~1~
I had delayed in speaking to Grauble of our revolutionary plans, because I wished first to arrange a meeting with Zimmern and Hellar and secure the weight of their calmer minds in initiating1 Grauble into our plans of sending a message to the World State authorities. I was prevented from doing this immediately by difficulties in the Protium Works. Meanwhile unbeknown to me the sailing date of Grauble's vessel2 was advanced, and he departed to the Arctic.
Although my position as Director of the Protium Works had been more of an honour than an assignment of active duties, I made it my business to assume the maximum rather than the minimum of the functions of the office as I wished to learn more of the labour situation in Berlin, of which as yet I had no comprehensive understanding.
In a general way I understood that German labour differed not only in being eugenically created as a distinct breed, but that the labour group was also a very distinct caste economically and politically. The labourer, being denied access to the Level of Free Women, had no need for money or bank credit in any form. This seemed to me to reduce him to a condition of pure slavery--since he received no pay for his services other than the bare maintenance supplied by the state.
Because of this evidence of economic inferiority, I had at first supposed that labour was in every way an inferior caste. But in this I had been gravely mistaken, nor had I been able fully3 to comprehend my error until this brewing4 labour trouble revealed in concrete form the political superiority of labour. In my failure to comprehend the true state of affairs I had been a little stupid, for the political basis of German society is revealed to the seeing eye in the Hohenzollern eagle emblazoned on the red flag, the emblem5 of the rule of labour.
Historically I believe this belies6 the origin of the red flag for it was first used as the emblem of democratic socialism, a Nineteenth Century theory of a social order in which all social and economic classes were to be blended into a true democracy differing somewhat in its economic organization, but essentially7 the same politically as the true democracy which we have achieved in the World State. But with the Bolshevist régime in Russia after the First World War, the red flag was appropriated as the emblem of the political supremacy8 and rule of the proletariat or labour class.
I make these references to bygone history because they throw light on the peculiar9 status of the German Labour Caste, which is possessed10 of political superiority combined with social and economic inferiority. It was the Bolshevist brand of socialism that finally overran Germany in the era of loose and ineffective rule of the world by the League of Nations. Though I make no pretence11 of being an accurate authority on history, the League of Nations, if I remember rightly, was humanity's first timid conception of the World State. Rather weakly born, it was promptly12 emasculated by the rise in America of a political party founded on the ideas of a great national hero who had just died. The obstructionist policy of this party was inherent in its origin, for it was inspired and held together by the ideas of a dead man, whose followers13 could only repeat as their test of faith a phrase that has come down to us as an idiom--"What would He do?"
"He" being dead could do nothing, neither could he change his mind, but having left an indelible record of his ideas by the strenuous14 verbiage15 of his virile16 and inspiring rhetoric17, there was no room for doubt. As in all political and religious faiths founded on the ideas of dead heroes, this made for solidarity18 and power and quite prevented any adaptation of the form of government to the needs of the world that had arisen since his demise19.
I have digressed here from my theme of the political status of the German labour caste, but it is fascinating to trace things to their origin to find the links of the chain of cause and effect. So, if I have read my history aright, the emasculation of the League of Nations by the American obstructionists caused, or at least permitted the rise, and dominance of the Bolshevists in Twentieth-Century Germany. Had the Germans been democrats20 at heart the pendulum21 would have swung back as it did with other peoples, and been stayed at the point of equilibrium22 which we recognized as the stable mean of democracy.
But in the old days before the modern intermingling of the races it seems that there were certain tastes that had become instinctive23 in racial groups. Thus, just as the German stomach craved24 the rich flavour of sausage, so the German mind craved the dazzling show of Royal flummery. Had it not been for this the First World War could have never been, for the socialists25 of that time were bitterly opposed to war and Germany was the world's greatest stronghold of socialism, yet when their beloved imperial poser, William the Great, called for war the German socialists, with the exception of a few whom they afterwards murdered, went forth27 to war almost without protest.
When I first began to hear of the political rights of Labour, I went to my friend Hellar and asked for an explanation.
"Is not the chain of authority absolute," I asked, "up through the industrial organization direct to the Emperor and so to God himself?"
"But," said Hellar, "the workers do not believe in God!"
"What," I stammered28, "workers not believe in God! It is impossible. Have not the workers simple trusting minds?"
