We acknowledge as the foundation of all material progress that the honest accumulation of wealth should be the privilege of all; and that the rights of property should be protected, and the enjoyment5 of it secured to everyone. Yet with these principles firmly and successfully carried out in our government, we have for many centuries, considered it necessary to support and sustain the interests of the labor class by special legislative13 attention. You have pursued a directly opposite course. From the beginning of your history the privilege of wealth to hold labor in subjection, and to use it as an instrument of accumulation, with about the same regard for its well being as the horse in the collar or the ox[Pg 143] under its yoke14, has prevailed, without the enactment15 of any sincere and effective law to assist and sustain it in its unequal contest. On the contrary, your statute16 books are filled with oppressive laws against the labor class; and while in your most civilized17 districts these unjust enactments18 are nearly obsolete19, there yet remains20 an average over your planet of such legal and social suppressions of the class whose strong arm supports you, as to be reckoned by us as the most unhappy and discreditable feature of your social state.
It matters not how your economists21 may examine and discuss the relations of labor with its co-operative interests, so long as they offer no proposals of relief to it in the unjust burthen it bears of the hardships of life. Your common view that labor must be unavoidably submitted to the law of supply and demand, and that, consequently, eighty per cent of your people are to be helplessly left to take their chances of distress22 and suffering at each unfavorable turn of the labor market, is peculiar23 to the planet upon which you live, and is one of the most mistaken and unwise conclusions among you. This heartless notion of yours is plainly the inheritance of your early cruel ages. With such a state of things you can[Pg 144] never have a very high state of civilization. With so many of you constantly under the vicissitude24 of such adverse25 changes of condition, there can be no steady progress of the whole, and but little encouragement to thrift; a lack of ambition must prevail in all the higher purposes of life, and a general surrender to improvidence26 and the vices27 which follow. For that class which has created your wealth, and is constantly renewing it, and which constitutes so large a portion of your whole population, you can show nothing of legislative effort in its favor except indirectly28, through some of the purposes to smooth the way and increase the profits of capital. The opportunities of your comparatively small capitalistic class to use for its purposes, in an entirely29 heartless way, the larger body of wealth producers, have been made easy by natural conditions which would have been removed or corrected long ago, under a more humane30 and unselfish administration of your affairs, and if your governments had not been exclusively in the hands of the smaller class mentioned. We know of nothing more heartless and cruel of the governing classes of the Earth, than their careless submission31 of its wage-earners to the unrestricted influence of competition for employment,[Pg 145] under the compromising condition of a necessity for bread.
In our philosophy we recognize only two honest ways of accumulating wealth. One is the saving of wages, and the other the profits of capital; and our legislation has been chiefly directed to make the chances of wealth by these two methods as even as possible. To perform this service effectually, our greatest efforts have been directed toward the labor interest. We feel ourselves justified32 in this, because the welfare of about seven-eighths of our people is connected with this interest; because to the labor class is entirely due the creation and constant renewal33 of all the wealth on our planet. Because, also, that capital has natural advantages over labor, which are first, its choice of time and place for investment; second, its capacity to wait for opportunities without the risk of physical suffering by its owners, and the leisure for thought and knowledge it affords to those who control it. Also, that capital, holding the position of a voluntary employer, naturally assumes the rights and privileges of master, which labor, in its constrained34 and dependent situation, is obliged to acknowledge.
We have long since considered these unequal relations and tendencies, and have proceeded to remedy them.[Pg 146] Our legislation in behalf of the labor classes is the happiest and most satisfactory of any that we have. Without it our present civilization would be impossible. Before describing our methods, let me direct your attention to the immediate35 and indirect causes which bear down upon the labor classes of your planet.
