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+****The Project Gutenberg Etext of Eurasia, by Chris. Evans****
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+EURASIA
+
+By Chris. Evans
+
+October, 2000  [Etext #2352]
+
+
+****The Project Gutenberg Etext of Eurasia, by Chris. Evans****
+*****This file should be named uasia10.txt or uasia10.zip******
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+This Etext prepared by David Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net>
+
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+
+
+
+EURASIA
+
+By Chris. Evans
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+In "Eurasia" the author describes an ideal republic where many of the
+problems that confront us are worked out. The book describes in an
+interesting and readable way how government is administered in this
+ideal republic. The government is one in which women take their full
+share of responsibility, the school children are trained in the problems
+they will meet in life, and more emphasis is laid on character building
+than on the dead languages. The children of both sexes are taught useful
+trades. All school children are taught to swim. The idle are employed in
+the construction of roads, canals and irrigation works. The problems of
+distribution are so arranged that the worker receives a more equitable
+reward for his labor.
+
+The author, Chris. Evans, speaks with a firsthand knowledge when he
+discusses the army prison management and the administration of law. Mr.
+Evans, who was born in Vermont, is an old cavalryman, having served in
+the Civil War. After the war he served with the cavalry in the West,
+fighting Indians.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE.
+
+One pleasant afternoon in the month of May, 19--, I launched my boat,
+and after rowing about half a mile from shore I shipped my oars, stepped
+the mast, hoisted sail and reclining on a cushioned seat at the stern
+with my hand on the tiller, I waited for a breeze to spring up, and
+whilst so doing I fell asleep. How long I slept I know not, for when I
+awoke my boat was close to shore, and to my' astonishment I was in
+strange waters. I went ashore, when I was accosted in English with a
+foreign accent by a venerable looking man with the question: "Where did
+you come from?" I replied: "From the United States of America, and what
+country is this?" His answer was Eurasia, and beckoning to a man in
+uniform, who was passing by and who immediately joined us, he told him
+that I was from the United States of America and did not know what
+country I was in. The official addressed me very kindly and invited me
+to accompany him, and leaving the boat in charge of my first
+acquaintance, with instructions to take good care of it, he escorted me
+into the city and left me at a hotel with a request that I would permit
+him to call on me the next day at ten a. m., and he would show me all
+the principal buildings and introduce me to the President, "who I have
+no doubt will be delighted to see you." At the appointed time he
+arrived, and, taking my place by his side in an automobile driven by
+electricity, we passed in succession the buildings occupied by the
+different Departments of State, and stopped in front of a modest
+building set back a short distance from the street, and at the gate we
+were at once admitted by the officer on duty, who informed us that the
+President was holding a Cabinet meeting and would receive meimmediately.
+The President's private secretary met me at the door and introduced me
+to the President, who shook my hand warmly, and introduced
+me to his Cabinet in the following order:
+
+Mr.  __, the Minister of State.
+Mrs. __, the Minister of Justice.
+Mr.  __, the Minister of Railways.
+Mrs. __, the Minister of Education.
+Mr.  __, the Minister of Finance.
+Mrs. __, the Minister of Information.
+Mr.  __, the Minister of Agriculture.
+Mrs. __, the Minister of Health.
+Mr.  __, the Minister of Commerce.
+Mrs. __, the Minister of Manufactures.
+Mr.  __, the Minister of Mines.
+Mrs. __, the Minister of War.
+Mr.  __, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
+Mrs. __, the Minister of Labor.
+
+I informed the President that I wished to learn all I could about the
+Government and Institutions of the country, to which he replied by
+handing me the Official Directory, and added that he and his Cabinet
+would assist me to the fullest extent. I expressed my heartfelt thanks
+for their kindness, and, going back to my hotel, I opened the, Official
+Directory. I found the country governed by a President elected directly
+by the people for five years, but the law provided that if his
+government was not satisfactory to the people, a petition signed by five
+per cent. of the voters called for an election, and if a majority voted
+against him, he was removed from office and the Minister of State
+assumed the Presidency for the remainder of the term. The Cabinet was
+composed of fourteen members-seven men and seven women-and were chosen
+by the Parliament, who were free to select them from their own members
+or outsiders, provided that the person chosen was a voter and
+twenty-five years of age. When the Parliament met, which it did on the
+first day of January, and adjourned on the first of March, sine die, the
+Ministers presented their reports of their work for the previous two
+years, and if the Parliament approved them, they continued in office;
+but if the Parliament by a majority vote disapproved of any of them,
+then the Minister resigned and the Parliament appointed another person
+to take his or her place. The members of Parliament were elected for two
+years and to serve without pay, but their expenses were paid by the
+Government and the amount necessary was fixed by law and could not be
+raised or lowered, only by two-thirds vote of the qualified voters of
+the Nation. The country was divided into districts and every district
+elected a member for every hundred thousand of population, provided that
+every other member from a district should be a female, thus giving both
+sexes full representation in the Government. Each district was governed
+by a Governor, elected for two years, and a Court of Judges, consisting
+of a Chief Justice, a Prosecuting Attorney, an Attorney for the Defense
+and twelve Justice Jurors, who tried all felony cases and civil cases
+that could not be settled by Arbitration, and who sat also as a Board of
+Equalization and as Supervisors.
+
+The law provided that eight Jurors or two-thirds of them (if any were
+absent through sickness or any other reasonable cause), in every case
+could bring in a verdict of guilty in criminal cases or for the
+Complainant or Defendant in civil cases, and if eight did not find the
+Defendant guilty, the case was dismissed-but if guilty the Defendant had
+only to say "I appeal," and a copy of the evidence was sent immediately
+to the Supreme Court, composed of Judges, elected by the people, one
+from each district, to serve for five years.
+
+The Court sat six days in each week, excepting four weeks inJuly-August,
+when all the Courts were allowed by law four weeks' vacation. They were
+required to work eight hours each day beginning at eight a. m., with one
+hour rest at noon, and ending at five p. m.; but they could work longer
+if they so desired, but the law forbade any adjournment and to prevent
+bribery the documents in every case-civil or criminal-arriving daily
+were placed in a lottery wheel, and, on the Court assembling at eight
+a. m., the wheel was revolved, and in the presence of the Minister of
+Justice a blind boy and girl drew the documents out and handed them to
+pages who delivered them to the Judges in alphabetical order. Three
+Judges, forming a committee, decided every case that came into their
+hands on the same day. There was no delay in Justice, and, if any Judge
+misbehaved, the voters in his district could remove him under the same
+law that applied to the President.
+
+The law of recall applied to all officers of the Government elected by
+the people. The salary of the Supreme Court Judges was fixed by law at
+ten dollars per day and that of a Chief Justice of a district at five
+dollars per day. That of the Prosecuting Attorney and Attorney for the
+Defense at four dollars per day, and that of Justice and Jurors at three
+dollars per day the year 'round.
+
+No costs were charged to either complainant or defendant in any case,
+either civil or criminal, but if a person brought complaint without just
+and sufficient cause, the law provided that they should be examined by
+the Court, and if found sane, they should be imprisoned for one year at
+hard labor, and if insane, to be sent immediately to the Lunatic Asylum.
+In every case the complainant was first warned by the Court of what
+would happen if the charge proved to be unfounded.
+
+I made inquiries among the people and was told that the law was a great
+promoter of peace and good will.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.
+
+During the following week I called on the Minister of Justice and
+informed her of my desire to learn the workings of her Department. She
+handed me a copy of the Penal Code, and I was astonished to find how
+simple the course of procedure was compared with that of my own country.
+Felonies ranked in the following order: Murder, Rape, Incest and crimes
+against nature, Arson, Robbery, Assault to Murder, Manslaughter, Mayhem,
+Bribery, Larceny and Perjury. The law held one degree of murder and that
+was with malice aforethought, but where a person killed a human being
+wantonly, without cause or malice, the homicide was committed to the
+Lunatic Asylum, and, after one year's imprisonment, deprived of the
+sexual organs, and if his or her conduct endangered the peace or safety
+of the community, were to be chloroformed.