"Certainly," said Hellar, "it is the natural mind of man! Scepticism, which is the basis of scientific reasoning, is an artificial thing, first created in the world under the competitive economic order when it became essential to self-preservation in a world of trade based on deceit. In our new order we have had difficulty in maintaining enough of it for scientific purposes even in the intellectual classes. There is no scepticism among the labourers now, I assure you. They believe as easily as they breathe."
"Then how," I demanded in amazement29, "does it come that they do not believe in God?"
"Because," said Hellar, "they have never heard of God.
"The labourer does not know of God because we have restored God since the perfection of our caste system, and hence it was easy to promulgate30 the idea among the intellectuals and not among the workers. It was necessary to restore God for the intellectuals in order to give them greater respect for the power of the Royal House, but the labourers need no God because they believe themselves to be the source from which the Royal House derives31 its right to rule. They believe the Emperor to be their own servant ruling by their permission."
"The Emperor a servant to labour!" I exclaimed; "this is absurd."
"Certainly," said Hellar; "why should it be otherwise? We are an absurd people, because we have always laughed at the wrong things. Still this principle is very old and has not always been confined to the Germans. After the revolutions in the Twentieth Century the American plutocrats employed poverty-stricken European nobility for servants and exalted32 them to high stations and obeyed them explicitly33 in all social matters with which their service was concerned.
"The labourers restored William III because they wished to have an exalted servant. He led them to war and became a hero. He reorganized the state and became their political servant, also their emperor and their tyrant34. It is not an impossible relation, for it is not unlike the relation between the mother and the child or between a man and his mistress. And yet it is different, more formal, with functions better defined.
"The Emperor is the administrative35 head of the government and we intellectuals are merely his hirelings. We are merely the feathers of the Royal eagle, our colour is black, we have no part in the red blood of human brotherhood36, we are outcasts from the socialistic labour world--for we receive money compensation to which labourers would not stoop. But labour owns the state. This roof of Berlin over our heads and all that is therein contained, is the property of the workers who produced it."
I shook my head in mute admission of my lack of comprehension.
"And who," asked Hellar, "did you think owned Berlin?"
I confessed that I had never thought of that.
"Few of our intellectual class have ever thought of that," replied Hellar, "unless they are well read in political history. But at the time of the Hohenzollern restoration labour owned all property in true communal37 ownership. They did not release it to the Royal House, but merely turned over the administration of the property to the Emperor as an agent."
These belated explanations of the fundamental ideas of German society quite confused and confounded me, though Hellar seemed in no wise surprised at my ignorance, since as a chemist I had originally been supposed to know only of atoms and valences and such like matters. Seeking a way out of these contradictions I asked: "How is it then that labour is so powerless, since you say that it owns the state, and even the Emperor rules by its permission?"
"Napoleon--have you ever heard of him?"
"Yes," I admitted--and then recalling my r?le as a German chemist I hastened to add--"Napoleon was a directing chemist who achieved a plan for increasing the food supply in his day by establishing the sugar beet38 industry."
"Is that so?" exclaimed Hellar. "I didn't know that. I thought he was only an Emperor--anyway, Napoleon said that if you tell men they are equal you can do as you please with them. So when William III was elected to the throne by labour, he insisted that they retain the power and re-elect him every five years. He was very popular because he invented the armoured city--our new Berlin--some day I will tell you of that--and so of course he was re-elected, and his son after him. Though most of the intellectuals do not know that it exists the ceremony of election is a great occasion on the labour levels. The Emperor speaks all day through the horns and on the picture screens. The workers think he is actually speaking, though of course it is a collection of old films and records of the Royal Voice. When they have seen and heard the speeches, the labourers vote, and then go back to their work and are very happy."
"But suppose they should sometime fail to re-elect him?"
"No danger," said Hellar; "there is only one name on the ballot39 and the ballots40 are dumped into the paper mill without inspection41."
"Most extraordinary," I exclaimed.
"Most ordinary," contradicted Hellar; "it is not even an exclusively German institution; we have merely perfected it. Voting everywhere is a very useful device in organized government. In the cruder form used in democracies there were two or more candidates. It usually made little difference which was elected; but the system was imperfect because the voters who voted for the candidate which lost were not pleased. Then there was the trouble of counting the ballots. We avoid all this."
"It is all very interesting," I said, "but who is the real authority?"
