The next time we met to listen to Mr. Midith’s interesting narrative and to his vivid description of the Marsian world was on a pleasant, calm Sunday afternoon. All nature seemed to be glad and animated. The earth was covered with green grass. The flowers were blooming. The ripe strawberries were painting the hillside with their red cheeks. The verdant foliage was dressing the trees and shrubs with its richest garments. The clear little brook, not far from Mr. Uwins’ residence, was sending its water over its pebbly bed toward the mighty ocean. The birds were singing their songs and building their nests, regardless of its being Sunday.
“Would it not be pleasant to take a ramble along the running brook,” said Mrs. Uwins, “and after we find a pleasant, shady place, sit down on the green grass and have Mr. Midith tell us about their commercial and mercantile systems. I would like to know how the Marsites carry on their commerce and mercantile business—how women and children buy and sell, etc.”
We all agreed to Mrs. Uwins’ proposition of spending some time in taking a ramble among the trees.
“Mr. Midith, I believe you told us some time ago that the ladies on Mars enjoy equal privileges with the gentlemen in all respects,” said Viola with a somewhat mischievous smile. “So we will play just for this afternoon as though we were Marsites; and as you are not as well acquainted along the shores of our little brook as I am, I shall take the liberty of asking you for your company instead of you asking me for mine. You know it is not fashionable with us for a lady to ask a gentleman for his company. But, as you say, if you are used to it, it will not appear rude or forward to you at all.”
“I shall certainly be proud of your kind, guiding hand, for you, no doubt, have often before strolled in the shade of those trees and are well acquainted with the lay of the country.”
With this, we all started for the shady brook; even Rev. Dudley seems to have forgotten that it is Sunday. After wandering for some time, gathering strawberries, and making bouquets, we came to a fine shade tree, under which we sat down on the dense matting of grass. After being seated, Mr. Midith was requested to proceed with his explanation of the Marsian system of commerce, and how they buy and sell there.
“In order to give you a clear idea of our commercial and mercantile systems, it becomes necessary to begin at the bottom. Along the motor-lines, about four miles apart, as stated before (diagram p. 58, Com. 2), a side-track passes through a large warehouse, store-house, and factories in which the farm products of the community are stored away for safekeeping and for transportation. All products from the farm are hauled into these store-houses with land engines, and from the store-houses it is taken either to the depots for exportation, to the mill or factory, or to the kitchen of the ‘big-house’ for consumption. In these store-houses the land-engines and farming implements are also kept. The railroad depots are located generally wherever a motor-line crosses it. The railroads communicate with sea-ports and with all other parts of the country. Fast electric vessels carry on the foreign commerce. But foreign commerce is not so extensive now as it formerly was. Nearly every country now produces its own commodities with advantage. Domestic commerce is also greatly simplified. There are no populous cities to which the agricultural products must be shipped; and from which the agriculturists and inhabitants of country places, under your system, receive the agricultural implements and other manufactured commodities. The population, as you see, is almost evenly distributed over the productive land area from which they obtain their material subsistence.
“The motor-lines are built, equipped and run by the contiguous communities between which they are located, except the freight cars, which each community furnishes and operates for itself. No passenger fare is charged on a motor. It is presumed that the transportation between the several communities is nearly equal. For instance, a person from Community No. 5 rides on our motor-line, and a person from our community rides on the motor-line of Community 5. So a passenger can ride on any motor at any time and to any place in his own country at least, free of charge.
“Our railroads are built and equipped by voluntary subscriptions. When a certain scope of country wants a railroad, the inhabitants, who feel so inclined, of the adjacent communities which are interested in the road will advance the money. A few communities, each subscribing 75,000 days’ labor, can build quite a piece of road. Of course each individual advances as much as he wishes. The community, as such, takes no part in it; all such is left to the individual’s own choice.