+
+The penalty for murder was imprisonment for life, subject to parole
+after ten years. Rape fiends were sentenced to twenty-five years, and
+after one year's imprisonment to be desexualizcd and subject to parole
+after five years.
+
+Persons found guilty of Incest and crimes against nature received the
+same punishment as Rape fiends and subject to parole after five years.
+The penalty for Arson was twenty years, subject to parole after four
+years. For Robbery fifteen years and subject to parole after three
+years. The same penalty for Assault to Murder and subject to parole
+after three years. Manslaughter, Mayhem and Bribery were punished by
+imprisonment for ten years and subject to parole after two years.
+Larceny and Perjury were punished by five years' imprisonment, and
+subject to parole after one year. Public officials who embezzled public
+funds were committed for Perjury as well as Larceny, and were debarred
+from ever holding office. The law provided that in the course of the
+trial of any person charged with Felony, if the evidence showed they had
+committed a felony, other than the one for which they were being tried,
+then the Court could sentence them for the crime that the evidence
+showed they had committed, even if there was not sufficient evidence to
+convict them of the crime with which they were charged.
+
+Any person found guilty was remanded to the custody of the Governor of
+the district to await the decision of the Supreme Court. If they
+appealed, and the appeal was not confirmed, they were sent to the
+nearest State Prison, of which there are at the present time twenty-five.
+
+No fines were imposed for any crime and no confiscation of property for
+any cause.
+
+A Magistrate was elected in every sub-district, according to
+population. One for every ten thousand inhabitants, at a salary of three
+dollars per day the year 'round, and who tried all persons charged with
+Felony, and if proven guilty, committed them to the District Court-but a
+charge of Felony could be made before the District Court, and if
+probable cause was shown, the case came up for trial. The Magistrate was
+authorized by law to release any person charged with a misdemeanor on
+probation, or to sentence them from one month to twelve months'
+imprisonment at hard labor within the district, and the prisoners were
+paid for their work from five to twenty-five cents per day, according to
+their ability and skill, and the money they earned was sent to their
+wives and children, if they had any. If they were single, what they
+earned was paid to them at the expiration of their sentence. No
+handcuffs, balls or chains or Oregon Boots were permitted to be used,
+but if the person in custody was violent, a jacket with straps at the
+waist to secure the hands at the side was provided and no punishment was
+inflicted for violation of the prison rules-but bread and water for
+three days at any one time. If a prisoner committed sodomy or other
+infamous crime against nature, while in custody, he was castrated, and
+if he still persisted in committing crimes against nature, he was
+chloroformed. No trial by jury was permitted in cases of misdemeanor-but
+an appeal to the Governor was allowed by law and a copy of the evidence
+in the case was sent to him and he had to decide according to the law
+and evidence within thirty days and publish his reasons therefor in the
+District Newspaper. By permission of the Minister of Justice I was
+granted authority to visit the State Prison, carrying with me a letter
+instructing every prison official to assist me and to furnish me all the
+information within their power. The prison was located in the center of
+a Military Preserve, consisting of ninety-two thousand one hundred and
+sixty acres, all in a high state of cultivation. Railways traversed the
+reservation, but no trains but military ones were permitted to stop
+within its limits.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A VISIT TO A STATE PRISON.
+
+The Minister of Justice placed an automobile at my service, and when I
+arrived at the boundary of the reservation, I was stopped by a military
+officer. I handed him my letter from the Minister of Justice, and,
+glancing over it, he replied, "You are welcome," and, taking a seat by
+my side, we drove to the prison grounds, where I was introduced to the
+Superintendent, and invited by him to be his guest during my stay. I
+found the prisoners garrisoned in company quarters. One hundred and
+thirty-five privates, nine corporals, three sergeants and one company
+clerk constituted a company, with a captain in command of them holding
+the same rank and pay as a captain in the army, and who was chosen from
+the non-commissioned officers in the army for distinguished services.
+The prisoners were classified in twelve companies. Four companies formed
+the first grade, consisting of Companies A, B, C and D; four companies
+formed the second grade, consisting of Companies E, F, G and H, and four
+companies formed the third grade, consisting of Companies I , K, L, and
+M. The first grade received fifteen cents per day and the third grade
+five cents per day, and no pay was forfeited for violation of prison
+rules and regulations, but prisoners received no pay during the time
+they were on bread and water. Corporals received fifty per cent. more
+pay than privates, and sergeants and company clerks one hundred per
+cent. more. Prisoners were required to work eight hours each day,
+Sundays excepted-commencing at eight a. m., with one hour for dinner,
+and ending at five p. m., and to attend night school from six p. m.
+until eight p. m. five nights in the week, and once a week musicians and
+singers visited the prison and gave entertainments.
+
+The company quarters were only one-story high, but were large and well
+ventilated, being eighty feet square with wide verandas and furnished
+with steam and hot water pipes for cold weather, and lighted throughout
+by incandescent lamps.
+
+The beds were all singly arranged in rows and well furnished with
+mattresses, blankets, sheets and pillows, and the room had nine large
+wash basins at one end of the room, where all the company could wash
+their hands and faces and comb their hair.
+
+The captains were required to sleep in the same rooms with the
+prisoners, and to eat with them in the dining-room, and were held
+responsible for their care and good conduct. He could sentence them for
+misconduct to three days on bread and water, but for serious offences
+they were tried by a Court of three Judges, appointed by the Minister of
+Justice.
+
+The regimental dining-room where all the companies dined was divided
+into three sections, with partitions eight feet high between them, each
+section having a door connecting with the kitchen, and the food
+furnished of good quality, but differing in degree according to grade.
+
+The hospital was on one side of the square, and was fitted with every
+modern appliance and at the distance of half a mile was a pest house, to
+which all prisoners suffering from leprosy, cancer, syphilis and other
+malignant diseases, were consigned. What most attracted my attention was
+the bath house, a one-story building, one hundred feet long, adjoining
+the laundry. It had a swimming tank in the middle of it sixty feet long,
+forty feet wide and twelve feet deep. At the two ends were porcelain
+bathtubs for the old and feeble, with hot and cold water faucets, and on
+one side were shower-bath nozzles overhead, with hot and cold water
+connections; on the side next the laundry were rows of shelves reaching
+to the ceiling and numbered from one to eighteen hundred, holding a
+change of clothing for the entire regiment of prisoners, with a
+passageway and counter in front, and every prisoner was compelled to
+bathe on every Sunday, passing over the counter the clothes worked in;
+when they had undressed and when they had bathed, they received clothes,
+washed and ironed, to put on. Any prisoner who did not bathe was placed
+in solitary confinement for three days on bread and water, then taken to
+the bathhouse and well scrubbed.
+
+Two prisoners were assigned to work as chiropodists to keep the feet of
+the prisoners in good condition, and the laundrymen, besides washing and
+ironing all the clothes, sheets and pillowcases, had to wash and
+disinfect all the blankets once a month. There were no walls surrounding
+the prison building, but the reservation being the headquarters of an
+army corps with barracks on all sides, escapes by prisoners were very
+rare.
+
+On marching out of the dining-room after breakfast the roll was called,
+and also after supper, by the captains of companies, and after nine p.
+m. the doors were locked and no smoking or talking was permitted.
+
+A parole commissioner appointed by the Minister of Justice resided at
+the prison, who was also Superintendent of the Night School, with
+authority to parole any prisoner according to law that in his judgment
+was a fit person to be paroled. A paroled prisoner, if he did not have
+friends to take care of him, was given employment by the Government, and
+no money deposit was required. The Government paid over to him what
+money he had earned, and gave him a dress suit and a working suit of
+clothes and two changes of underclothing-by those acts of justice giving
+him encouragement to become a useful member of society. He was required
+to report by a letter once a month to the Governor of the District from
+which he came, and the Governor was authorized by law to pardon him when
+he thought proper. Those rules and regulations applied equally to both
+sexes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE BANK OF EURASIA.
