The Cooperative Commonwealth

The motto of the paper is: "Let the Rich Pay! Let the Poor Enjoy!" The responsible editor is Lasalle Smith, and the proprietors Marx Jones, Chairman of the New York City Board of Ethical Control, Cabet Johnson, Chair man of the Board of Arbitration for Wages and Prices, Babamf Brown, Chairman of the Board of Control for Rents and Loans, and Rousseau Peters, President of the Cooperative Bank. A notice warns readers that "This paper is published strictly under the cooperative rules 4401 442 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS established by the Typographical Union in our office and under the direction of the council of the same. The Com mittee of Grievances gives its assent and approval to each number before it is published. All subscriptions are payable monthly in advance to the Treasurer of the Typo graphical Union. The Typographical Union, being a mem ber of the organized Cooperative Commonwealth, has police powers for the collection of all sums due to it."

A special notice reads as follows: We send copies of this edition of our paper to a large number of persons who have not hitherto cooperated in our enterprise but whom we have enrolled until they signify their refusal. We call especial attention to the names and standing in the Cooperative Commonwealth of the pro prietors of this journal. We believe that many of those whom we now invite to cooperate, and who have been under suspicion of being monopolists, capitalists, recalcitrants, and reactionists, will see that they cannot better establish their credit for civism than by accepting our invitation. The following extracts are from the editorials: Our reports of the Ethical Tribunal show that our noble Board of Ethical Control needs to guard diligently our interests. Another pestilent preacher has been condemned to the chain gang. At least we make sure that our streets will be cleaned, a task which no cooperators could be asked to perform, since all the ancient lawyers, professors, and preachers are now condemned to this business. The stubbornness and incorrigibility of these classes towards the Commonwealth is astonishing.

The Board of Ethical Control announce as the result of the plebiscite which was taken on April 1 last, that, by a COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 443 vote of 5319 to 782, the Commonwealth voted to retain the present Board of Ethical Control for ten years, instead of reelecting them annualI;y as heretofore. This is as it should be. Why disturb the tranquillity of our happy state by constant elections when our affairs are entrusted to such competent hands? _ The agents of the Board of Ethical Control reported 213 persons found dead in the streets at the dawn of day, 174 bearing marks of violence; the rest, not having coopera tors' tickets, were ancient monopolists who had apparently perished of want. The Grand Cooperator said that he should submit to the Board of Ethical Control the ques tion whether it is edifying to continue these reports. There follow extracts from the inaugural of G. P. M. C.l 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 Cooperative 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 1 These initials, as will be seen below, mean Grand Passed Master Cooperator, while G. C. indicates the lower grade of Grand Cooperator.

444 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS processes if we used them against ourselves. All sensible cooperators should know that history and statistics are far greater swindles than science. There are dangers in the Cooperative Commonwealth which demand vigilance. There is danger of jealousy and division amongst cooperators. Harmony is essential to the Cooperative 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 cooperator is at hand. Our only· danger is factious division of this power. Let every co operator have rewards for harmony and penalties for fac tion - strict, sure, and heavy! There is danger from science. The evolution heresy is a worse foe to cooperation 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! Under the heading "Domestic News H occurs the following: The Commissioners of Emigration have detected several persons striving to leave the city for Long Island, carrying gold with them. It is well known that many rich persons, animated by selfishness and disregarding their duties as trustees of their wealth for the public, have escaped to the wilds of Long Island beyond the Commune of Brooklyn, carrying with them all the gold which they could obtain. Hence the Commissioners of Emigration have arranged to patrol the East River by the Commonwealth galleys and have limited the ferry transits to the Fulton ferry beCOOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 445 tween 8 and 9 A.M. and 5 and 6 P.M. Any persons found carrying away gold will be sent to the galleys and the gold confiscated. Gold is needed to buy supplies for the Commonwealth.