“The work of building railroads is done by gangs of men, who make that their profession, and who are provided with the very best tools, graders, and everything necessary to produce the best results with the least amount of labor. After the roads are built and equipped, they are operated at 10 per cent. above cost until all the subscriptions have been paid back to those who advanced them, after which they are always operated at cost. Every one who rides on the train pays fare, the same as you do. The only difference is, that we ride at cost on an economically operated railroad, while you are paying the stockholders a large dividend on an extravagantly operated one.
“I think I have already told you that the motor-lines and railroads are brilliantly lighted with electric light when dark.
“So we notice briefly that the products from the farm are hauled with land engines to the warehouses; from these warehouses it is conveyed by motors through every ‘big-house’ on the line, where it can be unloaded for use, or can be transported to a depot for exportation. At these depots, of course, we receive also the imported goods brought by the railroads. As the motor-line passes through every ‘big-house,’ a passenger is enabled, without going out doors in the rain or snow, to step on a motor, which will take him to a depot where he can board a fast train, by which he can reach any part of the country in a short time. All our motor cars and other vehicles are almost noiseless. The boxing never heat and wear for years under the highest speed.”
“Your commercial department is, indeed, very perfect and convenient,” said Mr. Uwins. “Every person in your whole country, or even in your whole world, can travel to the abode of any other person without going out doors or in the dark.”
“Yes, papa,” said Roland, “and one can ride on the motor all he likes for nothing; that strikes me very favorably.”
“Now let me tell you how our mercantile business is conducted; how we buy and sell,” said Mr. Midith.
“But the mercantile business we shall not be able to understand fully until you are acquainted with our monetary system, or medium of exchange.
“We have three kinds of parties that do business: 1. The collectivity which we call the community. 2. The collectivity which we call the family. 3. The individual.
“One ‘big-house’ of every community, we call, in short, the ‘Com,’ meaning in our language a common business place; a place where the community’s business is transacted, such as selling the products of the community, which are not needed for home consumption; issuing money, receiving the remittances from all families’ and communities’ sales, paying all the families’ and communities’ bills, doing the printing for the community, etc. Under the head of government, I shall further describe its function.
“Each family of a community buys for its own use whatever it needs, such articles as dry goods, groceries, furniture, etc., and the individuals buy at the family stores. The storekeeper buys for the store what he thinks the people may want. So we see that each individual buys and sells with his own money, such articles as clothing, meals, railroad tickets, barber and laundry tickets, furniture for his private apartment, private luxuries, and all other things that he appropriates for his private use. The individual has no dictator; no censor.
“We have no such a thing as profit in our mercantile system, or any other of our systems. Every article is sold at cost, including, of course, the cost of buying and selling; and nothing but productive labor will buy it. Profit is wrong because it is always paid by a person who receives nothing for it; and it is paid to the person who does nothing for it. Of course, we have no law prohibiting the taking of profit, but under a healthy, free competition, profit is gradually and entirely eliminated by the practically equal opportunity enjoyed by each individual and by each community. No individual or community holds any monopolistic advantages over another. A stranger can buy as cheaply in any family store as a member of the community can. Prices, including transportation charges, are nearly uniform, not only all over the same country, but all over the surface of Mars. You also want to bear in mind that under keen, free competition and a comparatively uniform supply, prices rarely ever fluctuate. Thus you see we have no place for a speculator and a schemer. He would not make enough, with his profession, in ten years to buy a meal. Nothing less than a fair, honest share of productive labor receives the approval of one’s companions; and no person would want to bear the burden of public contempt in order to avoid his fair share of the labor, when a day’s labor is so short, the labor so easy and pleasant, the compensation so abundant.
“Every ‘big-house’ has a mercantile department, as I have already explained, in which nearly all kinds of goods, such as an individual wants, are kept for sale. The men, women and children who work in the sales department receive wages, or pay, the same as a miner, a farmer or a conductor. They are not interested whether they sell or not. They derive no benefit from misrepresenting goods. It is the same to them whether they sell a cheap article or a high priced one. They derive no benefit from lying, from suppressing the truth, or from otherwise deceiving or persuading a customer to buy an article he really does not want.
