Progress

Front matter

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Class.

Foreword

For the sake of brevity, in "Progress" I have described what in effect would be a direct political revolution such as, if attempted in America, probably would be in conflict with the constitution and laws of the United States.

In America the same result may be accomplished by lawful means. In the great Nationalist movement it is proposed to strive for the election of such national and state officials only as may be necessary to lawfuly effect a complete revision of the Federal Constitution.

The great principles of Nationalism are co-ordinate, concordant, compendious, compact, competent, comprehensible and commensurately essential, the success of each being dependent upon the adoption of all. One should study them wholly in that relation.

Today in America preparedness is a popular idea,

and under the circumstances in which the world finds

itself, thorough preparedness is a wise measure.

Wherefore, let us loyally uphold our President through

our country's dangers and difficulties, and whilst

we are preparing for war, let us also prepare for

life.

GRANT MAUS.

Preface

To compare the planet Mars with the Earth is to find that Mars has a diameter of about five thousand miles, while the diameter of the Earth is about eight thousand miles. That the surface of the Earth is about two and one-half times as great as the surface of Mars. But when it is considered that much the greater part of the Earth's surface is covered by water; that other great areas are covered by perpetual ice and snow; and that still other large areas are occupied by many great mountain ranges which practically are not habitable; while on the other hand there are no great bodies of water on Mars like the oceans on the Earth, comparatively little of that planet's surface being covered by water; that the snow and ice at the poles of Mars are not perpetual, and cover only a small area compared with the area covered by perpetual snow and ice at the poles of the Earth ; and that the surface of Mars is comparatively smooth, there being nothing on the planet to compare with the vast mountain ranges of the Earth, it may be readily surmised that the surface of Mars presents an area of habitable land probably somewhat in excess of

the area of habitable land on the surface of the Earth.

Of all the characteristics necessary to make a planet habitable, there is no insuperable difference between the essential characteristics of Mars and those of the Earth. The day on Mars is but a few minutes longer than the day on Earth. The year is nearly twice as long. The atmosphere is somewhat more rarified and clearer than that of the Earth. The temperature is somewhat lower, but the greater length of the summer more than offsets the lower temperature, for the growth of vegetation and other forms of life.

While it is true that the Earth is a planet some- . what larger than the planet Mars, yet for intelligent beings inhabiting the Earth to presume that out of all of God's great Universe they should be the only creatures created in His likeness, would be egregiously presumptuous, and the acme of egotism.

For the convenience of the reader the chronology of this narrative is made to conform with the chronology of the Earth.

AMERICA,

My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty,

Of thee I sing-; Land where my fathers died; Land of the pilgrims' pride ; From every mountain side

Let Freedom ring.

My native country! thee, Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love ; I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills, My heart with rapture thrills

Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze, And ring from all the trees

The sound prolong.

Our fathers' God! to thee, Author of liberty !

To thee we sing, Long may our land be bright With freedom's holy light.

Protect us by thy might.

Great God, our King!

— Smith.

Chapter One

At the beginning of the sixth century of the Christian era — World's time — there existed some fifteen independent states and more or less dependent colonies, somewhat sparsely populated by a race of fair-skinned, educated, and Christianized people, and lying in somewhat irregular form from north to south along the extreme western edge of civilization, — as civilization was established on the planet of Mars at the time — the country to the Westward comprising a vast territory, practically unexplored, and inhabited by numerous tribes of more or less savage aborigines.

At about that time, in order to provide a more stable form of government for themselves, to provide for their better protection against the encroachments of foreign nations, and in order to better provide for the participation of their citizens in the general advancement and progress of the races inhabiting the planet, these fifteen states and colonies formed a confederation, declared their independence, and adopted a constitution under which to conduct their national government.