No dispatches from Philadelphia have been received for a fortnight. A steamboat of 100 tons burden is cruising in the Hudson River, taking toll of all goods in transit across the river. Reports disagree as to the character of the persons on this boat. By some it is asserted to be manned by cooperators who, being poor, are putting into effect ethi cal claims against material goods. By others it is said to be manned by a gang of monopolist scoundrels and vaga bonds, who, driven to desperation by the boycott and plan of campaign, seek this means to perpetuate their existence. It behooves the Board of Ethical Control to learn which of these reports is correct before taking action. A report comes from the West that the Indians have seized Illinois, killing the whites and taking possession of the improvements. They have imbibed the ancient capi talistic notions and are impervious to ethical and coopera tive doctrines. They are rapidly increasing in numbers, strange as it may seem, for we have read in ancient books that they were dying out a century ago. It is suggested that they now increase because they are conquering, and that they will go on doing so until they exterminate all whites from the continent. In the absence of private mails, we humbly suggest that our Board of Ethical Con trol should communicate with similar boards of the communes to the westward.

Under the heading" Industrial": The Board of Equalization of Production have set the amounts of various commodities which may be produced 446 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS during the coming fall season. Those whom it concerns are to call at the office of the Board at once, pay the fees, and obtain their instructions. The penalty of overpro duction is fixed at 100 cooperative units per unit of prod uct, half to the informer. The Board of Arbitration for Contracts will sit daily at their office in Cooperative Hall from 10 to 12 A.M. to ap prove of contracts. The fee is 1000 cooperative units from each party . Notice is called to the ordinance of the Board of Ethical Control: "If two or more persons make a con tract without the presence and approval of the Board of Arbitration or otherwise than in conformity with the regulations of said Board, they may be fined according to the circumstances of the case."

The Cooperative Railroad Commission, having found a mechanic to repair the locomotive, announce that they will recommence regular weekly trips to Yonkers on next Monday. A train will start at 9 A.M., or as soon thereafter as convenient. Accommodation for twenty-five passengers. Passports may be obtained until noon on Saturday. They must be vised by the Railroad Commission and by the Cooperative Guardians of Public Morals at their office in the Cooperative Workhouse not later than two o'clock on the same time. The fare to Yonkers will be 10,000 coopera tive units. On account of the inter-county commerce law, all freight and passengers will be trans-shipped at Yonkers. To prevent vexatious inquiries, the Commission hereby announce that they are not informed whether or when trains will be dispatched to points beyond. Since the Commonwealth was founded, as our readers know, cooperators have refused to work in coal mines. No great harm has come of this since the factories and maCOOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 447 chinery have been abolished and railroads and steamers have almost gone out of use. Some coal, however, is a convenience, and our readers will see with pleasure that delinquents in considerable numbers are being sent to these mines under an agreement with our Board of Ethical Control with the similar authority of the Lehigh Commune in the ancient state of Pennsylvania.

We are informed that a number of ancienfcapitalists and monopolists, being in a starving condition, recently applied to the Board of the said Commune for leave to go into an abandoned coal mine and work it for their own support. A week ago yesterday, Cooperative Association 2891, A. P. D., bricklayers, 7824, M. X. H., plasterers, 4828 N. K. J., hodcarriers, F. L. M. 8296, joiners, met to con sider the state of the building trades. On account of the decrease in the population, by which great numbers of houses are vacant, building has ceased for years past and these once great associations have dwindled down. The Board of Ethical Control has caused public buildings to be constructed in order to give them work and has ordered landlords to make repairs to the same end. The confer ence on Friday, a week ago, was to consider further meas ures of relief. It was decided that no vacant house ought to be allowed to stand. Some maintained that no repairs ought to be allowed at all, in order that new houses might become necessary, but others thought that this would take away what little work is now obtained. G. C. Marx Rog ers, former professor of political economy, made a speech in which he proposed that all houses now vacant and all ruins now standing which give shelter to unregistered vaga bonds and boycotted persons should be destroyed; also that a committee be appointed to inspect all existing dwell ings, mark those which are out of repair and unfit for co operative residences, and that these latter should then 448 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS be razed to the ground. This would cause ail immediate demand for new houses. This proposition was unanimously adopted.

