Chapter XXV

THE TERM OF SERVICE—THE SURVIVORS OF TWENTY YEARS—SPREAD OF
CO-OPERATION—SECRET OF CO-OPOLITAN SUCCESS—1917.

An important question came up before the Legislative Council at one of its meetings in May, 1916. It was as to whether the term of service in the Industrial Army should be reduced from twenty-five to twenty years.

After full discussion it was decided to refer the matter to popular vote at the referendum election of October following. It was accordingly referred, but not in the form in which it was at first considered.

The question submitted was: “Whether the term of service in the Industrial Army shall be reduced to twenty years to all members in the Grade of Honor at the expiration of that time.” All persons who had performed their duties faithfully and whom their companies, by a majority vote, recommended to advancement to the Grade of Honor were, after serving fifteen years, so advanced.

This had the effect of rendering our workers more diligent, and it was believed by the members of the Legislative Council that if men could shorten their term of service five years by industry and faithfulness it would increase the efficiency of the Industrial Army. The people of Idaho thought so, too, and after a most thorough discussion, in which it was made apparent that the Association could well afford to shorten the term, the election of October resulted in a practically unanimous decision in favor of twenty years.

The 20th of May, 1917, completed the service of thirty-six members. Twenty years before our little company of fifty, under the leadership of John Thompson, had entered Deer Valley and established our camp on the present site of Co-opolis. Since then fourteen of that company had passed to “that country from whose bourne no traveler returns.” The thirty-six who remained were nearly all of them high in the councils of the Association and some had achieved reputations which extended beyond the limits of Idaho.

We who composed that little company were, on this twentieth anniversary, released from the burdens and duties attaching to the Co-opolitan system, and thenceforward were entitled to come and go at will. Wheresoever we chose a habitation in the state the Association undertook to provide us with suitable houses, and, our income continuing as large as if we were still employed, we were expected to, and could, pay the rental of the house and our living and other expenses without stint.

One dollar of credit, as represented by the labor-credit check, was neither depreciable nor appreciable by the act of interested or disinterested persons. Abundance or scarcity of any product, as measured by the demand for it, was the determining factor of price. Our credit dollar was invested with large purchasing power because co-operation produced abundance and guaranteed to each of us a quantity of any needed article, and a quality of comfort, pleasure, convenience or accommodation equal to the fair exchange value of labor.

The thirty-six whose service ceased on this anniversary were men who were devoted to the principle of co-operation and ready to make any sacrifice to the success of the Co-opolitan Association. Most of them had lived comparatively frugal lives. For fifteen years the income which they had derived from their service had been twelve hundred dollars per annum at least. This was allowed them on the books of the Association and the labor-credit checks were delivered to them each month, as to all workers. If they failed to exhaust their month’s credit during the month the surplus remained with the Association.

We have no banks. We have no money and no department which makes a business of handling money. We have no occasion to deposit or store labor-credit checks.

No man has any claim with us upon anything but the fruits of labor. These we hold until he calls for them, and we pay him no interest for their use. In fact, we have no use for what he leaves with the Association. We prefer to have him take it and consume it himself. The Association, for instance, has a menagerie and circus which it sends from city to city. We see no reason why a man who desires to see such an exhibition should refrain from doing so from motives of frugality. The Association prefers that the admission fee be taken out of every labor-credit check. Of course this does not usually happen, because the members do not always desire to witness such an exhibition when it appears.

If a man is frugal and spends but little of his monthly credit he does not lose it during his life. It is a matter of prudence to save something, so that he may use it if he goes abroad, and the Association holds itself ready to furnish him the money of any nation if he makes the proper application for it.

But if a man dies his unexhausted credit is canceled. He cannot will it to his wife or children. The wife is given a place in the Industrial Army and his years of service are accredited to her, so that if he has served ten years up to the time of his death only fifteen more are required of her, or ten years if he or she should be a member of the Grade of Honor.

As for children, if they are members of the Educational department and are left orphans they are allowed the father’s portion until they arrive at age, when they enter the Industrial Army. These provisions are necessary to co-operative success. To permit a man to leave his accumulations to his son or daughter takes from them the incentive to labor. They cease to be useful or acquire a superiority which nature did not give them.

We insist that all should be equal in the start, and that they have no advantages which they cannot create for themselves.

The competitor claims that this removes the incentive for action. This is not true. It removes one incentive out of many, and the worst and most injurious one.

It is an incentive which makes robbers, thieves, murderers and tyrants and produces a host of evils.

The competitor says it is unjust because it takes from wife and child their support. It does not. We give the wife a chance to be useful and an income for her use equal to the income of any.