“If an individual wants a knife or a watch he buys it, whenever he sees fit, either in the store of his own ‘big-house’ or in some other ‘big-house’ of his community, or in any other community or country where he may be when he wants the article. If he wants an article of furniture he does the same. If he wants a suit, he can either buy it ready-made, or he can select the cloth and get the tailor to make it. Nearly all suits are tailor made, for an expert tailor in our own house can make it as cheap as it can be made anywhere. When a lady wants a garment, she either gets it ready-made, or she selects the goods and gets it made by a tailor or seamstress, who have all the conveniences, who are proficient in their work, and who can do the work in much less time than an inexperienced person who wants the garment. Each laborer works with advantage in his own sphere. This may, I think, be abundantly verified by noticing the fit of your ladies’ garments, which are often made by the wearers, who are inexperienced seamstresses, who, as you term it, are too frequently compelled by the force of your social circumstances to be ‘jack of all trades and master of none.’ Your incomplete division of labor, your single-handed efforts, and your inconveniences resulting from them necessarily produce a small return for the labor expended; and the products which it does produce under such conditions are rude and unfinished. Think, if every one had to make his own watch, how long it would take one, and what a watch it would be after one had it completed.
“At the crossings of the motor-lines we have large motor depots erected and maintained by the four contiguous communities who use it as a depot for shipping and as a storehouse.
“Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen, for telling you that I feel unable to give you a clear idea of our commercial and mercantile system, without giving you first a brief description of our system of intercommunication.”
“I am sure we would enjoy that very much,” said Viola. “It will indeed be interesting for us to know how and with whom you travel, to whom you write, etc.”
“Very well,” said Mr. Midith as he began: “All apartments of the ‘big-house’ are connected by telephone with one another, with all the ‘big-houses’ and other buildings of the community, and with all the other communities of the whole country. By this system an individual in his private apartment, or any other apartment or building, can communicate with any community, or with any individual of any community. This enables any man, woman, or child to talk with any other man, woman, or child of the whole nation; or, one person may communicate a message to millions at the same time by all listening.
“Telegraphy is now rarely used. Owing to the double tracks of railroads and motors, little use is made of it there. Our improved noiseless telephone is much superior. Our phonographs have been wonderfully improved. They speak, sing, play, etc., as loudly and distinctly as the original voice or instrument. An author can read his production in its presence, and the phonograph will repeat it clearly and distinctly as often as the machine is set in motion. They largely perform the work of stenographers.
“The mail is carried to and from the ‘big-houses’ on the railroads or motors. From there the railroads carry it rapidly to its destination. When the mail arrives at the ‘big-house,’ it is immediately distributed by mail carriers to each individual’s apartment, where the mail carrier drops it through an aperture in the wall into a letter box on the inside of the individual’s room. And the inmate drops his out-going mail likewise to the outside of his apartment for the mail carrier to take. In this manner a postoffice is located in every individual’s apartment. Instead of having every individual run to the postoffice, often for nothing, as you do, we have a few mail carriers carry the mail to every individual who receives any. Mail arrives and departs at least four or five times daily. You can, no doubt, see what an immense amount of labor we save, and what a promptness and convenience we insure.”
“That is, no doubt, a grand system, Mr. Midith,” said Rev. Dudley, who seemed almost ready to start in pursuit of a similar system. “It seems that all your social and industrial departments fit so well together that one can find no break in it anywhere. Everybody has a postoffice, a telephone and a motor-line in his own house, and yet no one lives in a crowded city nor in a lonely country.”
“But, Rev. Dudley, you know as yet only little of the freedom and harmony that prevails in our social and industrial world. You will find as we go along with our explanation, that all of man’s career, from his genesis until his death, is a comparative history of kindness, freedom, harmony and happiness.