On Wednesday last the cooperative associations afore said met to hear the report of the committee. Twelve hundred and forty-seven houses had been noted so far as unfit for residences. The joint associations passed a decree against said houses, as a beginning, and ordered the com mittee of the whole to proceed to execute it. They marched in a body to Bleecker Street, the northern most limit of the ruined houses and demolished them en tirely. They then moved southerly, destroying all vacant houses. Gradually, a number of persons gathered to look on. The agents of Ethical Supervision kept this crowd at a distance and secured the joint Cooperative Associations full independence in the execution of their decree. In East Canal Street, Nonconformist Jonathan Merritt, lessee of a block of tenements, tried to dissuade or prevent the destruction of his buildings. He was roughly handled, his skull split open and his arm broken by the cooperators.

The agents of Ethical Supervision took him in on a charge of disturbing the public peace. When it came to the destruction of occupied buildings, the tenants objected. By the ordinance of the Board of Lodgings and Rents, each had been allotted to his domi cile and was, of course, bound to keep it until allowed to change. It was also feared that no lodgings could be found. The Board of Lodgings and Rents immediately convened and issued new allotments of domicile. Suspects, noncon formists, recalcitrants, and reactionists were sent to lodge in the ancient churches and the cooperators were assigned to their tenements. The revival and prosperity of the building trades is now assured.

COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 449 Under the heading "Misdemeanors": Of all forms of incivism, the most reprehensible is hoard ing 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 oppoint himself a detective to help. Search every house in your neighborhood! Trust nobody! Every person found in possession of a copy of this pamph let 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 delin quents under taxes and fines, incorrigible monopolists, sur vival capitalists and others under judicial sentence, under the direction of the Board of Ethical Control. The con victs work from sunrise to sunset, in order to mark the dis tinction between them and honorable cooperators, who work but five hours per da~r. The product of the fields on its way to the town is subjected to toll by the free coop erative 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 InClVlsm.

450 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS 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. Ordinances of the Committee of Inquiry appears as follows: 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 tak ing 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 treat ment of persons convicted of incivism is slavery without disguise; Peter Moon, for saying that the Plan of Cam paign is only a scheme to allow a man'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.

A considerable number of minor offences are tried before Grand Cooperator Rodbertus Pease, Member of the Board of Ethical Control: COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 451 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 de clared that they were poor men. On examination it ap peared 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 anJ-' 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 defence he pleaded that he was left by accident. He was con demned to serve on the yacht of the Board of Ethical Con trol at the pleasure of said Board. Ulysses Perkins and others, some of whom were coopera tors 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, 452 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS and the cooperators amongst them were especially repri manded. 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 way side. 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, liv ing by chance or by tilling some small fields which have not been allotted to them. and plotting against the Com monwealth. The Grand Cooperator said that such per sons would be promptly dealt with and dispatched a force of guardians of Ethical Order against them. The com plainants were discharged with a reprimand for misrepre senting 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 coOpera tive 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 deCOOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 453 famation of Emily Wilson, cooperative seamstress. The accused presented a certificate of patronage from G. M. C. Brissot Robinson and was discharged from custody, a re script of the charge being transmitted to G. M. C. Robin son for such action as he should deem proper. Maria Waters, arraigned for working at type-setting be low 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 coopera tive 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. Under" Benefits and Amusements" : In addition to the three regular Labor Days of July. the lOth, 20th, and 30th, the Board of Ethical Control has decreed an extra one on the 18th, with full wages. Com monwealth 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 liber ality of G. P. M. C. Lasalle Brown.

Rents remitted for June and all arrears before January 1.