+
+Leaving the prison, I returned to the Capitol and, calling at the
+Department of Finance, was given a copy of the laws governing it, and
+learned that it operated under the name of the Bank of Eurasia, with
+headquarters in the capital, having a branch in every district and in
+every town of one thousand inhabitants or more. It paid out all money
+owed by the Government and received and receipted for all taxes due, and
+accepted all deposits from one dollar upwards, and issued all banknotes
+and bills of exchange, and in consequence there were no panics and no
+necessity of issuing clearing-house certificates. To avoid the folly of
+locking up large amounts of money received for taxes each year on the
+one hand, or permitting stock-gamblers and money-sharks, on the other
+hand, to use it, each district was allowed by law to issue district
+banknotes of one dollar denomination, guaranteed by the Government,
+drawing two per cent. a year interest up to eighty per cent. of the
+yearly expenses of the district. The taxes were payable on the first day
+of November, and if not paid on that day a delinquent tax of ten per
+cent. The banknotes issued by the district were called in and canceled
+by this means, keeping the money of the people in circulation.
+
+Every branch bank in a district was required to send daily accounts of
+all money received and paid out to the central branch bank of the
+district, which in turn sent a daily account of all bank transactions in
+the district to the Bank of Eurasia at the capital. No district
+treasurers were required, nor treasurers in any department of the
+Government, but vouchers to be paid by the Government had to be signed
+and scaled by the proper authorities. The bank also conducted a National
+Lottery, with tickets for sale at every branch bank for one dollar per
+ticket; drawings monthly, and the highest prize drawn was five thousand
+dollars, and the lowest five dollars. Five per cent. of the gross
+proceeds going to the Government for the maintenance and education of
+orphan children. The amount received each month and the names of the
+prize winners was published in the National Gazette (a weekly paper),
+and a copy sent to every prize winner. This paper was published by the
+Government and every voter was free to subscribe for it without cost,
+but no advertisements were allowed in it. It published the work of every
+department of the Government and all bills approved by Parliament, and
+all laws recommended by the Parliament for whilst the Parliament could
+approve and legalize all Government expenditures, it could only
+recommend by a two-thirds vote the amending or creating of any acts
+pertaining to the Political, Civil and Penal Codes, which had to go
+before the people at the next general election, when they became the law
+of the land by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters who took part
+in the election, and had a universal circulation, as the Government
+owned and operated all railways, telegraphs, teleposts, telephones,
+wireless telegraphy stations and levees, all water power, steamers and
+boats for freight and passenger service, and, in fact, all public
+utilities.
+
+Besides, the Government manufactured and sold all liquors, tobaccos,
+drugs, teas, salt, sugar, coals, petroleum, lumber, iron in pigs and
+steel in plates and bars. It is easy to see that the Bank of Eurasia
+transacted an immense volume of business daily.
+
+The bank coined gold in denominations of fifty dollars, twenty dollars,
+ten dollars and five dollars; silver in dollar, fifty and
+twenty-five-cent pieces; nickel in ten-cent and five-cent pieces, and
+aluminum in one-cent pieces. All money coined with ten per cent. alloy
+and at bullion value. The coinage was readjusted every ten years and
+silver, nickel and aluminum coins were exchangd for gold at their face
+value. The Government issued banknotes drawing two per cent. a year, and
+loaned money on land and on goods in the Government warehouses and
+conducted a fire insurance business, but no insurance was paid on any
+property that was insured in the building where the fire broke out, and
+on no buildings that were not fireproof. No life insurance was allowed
+and no corporation or individual was allowed to carry on an insurance
+business and no person was permitted to insure property or life in the
+country in any foreign corporation, and no stock exchanges or gambling
+in futures were allowed.
+
+The Bank of Eurasia published every month in the National Gazette the
+amount of money on hand, so that the people might know when it was
+necessary for the Government to make a new issue of banknotes, so as not
+to cripple the circulation.
+
+I was greatly, impressed with the reply of the Minister of Finance when
+I asked him why he published those statements, "We deal honestly with
+the people and they trust us." In answer to my question if there were
+any trusts in his country, he smiled and replied, "One trust: the
+People."
+
+Corporations are allowed, but no watered stock and every stockholder
+has the same vote in electing officers of the company, whether he holds
+one share or any other number of shares, and any
+conspiracy to corner the market or to enhance the price of any article
+produced or manufactured is punished as a felony, the penalty being five
+years at hard labor in prison.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION.
+
+I called at the Department of Information, and when I was introduced I
+realized that I was in the presence of one of the world's greatest
+teachers. She gave me a warm handshake and said, "I have been expecting
+you, and now that you are here, I will take pleasure in showing you the
+workings of the department over which I have the honor to preside. There
+are no Government or private detective agencies in our country, but a
+constant watch is kept on all public officials as well as private
+violators of the law, by the Government placing for sale in every
+postoffice and every military station and every prison Government
+envelopes with fifty-cent stamps on them, and any person interfering in
+the sending or tampering with said letters is punished by imprisonment
+for five years at hard labor. Steel boxes with a slit in the lid to
+receive the letters were placed in every postoffice, military station
+and prison, and could not be opened except by a commissioner from the
+Department of Information. Any person could buy one, for there was a
+printed address on them, and send it to the President, who has at the
+present time three hundred secretaries (young ladies chosen from the
+orphan home) to read the letters, answer them and send a copy to the
+Minister of Justice who has them Classified, and acting on the
+information sends orders out to bring the guilty parties to justice, and
+as punishment is meted out only to the bribetakers, for it is only
+acting according to the mandates of human nature for a relative or
+friend to try to get a person out of trouble to offer a bribe, carried
+with it no penalty, but it left the bribetaker at the mercy of the other
+party, and in consequence of adopting this system very few public
+officials proved untrue, and crime has greatly diminished. Our
+department has charge of all mail matter and telegraph, telepost and
+telephone lines and wireless stations and all newspaper books and
+magazine publications, and we edit the National Gazette; besides we have
+charge of all Government scientific research parties, and if you will
+call again to-morrow I think I will be able to introduce you to the
+Chief Engineer who stands very high in his profession, and who has, by
+placing an Astronomical Observatory on the summit of Mount Everest,
+attracted the attention of the civilized world."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF MINES.
+
+I called at the appointed time and was introduced to the Chief
+Engineer, who invited me to accompany him on an inspection tour, to
+which I gladly assented, and, after a week's pleasant travel by rail, we
+arrived at the station on the southwestern slope of Mount Everest at an
+elevation of twelve thousand feet above the sea. We had arrived in the
+evening and enjoyed a good night's rest, and, eating a hearty breakfast,
+we walked out to take observations of the locality, before taking our
+trip to the summit, and the Chief told me of the way by which they
+finally erected an observatory on the highest mountain of the earth.
+
+"Five years ago the President sent for me," explained the Chief
+Engineer, "and asked if I could plan an observatory on Mount Everest. I
+replied that I would try to do so if the Government saw fit to place me
+in charge of the undertaking. I received my commission the next day and,
+calling to my aid two of the ablest engineers in the service of the
+Government, we selected a site for the entrance of the tunnel and next
+we searched for suitable power to do the work. We found a waterfall
+twenty miles distant, where we built a power house, installed turbines
+and dynamos and built an electric line to this place. We then erected a
+machine shop, in which we placed our electric engines and air
+compressors, and built a railroad connecting with the main line, and
+after we had done that we started the tunnel. As you will observe, the
+tunnel is a round bore twelve feet in diameter, and no explosives were
+used in making it. We used a tunneling machine driven and operated by
+compressed air, boring on the average fifty feet every twenty-four
+hours, and we washed the debris away by a powerful stream of water
+directed against the face of the tunnel so as not to obstruct the work.
+We gave the tunnel for the first five miles a grade of one foot in ten
+and from that point to the summit a grade of sixty degrees, and laid
+heavy steel segment rails six feet apart bolted to the solid rock, by
+this means dispensing with ties and permitting a free flow of water and
+slum. We found it necessary to build a chamber within the mouth of the
+tunnel sixty feet long, with automatic doors opening and shutting, to
+secure an abundance of air in the tunnel, and also in the observatory.
