CHAPTER XXII.
THE STATE GOVERNMENT—ITS INSANE, WEAK-MINDED, BLIND, SICK, AGED AND INFIRM—THE INDUSTRIAL ARMY—ITS ORGANIZATION AND PRODUCTIVE POWER.
All the labor of the state of Idaho was, as early as 1910, performed exclusively by the Industrial Army of the Co-opolitan Association. We had intended at the outset of our career to transfer all our property to the state government when it should come under our control, but for the reasons already mentioned that plan was abandoned. Even as late as the year following the adoption of our Co-operative institution we expected to pursue that course. But as soon as we began the actual work of legislation we discovered that the better and simpler method, and one which rendered it easier to avoid conflict with the Federal constitution, was to keep the state government within very narrow limits. As a result the state government delegated all its important functions which could be delegated to the Co-opolitan Association. Its Great Council still continued to exercise its legislative and judicial functions and the executive still continued to act as the chief police and military officer. But the state government was hardly more than a bridge connecting the Co-operative state with the Federal Constitution. The latter could not recognize the former, but the state government could, and did. The state complied with the constitution of the country as a political organism. The Co-opolitan Association, as the industrial, financial, social and commercial organism, did as it pleased. Notwithstanding all this, the Co-operative state, the state of Idaho and the Co-opolitan Association were one and the same, and the last-mentioned, embracing all the people of the state and its membership, was the living and controlling power in and behind the whole.
We had expected that the state of Idaho would have an Industrial Army of its own. Experience, however, convinced us that it would be far better to do all its work through the Association. Insane, weak-minded, blind, sick, aged and infirm persons who were members of the Association were cared for by the Association, so that the state had no duty to perform toward them. The children of our members inherited membership, losing it only by violating its laws in some few particulars, so that insane, weak-minded, sick or infirm children of members were all cared for. To care for persons who might be afflicted, however, and were not members of the Association was the state’s concern. To punish criminals was its duty. The Great Council contracted with the Co-opolitan Association to care for its afflicted and its criminals, and the sole consideration which it charged for this burden was that it have the benefit of the labor of the able-bodied among them.
We soon found that the criminals whom the state consigned to our care, when given a fair opportunity, were most of them able and willing to work. This was all the more apparent when we offered a reward, consisting of wages equal to a Co-opolitan’s dividend, for meritorious conduct. We rarely ever permitted a convict to become a member of our Industrial Army, however meritorious his work, but we did not oblige him to quit our service on the penitential farm or in the penitential factories when his term of service expired. Yet we did admit Barnstead, who invented a flying machine; Applegate, the inventor of the electric plough; Turner, that poet who sang with wonderful power the songs of Remorse, Injustice and Sorrow, and some thirty others. The state criminal is now almost a thing of the past, yet fifteen years ago our penitential farms and factories were important concerns. But we made them pay. They produced not only enough wealth to support themselves substantially, but enough to support the state insane, weak-minded, sick, aged and infirm, whose several asylums adjoined the farms.
Our Industrial Army in that year—1910—contained twenty-four departments, in which 1,025,525 persons were at that time enlisted. Of these four hundred and sixty-two thousand one hundred and twenty-one were women. It was a magnificent body of well-trained, intelligent, earnest, industrious and faithful men and women. The chief of this body was the President of the Association. Its movements were directed by the Legislative Council. Its general laws were enacted by that body, but each department and subdivision had regulations of its own which did not conflict with those provided by the Legislative Council. There were then twenty-five general departments, as follows:
1st. Department of Agriculture. All occupations requiring the cultivation of the soil, except such as were within the Nursery and Fruit department, were within its province.
2nd. The Live Stock department had charge of all cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and other animals, as well as birds.
3rd. The Nursery and Fruit department had charge of all orchards, vines and plants bearing fruit and all horticultural plants and flowers.
4th. The Irrigation department had charge of all waters and the distribution of the same.