454 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS All cooperators in good standing are entitled to pensions of 100 cooperative units per week, with rations of coopera tive bread 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 Association. Admission 100 c. u. All persons must wear cooperative medals displayed. $' Foreign News" reports the following debacle: It will be remembered that about three J"ears 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 occu pation, 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 com plaisance 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 COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 455 coal and wood which they took by force from the Common wealth 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 coop erator 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, monopo lists, 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 com munal 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.

456 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS 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 mis take to let these pestilent scoundrels loose. Their state threatens the whole cooperative movement. Its existence has greatly strengthened the collectivists among coopera tors, for it is said that the big empires must be restored (on cooperative principles) to cope with them. "Personal Items" record the following: G. P. M. C. Lasalle Brown last evening gave a grand ball and house-warming in his new house on Fifth Avenue. By demolishing and removing the unsightly ruined houses in the neighborhood, a beautiful park and garden have been added to this fine tenement. It was illuminated last evening by thousands of lamps and torches carried by the convicts who are under discipline in the household of the G. P. M. C. The guests were members of the Board of Ethical Control and their families, some of whom, remem bering their own antecedents, observed with interest amongst the convicts sons and daughters of ancient monopo lists, and in some cases white-haired survivals from the age of bankers, railroad kings, and merchant princes. Such are the revenges of history!

One hundred new carriages for the Board of Ethical Con trol have just arrived. They are of the most superb work manship and cost $5000 in gold each. They belong, of course, to the Commonwealth and can only be used under permission of the Board of Ethical Control. They have been put, one each, under the care of separate members of COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 457 the Board, as no private individual is allowed to violate equality by owning a carriage. We noticed with pleasure yesterday the families of Grand Cooperators in these car riages in the park. Nonconformists and others like them outside the pale of the Commonwealth have, of late years, when they found their position disagreeable, adopted the plan of attaching themselves voluntarily as retainers or vassals to coopera tors, especially to the leading members of the Board of Ethical Control. In this way they secure some of the advantages of cooperation. In order to show their posi tion and relationship, they wear special tokens or marks.

The clients of the newly inaugurated G. P. M. C. have just been put into uniform or livery. They attended him in a body on his recent visit to his country seat at River dale, where they did guard duty. Added to his personal bodyguard of cooperators and friends, they made an im posing body. This country-seat, by the way, has just been surrounded by a high stone wall. There occurs an obituary of one of the community's leading lights: G. C. Brissot Cunningham died at 01 Fifth Avenue on Wednesday last. He was born May 16, 1905 and was edu cated for a lawyer. In 1930, putting himself in the fore most rank of the cooperative movement and identifying himself with the most radical section, he was admitted to the bar. By the abolition of inheritance, he found himself, on the death of his father in the following year, thrown entirely on his own resources. He then passed through some years of obscurity and great poverty, which taught him to feel for the poor.

Allying himself with the noble band which supported our present G. P. M. C., he helped to bring about the foun458 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS dation of the cooperation in 1940 and was elected member of the Board of Ethical Control. In the Board he filled many of the most important and responsible positions on the several committees and was regularly reelected. He devoted himself to securing the Commonwealth, flinching from no measure to establish it. He believed thoroughly in the motto "Enjoy." After he became a member of the Board of Ethical Control, the former mansion of the --s on Fifth Avenue was allotted to him and furnished from the Commonwealth storehouse of forfeited property. He there kept up a munificent hospitality on the most altru istic principles. He neither cared to know whence his income came nor whither it went. In the spirit of a true cooperator, whatever belonged to the Commonwealth was his and whatever was his was free to any cooperator. His popularity with the masses was shown yesterday when they turned out in a bodJ7 for his funeral. The non-cooperators who had felt his scourge were naturally absent. A few of them who could not conceal their joy at his death were summarily corrected by the cooperators. By his death at the early age of forty-five, our Commonwealth has lost a valuable supporter.