+The tunnel required no timbering, as we bored all the way through
+synetic granite and encountered very little water, and when we were
+about to break through at the summit we provided the workmen with fur
+clothing, and with air respirators, so that they would not be overcome
+by the cold and rarety of the atmosphere. We had a car driven by
+electricity to carry the men and material into the tunnel, having four
+cogwheel drivers on each side, and the tunnel throughout was lighted by
+electricity. We built the observatory of composition metal and glass,
+which was carried up on the car-but come along and you shall see for
+yourself."
+
+We entered an observatory car that was run by its own dynamo but in
+case of the dynamo giving out a trolley wire overhead- could furnish
+power any moment. After a pleasant ride of an hour's duration we came
+out of the tunnel into the observatory and I saw two magnificently
+mounted telescopes, one for visitors to look through and the other one
+for taking photographic views. I looked through the visitors' telescope
+and to my astonishment the sun was blue and when I asked one of the
+astronomers present the reason for it he replied that the sun was a
+great dynamo and that the dazzling brightness seen at low altitudes was
+caused by our atmosphere offering like the filament in an incandescent
+lamp great resistance to the electric energy of the sun producing a
+brilliant glow and if you were able to go outside the atmosphere of our
+earth you would only see the sun as a dark body in space and you would
+find yourself in absolute darkness and eternal silence. Night fell and
+when I looked again through the telescope and gazed on the countless
+hosts of heaven's millions of suns there came into my mind and I
+repeated aloud that noble passage in the Bible, "The heavens declare the
+glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. I remarked to the
+Chief Engineer as we went down to the station, that a great many people
+visited the observatory, for I had looked in the visitors' book, where
+every person was required to sign his name. He replied, "Yes, if a
+private company owned it, it would make the stockholders wealthy, for it
+has become to the globe-trotters what Mecca is to the Mohammedans for no
+tourist would dare to return home without registering at the observatory
+and we encourage them by publishing their names in the National Gazette.
+
+"If you would like to accompany me I think I can show you another work
+we are engaged in that is adding to the accumulated knowledge of the
+ages." I gladly assented and after ten days of railway travel we arrived
+at the great platinum mine of Eurasia. It was on the continental divide
+between Europe and Asia and had been worked on a small scale at the
+surface for a great many years, but had not produced much platinum and
+owing to an increasing demand for it in the arts the value of it greatly
+exceeded that of gold, while at the present time it is on a par with
+silver, owing to the government selling it in the market of the world
+for what it will bring and smashing any gambling ring that would attempt
+to corner the market. We entered a cage and were lowered to the one
+thousand-foot level; then we got out of the cage and, walking about
+twenty yards, we entered a chamber where there was another shaft and
+hoisting works and were lowered to the two-thousand foot level, which
+opened out in every direction, connecting with a drainage tunnel eight
+miles long, which carried off all the water for sixteen square miles of
+surface. After explaining to me the old methods of mining he said with a
+smile: "Come with me now and I will show you our new method," and
+entering a large chamber that looked like an immense warehouse, we
+stepped into a cage and went down, changing from one cage to another
+every thousand feet, until we stopped at the sixty-four-thousand-foot
+level. We visited several crosscuts and drifts on this level and found
+several hundred men at work taking out platinum ore of a high grade, and
+my companion told me that they were doing the same work on several other
+thousand-foot levels, the ore improving in quality as they went down.
+"You no doubt observed as we came down that the shaft was circular, but
+you may not have seen a second shaft of the same diameter as the hoisting
+shaft forty feet away. The second shaft is used for air pipes, water pipes
+and insulated electric wires.
+
+All the electric current to run the hoists and the compressed air to
+drive the drilling machines and to maintain free circulation of air
+throughout the workings, comes down that shaft and all the surplus water
+is pumped up it to the two-thousand-foot level, where it is carried off
+by the drainage tunnel and a complete system of escape ladders-besides
+at every level is a hoisting engine and cage to take the workmen up if
+danger threatens them. To insure an even temperature in the mine we keep
+a supply of liquid aid on every level, which is renewed daily,
+connecting the liquid air chest with the pipe that supplies fresh air to
+the workings. No expense is spared in taking care of the health and
+safety of the workmen and if a man gets sick or injured he gets the same
+pay as if he is working, and if a workman gets killed his wife receives
+the same pay that he received as long as she lives, and his children are
+as well provided for by the government. None but married men are
+employed and there is lively competition to secure employment with us."
+
+He informed me that they sank the shaft with rotary drilling machines,
+cutting a channel one inch wide and five feet in depth, leaving a core
+nine feet ten inches in diameter in which four holes were drilled four
+feet six inches in depth and loaded with a new explosive as powerful as
+dynamite but without its injurious fumes and perfectly safe to handle at
+any temperature. They averaged in sinking twelve feet daily and as they
+went down the rock became more compact and finer grained. As there were
+no hot springs in the vicinity and no signs of volcanic action even in
+prehistoric times, the temperature of the rock even at the
+sixty-four-thousand-foot level was only one hundred and twenty degrees
+Fahrenheit, and any increase of temperature in the workings was owing to
+the electric light generating heat in the dense atmosphere of the lower
+levels. My companion invited me to weigh myself on the ore scales and to
+my astonishment I only weighed one hundred and twenty pounds, and I
+exclaimed that something was wrong with the scales, but my companion
+offered to take the scales up with us to the surface and test them. We
+did so and on weighing myself again the beam tipped at one
+hundred and sixty pounds my regular weight.
+
+Then he informed me that there was a progressive fall in weights on
+every level as they went down and that if no unforeseen obstacle
+interfered they would reach the limit of attraction from the surface
+downward and in his opinion it would be at fifty miles. I asked him what
+they would find there and he replied that in his opinion it would be the
+same subtle and elastic essence that fills stellar space, but he added:
+"God alone knows the secret of the universe in his keeping." We visited
+the great smelting, refining and assaying works in the vicinity and he
+introduced me to the general superintendent of all the mines on the
+continental divide, who invited me to accompany him on a mine inspection
+tour and he would show me the improved method they used in prospecting
+for ore and extracting and milling it to the best advantage. "When our
+mining experts discover a mineral belt containing precious metals or
+copper, iron, lead, nickel, platinum, cobalt, quicksilver, manganese or
+any other ore used in manufactures and the arts, the first thing we do
+is to sink a shaft on the most likely ore chimney and at every one
+hundred feet in depth we run levels to develop it and if we continue to
+find ore as we go down and the ground requires drainage, we survey for a
+drainage tunnel that will drain the mine at the greatest depth, even if
+we have to run a tunnel ten miles. We sink the shaft to within twenty
+feet of the tunnel level and then quit sinking until the tunnel is
+completed. We use a tunneling machine, boring a tunnel six feet in
+diameter at the rate of one hundred feet per day. We run the tunnel
+directly under the shaft and then withdraw all the men and machinery
+from the tunnel, put a six-inch drill into the shaft that makes a hole
+into the tunnel, and quickly drains the mine. Then we begin to stope out
+at the lowest level, filling in the waste upward, and taking out only
+ore to be conveyed to the mill or smelter. While the shaft is being sunk
+the ore taken out is sent to the reduction works and carefully tested to
+find out the best way of reducing it so that when the mine is in good
+condition to work we know how to handle ore to the best advantage.
+
+"We have only a few reduction works for refractory ore, but they are on
+a grand scale, some of them handling one hundred thousand tons daily,
+and as the government owns and operates all the railways the cost of
+transporting ore is under two mills a ton per mile. We employ a corps of
+metallurgists experimenting to discover better methods in reducing and
+they have made great progress so that ores that were left in the mine or
+on the dump are now worked with handsome profit to the government  Our
+workmen all carry life and health insurance, one-half paid by the men
+monthly and the other half by the government, and where a mine is shut
+down by the government the miners are furnished employment in another
+place, so that they are never idle.