The Constitution adopted provided that the national government should be administered by a President and a Vice-President, assisted by numerous officials to be appointed by the President. That the law-making authority should be vested in a Congress composed of two Houses. The one House designed to have a limited membership to be elected by the several state legislatures. The other to have a membership based on population, — a membership ever increasing in numbers as the population of the country increased, — its members to be elected by a direct vote of the people. Provided for the appointment and organization of certain federal courts. Prescribed certain qualifications necessary to entitle residents of the country to the rights of citizenship. Prescribed certain qualifications for the administrative officials and for the members of the Congress, and set forth certain rules for their election or appointment. Authorized the Congress to declare war, to coin money, to borrow money on the credit of the government, to levy certain taxes, and to do numerous other things of a legislative character. Authorized the several states and colonies of the confederation to each promulgate its own constitution; to organize and maintain its own government; and to enact and administer its own laws; such state constitutions and laws to be not in conflict with the constitution and laws of the Nation. Numerous other matters of more or less importance were provided for at length, the whole constituting the confederation a republic.

At the time of its adoption this Constitution was believed to embody the broadest and most liberal provisions for popular government which had ever been granted to any people. And this was true to a degree. But time proved a number of its provisions, together with the blind worship by the people, of the instrument itself, to have been so grievously unwise as to have engendered and fostered a number of evil systems which were destined to result in the ultimate ruination of the government whose protection had enabled them to develop to a dangerous state of iniquity.

Immediately after its organization the national government assumed sovereignty over an extent of the territory to the westward, which, with the area covered by the original states and colonies, embraced an area some two thousand miles from north to south, by some four thousand four hundred miles from west to east.

For a number of years, while a superabundance of enormously rich, glorious, God-given natural resources were available to the people, the Nation prospered exceedingly. It successfully conducted several wars, both foreign and domestic, being victorious in every instance. The population increased rapidly, and as it increased the frontier of civilization was ever advanced westward, until eventually it encompassed the entire territory under the sovereignty of the Nation.

From time to time, as the population increased and civilization advanced, new states were organized and admitted to the confederation on equal terms with the original states, until eventually the whole territory came to be embraced within a grand sisterhood of states to the number of fifty, and the population had increased to the enormous number of one hundred and fifty million people by the end of the first quarter of the seventh century of the Christian era.

Chapter Two

During the early years of the government's history its affairs were ably, honestly, and conscientiously administered in the interest of the whole of the people. True patriotism and enlightened statesmanship were thoroughly appreciated and duly rewarded with such honors as the people had it in their power to bestow. But after a century and a quarter had elapsed, the people awoke to a realization of the fact that many things were seriously and grievously wrong with their affairs, and pausing to study their condition they soon discovered that during the years when they had been so busily engaged in their mad scramble to take every possible advantage of the vast natural resources at hand, they had neglected to study and scrutinize their governmental affairs as carefully and thoroughly as their best interests required, with the result that a number of shamefully iniquitous systems had been engendered and imposed upon them. Systems which, if continued in effect, would inevitably utterly despoil them of the glorious fruits of the stupendous effort they as a people had maintained throughout their national existence.

The political system; the land-owning system; the monetary system; the credit system; the banking system ; the insurance system ; the industrial system ; the taxation system; the court system; and others of possibly less importance, had, in the comparatively short period of a century and a quarter, grown to such colossal proportions and acquired such tremendous power as to have become beyond the power of the constituted government to control.

These systems had become so exacting and so all-absorbing in their demands as to have almost literally transformed a Nation of supposedly intelligent, free, and independent citizens, into a seething, toiling, struggling mass of creatures, all busily engaged in gleaning tribute in countless guises for the sole benefit of the aforesaid systems.

