flesh, the blood, and this
mortal existence ; to be borne away on the six wings
of seraphic flight; to allow the imagination, that
noblest of all powers of man, absolute freedom; to
annihilate all limitations of time and space; and
to choose one's own ideals without any question as to
whether they can ever be realized, is the most luxuri-
ous and enchanting of all possible experiences.
There have been dreamers in every clime, lan-
guage, and race. Their revelations have often been
a great uplift and a precious heritage to their fellow
mortals.
The distinguishing prerogative of the dreamer is
his power to invade fearlessly the realms of the mys-
terious ; to rend the veil of the future and unknown ;
and to exhibit, to the dimmer vision of the ordinary
12 REALITY
mortal, the beautiful pictures of the coming realities
that lie concealed in the yet — to him — unexperi-
enced future.
These pictures are far more enchanting, inspiring,
and instructive than the old tales of the Witch of
Endor, or the uncanny appearances of the returning
ghosts at the midnight hour. In fact, they partake
largely of the same nature ; for they claim superior
knowledge of the Infinite to reveal the hitherto un-
knowable and to forecast the future possibilities of
moral, intellectual, and spiritual attainment. Any-
thing that lies concealed from mortal vision beyond
the veil is gratefully and joyously received, and is
most acceptable, if there is the remotest possibility
of its ever being realized in the life and experience
of the race. Hence, seers, prophets, and dreamers
in all ages have received the reverence, admiration,
homage, and even worship of their contemporaries,
because of their supposed superior endowment of
a power not possessed by ordinary mortals, — by
which they communicate with the gods, spirits, and
ruling forces of the universe, and give us their
dreams as the evidences of these exalted endowments.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF DREAMERS.
Some claim that this supernatural power comes to
them, by withdrawing for long intervals from the
contaminating influence of their social environment,
and by starving the body with long fasts. The
spirit is thus freed from mortal limitations ; and pre-
pared for communion with, and companionship of,
the spirits of just men made perfect, and of the
gods who inhabit and control the invisible and un-
revealed realms and experiences of some future life.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF DREAMERS 15
Some, like Mahomet, come forth with a fully organ-
ized system of life and conduct which they claim will
lead to an eternity of future bliss and joy, pictured
in their visions, and, for a time at least, experienced
by them ; or, like Brig-ham Young, they are directed
where they can find a code of conduct, which will
meet all the desires and necessities of the race.
Some, like John the Revelator, see a new Heaven
and a new Earth, in which sin shall be no more, nor
sighs nor tears, where love shall reign supreme, and
where every mortal shall find rest in the exalted com-
panionship of those his earthly experiences, culture,
and development have made him worthy of and
capable to enjoy; or, like Paul, are taken to the
third heaven and permitted to see the things it
would not be proper to reveal. Others claim to
reach the same end through powerful stimulants,
benumbing drugs, electricity, Christian Science,
magnetism, or the power of hypnotism, by which
the exalted spirit is released, and for a time escapes
the limitations of its mortal coil, and on the wings
of limitless fancy seeks its highest ideals.
Marie Corelli, in her charming Romance of Two
Worlds, describes in what manner she had been care-
fully prepared for her wonderful journey by Dr.
Casimir, the Persian Magician, who had administered
to her from the little bottle containing the life-giving
elixir; and how with her guardian angel she left
the sleeping mortal, and on the wings of the immor-
tal flew tireless through the vast universe of rolling
worlds and whirling spheres, all inhabited with
happy sentient beings of different forms, attain-
ments, and activities ; heard and was enraptured with
the sweet, thrilling music of the spheres: but when
14 REALITY
they seemed to be approaching the great center of
the universe, she was informed by her guardian
.angel and guide, that she was fitted to go no far-
ther, that she must return to earth and learn to love.
She reached the bounds of fancy when she had
reached the limits of her powers of comprehension ;
and learned the great lesson of universal ethics, that
to reach the heart and center of the universe she
must prepare herself for its comprehension through
the perfected experiences of its ruling power — love
itself. Her journey was to demonstrate the univer-
sal power of electricity, which she calls the soul of
the material universe ; and 3^et she was taught what
is the central power in the realm of both matter and
spirit. She was absent from the body, in her little
outing, about two days ; and learned the necessity of
the greatest experience possible to the race, that, to
love and enjoy the companionship of the Creator
and His universe, she must show her desire for
them and her worthiness of them, by loving and
serving her mortal companions, His creation. His
children, in their earthly pilgrimage.