"Ah," said Hellar, "this matter of authority is one of our most subtle conceptions. The weakness of ancient governments was in the fact that the line of authority was broken. It came somewhere to an end. But now authority flows up from labour to the Emperor and then descends42 again to labour through the administrative line of which we are one link. It is an unbroken circuit."
But I was still unsatisfied, for it annoyed me not to be able to understand the system of German politics, as I had always prided myself that, for a scientist, I understood politics remarkably43 well.
~2~
I had gone to Hellar for enlightenment because I was gravely alarmed over the rumours44 of a strike among the labourers in the Protium Works. I had read in the outside world of the murder and destruction of these former civil wars of industry. With a working population so cruelly held to the treadmill46 of industrial bondage47 the idea of a strike conjured48 up in my fancy the beginning of a bloody49 revolution. With so vast a population so utterly50 dependent upon the orderly processes of industry the possible terrors of an industrial revolution were horrible beyond imagining; and for the moment all thoughts of escape, or of my own plans for negotiating the surrender of Berlin to the World State, were swept aside by the stern responsibilities that devolved upon me as the Director of Works wherein a terrible strike seemed brewing.
The first rumour45 of the strike of the labourers in the Protium Works had come to me from the Listening-in-Service. Since Berlin was too complicated and congested a spot for wireless51 communication to be practical, the electrical conduct of sound was by antiquated52 means of metal wires. The workers' Free Speech Halls were all provided with receiving horns by which they made their appeals to His Majesty53, of which I shall speak presently. These instruments were provided with cut-offs in the halls. They had been so designed by the electrical engineers, who were of the intellectual caste, that not even the workers who installed and repaired them knew that the cut-offs were a blind and that the Listening-in-Service heard every word that was said at their secret meetings, when all but workers were, by law and custom, excluded from the halls.
And so the report came to me that the workers were threatening strike. Their grievance54 came about in this fashion. My new process had reduced the number of men needed in the works. This would require that some of the men be transferred to other industries. But the transfer was a slow process, as all the workers would have to be examined anatomically and their psychic55 reflexes tested by the labour assignment experts and those selected re-trained for other labour. That work was proceeding56 slowly, for there was a shortage of experts because some similar need of transfers existed in one of the metal industries. Moreover, my labour psychologist considered it dangerous to transfer too many men, as they were creatures of habit, and he advised that we ought merely to cease to take on new workers, but wait for old age and death to reduce the number of our men, meanwhile retaining the use of the old extraction process in part of the works.
"Impossible," I replied, "unless you would have your rations57 cut and the city put on a starvation diet. Do you not know that the reserve store of protium that was once enough to last eight years is now reduced to less than as many months' supply?"
"That is none of my affair," said the labour psychologist; "these chemical matters I do not comprehend. But I advise against these transfers, for our workers are already in a furor58 about the change of operations in the work."
"But," I protested, "the new operations are easier than the old; besides we can cut down the speed of operations, which ought to help you take care of these surplus men."
"Pardon, Herr Chief," returned the elderly labour psychologist, "you are a great chemist, a very great chemist, for your invention has upset the labour operation more than has anything that ever happened in my long experience, but I fear you do not realize how necessary it is to go slow in these matters. You ask men who have always opened a faucet59 from left to right to now open one that moves in a vertical60 plane. Here, I will show you; move your arm so; do you not see that it takes different muscles?"
"Yes, of course, but what of it? The solution flows faster and the operation is easier."
"It is easy for you to say that; for you or me it would make no difference since our muscles have all been developed indiscriminately."
"But what are your labour gymnasiums for, if not to develop all muscles?"
"Now do not misunderstand me. I serve as an interpreter between the minds of the workers and your mind as Director of the Works. As for the muscles developed in the gymnasium, those were developed for sport and not for labour. But that is not the worst of it; you have designed the new benches so low that the mixers must stoop at their work. It is very painful."
"Good God," I cried, "what became of the stools? The mixers are to sit down--I ordered two thousand stools."
"That I know, Herr Chief, but the equipment expert consulted me about the matter and I countermanded61 the order. It would never do. I did not consult you, it is true, but that was merely a kindness. I did not wish to expose your lack of knowledge, if I may call it such."
"Call it what you please," I snapped, for at the time I thought my labour psychologist was a fool, "but get those stools, immediately."