Landlords were of necessity forced to demand extortionate rental rates in order that they might meet the exactions of the systems for taxes, for interest, for insurance, for materials, etc., etc., etc. Merchants were of necessity compelled to price their wares at more than double their actual worth in order that they might meet the exactions of the systems for materials, for rent, for taxes, for interest, for insurance, etc., etc., etc. Manufacturers, though many of them were securing their materials and labor at a moderate cost, also were of necessity forced to demand very high prices for their products in order that they also might meet the exactions of the systems for interest, for rent, for insurance, for taxes, etc., etc., etc. Millions of farmers and stockmen, though producing prodigious crops and countless droves of livestock, and for the most part receiving very high prices therefor, yet were so outrageously plundered for taxes, for interest, for rent, etc., etc., etc., as to have but a modicum of their product left for their own benefit. Even the professional classes were of necessity compelled to charge extortionate rates for their services in order that they too might meet the exactions of the systems for rent, for taxes, for interest, for insurance, etc., etc., etc.

The power of the systems to levy tribute had become so absolute and their methods of extortion so insidious that none could escape them. They levied tribute upon all alike. Upon the fortunate and the unfortunate. The robust in health and the invalid. The infantile and the aged. The widow and the orphan. The halt, the lame, the blind, and the nimble and bright-eyed. The only limit to their extortion was the capacity of the individual to pay. Their shameful extortions became so universal and so inexorable that even though an individual might be too poverty-stricken to be a subject for direct taxation, to borrow money or obtain credit, to carry insurance, or to become involved within the courts, yet out of every dollar expended for his necessities, — whether he had earned the dollar or obtained it from charitable sources, — certain considerable portions were arbitrarily, though it might be indirectly, taken to gratify the insatiable demands of each of the nefarious systems. The portions thus arbitrarily taken were so numerous and of such large proportions that very little of the commodity purchased could be obtained for what little of the dollar was left.

At the same time the farmers, the mechanics, the laborers and other producers of actual values, not only were required to satisfy the outrageous demands of the iniquitous systems for the products of their toil, but also were required to sustain the vast multitude of creatures whose sole vocation in life was the plundering of the producers by means of countless devices, and passing the plunder on into the ever open and capacious maws of the systems.

The deplorable result of all this was that in their strenuous efforts to obtain something for themselves, the strife amongst the people was so vigorous, constant, and wearing as to consume most of their product in the struggle ; whatever remained being always absorbed by the ultimate beneficiaries of the systems.

For the existence of those vicious systems no particular individual or no particular class seems to have been responsible. They seem, to have been a spontaneous growth on the life and customs of the Nation, like the poisonous vine in the forest, which, springing out of the ground, fastens its tentacles upon the bark of the giant oak, and year by year gradually advances its shoots and creepers — always with their attendant tentacles — up the body of the tree and out along all of its limbs, branches, and twigs, until, in time, its rank, nauseous foliage encompasses that of the tree and completely enshrouds it, shutting out the light and heat of the sun, and thus ultimately accomplishing the death of the tree; after which the vine itself dies and it and the tree together fall into decay, the vine seemingly having had no purpose in life other than to accomplish the death of the tree.

And so with the vicious systems. Given sufficient time, they were absolutely certain to completely enshroud the Nation with their noxous foliage, shut out the light and warmth of God's love, and so result in the Nation's inglorious death and decay.

Chapter Three

After only a century and a quarter of existence as a Nation ; when the supply of desirable public land had been exhausted; when nearly all of the vast natural resources of the country had been absorbed by certain private interests, the sole beneficiaries of the systems; when the reign of so-called big-business had become supreme, and it had become an extremely rare occasion when an individual could go forth and wrest a fortune, or even a respectable home, from legitimate commerce or industry, or from nature; the people paused to take stock of their public affairs, and they found: What?

They found, first: That whereas during the early years of their existence as a Nation their political system had been one of moderate proportions; tractable; responsive to the will of the people; reasonably effective; comparatively inexpensive; and

affording positions of great honor, worthy of the best citizens of the country ; now, owing to the great multiplicity of people, of states, of counties, of municipalities, etc., etc., it had grown into a colossal, unwieldly, cumbersome, ineffective, enormously expensive and dangerous institution, irresponsive and irresponsible to the people; harboring within its vast and varied portals a seething, fetid mass of political deceit, falsehood, personal and sectional selfishness, rabid partisanship, envy, jealousy, bribery, chicanery, incompetence, debauchery, general corruption, and crime; contaminating with loathsome filth every individual enticed within, making it almost wholly unworthy of the consideration of any genuinely cleanminded, honorable citizen.