+
+"We also bore thousands of artesian wells throughout the country, some
+of them to the depth of five thousand feet, for artesian water, gas, and
+petroleum, and occasionally we locate fine bodies of coal by those means
+and those that we don't need to supply the market we cap and stop the
+flow and use them in the future, always using the best flowing wells for
+the present time. When we have to use drainage tunnels for our mines we
+carry the water off from the mouth of the tunnel in a flume, placing
+quicksilver in the riffles, and if it is a copper mine we place scrap
+iron in the water and we also use the water for power to assist us in
+mining, so that at the present time we extract and reduce ore at a lower
+rate than in other parts of the world, for there is no wastefill
+management and no overproduction, for in all our mining operations we
+work those that cost the least, and we operate our coal mines in the
+same way."
+
+I thanked him for the courtesy shown me and took the train for the
+capital, and my next visit was to the Department of Education.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
+
+I was ushered into the office of the Minister of Education and was
+introduced to a charming lady who filled that position with signal
+ability. "I am told that you are from the United States of America. "
+she said with a winning smile, "and I hope that you will have a pleasant
+time while you remain with its." She spoke perfect English and informed
+me that it was the language of Eurasia, but that it differed from
+English used in other countries in one way. "We write the words the way
+they sound and eliminate all useless letters, saving a great deal of
+time and paper." She informed me that in no school throughout the
+country, save one, were the dead, or foreign, languages taught, and in
+that one only for the purpose of correct translation in the interest of
+science, for practical education is what people need. "We have one great
+university for orphan children and those without a name, and from it all
+the departments of the government are supplied with secretaries, clerks,
+typewriters and messengers, and as they are physically, mentally and
+morally trained for the duties of life, they are highly prized in the
+matrimonial market. All our common schools have a gymnasium and swimming
+tank annexed to the study room; the gymnasium being divided into two
+compartments, one for boys and one for girls, with a door from each
+communicating with the study room and also with the swimming tank." The
+tank was only four feet deep so as to remove as much as possible the
+chance for a child being drowned, and no little children were allowed
+in the tank without two or more boys and girls of fourteen years of age
+being present.
+
+The doors leading into the tank room were kept under lock and key and
+were only opened once a day and that at the noon hour. The youngest
+children, up to the age of twelve years, when they had learned their
+lessons both in the forenoon and afternoon went into the gymnasium to
+play, and by those means the children are physically well developed and
+knowing how to swim are not liable to become frightened if thrown into
+the water and know what to do to save others from drowning. They are
+taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, typewriting, typesetting
+and practical geometry, so as to draw lines, angles and circles and find
+their volumes and areas, but algebra, astronomy, grammar, geology,
+physiology, biology and metaphysics are reserved for the high schools,
+where every boy and girl is sent when they are fifteen years of age and
+kept there for three years at the expense of the government. The high
+school is located in the district reserve as near the center of the
+district as conditions will permit in the vicinity of the court house
+and the Governor's residence and has adjoining it not less than one
+thousand acres, according to the population of the district, so as to
+make it as self-sustaining as possible and to teach the students
+agriculture, horticulture and the care and management of stock and
+poultry.
+
+"We have a foundry, machine shop, woolen mill, cotton mill and chemical
+works at every high school, and while both sexes are taught farming and
+gardening the boys are taught mechanical trades and the girls knitting,
+spinning, weaving, cooking, housekeeping and nursing, so as to know how
+to take care of the sick and injured, and at the age of eighteen years
+the boys are drafted into the army and serve three years, building
+railways, levees, canals, irrigation ditches, docks, warehouses and
+other public buildings, and the girls are sent to the chemical
+factories, woolen mills, cotton mills, paper mills, flax mills, sugar
+mills and tobacco factories. No exceptions are made from service; all
+must serve. Both boys and girls are dressed in military uniform and are
+drilled two hours in rifle practice, firing ten shots at an imitation
+enemy in a military suit, stuffed with	straw, in different positions,
+from one hundred to one thousand yards distance, every Sunday weather
+permitting and in actual war one brigade of girls is assigned to every
+division of the army to carry off the wounded and nurse them and to
+assist in the defense whenever it is necessary, and also to garrison
+and hold the lines of communication and their presence in the field
+has been so inspiring to our boys that they never have turned their
+backs to the enemy."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE WAR DEPARTMENT.
+
+My next trip was to the War Department, where I was shown the Rules and
+Regulations governing the army, and navy.
+
+The army was organized in twenty-five corps of eighty thousand men
+each, besides the ladies' army corps of an equal number; each corps
+composed of three divisions of foot infantry and one division of mounted
+infantry. Each division was composed of three brigades of infantry,
+one regiment of sharpshooters and one regiment of artillery; each
+brigade of three regiments and each regiment of twelve companies, one
+hundred and fifty men each. The company was divided into three sergeants'
+commands and those into three corporal squads. Each company consisted
+of one hundred and thirty-five privates, nine corporals, three
+sergeants, one company clerk, one lieutenant and a captain. Four
+companies composed a battalion, commanded by a major, and the regiment
+by a colonel. There were no lieutenant colonels; the senior major taking
+charge of the regiment in case of death or disability of the colonel
+until the regiment elected an officer to fill the vacancy. All vacancies
+above the rank of colonel were filled by the corps commander, all
+vacancies up to and including that of colonel by the votes of the men,
+but the colonel had to be chosen from the majors, a major from the
+captains of his battalion. The lieutenant succeeded to the captaincy
+without a vote-but the lieutenant had to be chosen from the sergeants
+and company clerk and the sergeant from the corporals of his command.
+The corporals were elected by the privates of the squads, so that any
+soldier could rise from the ranks through merit to high command.
+
+The corps commander holds the rank of lieutenant general, the general
+of division that of major general, and the commander of a brigade that
+of a brigadier general. The regiment of sharpshooters was chosen from
+the best rifle shots in the division and in war time received double pay
+for they were always at the front of the division and the first to
+engage the enemy. A one-pounder rapid-fire gun was attached to every
+company and was operated by the lieutenant assisted by the company
+clerk. In the artillery regiment there were twelve batteries, six
+three-inch caliber guns and one one-pounder rapid-fire gun to each
+battery, and as they were under the direct control of the general
+commanding the division he could mass them to fire on any point of
+attack. The privates were paid fifteen dollars a month, the corporals
+twenty dollars, the sergeants twenty-five dollars, company clerks thirty
+dollars, lieutenants forty dollars, captains sixty dollars, majors
+eighty dollars, colonels one hundred dollars, brigadier generals one
+hundred and fifty dollars, major generals two hundred dollars and the
+lieutenant general three hundred dollars a month, and officers and
+privates were allowed the same rations and the same amount of clothing.
+No fixed ration was issued on account of climatic conditions-but plenty
+and no waste was the rule and every captain and lieutenant had to sit at
+meals with his men and eat the same food. No violation of this rule was
+allowed and as a result of this common sense regulation the men were
+well fed and provided, for every colonel was held to account for the
+welfare of the men under his command and every officer up to the rank of
+field marshal could be reduced to the ranks for violation of the rules
+and regulations governing the army. As there was a mailbox under the
+control of the Minister of Information in every military post in which
+complaints were posted to be sent to the President it had a very
+salutary effect in keeping the officers attentive to their duty, as no
+officer wanted to lose his position and salary and be a private. All
+trivial violations of the rules by non-commissioned officers and
+privates, such as insolence, drunkenness, filthy habits and disorderly
+conduct, could be punished by the captain with three days on bread and
+water-but no pay could be forfeited for any offense, for no fines were
+allowed in the republic. For serious offenses committed by either
+officer or private in time of peace, such as sodomy, crimes against
+nature, adultery, seduction, larceny, embezzlement or any other felony,
+the accused was sent to the district court for trial and on conviction
+was dismissed the service and committed to prison for the term of years
+provided by the law for the crime he had been convicted of and five
+years additional for perjury, he having violated his oath of office that
+he would be honest and upright in all things so help him God, and any
+officer could be reduced to the ranks for conduct unbecoming a gentleman
+as the result of a trial before a jury of twelve men drawn by ballot
+from any other command than his own. No sashes, jewelry or regalia of
+any kind was permitted to be worn.