We give the child his education and an opportunity equal to the best when he becomes a man. We insure these things and the husband and father is relieved from all worry on their account while he lives. Is not this worth many times the riches of the competitor which are so ready to vanish and leave wife and child in the ranks of abject and despised poverty.

The twentieth year of the Co-operative Commonwealth is indeed a proud one. The great state which we occupy is entirely under the control of the Co-opolitan Association. It contains four million people and two and a half million active members of the Industrial Army. Its inhabitants are all in cities, but no city is greater than one hundred and fifty thousand persons, except Idaho Falls and Shoshone, where the great water power, generating electricity, gives exceptional advantages for manufactures. Idaho Falls contains three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants and Shoshone two hundred and twenty-one thousand. In Shoshone are the great flouring and woolen mills, but nearly every needful and useful article is also produced through the medium of its marvelous electric power. Idaho Falls is more famous for its cotton mills, and other cities are numerous which are devoted to manufactures of various kinds. The city of Rokybar is the Pittsburg of Idaho and the Association steel works at that city are the largest in the world.

Laselle is the producer of beet sugar, and all the sugar used by our department stores in Idaho is supplied from our factories there. There is little necessity for the importation of anything into this state, so varied and abundant are its resources and productions.

These cities of Idaho are all laid out and conducted on the plan of Co-opolis. Each one of them covers an area nearly three times as large as that of any competitive city. The streets are all one hundred and fifty feet wide, consisting of two driveways fifty feet wide and a park of equal width separating them.

Numerous parks are located at convenient distances from one another. The buildings are all at least fifty feet apart. There is ample sunlight, pure air and space for children to play or for older people to take recreation.

There are flowers, fountains, artificial lakes and trees in profusion. Monuments and statues have been erected in many localities, representing art and history and illustrating the power and beauty of co-operation. The streets are all paved with asphalt. Most of our buildings are constructed of brick or stone and of the material necessary for the purpose Idaho has inexhaustible resources.

In this twentieth year of the Co-operative Commonwealth the United States is moving swiftly and quietly to that condition which Bellamy beheld in “Looking Backward.” Washington was the first state to join Idaho as a Co-operative Commonwealth, which it did in 1910. Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and California followed in quick succession in about the order named. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Arkansas, North and South Carolina and Texas are almost ready to wheel into line.

As for the other states of the Union, the co-operative system is gaining ground every day. In the United States Senate there are forty Co-operative Senators. In the House of Representatives there are one hundred and forty-three Co-operators.

Through the influence of Idaho the United States government has purchased and now operates five transcontinental lines of railroad, and it is probable that it will, in a few years, acquire most of the lines which are sufficiently valuable to warrant their operation. It owns all the telegraph lines in its territory, having purchased them as early as 1908.

Nearly all the cities of the country have become the owners of their own public utilities, such as street-car lines, telephone, gas, electric and water systems and plants, and from the income derived from them have almost succeeded in relieving their citizens from the burden of taxation.

But the private department stores, labor-saving machinery, trusts and monopolies, which continue to exact tribute from and oppress the people for private gain, are our unconscious and unintentional allies, and the thousands of good citizens who yearly move westward to avail themselves of the opportunities which exist in the Co-operative Commonwealths called into being by the success of the Co-opolitan Association do not fail by their correspondence to light the fires of the new and higher civilization in every city and hamlet of the nation.

This success is one which Idaho and her people are, at this time, disposed to credit, in a somewhat larger degree than history will or should approve, to the immortal senior Senator from Idaho, Hon. John Thompson, and his associates of twenty years ago. All honor, indeed, to them!

But I maintain that conditions, circumstances and a great nation of intelligent, honest, industrious and comparatively temperate laboring men and women made their work possible in America when it could not have been successful in any other country in this world.

I do not say this from motives of patriotism. I say it because it appears to me that the reasons to support the allegation will be recognized and approved when stated.

In the first place, there has never before been any extensive experiment with industrial co-operation for the benefit of the workers engaged in it, where land was the basis of all operations, except in ancient Peru.

It is unfortunate that history has been so far deprived of the records of that wonderful country, by the destructive fanaticism of its Spanish conquerors, that the details of its system must remain obscure.

But happily the indisputable fact remains to give courage to co-operators who do battle in the dark corners of the world that Peru was a co-operative or socialistic state, and that its people were happy, prosperous and contented.

This fact suggests the very pertinent question whether the people who boast a high state of civilization like that of modern New York and Boston are equal to the establishment of a system as just, as fair and as equitable in the production, distribution and protection of wealth as the comparatively ignorant, simple-minded and uncivilized inhabitants of ancient Peru?