They found themselves to have been deliberately misguided into a deplorable condition of rabid and blind partisanship, which condition had enabled certan comparatively small classes to transform their republic into an almost absolute oligarchy. Those certain small classes in effect choosing practically all candidates for important public office throughout the country, and merely permitting the people to retain the privilege of choosing between the candidates submitted to them. That in order to increase its strength, extend its influence and reward its henchmen, this rotten political oligarchy had foisted upon the people the enormous burden of maintaining innumerable, unnecessary, useless, and superfluous offices.

They found that though they would not for a moment have entertained a proposal to change their government into a monarchy, yet at every recurrent biennial election they were investing thousands of very ordinary politicians with all of the important prerogatives enjoyed by the most autocratic of ancient kings, by delegating to them authority to enact laws for their government; to enact laws taking human life ; to enact laws under which millions of men were imprisoned; to enact laws requiring military service ; and to levy taxes upon the people, their necessities, their business, their homes and other property. v

They found their political system, in its colossal entirety, to embrace such an immense number of elective official positions, and to afford so many seductive opportunities for graft, as to have enticed vast numbers of men to abandon useful vocations in life and take up politics as a profession, with the result that their local, state, and national political campaigns, having become sorely overcrowded with hordes of overhungry and unscrupulous politicians, had degenerated into frequently recurring seasons of rabid personal vilification and character assassination; from out of the nauseous vapors of which the poor, gasping and much befuddled citizen was expected to emerge and intelligently select his National, State and local officials from a huge roster containing a host of names representing candidates of whose besmirched character, and of whose deficient qualifications he could have but a very dim, a most hazy, and a necessarily limited knowledge.

They found that though under this system all public officials having legislative authority were elected largely, and sustained entirely, by the producing classes, yet they could not be either cajoled, influenced or compelled to enact measures of any very material benefit to those classes.

They found that this system, with its almost constant succession of caucuses, primaries, conventions, campaigns, and elections, was uselessly, shamelessly and sinfully wasting eons upon eons of the people's time to no good purpose; and that it constituted one of the monstrously evil systems which were steadily, persistently and relentlessly crushing all of the comfort, peace, happiness and joy out of the lives of the people ; and which were rapidly transforming a supposedly intelligent, free and independent citizenry, into a nation of cringing, supplicating, whimpering and abject slaves and criminals.

Chapter Four

They found, second: That under the private-ownership-of-land system which they were sustaining, although the supply of desirable public land at a merely nominal price had only recently been exhausted, yet less than one-half of the people resident within the country were able to own the land upon which they lived. That owing to the extortionate rates imposed by the systems upon the land-owners, for taxes, for interest, for insurance, for materials, etc., etc., the landlords were in turn compelled to exact as rent a very large portion of the earnings of the multitudinous tenant class. That literally millions of the unfortunate tenant class, though for the most part honest, energetic and industrious, yet were compelled by the outrageous exactions of the systems, not to live, but merely to exist, in quarters utterly unfit for human habitation.

They found that of the homes owned by the occupants a very large part were heavily mortgaged, and that the extortionate charges levied by the systems upon those homes, for taxes, for interest, for insurance, etc., etc., etc., were equivalent to extortionate rental rates. Thus was the supposedly fortunate home-owner forced into the unhappy position of virtually paying rent on his or her own property.