THE INFLUENCE OF DREAMS.
The influence of these dreams is in proportion to
the credulity of their readers, the extent with which
they grasp and follow out the dominant natural forces
of the nobler faculties for the culture and develop-
ment of the race, and the possibilities of realizing
their ideals in the individual and race life.
Bunyan, Mahomet, and John the Revelator have
had an inconceivable influence upon human destiny.
Their following since their dreams has been almost
unlimited, because they reached the depths of hu-
THE GREAT MODERN DREAMER 15
man thought, feeling, hope, and aspiration. Their
dreams bound together, in an eternal embrace, the
present and the future life. They appealed with the
strongest possible motive — a life of everlasting bliss
in heaven, or paradise, as the certain reward of a
righteous life on earth ; thus moving upon the
regnant forces in every life — the moral, intellectual,
and the spiritual.
Their dreams were universal in extent and appli-
cation ; they reached and controlled the most refined
and exalted in intellect and scientific attainment,
the most potent in wealth and power, and the hum-
blest toiler and slave. They broke down the bar-
riers of caste, station, avarice, and ambition; and
all who came under their potent spell were elevated
to the same plane of perfected experience, through a
supreme love for each other, for their Creator, and
for a righteous life.
Time or the method used in each case to produce
the ecstatic conditions necessary to obtain the vision,
prophecy, or dream, seems not to have been a vital
necessity with most of the great dreamers.
THE GREAT MODERN DREAMER.
But with the great modern Dreamer in Equality,
time seems to have been an important factor. Per-
haps it was because the dream had more to do with
the present life and with active mortality, than with
the life beyond the river, and with the conditions and
environments of the great majority who have already
passed all mortal experiences; more to do with the
baser materialism of the race, than with their moral,
intellectual, and spiritual natures.
One hundred years is a long time to lie dreaming;
16 REALITY
and the reading public can easily be pardoned for
expecting mighty results from such a prodigious
effort of the fancy ; and especially when the dreamer
was a cultured millionaire, and lay incubating his
fanciful dream for a hundred years in the highly
electrified atmosphere of Boston culture. A dream
of a century's duration should produce astonishing
and marvelous results, especially when covering the
closing era of the nineteenth century; nor is the
reading and thinking public greatly disappointed,
for he is easily at the head of all dreamers, at least as
far as the hypnotic influence and the time of his
dreaming is concerned.
The records of the mythic period, and history
since the days of Herodotus, nowhere intimate an
effort of the fancy, a free and unlimited struggle for
ideals, a dream, of one hundred years.
Bunyan's dream, or allegory, is briefly and quickly
narrated ; John the Revelator requires but twenty-
two short chapters to give to the world his most
potent and all-inspiring vision ; while the modern
Dreamer uses four hundred and twelve pages, closely
printed, to explain his dream, — and that too in this
era of electric thought and action and in the environ-
ment of Boston, the claimed Athens of the New
World. Perhaps the magnitude of his task requires
a more specific explanation than that of the other
dreamers.
WHAT "EQUALITY" PRESENTS.
Equality presents a wonderfully interesting dream,
from the Genesis to the last page of the Revelation.
It is a very happy conception, very cleverly writ-
ten for the object in view, and timely in its appear-
WHAT '' EQUALITY'' PRESENTS 17
ance. It is wisely connected with that exceedingly-
popular book, Looking Backward. It treats in a very
interesting manner a great variety of subjects, usu-
ally considered dry and uninteresting to many who
read for amusement rather than for instruction, and
even to students and scholars because of want of
sufficient data to judge of the accuracy of statements
on which to form correct and satisfactory conclu-
sions.
It shows great research, much earnest thought
and investigation on the great social, religious, polit-
ical, and economical questions that are receiving so
much careful study and investigation from all scholars,
scientists, and politicians the world over at the pres-
ent time.