"But it would never do."
"Why not?"
"Because these men have always stood at their work."
"But why can they not sit down now?"
"Because they never have sat down."
"Do they not sit down to eat?"
"Yes, but not to work. It is very different. You do not understand the psychic immobility of labour. Habits grow stronger as the mentality62 is simplified. I have heard that there are animals in the zoological garden that still perform useless operations that their remote ancestors required in their jungle life."
"Then do you infer that these men who must stand at their work inherited the idea from their ancestors?"
"That is a matter of eugenics. I do not know, but I do know that we are preparing for trouble with these changes. Still I hope to work it out without serious difficulty, if you do not insist on these transfers. When workmen have already been forced to change their habitual63 method of work and then see their fellows being removed to other and still stranger work it breeds dangerous unrest."
"One thing is certain," I replied; "we cannot delay the installation of the new method; as fast as the equipment is ready the new operation must replace the old."
"But the effect of that policy will be that there will not be enough work, and besides the work is, as you say, lighter64 and that will result in the cutting down of the food rations."
"But I have already arranged that," I said triumphantly65; "the Rationing66 Bureau have adjusted the calorie standards so that the men will get as much food as they have been used to."
"What! you have done that?" exclaimed the labour psychologist; "then there will be trouble. That will destroy the balance of the food supply and the expenditure67 of muscular energy and the men will get fat. Then the other men will accuse them of stealing food and we shall have bloodshed."
"A moment ago," I smiled, "you told me I did not know your business. Now I will tell you that you do not know mine. We ordered special food bulked up in volume; the scheme is working nicely; you need not worry about that. As for the other matter, this surplus of men, it seems to me that the only thing is to cut down the working hours temporarily until the transfers can be made."
The psychologist shook his head. "It is dangerous," he said, "and very unusual. I advise instead that you have the operation engineers go over the processes and involve the operations, both to make them more nearly resemble the old ones, and to add to the time and energy consumption of the tasks."
"No," I said emphatically, "I invented a more economical process for this industry and I do not propose to see my invention prostituted in this fashion. I appreciate your advice, but if we cannot transfer the workers any faster, then the labour hours must be cut. I will issue the order tomorrow. This is my final decision."
I was in authority and that settled the matter. The psychologist was very decent about it and helped me fix up a speech and that next night the workers were ordered to assemble in their halls and I made my speech into a transmitting horn. I told them that they had been especially honoured by their Emperor, who, appreciating their valuable service, had granted them a part-time vacation and that until further notice their six-hour shifts were to be cut to four. I further told them that their rations would not be reduced and advised them to take enough extra exercise in the gymnasium to offset68 their shorter hours so they would not get fat and be the envy of their fellows.
~3~
For a time the workers seemed greatly pleased with their shorter hours. And then, from the Listening-in-Service, came the rumour of the strike. The first report of the strike gave me no clue to the grievance and I asked for fuller reports. When these came the next day I was shocked beyond belief. If I had anticipated anything in that interval69 of terror it was that my workers were to strike because their communications had been shut off or that they were to strike in sympathy for their fellows and demand that all hours be shortened like their own. But the grievance was not that. My men were to go on strike for the simple reason that their hours had been shortened!
The catastrophe70 once started came with a rush, for when I reached the office the next day the psychologist was awaiting me and told me that the strike was on. I rushed out immediately and went down to the works. The psychologist followed me. As I entered the great industrial laboratories I saw all the men at their usual places and going through their usual operations. I turned to my companion who was just coming up, and said: "What do you mean; I thought you told me the strike was on, that the men had already walked out?"
"What do you mean by 'walked out'?" he returned, as puzzled as I.
"Walked out of the works," I explained; "away from their duties, quit work. Struck!"
"But they have struck. Perhaps you have never seen a strike before, but do you not see the strike badges?"
And then I looked and saw that every workman wore a tiny red flag, and the flag bore no imperial eagle.
"It means," I gasped71, "that they have renounced72 the rule of the Royal House. This is not a strike, this is rebellion, treason!"
"It is the custom," said the labour psychologist, "and as for rebellion and treason that you speak of I hardly think you ought to call it that for rebellion and treason are forbidden."
"Then just what does it mean?"