5th. The Commerce department had charge of all department stores and was charged, as now, with supplying the needs of the people.
6th. The Manufacturing department had charge of all factories and all manufactures.
7th. The Transportation department had charge of all highways, methods of transportation, vehicles and the operation of the same.
8th. The Messenger and Publishing department had charge of the means and instrumentalities of communication and publication, including telegraphs, telephones, signals, newspapers and magazines.
9th. The Educational department had charge of the education of the young.
10th. The Department of Public Amusements had charge of the entertainment of the people.
11th. The Department of Health had charge of the public health, the care, treatment and cure of the sick and the burial of the dead. Also all hospitals, sanitariums, mineral springs, medicines, drugs and medical practice.
12th. The Legal department had charge of the legal business of the Association. This department employed about one hundred and fifty persons in 1910.
13th. The Timber and Forestry department had charge of the timber and saw mills of the Association. It was also charged with the preservation of the forest.
14th. The Labor department had charge of the unclassified labor of the Association. From the Educational department all students passed into this department, where they were generally required to serve three years. All persons enlisting who did not possess a trade or evince some special aptitude were also generally assigned to this department. Advancement to other departments, or the official positions in this one, were the rewards of merit. This department was also required to find constant employment for its forces or to report forthwith to the Legislative Council its failure to do so. In the latter case the Legislative Council would cause new enterprises to be undertaken.
15th. The Department of Public Improvements was charged with the investigation of all plans for new roads, parks, waterways and the improvements of the methods, conveniences and comforts of the people. Plans or ideas were received by this department from any person and whenever a plan or idea was accepted, provided it was new, original and meritorious, a reward in the form of a vacation was given the originator.
16th. The Department of Invention was charged with the duty of searching out, investigating, testing and introducing all labor-saving inventions to the Association. This proved to be one of the most useful departments. Manufacturers are not usually able to find time to experiment and are generally averse to introducing new machinery or methods. This department did all the work of experimenting and reported results.
17th. The Department of Art had charge of all decorating, painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, designing, etc.
18th. The Engineering department had charge of all engineering work.
19th. The Department of Building not only had charge of all buildings, and was responsible for their healthfulness and security, but was the manufacturer of all building material, except lumber, and quarried all stone employed by it or shipped to another state. The granite, white calico and lilac mottled marble, the gypsum, sandstone and other building stone, as well as ornamental onyx stone, produced by our quarries, were, and still are, handled by this department.
20th. The Department of Mining had charge of all the mining except coal.
21st. The Land department had charge of all the unused lands of the Association.
22d. The Food department had charge of the preparation and distribution of all foods at public or private tables, the killing, dressing and packing or canning of meats, and the preparation, preserving or canning of fruits, vegetables and other edibles.
23d. The Department of Fuel, Heat and Light had charge of all heating and lighting plants and all sources of fuel, such as coal mines, gas wells and oil wells.
24th. The Department of Science had charge of the scientific investigation, of the geology, mineralogy and natural resources of the state and their chemical analysis.
25th. The Department of Accounts and Statistics was then, as now, the Auditory department. In addition to this it received and transmitted all orders between the departments. For instance, if the flour section of the department store desired flour the Commerce department must send its orders to the Department of Accounts and Statistics. Here the order is recorded and immediately transmitted to the Manufacturing department. If the Manufacturing department has no flour it transmits an order to this department for wheat, which is recorded and transmitted to the Agricultural department. When the order for wheat is filled this department is notified by the department filling and that receiving, and so with the flour when delivered. This department also keeps a full record of all the property and products of the Association.
These several departments were again subdivided by the Legislative Council into divisions and sections.
Our method of co-operation, through the instrumentality of the Industrial Army, resulted in our being able to produce more than three times as much wealth each year as an equal population usually did in the competitive system.
The population of the state at that time, including men, women and children, was 3,160,000. Such a population in a competitive state will contain about five thousand lawyers.