They found the existence of this evil system to have resulted in the concentration of myriads of peopie at certain centers called cities and towns, where the land was plotted into woefully small tracts, not with the view of promoting wholesome or happy conditions of life, but for the sole purpose of artificially further enhancing the largely factitious values of the land. That it had imposed upon the people of the cities and towns the necessity for maintaining at enormous cost countless unnecessary, narrow, dirty, gloomy, ugly and unwholesome streets and alleys. That it had imposed upon them the unnecessary misery of living amidst the preposterous aggregations of unlovely, unwholesome, inconvenient, nondescript and inartistic business structures and residential sections existing throughout their cities and towns.

They found the existence of this system to have engendered a serious condition of antagonism between the landlord and the tenant classes. A condition of antagonism which prevented the landlord class from maintaining its properties in as good condition as the health, comfort, peace and happiness of the people demanded; and which prevented the numerous tenant class from following man's natural inclination to devote much of his leisure time to improving and beautifying his home. That the existence of this conditon was responsible for the absolute loss to the poor of incalculable ages of their time, and consequently was a most serious obstacle to progress in the home life of the great masses of the people.

They found that this system was occupying the time and absorbing the energies of a vast multitude of bright, energetic and industrious real estate dealers, traders, brokers, speculators and keepers of the voluminous and cumbersome system of records of landtitles; all busily engaged, year in and year out, buying, selling and trading land, from hand to hand, yet adding not a single acre to the area of the planet's surface, and all supported at an enofmous cost to the producing classes.

They found the existence of this system to have brought upon them a deplorable condition whereunder millions of acres of conveniently and pleasantly situated fertile land were held by the owners practically in idleness, while at the same time thousands upon thousands of poor but worthy and enterprising citizens, inspired with a laudable ambition to establish homes for themselves, were suffering unspeakable privations and indescribable hardships in their vain but persistent attempts to coax or compel rough, thin, arid and semi-arid lands to become productive; many failing utterly despite their almost superhuman efforts, and the vast majority of the others succeeding only in wresting a most precarious existence from the refractory and reluctant soil.

They found this system to be responsible for much of the envy, jealousy, malice, hatred, unrest, antagonism, contention, strife, worry, woe, misery and general unpleasantness of life. That it was responsible for a prodigious amount of interminable and costly litigation in the courts, and that as a system it was the direct source of an utter and enormous waste of human endeavor.

Chapter Five

They found, third: That the closely restricted monetary system which had been imposed upon them by their atrocious political oligarchy, was almost wholly inadequate to meet the requirements of the commerce of the country for a medium of exchange. That though their progress, their prosperity and , their happiness were wholly dependent upon their having a very large and constant supply of stable money, money in such large volume that it could not be either expanded or contracted at the will of any particular interest, class, or section, yet they were supporting this iniquitous system which was providing but a few paltry dollars of circulating medium per capita ; the almost absolute control of which had been usurped by a few unscrupulous individuals who were diligently using it as an effective instrument for the exploitation and plunder of the people.

They found their monetary system with but a 34 single standard, based upon a certain precious metal. A metal having scarcely any practical value except for ornamental purposes. A metal of comparatively rare occurrence, and usually found only in remote localities and in very small quantities; the supply not being sufficient to constitute more than an infinitesimal part of the medium of exchange necessary to the progress, the prosperity, the peace, the comfort, the happiness or the welfare of the people, cr even to the very life of the Nation.

They found this system to be providing money in such a parsimonious and niggardly manner that its whole volume comprised but a few dollars per capita. That the control of those few dollars having become centered within certain so-called interests, those interests could, and often did, so contract the volume of money in circulation among the people as to effect almost complete cessation of progress and improvement for years at a time. That under this constricted system literally millions of the people were, throughout the generations, toilsomely and miserably passing their entire lives without ever having possessed sufficient actual money to provide themselves with the ordinary comforts of life. That the existing woeful deficiency and the ever fluctuating supply of money were a most serious and dangerous obstacle to human progress.

Chapter Six

They found, fourth: That the injurious inadequacy of their absurd monetary system had necessitated the adoption of a monstrous credit system which had grown to stupendous proportions and had become a national juggernaut.