+
+Officers and privates were dressed alike and the insignia of rank was
+worn on the collar, and no revolvers, bayonets, sabres, swords, rapiers
+or lances were allowed to be carried-but every officer was required to
+carry a rifle so that he could not be marked out by the enemy's
+sharpshooters and to set an example of good shooting to his men when
+under fire. Every soldier seriously injured in the service of his
+country in time of peace as well as in war, received the same pay and
+care as if he was still in the service and if he was killed or died from
+disease his father and mother or either of them, as long as they lived.
+The army was truly a great industrial army, for every officer and man
+was required to work eight hours a day and for six days in the week, at
+remunerative labor, and two hours on Sundays at rifle practice. The
+rules and regulations governing the army applied equally to both sexes.
+Both boys and girls, when drafted into the army, were first sent to the
+headquarters of the army corps to which they were assigned, the boys
+mostly afterward to the department of railways, mines, commerce and
+agriculture and the girls to the department of finance, manufactures,
+education and information, distributed all over the republic so as to
+become acquainted with the people in general, by so doing wiping out
+sectional feeling and realizing that God was their father and that they
+all belonged to a common brother- and sisterhood united together under a
+government for the people, of the people, and by the people. I paid a
+visit to the navy yard and inspected two battleships that were
+undergoing some slight repairs to their machinery.
+
+One was a second-class battleship and her dimensions and armament were
+as follows: Length five hundred and twenty-five feet, breadth of beam
+seventy-five feet, draught of water twenty feet and six inches, height
+of gun deck from the water line twelve feet; armament: ten twelve-inch
+caliber guns mounted in turrets on the center line of the ship. The
+turrets were bolted to the deck, five of them forward and five aft, and
+were eighteen feet in diameter, eight feet high, with a slope from deck
+to parapet of thirty degrees and made of armor steel twelve inches
+thick. One gun in each turret and the guns could swing around on
+four-fifths of the circle, so that every gun could be brought to bear on
+an enemy either to port or starboard. No other guns were carried in time
+of war and no cruisers, torpedo boats, or torpedoes were used, for
+experience in war had shown that they were useless waste of men and
+money. The battleship was propelled by rotary engines developing fifty
+thousand horsepower, driving the ship at a sustained speed of thirty
+knots an hour. The ship had four propellers, two on each side at the
+stern, and the boilers were heated by petroleum with automatic feed. The
+engineer informed me that they had tried gasoline and other explosives
+(for the rotary engines worked well with them) but they endangered the
+safety of the ship and the lives of the crew. There were only two decks
+in the ship, the lower deck just above the waterline and the gun deck;
+the lower deck floor was two-inch steel and was not divided into
+compartments, having no partitions, so that if solid shot or shell
+entered the side of the ship it could not scatter a shower of steel
+splinters to kill or wound the men, and for further protection against
+fragments of shell heavy woolen blankets were hung on the inside from
+the ceiling. A double partition of two-inch steel ran bow to stern
+through the center of the ship, reaching from the floor of the hold to
+the lower deck, with a space between the partitions of four inches
+filled in with concrete, and the gun deck was supported by heavy steel
+pillars, as the space between the lower deck and the gun deck was twelve
+feet. A fireproof platform four feet wide with a railing four feet high
+of netting, encircled the smokestack about twenty feet above the gun and
+connected with it by a rope ladder. It was the lookout station and the
+Captain's post in battle from where he directed the action.
+
+There was only one smokestack on any battleship and no bridge or
+superstructure or any inflammable material above the waterline, and the
+officers and men eat at the same tables and partake of the same food. If
+any officer or private objected to it or violated this rule, he was
+dismissed the service, for it was considered injurious to the service on
+board ship to keep any discontented person. The crew consisted of two
+hundred privates, fifty corporals, five sergeants, ten lieutenants, ten
+captains, one  chief engineer with two assistants, one lieutenant
+commander and the commander, who was captain of the ship and had the
+same rank and pay as a colonel in the army.
+
+The gunner and assistant gunners held the same rank and pay as captains
+and lieutenants in the army. The chief engineer received the same as the
+commander and took orders only from him, and his assistants received the
+same pay as majors in the army, and the sergeants, corporals and
+privates the same pay as in the army. The gunners and assistant gunners
+were chosen from among the crew for the best shooting, for it was justly
+held that victory in a naval battle rested mostly on the shooting
+qualities of the man behind the gun.
+
+The other battleship was rated first class and her dimensions were as
+follows: Length, six hundred and thirty feet, breadth of beam ninety
+feet, draught of water thirty feet. Armament: sixteen twelve-inch
+caliber guns in single turrets and placed in the following manner:
+forward on the lower gun deck, five guns; one on the center line of the
+ship near the bow and two on each side further back. Five guns aft on
+the lower gun deck; one on the center line of the ship near the stern
+and two on each side in the same way as in the first part of the ship.
+Three guns forward on the upper gun deck, one on the center line of the
+ship and one on each side nearer amidships; three guns aft on the upper
+gun deck in the relative positions. All the guns were placed so that
+twelve guns could be brought to bear on an enemy ship. The lower gun
+deck was twelve feet above the water line and the upper gun deck two,
+and they were constructed and equipped as those on the second class.
+
+The first class battleships carried one hundred and two more men than
+the second class, consisting of six gunners, six assistant gunners,
+eighteen corporals and seventy privates. No additional force was
+required for the Engineer department of the ship. I inquired of the
+Chief Engineer what make of engine they used and he replied that it was
+the Hammond & Co. Rotary Engine and added: "We are indebted for this
+engine to a countryman of yours named Leonard Hammond, who perfected it
+so that at present it is in universal use and has revolutionized the
+industries of the world by its saving of fuel and the low price at which
+it call be manufactured, so that it has consigned every other make of
+engine, reciprocal and turbine, to the scrap pile, and of the most
+notable benefits derived from it has been in the shipping not only in
+economy of fuel, but also in the small space they occupy so as to give
+more room for cargo and in the almost total absence of vibration, and in
+the battleship from their being on the propeller shaft at the stern far
+below the water line."
+
+The battleships remain for ten months of the year in the rivers and
+harbors, where the officers and men are kept busy dredging, building
+levees, wharves and breakwaters, and they take a cruise to different
+parts of the earth during the months of December and January, and during
+that time engage in gunnery practice. A battery of three-inch caliber
+guns is taken on board each battleship for that as the big guns will not
+stand continual firing and are only used on special occasions to see if
+the gunners have improved. The men are highly pleased with the service
+and the majority of them re-enlist. On inquiry I was told that they had
+thirty first-class and thirty second-class battleships and that they
+kept them always together so that they could strike an enemy with force,
+but as they held no people in subjection and had no colonies or outlying
+possessions there was at the present time very little danger of war-but
+if it should come they were ready to fight and to strike hard. As I left
+the navy yard I thought what a pity it was that the people inhabiting
+the other countries of the earth were not governed as these people are,
+for then there would be no need of battleships and the kindly earth
+would slumber lapped in Universal Laws.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
+
+On inquiring at the Department of Commerce I was informed that it had
+charge of all vessels engaged in internal traffic as well as in foreign
+trade, and operated lines of steamers running to all ports of the globe,
+carrying freight at a rate between home and foreign ports that defied
+competition, but they did not carry freight between foreign countries.
+The men for the Mercantile Marine were furnished by the Army and had the
+same pay. They were required to load and unload cargo in every port
+where they took on or discharged freight, and shippers did not have to
+pay wharfage charges or pilot fees, for everyone took his ship into port
+and out without a pilot. The department also had charge of all
+Government warehouses, wharves and docks and appointed all consuls to
+foreign countries and received their reports, which were published in
+the National Gazette.
+
+The business of the Department was run on the principle of the greatest
+good to the whole people, so that whenever the profits any year exceeded
+the expenses and the sinking fund, freight rates were reduced.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF RAILWAYS.
+
+I went from there to the Department of Railroads and was given a copy
+of freight and passenger rates which on examination proved to be very
+simple and that required no great lawyers with legal cunning to draw up
+as they did in my country in making tariff schedules to fool the people
+and open a wider door for graft rebates and special privileges. The
+passenger rate was five mills per mile for any and every distance, with
+children under seven years of age free, with but one exception-all
+children attending the District High School were carried free to and
+from school.