These subjects, so vital to the welfare of the race,
are made exceedingly interesting and attractive by
the unique and charming manner of their treatment
and presentation; the characters, or dramatis pcr-
soncc, are well up in their various parts; and most
of the illustrations are well chosen for their intended
purpose. Dr. Leete, Mr. Barton, Kenloe, and dear,
lovely Edith act well their parts.
The Dreamer has them thoroughly prepared, in
the history of the miserable past and the experi-
ences of the perfected future, to meet readily every
conceivable objection that could be advanced ; while
the scholars at Arlington seem to have been so
well crammed and tutored that they neither fizzle
nor flunk. This, however, would be expected;
since the Dreamer suggested the question to the
teacher, and answers for the scholars were all well
prepared to support the theory designed to be estab-
lished.
18 REALITY
KENLOE'S "BOOK OF THE BLIND."
Kenloe's Book of the Blind, already prepared for
the emergency, is very happily introduced; and
every opponent of the theory of economic equality,
and the question of equalization as the basis of hu-
man welfare, is summarily disposed of by arguments
from their own lips; or when the overwhelming
argument cannot possibly be found, he is straight-
way laughed and ridiculed out of court. The
introduction of this book, said to be nearly one
hundred years old, is one of the many brilliant
gems of Equality. It is most interesting read-
ing, as showing the line of argument to sustain the
theory of economic equality. As to the cause of its
compilation. Dr. Leete says: " But Kenloe, moved
by a certain crabbed sense of justice, was bound that
they should not be forgotten. Accordingly he took
the pains to compile, with great care as to the
authenticity, names, dates, and places, a mass of ex-
cerpts from speeches, books, sermons, and news-
papers, in which the apologists of private capitalism
had defended that system, and assailed the advocates
of economic equality during the long period of revo-
lutionary agitation. Thus he proposed to pillory
for all time the blind guides who had done their
best to lead the nation and the world into the
ditch."
Wonderful Kenloe ! who had lived through the
great Revolution, had witnessed the tremendous
wave of Altruism that swept the whole world into
the embrace of brotherly love, except Kenloe, with
his unforgiving spirit and want of love ; whose chief
aim in compiling the Book of the Blind was to ' ' pil-
THE DREAMER'S ARGUMENT 19
lory for all time ' ' those who had advocated and up-
held an industrial system, which has made possible
our present most marvelous civilization, and upon
which it seems destined to rest for the eons of the
future for anything that appears in the Book of the
Blind.
"EQUALITY" AND ITS INFLUENCE.
Equality will be much read and studied ; and will
do much good in quickening thought and inves-
tigation, in remedying the delinquencies of govern-
ment, in checking the avarice and oppression of
private capital or combined wealth, in rapidly per-
fecting laws that will insure the laborer his full
share of the increment and give wealth its proper
increase, protection, and distribution, — and above
all in arousing and quickening the warmest sym-
pathy of every patriot into the immediate enactment
and vigorous enforcement of all laws for the most
ample protection of every interest of the laborer.
THE EFFECT ON THE READER.
As the entranced reader closes the book, comes
down from the delightful realm of fancy and imagi-
nation of the world's chief Dreamer, touches the
cold environment of the actual realism and the stern
facts of his everyday life, he will say: " Can his
ideals be reached; and, if his premises be granted,
will his picture of perfected humanity in the year
two thousand be realized in the experience and life
of the human race?" The stern answer of logic,
reason, and experience of the race, and the develop-
ment of the fundamental principles upon which all
the progress and civilization of the race have de-
20 REALITY
pended, must reply, with the accumulated power of
the world's consensus of opinion, of the laws of
God and nature, that the Dreamer's premises are
false and his conclusions erroneous; that the cause
he advocates is entirely inadequate to produce the
effect he claims ; that the simple question of main-
tenance was settled, centuries before our modern
civilization was born, by the South Sea Islanders,
the North American Indians, the Africans, and many
other tribes; that every person must provide for
his own support and maintenance, and that of those
he has brought into the world. That question was
then rightly settled for all time. All progress of the
race and all civilization ever have rested, and, from
the great fundamental principles that underlie and
control all individual and race action, ever will rest
and have their basis, in the culture or character of
the race, and not upon any industrial system of
economic equality of wealth.