The example of Idaho proves that we are. But in England, France and Germany the co-operators have confined their undertakings almost exclusively to manufactures and distribution. The land has rarely entered into their calculations, or when it has been considered has never been regarded as available. In Idaho we have made land the chief feature of our enterprise, and I maintain and, in fact, know, that we could never have succeeded in any marked degree if we had not done so.

A commonwealth which has not the title to its own land is like a house suspended in the air. Even the co-operative societies engaged in manufacture and distribution manufacture and distribute what comes, primarily, from the land.

When they receive the raw material to manufacture or distribute it has been handled by a number of traders, brokers and other middlemen and its price increased oppressively. We avoided all this by owning the land.

In England and other densely populated countries the rich land has all been taken and the owner, whether lord or peasant, will not part with it except for a large sum of money. The co-operator is thus excluded, in those countries, from the use of land. It costs him nearly as much in spot cash to acquire it as the brokers and traders take from him, through a series of years, in profits on the raw product of land.

Now in Idaho land was cheap, and cheap land is the co-operator’s salvation.

I also believe that we were fortunate in locating our colonies in Idaho. The reason for this is that after we had acquired the land of Deer Valley, placed it under irrigation and rendered it highly productive, we had the use of millions of acres of grazing lands for our herds and flocks.

I cannot conceive that a co-operative society could begin its career under more favorable conditions than did the Co-opolitan. It could not have found a better location for its productive farm and city in any other state. It had the best facilities for irrigation and controlling all the waters necessary to render its land productive; it had the means to attach its members to the common purpose.

It was able to avail itself of near and high-priced markets.

Better than all this, it had the open ranges embracing millions of acres of good grazing land, which it was permitted by the laws to use without cost. If we had not possessed this advantage, my judgment is that our struggle would have been increased and prolonged.

I believe that cattle and sheep were the most advantageous kind of wealth for us to handle. We allowed them to roam at will, with but few attendants, over our ranges, and we were at little expense to care for and feed them. Besides this it was a form of wealth which was capable of transporting itself to some extent. Had we attempted a different location where there were no ranges and put our capital into almost any other form of property we would have failed.

These natural advantages and the system whose development I have endeavored in these pages to trace are, in my judgment, responsible for the success which the Co-opolitan Association has made in twenty years.

L’ENVOI.

My narrative, kind reader, is finished, but if you have followed it thus far you will doubtless feel some interest in the present condition of some of its chief characters and features. Of Senator Thompson I need say only that he is one of the most honored and famous individualities in this world.

Being a native of England, he is not eligible to the Presidency of the republic, else I verily believe he would be chosen to usher in the Co-operative Commonwealth which seems to be one of the probabilities in the near future. But Senator Thompson is in the prime of manhood and you can be sure that he will be one of the chief actors in the coming change.

Mrs. Braden is as famous in her sphere as Senator Thompson is in his. Having written, as the world knows, five novels of the highest merit, all of which have been received with extraordinary favor, the Association has rewarded her by remitting her entire term of service in the Industrial Army. This has not had the effect of silencing her muse by any means. She is as industrious as if both fame and fortune were wanting. The fires of true genius do not require the inspiration of greed to make them burn more brightly.

Mr. Edmunds is now an old man. He will accept the ease which the expiration of his term of service enables him to enjoy. Although seventy years of age, he is strong and hearty, and we hope may live, as he seems likely to, for many years.

Henry B. Henderson died three years ago. A bronze statue of him stands in the park on Commonwealth Avenue, in front of the Council Hall, and I am told that the people of Shoshone and Idaho Falls are arranging to have similar statues erected and paid for by subscription in their cities.

Boise City is a beautiful city of fifty thousand inhabitants. The municipal indebtedness of the old city was long ago purchased by the Co-opolitan Association for a small sum and the flood of co-operative enterprise poured over and through the old townsite at once.

The city of CO-OPOLIS is not, as I have already stated, the largest city in Idaho. It contains a population of one hundred and fifty thousand. It is the oldest co-operative city in the state and the most beautiful in the world. Its buildings are substantially constructed; its parks are well kept and better finished than are those of most other cities, and its trees are older and more mature. It is believed that it will be the favorite city of residence for the members whose terms of service in the Industrial Army expire. At present it is the seat of government in the Association domain.

Idaho is still a “Light on the Mountains,” as its ancient name implies, and its effulgence had found a shining way into thousands of homes throughout the world.

Truly may it be said that her mission is being grandly accomplished and that the people that dwelt in darkness have seen a great light.

Thank God! The higher civilization is here.

[THE END.]

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THE SOCIAL DEMOCRACY OF AMERICA

has as one of its main objects the peaceable establishment, in some such manner as outlined in this book, of the

CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH.