[According to the ordinance adopted bJ7 the Board of Ethical Control, February 10, 1945, since he died a mem ber of the Board, his family will have a pension of $15,000 per annum in gold for twenty-five years and the use of his house for the same time. The Board will fill the vacancy next week. - Editor of this paper.] The Text-book oj Cooperation, ordained by the Board of Ethical Control for schools, is reviewed as follows: This book is an authoritative exposition of the Coopera tive Commonwealth in the commune form. It is to super sede all other books except the primer, writing-book, and COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 459 elementary arithmetic. We have done with all the ancient rubbish. All the books which have not been destroyed are under the control of the Board of Ethical Control. Es pecially we are now rid of all pernicious trash about his tory, law, and political economy. The present book contains all that a good cooperator needs to know. Its tone is strictly ethical. By separating all children of in corrigibles and survivals from their parents and educating them on this book, we may soon hope to bring all capitalis tic tradition to an end.

It is plainly proved here that the first right of every man and woman is the right to capital. This right is valid up to the time when he or she gets capital, when it becomes ethically subject to the similar right of someone else, who has no capital as yet, to have some. This principle carried out is the guarantee of justice and equality and is the fun damental principle of the Cooperative Commonwealth in the middle of the twentieth century. The text-book describes the organization of our Com monwealth, with the duties of cooperators, and gives a list of the ordinances of the Board of Control. There are now 1000 members of the Board of Ethical Control and 10,000 agents in their employ, chosen by lot monthly from all cooperators. The Board is divided into ten Boards of 100 each for various branches of duty. The members receive no salary but are remunerated by fees. They enjoy no privileges or rights in the Common wealth, but have the duty of regulating all cooperative affairs according to their conscientious convictions of jus tice. The ten chairmen of Boards form an exclusive com mission which decrees boycotts and plans of campaign.

There are no laws or lawyers in the system and no courts or juries of the ancient type, now happily almost forgotten. There are no police, no detectives, no army, no militia, and no prisons. The ancient prison at Sing Sing, which is now 460 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS within the limits of this commune, is turned into a Coop erators' Retreat. Under this happy regime no cooperator can do wrong. Our only culprits are recalcitrants, suspects, incorrigibles, survivals, and other would-be perpetuators of the old regime of monoply and capitalistic extortion. Such persons are compelled to expiate their selfishness and in civism by hard labor, but they are taken for this purpose into the households or factories of the members of the Board of Ethical Control, where they are subject to ethical discipline and produce those things which are essential to the community and which the Board of Ethical Control contracts to provide. The employments are such as free cooperators consider disagreeable, unhealthy, or degrading.

The Committee of Inquiry into Incivism is a committee of the Board of Ethical Control and has the high and im portant duty of watching over cooperative duties. Its number and members are unknown, lest they should be objects of malice. Its sessions and procedure are secret. It employs 100 agents but has a right to command the services at any time of all cooperators. Com plaints of incivism may be lodged night or day by any cooperator in the lion's mouth in the court of the Coopera tive Hall (ancient United States postoffice). The Committee proceeds against persons guilty of in civism by boycotts chiefly. This measure puts the culprit outside the pale of the Commonwealth which he has maligned or in which he has refused to take his share. Such persons become vagabonds, and disappear or perish. The chapter on cooperative religion is in the form of a catechism and is to be thoroughly learned by heart by all pupils. It inculcates the doctrines of our social creed by which each one is bound to serve the health, wealth, and happiness of every other. Those who have the means of material enjoyment shall put them at the disposition and use of those who have them not. It impresses above all the COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH 461 great duty of civism, or conformity to cooperative organiza tion and obedience to the Board of Ethical Control.

