When the Brotherhood2 realized that the young poet-athlete was not merely a love-sick dreamer and theorist, but a man of quick decisions, of firm and inflexible4 will, and the power to execute his will, they fell in line, caught the step, and order emerged from chaos5.
When a crisis called for decision he made it with lightning rapidity and stuck to it. The situation demanded a dictatorship for the moment, and he did not hesitate to assume it. He saw before him sure success. If fools and cranks interfered6 with his plans he would crush and push them aside. The consciousness of power and its daily exercise developed his faculties7 to their highest tension. His mind began to arrange every detail of the vast and complicated system of the new social scheme. Men became the mere3 tools with which he would work out the [225]revolution in human society. Every scrap8 of knowledge he had ever gained flashed through his excited imagination and fell into its place in the creation of the new order.
He put the machine-shops to work constructing the big gold dredge on which he had experimented one summer.
He had a pet scheme of farming which had come into his mind from watching his father's gardener the year before raise the most delicious cantaloups he had ever tasted. He discovered the secret of their marvellous sweetness and leaped to an instantaneous conclusion. He had the opportunity to test this inspiration now on a scale as vast as his dreams.
He called the superintendents9 and overseers of the farm together, and asked their plans for the crop on the five hundred acres of fertile lands under cultivation11. They gave him their schedule for a variety of crops.
"Won't this soil grow cantaloups?" he asked.
They all reported that it would.
"Then I suggest that the entire acreage be planted in these vines."
To a man they declared the plan absurd.
"But suppose," he persisted, "that we raise and send to the East the most delicious melon they have ever tasted, and suppose we get three [226]dollars a crate12, we will make three hundred dollars an acre and our first crop will be worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
They laughed at him.
"Do you know," smilingly inquired the superintendent10, "how much it will cost to plant and harvest such a crop?"
"I should say twenty-five dollars an acre," he replied.
"Double it," he cried.
"Very well, fifty dollars an acre," Norman agreed. "In round numbers it will cost us twenty-five thousand dollars. That leaves a profit of more than a hundred thousand, doesn't it?"
Again the superintendent laughed.
"And would you risk this enormous sum on one experiment? Suppose your melons would not be sweet?"
"There is no such possibility," the young enthusiast13 declared. "Their sweetness depends solely14 on two things—the quality of the seed and the quantity of rain which falls on them while they are growing. We are wasting a supreme15 opportunity. No rain falls in Ventura during the summer. We get our water to the roots by irrigation, not by rainfall. Get the right seed and your melons must be perfect. This is a [227]scientific fact I have seen demonstrated. Try it on a vast scale and success is sure."
They voted unanimously against the proposition. Norman insisted. The superintendent resigned and appealed to the executive council. Wolf and Catherine, Tom and Barbara advised against placing so much capital in a single enterprise.
"I've got to make you rich and successful in spite of yourselves," Norman finally declared. "For the present I control these funds and I'm going to plant this crop. So that settles it. I'm sorry we can't agree."
His instantaneous decision fairly took Wolf's breath.
Barbara laughed and congratulated him.
"At least you have the courage of your convictions. I can't help admiring it."
As further opposition16 was useless, the order was put into execution. The superintendent finally caught the young man's spirit, withdrew his resignation, and undertook the work with enthusiasm.
At the end of the summer the success of the colony was astounding17. The wildest prediction of the young leader fell below the facts. The crop of cantaloups averaged one hundred and five crates18 to the acre, and brought three dollars [228]and a half a crate. The net profit on the melons reached the enormous total of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
The men who raised the crop and added this wealth to the treasury19 of the colony were not slow in demanding an immediate20 readjustment of the scale of wages.
Two hundred and fifty men had done all the work of planting, cultivating, harvesting this crop and added ten times as much to the year's income as the combined labour of all the other members of the colony.
Brick-masons were receiving two dollars a day and farm-hands one dollar. The miners who were digging for gold in the mountain ranges and on the beaches were receiving five dollars a day and had added as yet not a single dollar to the wealth of the community. They had discovered gold in three new districts and thousands of dollars had been wasted in vain efforts to make it pay. The farmers protested bitterly against such waste, and demanded the equalization of wages.
Their spokesman astonished Norman by the vehemence21 and audacity22 of their demands:
"If Socialism means justice," he shouted, "now is the time to prove it! Labour creates all value. We have created one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of wealth for the colony [229]and we have received a mere pittance23. If we created this wealth——"
"Wait a minute, comrades," Norman interrupted, with irritation24. "Why should you continue to repeat that foolish assertion? You didn't create this wealth."
"Then I'd like to know who did?" shouted the orator25. "We turned the soil, placed the fertilizers, planted every seed, cultivated every vine, pulled every melon, packed and placed them on the steamer. If we didn't make the wealth, who did?"
"I did," the young leader declared. "I conceived the possibility of this crop. I tried to persuade your superintendent and overseers. They had no faith. I forced them to plant these particular seeds against their own wishes. Your labour is a fixed26 thing year in and year out. All men must work or die. All life is a struggle thus with tooth and nail for a living. The creator of wealth is the superior intelligence that conceives something better than this clodhopper's daily task. You did what you were told to do. Your hands would have worked just as many hours at labour just as tiresome27 over a crop of beans that wouldn't have paid a profit at all this year. Wealth belongs to its creator. I made the crop, your hands were the mere automata which my brain directed. [230]Your demands are absurd. I refuse to consider them or to permit their discussion."