“On the first of every year an invoice and census are taken by each ‘big-house,’ and from these a community invoice and census is summarized. The summarized invoice exhibits the total commodities on hand of the whole community. It also exhibits the increase or decrease of any particular kind of goods, as well as the total increase or decrease of wealth and capital during the last year. By the aid of this invoice the individual, the family and the community can ascertain in what direction their labor can be advantageously increased or diminished during the current year. If we find by the invoice that the wealth of the community is diminishing, we have to lengthen our day’s labor so as to produce more; and if the wealth increases faster than we desire, we shorten the day’s labor. Now do not forget here that all wealth must be produced by the application of labor to land, and that anything which is not produced by labor is not wealth.
“The annual census which is taken by each ‘big-house’ reports the population of the family, male and female; the number of births and deaths; the commodities consumed, raised, manufactured, mined, transported and bought and sold. The number of inventions; the books written and printed, and all other useful items. The census of the families are summarized like the invoices. The invoice and census of each community contains an estimate of the current year’s production, consumption and transportation, beginning with the first of the year.
“Each community prints annually about 30,000 or more copies of its own invoices and census, and sends a copy to those communities, both in and out of its own nation, with which it is most likely to do business. In this manner each community receives about 30,000 census pamphlets from that many other communities from all parts of the world. Each one of our grand divisions of land or nation, as you call them, has also a Fa-no, which, in our language, means a continental business place. This Fano is a magnificent line of buildings, located somewhere near the center of the ‘nation.’ In this Fano samples of all merchantable commodities are kept on exhibition, and the price given on the sample. This capacious Fano is divided off into grand departments. For example: In the carpet department all communities that manufacture carpets have samples of all their grades of carpets on exhibition there; and every sample bears the name and grade, the selling price and the number of the community which has it for sale. Similarly are there departments for all other commodities—lumber, books, clocks, sugar, oil, sofas, vehicles, shoes, plows, wheat, iron, aluminium, engines, etc., etc.
“Thus, you see, we have a continuous national exhibition in the Fano. Every community of the ‘nation,’ and even of foreign ‘nations,’ has one or more representatives, called Fa-no-ers, there. These Fanoers are at the Fano only for the commercial interest of their community. As stated before, no commodities other than the mere samples are kept in the Fano. Those who make purchases from a community’s samples kept at the Fano, have the commodities purchased, directly shipped to them from the community of whose samples the goods were purchased. The purchasing individual or family, or community, can order them, or they can get the selling community’s Fanoer to attend to the ordering.
“Now let me tell you how we make our purchases at the Fano. When an individual, a family or a community desires to purchase an article, say, for instance, a piano, and cannot procure the desired article for a suitable price near at home, the purchaser informs the ‘Fanoer’ what he wants, and directs the Fanoer to make the purchase, or he informs the purchaser where such an article can be purchased to the best advantage. The ‘Fanoer’ now visits the piano department, where he finds prices, and sample pianos of all description, also a description of each piano. From all of these he makes his selection, and informs the purchaser of the price and in what community they are manufactured and kept. The purchaser then orders it from the ‘Com’ of that community, if the purchase was not ordered to be made directly by the ‘Fanoer.’ And just so with every other article of commerce. Thus you see every individual, family, and community get the benefit of the best goods, the latest inventions and improvements, and the lowest current prices.”
“Are the masses of the Marsites well-informed on the current market prices, and the latest improvements and inventions?” asked Mr. Uwins.
“Yes, the Marsites are all well informed commercially,” continued Mr. Midith. “Our intercommunication is so practicable and expedient that every one is well informed on current prices, and especially on the prices of those articles one wishes to purchase. Besides the means of travel, telephone, phonograph, invoices, correspondence and oral communication, we have a daily newspaper or price list issued at the ‘Fano.’ This price list quotes prices and names and briefly describes every new sample that is brought in and taken out of the ‘Fano.’ You must remember that, under free competition and a healthy supply and demand, prices, with us, do not fluctuate arbitrarily like they do under your monopolistic laws, which create an unreliable market and fictitious values. Hence we can be and are all well informed on market prices.