There is complete equality and no distinction of class in the Cooperative Commonwealth. Every man, woman, and child is eligible to the Board of Ethical Control. The only distinction is of merit and service to the Commonwealth. In this the members of the Board of Ethical Control stand first. There is no second. Outside of the Coopera tive Committee are, in order of demerit and detestation, probationers (cooperators who have forfeited their coopera tive tickets for fault but who may be restored to member ship), survivals (employers, capitalists, landlords, usurers, subject to the Commonwealth and continuing the ancient functions of such persons), nonconformists (stubborn per sons who refuse to conform to the new order), recalcitrants (any of the former who have been subject to discipline five times), incorrigibles (after twenty cases of discipline), sus pects (so decreed if charged but not convicted of incivism), reactionists (once cooperators but convicted of disorgani zation) and convicts (under boycott or plan of compaign).

Every person must be registered and have always on his person a brass medal hung by a chain about his neck, bearing his designation and number, with the letters desig nating his group, domicile, also district, ward, and arron dissement. This constitutes his social designation. These medals are given out by the Board of Ethical Supervision. The fee is 1000 cooperative units, repeated each time that the person is re-classified and a new medal issued. Advertisements are included, as, for example: John Moon, licensed to sell pistols and ammunition. A few revolvers newly imported from the commune of Hartford at great difficulty and expense. Bliss Bldg. Henry Black, pistols and bowie-knives. Sales strictly 462 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS within the ordinances. Every purchaser required to show cooperator's ticket, and sales registered. ~68 Felicity Boulevard. Elias Israel, pawn broker, loans at 10% per month on cooperative private property only. Sales of forfeited goods every Sunday. 618 Joy Avenue.

The editor has no compunction about publishing these extracts, though it may be objected that they can be at most of historical or personal interest. Perhaps, in the light of the antics of the Bolsheviki, even such a parody as the foregoing may seem less wide of the 'potentialities of the socialistic system. In any case, if modern socialism has renounced some of the wild dreams of its past, that is largely owing to the criticism and ridicule poured upon them by vigorous opponents of the Sumner type. Says a prominent American, writing to the editor subsequently to the publication of one of the foregoing volumes of this series: "I have for many years publicly and privately urged socialists to read - really read - Sumner - as the most doughty and competent foe with whom they have to reckon."

THE FORGOTTEN MAN THE FORGOTTEN MAN [1883J I PROPOSE in this lecture to discuss one of the most subtile and widespread social fallacies. It consists in the impression made on the mind for the time being by a particular fact, or by the interests of a particular group of persons, to which attention is directed while other facts or the interests of other persons are entirely left out of account. I shall give a number of instances and illustrations of this in a moment, and I cannot expect you to understand what is meant from an abstract statement until these illustrations are before you, but just by way of a general illustration I will put one or two cases. Whenever a pestilence like yellow fever breaks out in any city, our attention is especially attracted towards it, and our sympathies are excited for the sufferers. If con tributions are called for, we readily respond. Yet the number of persons who die prematurely from consumption every year greatly exceeds the deaths from yellow fever or any similar disease when it occurs, and the suffering entailed by consumption is very much greater. The suf fering from consumption, however, never constitutes a public question or a subject of social discussion. If an inundation takes place anywhere, constituting a public calamity (and an inundation takes place somewhere in the civilized world nearly every year), public attention is attracted and public appeals are made, but the losses by great inundations must be insignificant compared with the losses by runaway horses, which, taken separately, scarcely obtain mention in a local newspaper. In hard times in465 466 THE FORGOTTEN MAN AND OTHER ESSAYS solvent debtors are a large class. They constitute an interest and are able to attract public attention, so that social philosophers discuss their troubles and legislatures plan measures of relief. Insolvent debtors, however, are an insignificant body compared with the victims of common place misfortune, or accident, who are isolated, scattered, ungrouped and ungeneralized, and so are never made the object of discussion or relief. In seasons of ordinary prosperity, persons who become insolvent have to get out of their troubles as they can. They have no hope of "relief from the legislature. The number of insolvents during a series of years of general prosperity, and their losses, greatly exceed the number and losses during a special period of distress.