"It means that this particular group of workers have temporarily withdrawn73 their allegiance to the Royal House, and they have, in their own minds, restored the old socialist26 régime, until they can make petition to the Emperor and he passes on their grievance. They will do that in their halls tonight. We, of course, will be connected up and listen in."
"Then they are not really on strike?"
"Certainly they are on strike. All strikes are conducted so."
"Then why do they not quit work?"
"But why should they quit work? They are striking because their hours are already too short--pardon, Herr Chief, but I warned you!
"I think I know what you mean," he added after a pause; "you have probably read some fiction of old times when the workers went on strike by quitting work."
"Yes, exactly. I suppose that is where I did get my ideas; and that is now forbidden--by the Emperor?"
"Not by the Emperor, for you see these men wear the flags without the eagle. They at present do not acknowledge his authority."
"Then all this strike is a matter of red badges without eagles and everything else will go on as usual?"
"By no means. These men are striking against the descending74 authority from the Royal House. They not only refuse to wear the eagle until their grievance is adjusted but they will refuse to accept further education, for that is a thing that descends from above. If you will go now to the picture halls, where the other shift should be, you will find the halls all empty. The men refuse to go to the moving pictures."
That night we "listened in." A bull-throated fellow, whom I learned was the Talking Delegate, addressed the Emperor, and much to my surprise I thought I heard the Emperor's own voice in reply, stating that he was ready to hear their grievance.
Then the bull voice of the Talking Delegate gave the reason for the strike: "The Director of the Works, speaking for your Majesty, has granted us a part time vacation, and shortened our hours from six to four. We thank you for this honour but we have decided75 we do not like it. We do not know what to do during those extra two hours. We had our games and amusements but we had our regular hours for them. If we play longer we become tired of play. If we sleep longer we cannot sleep as well. Moreover we are losing our appetite and some of us are afraid to eat all our portions for fear we will become fat. So we have decided that we do not like a four-hour day and we have therefore taken the eagles off our flags and will refuse to replace them or to go to the educational pictures until our hours are restored to the six-hour day that we have always had."
And now the Emperor's voice replied that he would take the matter under consideration and report his decision in three days and, that meanwhile he knew he could trust them to conduct themselves as good socialists who were on strike, and hence needed no king.
The next day the psychologist brought a representative of the Information Staff to my office and together we wrote the reply that the Emperor was to make. It would be necessary to concede them the full six hours and introduce the system of complicating76 the labour operations to make more work. Much chagrined77, I gave in, and called in the motion study engineers and set them to the task. Meanwhile the Royal Voice was sent for and coached in the Emperor's reply to the striking workmen, and a picture film of the Emperor, timed to fit the length of the speech, was ordered from stock.
The Royal Voice was an actor by birth who had been trained to imitate His Majesty's speech. This man, who specialized78 in the Emperor's speeches to the workers, prided himself that he was the best Royal Voice in Berlin and I complimented him by telling him that I had been deceived by him the evening before. But considering that the workers, never having heard the Emperor's real voice, would have no standard of comparison, I have never been able to see the necessity of the accuracy of his imitation, unless it was on the ground of art for art's sake.
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initiating
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| v.开始( initiate的现在分词 )；传授；发起；接纳新成员 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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belies
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| v.掩饰( belie的第三人称单数 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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verbiage
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| n.冗词；冗长 | |
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virile
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| adj.男性的；有男性生殖力的；有男子气概的；强有力的 | |
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rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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solidarity
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| n.团结；休戚相关 | |
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demise
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| n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让 | |
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democrats
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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pendulum
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| n.摆，钟摆 | |
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equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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socialist
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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promulgate
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| v.宣布；传播；颁布（法令、新法律等） | |
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derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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exalted
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explicitly
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| ad.明确地，显然地 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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brotherhood
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communal
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| adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的 | |
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beet
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| n.甜菜；甜菜根 | |
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ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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ballots
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| n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 ) | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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treadmill
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| n.踏车；单调的工作 | |
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bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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furor
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| n.狂热；大骚动 | |
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faucet
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| n.水龙头 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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countermanded
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| v.取消（命令），撤回( countermand的过去分词 ) | |
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mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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rationing
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| n.定量供应 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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complicating
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| 使复杂化( complicate的现在分词 ) | |
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chagrined
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| adj.懊恼的，苦恼的v.使懊恼，使懊丧，使悔恨( chagrin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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