We had one hundred and fifty lawyers and four thousand eight hundred and fifty strong men in our producing ranks. The wives of these men were also in our Industrial Army.
Such a population in competition usually supports six thousand saloon men and bartenders. Liquors were sold in the various department stores of the Association at that time and in the restaurants and hotels, but there were no bars and no saloons. They were handled incidentally with drugs, medicines or foods. In the competitive system the liquor dealers and bartenders form a special force. The liquors in Idaho were dispensed by the clerks and waiters who handled other goods. We could safely count six thousand workers in our Industrial Army aiding in the production of wealth instead of six thousand saloon men and bartenders.
Instead of eight thousand claim, commission, real estate and insurance agents and collectors we had an equal number of men at work in our factories, on our farms, or in the distributing departments.
The restaurant and hotel keepers, brokers, commercial travelers, hucksters and peddlers and merchants in such a population in a competitive state would number sixty thousand. All these, instead of preying upon us and consuming the fruits of our labor without giving any return for it, were now at work with us.
Body and personal servants who wait upon the rich in a state of three million inhabitants will number in the neighborhood of ninety thousand, and all these were in our Industrial Army helping to increase the annual wealth of the state.
We had no gamblers, professional capitalists, speculators or leisure classes in 1910, but we had an equal number of honest workers.
We were not compelled to waste time in searching for employment, hunting for customers or waiting for trade.
We were not distressed by the pressure of a few overburdened and a large number who could get neither the burden nor the reward for carrying it.
There were no overdone trades and no overstocked markets.
Wherever we found power, whether human, natural or mechanical, we sought to employ it.
Two incentives were furnished by the Association to honest and diligent effort on the part of the worker. The first was promotion to a higher grade. The second was a reward in the nature of a leave of absence. These incentives were powerful, especially as Idaho, being one of the most beautiful and picturesque states in the Union and abounding in game, offered an inviting field for recreation. But another force was also at work among the men and women of the Army. Each felt that he was a partner in this great enterprise. Each regarded the idler who “stole time” as his foe. Each was determined that the other should do his duty, and the laggard and loafer was regarded with such contempt by his associates that no one cared to incur the odium of that reputation. This had a very pronounced effect both as to the quality and quantity of the work done.
At and before that time I had noticed that a large number of those who entered the Army from other states were actuated by a desire to earn the large dividends paid to members for several years, cash their checks or orders and withdraw. In a few instances only have I noticed that these intentions were carried out.
Such persons found that in our system they were able to obtain all the best fruits of competition without the worry, distress and mockery of that system. Their labor was better rewarded, their hours of toil were shorter, they were never confronted by want, they were called upon to divide with neither poverty nor distress; they were equal to the best as far as material things were concerned and they were not superior to any one in those respects. I remember that a few were, or affected to be, distressed because they could not own any real estate. But in a few months they realized that they would never be disturbed in the possession of the house they occupied as long as it satisfied them, and that, should sickness or death come, their families were safe.
When a workman was injured or fell sick his dividend was paid as fully as if he were at work. If injured by accident or negligence he had no remedy, although the person responsible for his injury might suffer punishment. His assurance of receiving his membership dividends was sufficient comfort.
If the worker urged that he should have a vested right in the Association property, above the share of its annual earnings, it was only necessary to remind him that in the competitive system he would never think of demanding of his employer a similar share, and was generally compelled to be satisfied with a pittance for wages. In the co-operative system he received his dividend, which represented, in 1910, twelve hundred dollars per annum, purchased everything he needed cheaper than competition ever made it for him, was insured against accident or sickness, had his family protected against his death, was furnished educational facilities and positions for his children, and was more certainly a part of the governing power than he could be under any constitution. Instead of being the hunted victim of a hundred ingenious robbers who flattered him with the promise that he would strengthen his individuality by permitting them to chase and starve him and his family, he discovered that his individuality improved with prosperity and his confidence and courage rose in an equal and healthy contest.