The farmers refused point-blank to submit to this decision, and voted unanimously to quit work until they were given justice. Every plough stopped and the entire machinery of food production came to a dead standstill.
Norman threatened to refuse them admission to the dining-hall unless they returned to work, and they boldly replied that they would smash the door down and take what was their own.
Had the farmers been alone in their demands for an equalization of wages, the situation would have been easier to handle. But discontent over the question of wages had been growing steadily28 since the day of the decision that wages should be unequal.
The distinctions of wealth and poverty were rapidly making their appearance as in the old world. The cook had married a scrubwoman and the scrubwoman's daughter had married the drainman who had charge of the sewers29. The combine income of the two highest-salaried workers in the colony had at once formed the nucleus30 of a new arisracy of wealth.
The strike of the entire farming division of the colony was the match thrown in the powder [231]magazine. Discontent flamed in every department of labour.
The demand for absolute equality of wages became resistless. It was the only thing which could once more bring order out of chaos.
Norman called a meeting of the general assembly and submitted the question for their discussion and decision. The debate was long, fierce, and bitter. In vain did the young leader plead with those who were receiving the highest rates that the profits of the colony would be greater and that each would share alike in the total wealth of the community. They denounced the proposed act as the climax31 of infamy32.
The chef was furious.
"You give me the wages of a clodhopper and ask me to prepare a table fit for a king. Well, try it, and see what you get."
He sat down repeating his threat in a series of endless announcements to the people around him.
"I think he'll poison us all if you pass this law," Barbara whispered.
"The farmers will run us through with their pitchforks if we don't," he laughed.
"Poisoning is the easier way," she sighed.
The leader of the brass33 band raised the biggest row of all. From the first these men had refused [232]to lift their hand to do a thing except to play at stated hours each day and furnish the music for the three evenings of social amusement.
"You place me on an equality with the lout34 who holds a calf35 or the clodhopper who holds a plough—I, who feed the soul with ravishing melody—I, who lift man from earth to heaven on the wings of angels!" The band leader swelled36 with righteous wrath37 and sat down beside the cook who was still muttering incoherently:
"Let 'em try it—and see what they get!"
Yet, in spite of the fierce threats of the cook, the scrubwoman, the drainman, the musician, and all the high-salaried favourites of labour, the inevitable38 occurred. When put to a vote equal wages were established by an overwhelming majority.
Each member of the colony, man, woman, and child, was voted free food, clothes, and shelter, and a credit of five hundred dollars a year at the Brotherhood store.
The executive council was abolished and in its place a board of governors established, composed of the heads of each department of labour and presided over by two regents, a man and a woman, elected by the general assembly. Norman and Barbara were elected regents without opposition, and the old heads of each department of labour [233]placed on the board of governors to serve until the approaching annual election.
The assembly proposed:
"Article I. of the constitution of the new State of Ventura as follows:
"Every citizen of the State must labour according to his ability. Those who can work and will not shall be made to work."
No man who voted this simple and obviously just law could dream of the tremendous results. It was merely the enactment39 into statutory law of the first principle of an effective Socialism:
"From every man according to his ability, unto every man according to his needs."
The first obvious requirement of such a law was an immediate increase of the police and detective force at the command of the regents and the board of governors.
Norman thanked the assembly for the promptness and thoroughness which had characterized their work, and closed his congratulations with a sentence of peculiarly sinister40 meaning to the man who had ears to hear.
"Hereafter, comrades, we can move forward without another pause. There can never be another strike on the island of Ventura. The State is now supreme."
The Wolfs, who had modestly declined all office, [234]were omnipresent during the long sessions of the assembly, which had lasted two days. Everywhere they had counselled compromise, forbearance, good fellowship, moving quietly from group to group in the big hall, and always winning new friends.
Wolf's gnarled hand gripped Norman's at the close of the meeting as he bent41 his massive head and whispered:
"A great day's work, Comrade Chief—one that will make history."
The young leader's face clouded as he slowly replied:
"I wish I were sure that it will be history of the right kind."
"You doubt it?" the old leader asked incredulously.
"It all depends on our leadership."
"With your hand on the helm"—Wolf paused and smiled curiously—"the ship of State is safe."
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1
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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superintendents
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| 警长( superintendent的名词复数 )； （大楼的）管理人； 监管人； （美国）警察局长 | |
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superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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11
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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12
crate
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| vt.(up)把…装入箱中；n.板条箱，装货箱 | |
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enthusiast
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| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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14
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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crates
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| n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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pittance
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| n.微薄的薪水，少量 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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29
sewers
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| n.阴沟，污水管，下水道( sewer的名词复数 ) | |
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nucleus
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| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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33
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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lout
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| n.粗鄙的人；举止粗鲁的人 | |
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calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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enactment
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| n.演出，担任…角色；制订，通过 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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