+
+Sleeping cars were provided for all persons traveling over one thousand
+miles on the train, but no person under that distance was permitted to
+occupy one. There were no Pullman or Palace Coaches
+and no special train was allowed save only to the President or member of
+his Cabinet on official business. The railway lines were run through the
+country so as to bring the produce of the people to market and to bring
+all the people in touch with one another. Hundreds of short lines were
+in operation that by themselves did not pay operating expenses, but as
+they formed a part of the whole railway system of the Republic under one
+management, they were beneficial to the people. The rate for all kinds
+of freight, except grain and vegetables, was five mills per ton per mile
+for all distances, and for grain, fruit and vegetables two mills per ton
+per mile.
+
+All Government freight and employees were carried free, but a strict
+account was kept so as to prevent fraud. No discrimination between
+persons or places was allowed. Everyone was placed on the same footing,
+but to prevent conspiracies in restraint of trade if a person in any
+district shipped goods into another district and offered them for sale
+for a less price, with the freight added, than he sold them for in his
+own district, he was punished by six months' imprisonment at hard labor
+in the district where he violated the law, and if any person, either of
+his own account or acting as agent for another party, sold goods brought
+from a foreign country for a less price than the wholesale price of the
+goods at the place where they were produced or manufactured with twenty
+per cent. added for freight and other expenses, was punished by six
+months' imprisonment at hard labor, and if not a citizen of the Republic
+of Eurasia, was expelled from the country after serving out his sentence,
+for, as a prominent officer remarked to me: "We do not permit any
+Standard Oil methods in our country." There were no tariff duties
+levied. Every article produced or manufactured (except those produced or
+manufactured by the Government, which were prohibited) were admitted
+free, provided the Government of that country admitted articles produced
+or manufactured in Eurasia free; if not, then a non-intercourse decree
+was issued by the President of Eurasia to be in force until the other
+country accepted free trade. The railways were built directly by the
+Government, employing soldiers to do the work, and no contracts were
+allowed, Government superintendents and foremen bossing theconstruction,
+even to getting out ties in the Government forests and the rails made in
+Government mills and foundries. The Government built railroads at less
+cost than they were built for in any other part of the world and
+politicians had no chance to get their political friends into soft berths
+at the expense of the taxpayers. No money was paid by the General
+Government for right of way.
+
+All claims for damages arising out of the building of railways had to
+be presented to the District Court, and the law provided that the
+District Court could grant such compensation as was just, but in no case
+could it exceed the assessed value of the land per acre that the owner
+had sworn to previously as the full value of his land, to be paid out of
+the funds of the district. There were only two forms of taxation in
+Eurasia, a land tax and a graduated income tax. There was no tax on
+improvements of any kind, either on city or country property, but on the
+land only; by this wise system of taxation encouraging the people to
+improve their property and beautify and discouraging land speculation;
+and when the Government wanted land owned by private parties who were
+citizens of the Republic (for no foreigner was permitted by law to own
+land directly or indirectly, so that the curse of Absentee Landlordism
+which was the ruin of Ireland, should never blight the happiness of the
+people of Eurasia), they added up the assessments for the previous five
+years and divided them by five and added twenty per cent. to it in payment
+for the land, together with fair compensation for any buildings there
+might be on it; so that if the owner swore to a low valuation on his land
+he was the loser; but the District Court, sitting as a Board of
+Equalization every year, could fix the value of the land at what they
+considered proper.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE INCOME TAX.
+
+The income tax was a graduated income tax beginning with persons having
+on income one thousand dollars a year and above what they laid out in
+improving their property. All persons whose income was less than one
+thousand dollars paid no income tax. The tax was one per cent. on one
+thousand dollars, the rate increasing with the amount of income up to
+fifty thousand dollars a year, when it was fifty per cent., leaving the
+owner twenty-five thousand dollars, and for all incomes over fifty
+thousand dollars a year the surplus over twenty-five thousand dollars
+went to the Government and as a result of this wise policy there were no
+Jay Goulds or J. D. Rockefellers in Eurasia. All money received from
+land and income taxes went into the District Fund for the expenses of
+the district and schools, and building and maintaining of good,
+macadamized roads, for every district had a rock crusher from which the
+roads were supplied with broken stone at a trifling expense to the
+district.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURES.
+
+The Government derived its revenues from the sale of liquors, drugs,
+chemicals, tobacco, coffee, tea, sugar, salt, coal, oil, stone,
+charcoal, iron, steel, copper, lead and the precious metals. The
+greatest revenue was derived from liquors. Every commodity produced or
+manufactured by the Government was sold in lots or packages at one
+dollar a lot or package. The Government made and sold wine in three
+grades, The first-grade wine was put up in quart bottles at one dollar a
+quart, the second-grade wine in half-gallon bottles at one dollar a
+bottle, and the third-grade wine in gallon bottles at one dollar a
+gallon; alcohol in half-gallon bottles at one dollar a bottle, and
+brandy in the same way and sold at the same price. There were no grades
+in brandy. All brandies were sold at one dollar for half a gallon.
+Whisky, of which there was only manufactured one grade, but out of
+different cereals or vegetables, was put up in one-gallon bottles and
+sold at one dollar a gallon. Beer was sold in five-gallon kegs at one
+dollar a keg, but the purchaser of beer had to pay in addition for the
+keg, which was refunded when he returned the keg in good condition. The
+Government manufactured pure liquors and no foreign liquors were
+admitted into Eurasia.
+
+In the chemical factories every drug required by the Medical
+Pharmacopoeia and every chemical required in the arts and manufactures
+was made, but no drugs were sold except on a medical prescription, or
+chemicals except to responsible parties. The voters of any district
+could by a majority vote prohibit the use of any or all liquors or drugs
+in the district, and on receiving official notice of the law enacted by
+the district the Minister of Manufactures issued an order withdrawing
+from the district any or all liquors or drugs prohibited, and any person
+bringing into the district any prohibited drug or liquor, unless under a
+prescription from a Government physician, was punished by six months at
+hard labor within the district.
+
+At every Government warehouse where drugs and chemicals were sold the
+Government employed a competent physician, on a salary fixed by law, to
+superintend their sale, and he could prescribe and the Government
+furnished the medicine free to those who were sick and did not have the
+money to pay for it.
+
+Tobacco was manufactured and sold in three grades, viz., cigars,
+which were sold in packages twenty cigars for a dollar, and smoking
+tobacco and chewing at one dollar a package. No cigarettes were
+manufactured or sold by the Government or admitted into Eurasia, as it
+was recognized by all intelligent people who took a warm interest in
+human progress that the use of tobacco in the form of cigarettes had an
+injurious effect on the young, through the pernicious habit of inhaling
+the smoke. Coffee and tea were put up in three grades at one dollar a
+package, the packages weighing in proportion to grade, and sugar was
+made and sold in two grades, viz., common sugar and refined. The common
+was put up in twenty-five-pound sacks and sold for one dollar a sack,
+and the refined sugar in twenty-pound sacks and sold at one dollar a
+sack. Salt was put up in one-hundred-pound sacks and five sacks of
+common salt were sold for one dollar and four sacks of refined salt for
+one dollar, or at the rate of four dollars a ton for rock salt and five
+dollars a ton for refined salt.
+
+The Government manufactured charcoal on a large scale in fireproof
+brick kilns, that turned out ten thousand bushels of charcoal to the
+kiln, with elevated railroad tracks running between the rows of kilns,
+so that the wood was unloaded from the cars into the kilns and on the
+outside of the kilns were sunken railroad tracks so that the charcoal
+when drawn from the kilns could be loaded into the cars with the least,
+amount of labor, enabling the Government to sell charcoal in
+one-hundred-pound sacks at one dollar for two hundred pounds, or at the
+rate of ten dollars a ton. The Government reserved for its own use all
+anthracite coal, but sold bituminous coal in two-hundred-pound sacks for
+a dollar, at the rate of five dollars a ton. The Government reserved for
+its own use crude petroleum, but refined it as coal oil and sold it at
+ten cents a gallon in dollar lots.