“But the above are not the only advantageous means of our commercial transactions. Just as we have a ‘Fano’ in each grand division or ‘nation’ to adjust and facilitate the national commerce, so do we have a world’s business point which we call ‘Mo-da-no,’ meaning in our language world-wide. The ‘Modano’ is a series of massive buildings, in which a never-ending World’s Exposition is conducted. It is managed on the same principles as the ‘Fano,’ and is to the whole of Mars what the ‘Fano’ is to its grand division.
“The ‘Modano’ is the grandest structure on Mars. Its architecture is too massive, too esthetic, and too grand to be accurately and adequately described in terms of any of your languages with which I am familiar. One who has seen no better architectural skill than the earth now furnishes, can form no accurate conception of the magnitude and grandeur of our magnificent ‘Modano.’
“It contains samples of all human skill and industry, not only of modern commodities, but of the ancient and antiquated as well. Large departments for the receptions of new commodities and inventions are from time to time erected. All communities of Mars are represented there by ‘Modanoers.’ Samples, prices, and generally quantity and quality, of all commercial goods are on exhibition at the ‘Modano.’ And everything is kept as clean as a parlor. I may say that the ‘Modano’ is the pride of every Marsian heart, and more wealth is voluntarily offered for its erection and maintenance than can possibly be expended. Nearly every youth and adult annually visits a number of ‘Fanoes’ and the ‘Modano.’ The visitor almost universally records his name in the donation-book, and drops into a box a sealed envelope bearing his name and containing the sum donated, which corresponds with the sum opposite his name in the donation-book. This is voluntary taxation, of which I shall tell you more under the head of Government.
“Thus you see at once that we require no traveling salesmen, whose wages and expense are taxed to the goods they sell, and this sum, in the United States alone, is perhaps nearly equal to the value of your entire wheat crop of the United States. By our almost complete system of transportation and intercommunication, it is easy to buy and sell, and to receive and send news. We all want to buy of that community which sells the best goods for the least pay.
“The floating palace of the ocean, the powerful and safe trains; the motors which run through every ‘big-house,’ warehouse, factory, mill and depot; the electric farm engines, the various bicycles and carriages, the safe and rapid transit of mail, the universal use of telephone and phonograph, the exchange of invoices and censuses, the Fanos and Modano, the price lists and newspapers, etc.; all aid and combine in making it an almost perfect system of transportation, intercommunication and business transaction. Such in brief is our commercial and mercantile system.
“Let me here again remind you that it is not competition, like some of your economists try to make your people believe, but monopoly which makes your earth such a cruel, poor world to live in. Profit is one form of monopoly in trade and commerce. You will notice that in our social and industrial world there is a keen competition everywhere. One community, family and individual endeavor to do better and more work in the same time than another. But a competitor is always a laborer, winning his race by his superior merit. He always earns his own living, besides giving the benefit of his superior merit to the world at large.
“But notice the difference in the profit-taker. He receives something for which he does nothing, and the person who pays him the profit, pays for something for which he receives nothing. For this reason a profit-taker may grow rich by living an idle life, by being a social parasite, like all your profit-takers are as such. He simply appropriates what others have already earned. A competitor never lives from the labor of another. The community which makes the best and cheapest shoes, sells the most, and this is just what it should be, for every one should be allowed to buy as cheap as he can. Those competing communities in the shoe business, of which there are, of course many, must either devise means of making better and cheaper shoes, or they must engage in other business for which they are better adapted. Under this keen competition every community will naturally drift into those occupations for which it is best adapted and in which it is most proficient. Just as it is with the community, so it is with the family and with the individual. The profit-taker endeavors to achieve his victory by monopolistically tearing down his neighbor, while under freedom a competitor relies on the superiority of his own merits without interfering with the race of his neighbor. Competition is the only power of which we know that can gently shift every person, family, community, etc., into that social and industrial sphere for which each is best adapted. A competitor, under freedom, is never robbed of what he produces; he always possesses at least as much wealth as he would if he were the only inhabitant of a world. Monopoly, in its various forms, is the thief and robber.
