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Of all forms of incivism, the most reprehensible is hoarding gold. All good cooperators who know of cases of this criminal selfishness are bound to report it at the Bureau of Ethical Supervision under penalty of incivism on the one hand and a reward of ten per cent of the sum on the other. All gold must be exchanged at the bank of G. C. Cabet Rogers for cooperative units.
An audacious lampoon has been printed at some secret press, the authors of which must be discovered at all cost. It is a blasphemous parody of the Cooperative Catechism. The Commission of Ethical Inquiry has directed all its powerful machinery to detect the authors of this outrage. Let every cooperator appoint himself a detective to help. Search every house in your neighborhood! Trust nobody. Every person found in possession of a copy of this pamphlet will be summarily removed from the Commonwealth.
The supply of potatoes which forms the staple food of the mass of our population is obtained from the northern part of the commune, in what was formerly Westchester County. The great fields there are tilled by the delinquents under taxes and fines, incorrigible monopolists, survival capitalists and others under judicial sentence, under the direction of the Board of Ethical Control. The convicts work from sunrise to sunset, in order to mark the distinction between them and honorable cooperators, who work but five hours per day. The product of the fields on its way to the town is subjected to toll by the free cooperative associations of the suburbs. Hence it always threatens to be inadequate. Good cooperators cannot better serve the Commonwealth than by ferreting out violators of the ordinances and other persons guilty of incivism.
Karl Marx Jones, agent of the Board of Equalization of Distribution, has disappeared. It is thought that he has gone towards Boston. He reported to the Board, it will be remembered, two weeks ago, a case of hoarding of gold. He was sent to collect it and was made custodian of it. It has disappeared. The Board count upon the aid of communes to the eastward to recover the gold, but not very confidently. He left all his cooperative units behind him.
Boycotts are declared against Robert Dorr, for saying that the Cooperative Commonwealth is only a scheme to let a few exploit all the rest; Matthew Brown, for saying that it is all a woman's honor is worth to appear on the street of the Cooperative Commonwealth, even thickly veiled, for she runs the risk of attracting the attention of someone against whom no one can defend her; James Rowe, for refusing to aid the agents of the society in taking from her home without public scandal a woman charged with incivism; John White, for hiding gold coin; William Peck, for saying that Grand Cooperator Lasalle Brown secured the boycott of Elihu Snow to get his property away from him; Edward Grant, for saying that the Cooperative Commonwealth is only slavery in disguise and the treatment of persons convicted of incivism is slavery without disguise; Peter Moon, for saying that the Plan of Campaign is only a scheme to allow a rnan's debtors to rob him of a small fraction of their debts if they will let some of the Grand Cooperators rob him of all the remainder.
George Wood, aged sixty, was arraigned for carrying a pistol at night, not being a member of any cooperative club and therefore not entitled so to do. He declared that the streets were unsafe at night and that he never went out after dark if he could help it, but that he was compelled to go for a doctor for his sick grandchild and took the pistol for security. He was met by two cooperators who asked him to contribute to the Aged Cooperators' Retreat. On his declaring that he had nothing, they searched him and found the pistol. They then demanded his cooperator's ticket. As he had none, they took him to the Bureau of Ethical Supervision, where he was detained until morning. The two complainants appeared against him. They declared that they were poor men. On examination it appeared that he was an incorrigible adherent of the ancient monopolism. He was fined 10,000 cooperative units, half to the informers. He began to lament at this, saying that he was very poor -- poorer than the complainants; but the Grand Cooperator declared that no man could be a poor man who was not a cooperator.
The Emigration Commissioners whose sole duty is to prevent any immigrants from coming into our commune put at the bar Fritz Meyer, charged with immigrating. He pretended to be a sailor on the Ferdinand Lasalle, but did not return on board of her before she sailed. In defense he pleaded that he was left by accident. He was condemned to serve on the yacht of the Board of Ethical Control at the pleasure of said Board.
Ulysses Perkins and others, some of whom were cooperators and some not, complained that their neighborhood was annoyed by the Cooperative Brotherhood who hold their evening festivals at Cooperative Hall. They declared that there was shouting and singing and that windows were broken in spite of the heavy shutters. Their complaint was dismissed as an attempt to oppress organized labor, and the cooperators amongst them were especially reprimanded. The Grand Cooperator remarked that the prejudice against beer which was manifested in ancient prohibitory and license laws was not respected by the ethical judgment of our time.
On Monday last, several persons appeared to complain that the roads outside of the city are infested by robbers. They were detained and the Board of Ethical Control sent out delegates to inquire. They reported yesterday, when the complainants were brought before the tribunal to hear their report. They denied that there was any robbery, since robbery means undue exaction of rent or of work for wages. The word was used by the complainants in the ancient capitalistic sense. The delegates found many cooperators enjoying holiday in the fields and by the wayside. Some of them were playful and resented the exclusive manner of passers-by who did not engage in sport. They asked for treats, and they had appointed a committee to solicit funds for their games. Some bands of banished monopolists were reported to be infesting the woods, living by chance or by tilling some small fields which have not been allotted to them, and plotting against the Commonwealth. The Grand Cooperator said that such persons would be promptly dealt with and dispatched a force of guardians of Ethical Order against them. The complainants were discharged with a reprimand for misrepresenting the innocent enjoyment of the cooperators in the suburb.