They found the predominance of this system to have involved the people and their government in a vast pot-pourri of indebtedness of inconceivably colossal proportions. That innumerable communities had become involved in debt beyond all hope of redemption. That neither a private nor a public enterprise of any considerable magnitude could be undertaken without being distressingly handicapped by an accompanying burden of interest-bearing indebtedness. That generation after generation of people had been coming into existence, each exerting an

enormous effort toward the progress of their race;

each contributing a very large share of its earnings to this system ; each adding a little more indebtedness here and a little more there; and each eventually passing out of existence, leaving an increased burden of indebtedness as an heritage to succeeding generations.

They found one out of a large number of evil effects of the existence of this system to be that a community, either small or large, though it might be possessed of an abundance of all material necessary to the purpose, that though it might have resident within its confines hundreds or even thousands of industrious but idle men who were eager and anxious to obtain work, and whose families were suffering serious want owing to their lack of employment, yet it could not possibly undertake any considerable public improvement without first issuing interest-bearing bonds wherein it must needs pledge itself to pay tribute to the credit system for a certain long period of years. Any person of ordinary intelligence will readily understand that the existence of this condition would naturally operate as a most serious obstacle to the progress of the Nation.

They found that the mortgage and collection laws which had been enacted at the behest of this system were steadily and quite rapidly depriving the people of their homes and their property. That this system; this heinous thing! could, if necessary, call all of the vast forces of the government to its assistance in dispossessing an aged, decrepit, poverty-stricken widow of her wretched home and its meagre furnishings, although throughout her long and toil-burdened life she may have practiced the most rigid economy and self-denial, and at all times contributed her all too meagre savings to the merciless and exacting demands of this monster.

They found the control of this system to have become very closely concentrated within the same interests which were in control of the monetary and other systems. That those interests were diligently and persistently using it as another of their instruments for the gleaning of the rich fruits of the industry of the producers, and that its monstrous exactions were achieving the inevitable absorption of the substance of the people; more and more of whom, as generation succeeded generation, were constantly being driven into abject poverty, ultimate desperation, desperate crime, and utter ruin.

They found the operation of this system, throughout its innumerable ramifications, also was occupying the time and absorbing the energies of myriads of energetic and industrious men and women, without contributing a single visible or material thing toward the welfare of the people, and that consequently it was the source of another enormous waste of human endeavor which the race should not endure.

Chapter Seven

They found, fifth: That in their preposterous banking system they were maintaining an absolutely non-productive institution which was standing squarely between capital and industry, at all times taxing both for all they could stand, — often more — and needlessly driving many worthy enterprises into bankruptcy and utter ruin. That like a numerous band of organized freebooters, it operated all along the numerous highways over which capital and industry must proceed together to accomplish progress, compelling tribute from every wayfarer, and destroying all who would not or could not satisfy its extortionate demands.

They found the whole tendency of this system was to concentrate the public and private funds of every community within the hands of a very few individuals who were in control of the banks, and who still further concentrated the funds of the country by carrying huge balances at a few great financial centers, where they fell under the control of the same unscrupulous interests which were in control of the monetary, the credit and other systems, thus aiding materially in enabling those interests to outrageously exploit and plunder the people, and monopolize the enormous resources of the country.

They found that prior to and during the frequently recurring periods of great financial stress, when industry naturally was most in need of funds, it was the policy of this system to curtail its loans, contract the volume of circulating money, and increase its cash reserves by withholding money from circulation, thereby creating periods of so-called hard times, which, at every recurring period, enabled it and the other systems, under the protection of the law, and using the law as a means to their end, to virtually steal the enormously valuable equities of myriads of unfortunate debtors. Periods of so-called hard-times during which the profitable business enterprises of thousands of industrious people were utterly ruined. Periods of so-called hard-times when literally millions of the people of the producing classes were unable to obtain profitable employment; and periods of so-called hard-times during which the progress of the Nation was brought to a halt, and the prosperity of the people vanished.