“Let us in a few words compare your commercial and mercantile system with ours, not with a view of fault-finding, not with a view of casting reflections, but with a view of instruction. We all need all the information we can get; if it is not in one thing it is in another. Nobody knows it all. Very likely there is much more that we do not know than the little we do know. Perhaps there is no better evidence of mental narrowness than our ostentatious pretention of knowing it all. With this view in mind let us proceed.
“You either live in the country, almost cut off from trade and commerce, or you live in a crowded city or town where the smoke and offensive odor enters every crevice, door and window, and where you are more or less starving for want of wholesome air. Where scarcely a vegetation opens its mouth to exhale the life-giving oxygen and to inhale the excessive carbonic acid which impairs the health of animal life. Where a portion of mankind are living an idle, wasteful life in a palace built by the labor of the poor, and another large class of industrious persons are eking out a miserable existence in a poor, filthy hovel. Under your profit system each must grab all he can or he must starve. In order that a few may amass comparatively worthless fortunes, many are trampled in the mire who can never rise again under the burden of your social and industrial system. Perhaps from one-half to three-fourths of your commercial and mercantile work is unproductive and destructive labor.
“Your railroad corporations not unfrequently receive large public donations of land, etc., to build the roads with, and after they are built they become the gambling stock on which large dividends are paid by the hand of labor. You have so many places of business where goods are spoiling for want of customers; and with your monopolistic profit system, every merchant is trying to freeze out his neighbor. We have no ‘middle-men’ who have to live from profit which must be taxed to the goods when sold to the consumer or producer; no army of mercantile schemers, the successful ones of whom live and grow rich from the labor and wrecked fortunes of others; no traveling salesmen; no countless warehouses and elevators, in which the rich speculator stores the grain and other commodities in order to create a fictitious market. Each one of our communities buys and preserves what it needs for its own consumption directly from some other community; and so each community also sells what it has to spare to some other purchasing community. Thus each purchase and sale is a wholesale, even if it amounts to only a nickle’s worth. With you a business man must live from the profits of his sales. He must sell or become impoverished. Under such a condition, in order to save himself from bankruptcy, he is tempted to lie, to misrepresent on the one hand and to suppress the truth on the other; he is tempted to persuade customers by deceptive means to purchase things they do not really want. He must strain every nerve and muscle to keep want from his door. His wife and children in many cases, where the business place is remote from the residence, scarcely ever see him. In the morning he leaves early and in the evening he returns late. Many of your business men have lost nearly all their social qualities and are little more than mere business worms with the shadow of death hovering on their countenances. Your business man is a mental slave also. In order to be successful in his business he must either be ignorant and superstitious himself, living in a little narrow, mental world, or he must tacitly, and sometimes even avowedly, sanction the ignorance and superstition of his customers. For, very likely, if he expresses his honest convictions concomitant with a higher state of culture in all directions, he offends some of his customers from the profit of whose purchases he must live, and financial ruin would be the result.”
“These are all facts,” said Mr. Uwins; “they are no exaggerations, and many of our foremost thinkers have seen them more or less clearly for some time; but no one thus far seems to know how to make the proper adjustment with our present amount of intelligence.”
“I think it is now getting to be time to direct our course toward home,” said Mr. Midith.
At this we all rose to our feet, and prepared to stroll homeward.
“When we started from home you asked me for my company, Viola,” said Mr. Midith. “You claimed that you were better acquainted in the woods, and would, therefore, according to the customs of Mars, volunteer to be my guide. But now, in returning, I shall ask you for your company; of course, you can accept or reject, just as you desire. This is also according to the customs of Mars.”
“Why, Mr. Midith, I am sure I shall accept your company with the greatest of pleasure,” said Viola, as we started toward home.