William Johnson, employer, was arraigned for contumacy. The Board of Arbitration ordered him to pay 1000 cooperative units per day of six hours. He closed his works. The Grand Cooperator ordered a second charge for malicious lockout and fined him 10,000 cooperative units per day until he should reopen his works.
Eliza Marcy, cook, actress, 26, was charged with defamation of Emily Wilson, cooperative seamstress. The accused presented a certificate of patronage from G. M. C. Brissot Robinson and was discharged from custody, a rescript of the charge being transmitted to G. M. C. Robinson for such action as he should deem proper.
Maria Waters, arraigned for working at typesetting below man's rates, pleaded poverty and distress as an excuse. She is the daughter of an ancient monopolist from whom she inherited $100,000 before the abolition of inheritance. She had therefore been denied admittance to any cooperative society. She was fined 1000 cooperative units and sent to the Ethical Workhouse to work it out.
Patrick Boyle, cooperative bricklayer, for mending his own table, he not being a member of the furniture makers' union, was arraigned as a scab and sentenced to forfeit his cooperative ticket, be graded as a nonconformist, and pay 1000 cooperative units fine. Being unable to pay, he was put under G.M. C. Scroggs to work it out.
In addition to the three regular Labor Days of July, the 10th, 2Oth, and 30th, the Board of Ethical Control has decreed an extra one on the 18th, with full wages. Commonwealth galleys will be ready to convey cooperators and their families to Blackwell's Island, where the dancing and dining rooms in the ancient prisons of despotism will be arranged for their entertainment. There will be a free circus at 3 P.M. and a free variety entertainment in the evening. The two latter have been provided by the liberality of G. P. M. C. Lasalle Brown.
Rents remitted for June and all arrears before January 1.
All cooperators in good standing are entitled to pensions of 100 cooperative units per week, with rations of cooperative bread (k) and beer.
The agents of the Board of Equalization of Distribution will begin next Monday the distribution of July pensions to all cooperators in good and regular standing. The agents will call at the residences of cooperators. There has been some delay which has occasioned just murmurs. It has been due to delinquencies of taxpayers, amongst whom not a little old capitalistic virus remains.
Masked Ball on every Sunday evening in the ancient Trinity Church. Cooperative Enjoyment Admission 100 c. u. All persons must wear cooperative medals displayed. the ancient Association.
It will be remembered that about three years ago the last remnant of English landlords was exiled to Guiana. The Commune of London granted them a ship, of which an immense number blocked the Thames, not having occupation, and they were allowed to navigate it if they could. Their children were taken away from them, to be educated in the principles of cooperation. From this mistaken complaisance a series of evil consequences have flowed.
Some of the exiles have had yachting experience and most of them, being trained in the ancient athletic sports, were able to navigate the ship. Instead of obeying the law, they sailed to Gibraltar and captured the ancient fortress. There they obtained arms and cannons, of which they put a number on board their ship and returned to London. Their first step was to seize the Columbus, a fine steamer of 1000 tons burden, one of the newest and in best repair of those lying in the river. They then filled her bunkers with coal and wood which they took by force from the Commonwealth barges in the river. They next seized the arsenals at Greenwich and Norwich, carried off a great number of repeating rifles and ammunition, and destroyed all the rest. The cooperators of London, being taken unawares and being prepared only to cope with the city monopolists, who had been disarmed, were unable to interfere.
The pirates moored their vessel opposite the city and sent a message of the G. P. M. C. by a captured cooperator that they would bombard the city if their children were not all delivered to them. A hundred of them landed with repeating rifles and revolvers and marched to the cooperative factories, where they set free all who chose to join them. In short, they departed after securing their children, a vast quantity of tools and machinery, arms, supplies, and ammunition. A large number of flunkies and snobs joined them, sufficient to man one or two other vessels.
It now appears that they have taken possession of the Island of Sicily and made it a base of concentration for a grand political reaction. They have proclaimed as far as possible that their island is a refuge for landlords, monopolists, and capitalists, and the roads of Europe are crowded with vagabonds seeking to reach this nest of pirates. The pirate state is growing. It is a republic like one of our ancient states. It has an army of 5000 men who boast that with the arms which they possess they can march from one end of Europe to another. They control the Mediterranean and all its coasts. They have served notice on the communal commonwealths of the Continent that they will avenge any coercion exercised against any persons who seek to join them, and six months ago they sent a force of 6000 men to Lyons to set free a band of aristocrats who were imprisoned there and were threatened with the guillotine.
It is said that there are no artisans now who are able to manufacture repeating rifles like those which these robbers possess, except amongst themselves - they having hired mechanics to recover the art. Even the guns yet remaining on the Continent cannot be used because the art of making the ammunition is lost. It was a great mistake to let these pestilent scoundrels loose. Their state threatens the whole cooperative movement. Its existence has greatly strengthened the collectivists among cooperators, for it is said that the big empires must be restored (on cooperative principles) to cope with them. ****
Here ends part II of the Cooperative Commonwealth by Dr. William Graham Sumner.
Forward to Part III Back to Part I
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