The whole argument is for the establishment of
one idea of minor and comparatively insignificant
importance, not even primal in its nature and ex-
tent ; and, when compared with the other first great
principles that are involved in race progress and civ-
ilization, it is entirely insufficient as a basis to support
the structure that he has attempted to erect upon it.
The argument is subtile and fallacious. It is often
illogical, and the 7ion-sequitnr frequently appears. It
opposes and seeks to overthrow, along most lines of
human activities, the fundamental principles to which
our present civilization is indebted. It inverts the
philosophy of reasoning, makes the minor the major
premise. It attempts to prove that the less is the
greater; that the valuable achievements in history
NO EVIDENCE OF PERFECTED HUMANITY 21
and in individual experience are positively evil, be-
cause not reached by an economic basis of equality ;
that maintenance is far more important in race de-
velopment than freedom of thought, freedom of
speech, freedom of will and action, and individual
liberty. It is the most subtile, insinuating, captivat-
ing exhibition of special pleading extant in litera-
ture. If the reader but grant the premise, he will
be pretty sure to accept the conclusion. The whole
argument is most pessimistic. It seeks by every
possible theory, argument, insinuation, ridicule,
sarcasm, and the denial of statistics and indisputable
facts to belittle all race progress; all civilization,
and those who have perfected it; all principles and
policies by which it has been attained — and all be-
cause it has not been achieved through his theory of
economic equality, which is exalted, expanded, and
magnified beyond fair recognition of its influence on
the progress of the race.
The spirit of the argument is one of hatred and
u.ncompromising hostility towards capital, and all
who labor for it, or possess it. It is an utter refusal
to acknowledge it as anything else but an evil, and
that always. It asserts that its possessors are
thieves and enemies of humanity. It ferments un-
rest among the people, tends to divide them into
classes of capitalists and laborers, of the wealthy and
the paupers, without affording any plausible means
of changing these relations, or bringing about the
perfected humanity claimed to exist in the year two
thousand. The author offers no proof that humanity
will reach such conditions, for there is no way of
obtaining any evidence on the subject. That part
of his argument is all a dreani; and the statements
22 REALITY
of Mr. Barton and Dr. Leete, as to what would then
exist, are only a part of the Dreamer's fancy, and
are no evidence whatever of any then existing con-
ditions or facts.
There is little doubt but that his view of perfected
humanity will be reached and greatly surpassed in
the next one hundred years ; but along the lines of
thought and action, science and love, now in full
operation among the races of men. To accomplish
this wonderful change he introduces no new scientific
principle, intellectual or moral force. He does,
however, with heroic audacity and assumption, claim
that Christ's dream of his earthly kingdom has never
been understood; that love in its essence and re-
forming power has never been correctly experienced,
appreciated, and applied; that teachers of morals
and ethics, since the Star of Bethlehem and the
world-transforming scenes on Calvary, while claim-
ing some special powers of inspiration and interpre-
tation from God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, were
all mistaken traitors both to Christ and humanity.
They were dishonest hirelings selling their man-
hood, their honor, their love for a mess of potage
to the capitalists. All were ignorant dreamers in
theory and hypocrites in practice, while dealing
with the most sacred treasures of the universe.
Speculating upon the credulity and ignorance of the
people at the behest of the capitalists, who paid them
liberally for their ignoble, base, and depraved servi-
tude.
The Dreamer in careful detail describes too much
on many of the subjects treated, especially about
the perfected conditions of humanity, which exist
only in his hypnotized fancy and newly discovered
HEREDITARY AND ACQUIRED WEALTH 23
theory. But he fails to inform us what capitalist
paid the martyr Stephen when he prayed for his
murderers that they be forgiven, ' ' Lord, lay not this
sin to their charge; " nor who paid Paul, Gamaliel's
pupil, one of the most cultured of his era, a master
logician and orator, a mighty seer, and one of the
noblest and grandest of men. Does any one, not
dreaming and in his right mind, for a moment be-
lieve that Paul, and all the other apostles, and the
innumerable host of white-robed martyrs in all suc-
ceeding ages, were hypocrites, ignorant of the power
of love and the gospel they preached, and that they
were hirelings of the capitalists of their era?
He, like all special pleaders for one idea, proves too
much. These worthies knew whereof they spoke;
they were conscious of the truth of their message,