We believe in the efficacy of object lessons, and the Social Democracy of America is working for and advocating the Co-operative Commonwealth, where all shall receive their full share of the wealth they create and the Brotherhood of Man shall be an actual fact. In order to do its work in establishing this ideal state of perfect justice between man and man the

COLONIZATION COMMISSION

of the Social Democracy of America has formulated plans and methods for putting the ideas contained in this book into actual operation.

If one million working men would pay ten cents each into a fund to help such a plan, it would mean one hundred thousand dollars a month, or one million two hundred thousand dollars a year. If one hundred thousand should do so, it would mean one thousand dollars a month and one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year. In five years, with judicious management and cautious expenditure of such funds, the results would be marvelous, especially as a dollar in the hands of co-operators would prove far more efficient than a dollar employed in the extravagant and wasteful channels of competition. Send a dollar for thirty-four sample copies and make thirty-four converts to the cause of reform.

Six cents will pay for “Merrie England,” a book of 190 pages, which has had a sale of 850,000 copies in England and has only begun to sell in America. It is a popular yet scientific statement of the principles of Socialism. It is addressed to the people who are prejudiced against anything of the kind. Get a man to read “Merrie England” and the book will do the rest. We mail two copies for 10 cents, twelve for 50 cents, twenty-five for $1.00, a hundred for $3.50.

Ten cents will pay for “President John Smith,” by Frederick Upham Adams, a book of 300 pages. It has passed through twenty-five editions in a year. It is a success because it points out practical methods for intelligent political action by which the people of the United States may take possession of the government and run it in their own interest. We mail a dozen copies for $1.00; fifty copies for $3.75.

Twenty-five cents will pay for any one of the following valuable books:

The Co-opolitan, by Zebina Forbush.

Evolutionary Politics, by Walter Thomas Mills.

Man or Dollar. Which? by a newspaper man.

From Earth’s Center, by S. Byron Welcome.

A Breed of Barren Metal, by J. W. Bennett.

Money Found, by Thomas E. Hill.

The six books, or six copies of any one of them, will be sent postpaid on receipt of one dollar. Special terms to agents, with full list of reform literature, will be mailed upon request.

Address
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY, Publishers,
56 Fifth Avenue, Chicago.

MEN WANTED.

We firmly believe that in “The Co-opolitan” we are giving to the people of the United States a book that will be of untold value in hastening the progress of human brotherhood and a civilization based on justice. We believe the people are ready for this book, and that any intelligent man who believes in co-operation and knows how to express his ideas can make a good living by selling copies. We want to hear from such men.

We also want to hear from those who have no time for selling books but who believe intensely in human brotherhood and want to do their part in making it a fact in this present life. Our object is to provide them with literature for wide distribution, at prices that are based on the actual cost of production.

One cent will pay for a copy of “The Ethical Aspect of the Labor Problem,” by Rev. J. Stitt Wilson. It is addressed to Christians and proves that the profit system under which the people are struggling is directly opposed to the teachings of Jesus.

Two cents will pay for “The New Democracy,” by Frederick Upham Adams, the editor of The New Time. It is a clear and forceful statement of the ideas of Direct Legislation through the Initiative and Referendum.

Three cents will pay for a new pamphlet entitled “The Majority Rule League of the United States,” which gives a practical plan for organization to be put in practice at once. It gives a valuable appendix on Direct Legislation. Fifty copies mailed for $1.00; 500 for $7.50.

Three cents will pay for a sample copy of The New Time, the greatest reform magazine in the world, 100 large pages each month, full of timely articles, news and pictures that no reformer will consent to do without if he once sees it.

The three members of the commission were appointed August 1, 1897, and their work was outlined before the publication of this book.

The manuscript was read by one of the members of the commission and received his hearty commendation, as presenting arguments of a high character in favor of colonization. Many ideas elucidating legal points are also brought out in the clearest manner.

The Commission is attempting to work out practically the main idea presented in this book. Any reader who becomes desirous of aiding in this noble work, or who wishes information concerning it, should address Secretary Colonization Commission, S. D. of A.,

504 Trude Bldg.,
Chicago, Ill.

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THE LEGAL REVOLUTION OF 1902.

BY
A LAW-ABIDING REVOLUTIONIST.

CHICAGO:
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY.
1898.

The following specimen pages of

“THE LEGAL REVOLUTION OF 1902”

are published by permission of the author from advance proofs of the book, which is now in press. Every loyal reformer will be interested in this new work, which outlines a radical and aggressive political programme to be carried out in the near future. The book will be handsomely printed on heavy book paper of extra quality, and will be sold at fifty cents in paper and one dollar in cloth, with liberal terms to dealers, agents and newspapers.