Prominent among these is the promiscuous36 ownership of land. The surrendering of the Earth’s surface to the control of individual ownership is one of the most serious mistakes of your civilization. It is not to be mentioned alone as the greatest objection to this, that the planet upon which you were born is the natural inheritance of all of you, from whose surface each and every one of you is destined37 to derive38 a sustenance, and that a monopoly of it by the few is as plain a violation39 of justice as it would be to hold the atmosphere in private use by sections, were such a thing possible. But it is chiefly to be taken into consideration, that your land policy enables the few to dominate the many, suppresses one class and elevates another, and insensibly transfers an undue40 portion of the earnings41 of labor into the pockets of your land-holding classes.
Almost every influence now at work in the progress of[Pg 147] your society tends to throw money into the hands of your land holders42, not fairly earned by themselves. While the products of labor are cheapening from day to day, partly due to increased skill, and the appliance of machinery43 in their manufacture, and partly, also, by the competition of labor, owing to increase of population, yet even by these very operations the value of landed property goes up.
You already estimate rent as a considerable element of cost in the production of your food materials, and you are gradually approaching a period, when by the growth of population the cost of food will be very much increased by rent charges. You have all along submitted to this monopoly of land from causes plainly apparent. In the early days of your history all private ownership of land was acquired and held by force, and it may be safely asserted that no title at present exists in any of your older countries that is not founded on violent conquest, and that has not been maintained by an organized and armed authority, whose existence depends upon retaining the system of ownership in vogue44. It is plain to see that when the demand of justice to all shall be the basis of political action, and especially when the cost of your[Pg 148] food supply shall become greatly increased by the charges of rent, your present system will not be quietly endured.
In your own more favored region of the Earth may be found temporary conditions which tend not only to tolerate your present land ownership system, but to render it popular. Your large area of unoccupied agricultural surface, from which any of your citizens are permitted at small cost to select a portion with a title in perpetuity, destroys for the time being the monopolizing45 character of private ownership; and while these governmental acts of land distribution are the most remarkable46 concessions47 to labor in human history, we fail to discover anything in the practice but a temporary compromise between the interests of capital and labor. As your society progresses you must arrive at the time when your landless class will be as effectually excluded from the privilege of ownership as they are at present in the older countries of the world.
Your own country in the newness of its human possession, by the lavish48 distribution of its territory into private hands, has alleviated49 the burdens of labor elsewhere, as well as within itself. It has effected this in two ways: first by withdrawing from the surplus population of densely50 inhabited districts abroad, and second by supplying[Pg 149] from its rich agricultural lands a cheaper food supply to the older countries of the Earth than they were able to furnish from their own soils. But the most unreasonable51 among you cannot fail to perceive the speedy limit to these operations in the interests of labor, which after all must be considered as merely effecting a truce52 between that conflict of the laboring53 and landless many and the land-holding few which your people will surely witness in time. We manage these things very differently on Mars.
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1
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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2
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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3
assuage
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| v.缓和，减轻，镇定 | |
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4
enjoyments
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| 愉快( enjoyment的名词复数 )； 令人愉快的事物； 享有； 享受 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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6
thrift
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| adj.节约，节俭；n.节俭，节约 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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8
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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9
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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11
equitable
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| adj.公平的；公正的 | |
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12
subjugation
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| n.镇压，平息，征服 | |
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13
legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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14
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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15
enactment
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| n.演出，担任…角色；制订，通过 | |
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16
statute
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| n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例 | |
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17
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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enactments
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| n.演出( enactment的名词复数 )；展现；规定；通过 | |
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19
obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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20
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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22
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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23
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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24
vicissitude
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| n.变化，变迁，荣枯，盛衰 | |
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25
adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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improvidence
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| n.目光短浅 | |
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27
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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28
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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29
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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30
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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31
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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32
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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33
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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34
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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35
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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promiscuous
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| adj.杂乱的，随便的 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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38
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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39
violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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40
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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41
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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42
holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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43
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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44
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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45
monopolizing
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| v.垄断( monopolize的现在分词 )；独占；专卖；专营 | |
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46
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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47
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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48
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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49
alleviated
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| 减轻，缓解，缓和( alleviate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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51
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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52
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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53
laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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