+
+Pig iron and bar steel were sold by the Government at a price yielding
+a profit of twenty per cent. over cost of production; lead and copper at
+the same rate of profit, and all the gold and silver mined or brought
+into Eurasia was coined and went into circulation. Every commodity
+produced or manufactured by the Government in the above list was sold at
+the same price, whether the Government warehouse where the goods were
+sold was in the most populous city of Eurasia or at a lonely
+fishing-station in the icy regions of the Arctic or in the torrid
+deserts of the Tropics.
+
+Every person buying a commodity in a Government store was required by
+law to register his name in the Government account book opposite the
+list of articles purchased, which was always open to the public for
+inspection, so that any intelligent person could see who was addicted to
+the use of intoxicating liquors, and the manager of the warehouse was
+compelled by law on the complaint of a wife or mother to deny liquor to
+the husband or son that was complained against and to publish the name
+in the district newspaper of largest circulation as well as posting it
+on the bulletin board on the front of the warehouse, and any person who
+gave liquor directly or indirectly to the person prohibited was
+sentenced, on conviction thereof, to six months' imprisonment at hard
+labor. The Magistrate was forbidden by law to release on probation any
+person over the age of fifteen years convicted of this offense, and a
+child under the age of fifteen violating this law was sent to the reform
+school, of which there was one in every district.
+
+No credit was allowed in the purchase of goods from the Government and
+the manager of the warehouse had discretionary power to limit the sale
+of any commodity so as to treat rich and poor alike and to prevent
+speculation. As every purchaser could buy a dollar's worth of any
+commodity for sale by the Government and as no rebate was granted no
+matter what the amount purchased, it placed every purchaser on an
+equality in dealing with the Government. No liquor was allowed to be
+drunk on or about the premises where it was sold, neither could it be
+sold by any private party directly or indirectly to any person.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+PUBLIC UTILITIES.
+
+The Government, through its ownership and operation of all public
+utilities, placed within the reach of every person the necessaries and
+some of the luxuries of life, no matter what their trade or profession
+or where situated, so that when I became acquainted with their system of
+government I was not surprised at the spirited character and noble
+bearing of the people, in striking contrast to the cringing servility of
+the ignorant laborer in England and the negroes of the United States of
+America, for in Eurasia there were no kings, dukes or lords, but every
+man was addressed as "Mister" and every female as "Madame" or "Miss,"
+and there was practically realized Burns's famous song: "A man's a man
+for a' that."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
+
+I visited several experimental farms under the management of the
+Department of Agriculture and was informed by the superintendent of the
+farm that the Government had a small farm of six hundred and forty acres
+in every district in which was situated the District High School where
+boys and girls were taught how to farm and to raise stock and poultry to
+the best advantage, and also large farms at every military reservation
+where persons convicted of crime were taught how to become useful
+members of society. The Government raised only thoroughbred stock and
+poultry on the farms, and the service of the males was given free to
+every farmer that desired to improve his stock.
+
+As Eurasia covered a vast extent of country, enjoying every variety of
+climate, the Department of Agriculture had all almost unlimited field to
+work in and was yearly producing some new variety of plants that
+enriched the labors of the husbandman as well as discovering remedies to
+successfully combat parasites and other enemies of the fruitraiser and
+horticulturist as well as the farmer. District fairs were held once a
+year in every district at which prizes were given to the best butter and
+cheese makers and to the best breeder of every kind of live stock and
+poultry raised in the district, but no stock or poultry imported into
+the district could receive a prize. The owner of anything exhibited at
+the fair had to make an affidavit that he or she had raised it on his or
+her farm. Prizes were given to the owner of the best cereals and
+vegetables of all kinds as well as for hemp, flax, cotton and silk, and
+for the best manufactured articles of every description. The Government
+exhibited at every district fair the most improved machinery in use for
+bettering the means of production with skilled mechanics to operate it
+and any person desiring to purchase a machine could buy it from the
+Government at the actual cost of manufacture with twenty per cent.
+added. The Government prizes at the district fairs excited and aroused a
+growing interest in the people to improve their condition and by
+bringing them together in great gatherings made them more friendly to
+one another with a broader and deeper feeling for humanity.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
+
+I did not see any foreign Ambassadors in the Capital and on enquiring
+for the cause of their absence was referred to the Minister of Foreign
+Affairs for information. He told me that the presence of Foreign
+Ministers in Eurasia would be in violation of the laws as no privileges
+were allowed to any person that could not be enjoyed by all the people,
+"and no doubt you are aware that under the monarchical system of
+government Ambassadors and their suites were privileged persons who
+could not be arrested and punished for violating the laws of Eurasia,
+and they could bring into the country everything that they wanted for
+their own use without paying any duty on them, even if the use of the
+article was prohibited by law; and taking advantage of this immunity,
+some of them brought into the country and circulated obscene books that
+would not be allowed to go through the mails and that would subject any
+citizen of this country to six months at hard labor, if they were found
+in his possession.
+
+"When a government by the people came into power in Eurasia the
+President called our Legations home and dismissed the foreign
+Ambassadors and Ministers and notified every Government that we had
+dealings with that in the future the Government of Eurasia would
+communicate with them by mail and telegraph and would publish in the
+National Gazette of Eurasia all correspondence that passed between them,
+so that the people of both countries should know the character of the
+men to whom they had entrusted the management of foreign affairs. We do
+not interfere in the affairs of other countries, but try to promote
+peace and good will among all nations. We have enforced a law that met
+with bitter opposition in England and the United States of America and
+brought us to the verge of war, but the common sense of the working men
+and women in both countries forced their Government to yield and it has
+proved a blessing to the sailors. The law commands that if a sailor on
+any vessel that comes into Eurasian ports, no matter what flag she
+flies, makes a complaint of ill-usage, the party complained against
+shall be arrested and tried and if found guilty sent to prison for the
+term of years corresponding to the offense."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+UNITED WORKERS OF EURASIA.
+
+I was introduced to the President of the United Workers of Eurasia and
+he told me that all the working men and women were united in one great
+union and that the present Minister of Labor was a lady who for years
+had championed the cause of Labor and that she was unceasing in her
+efforts to better their condition now that she was at the head of the
+Department of Labor. The wages of all Government employees were fixed by
+law and could not be raised or lowered except by a two-thirds vote of
+the people, and only one bill from each department could be submitted by
+the Parliament to the people to vote on at each election, so that graft
+and corrupt practices could gain no footing by appealing to selfish
+interests.
+
+The law provided a liability fund for sickness, injuries and death
+among working men and women; one-half of the fund payable by the working
+men and women and the other half by the employers. The money for the
+fund had to be paid monthly. Every working man and woman had to pay out
+of his or her wages a fixed sum for which the employer was held
+responsible and every employer had to pay an equal sum for every person
+in his employ. This law applied equally to every person in Eurasia, the
+employer as well as the employed. There was no charge for membership in
+the labor union and no walking delegates, for the Government gave them
+permission to hold their meetings in the churches. which were all
+Government properly, and in the public schools. Whenever the members of
+the union in any district wanted an increase of wages the law required
+them to serve a written notice on the employer and a copy of it on the
+District Court. The Chief justice then called both parties before the
+Court and ordered them to each select one person as arbitrator, and for
+those two selected to settle the dispute and if they could not agree,
+then the case went immediately before the District Court and a majority
+vote of the Court settled it. As a result of this common-sense method of
+settling labor disputes there were no strikes.
+
+Every corporation, before shutting down its works, had to serve ten
+days' notice on its employees and also file a copy of it with the
+District Court, stating its reasons for so doing, and if the labor union
+protested, the Court heard the case and if there was unsufficient cause
+shown by the corporation it had to continue work until such time as it
+showed good and sufficient reasons to stop work. The Government strictly
+enforced the eight-hour law, and no working woman was permitted to work
+overtime. Children were not allowed to work for wages under any
+circumstances for they were the wards of the State, but men could work
+overtime if the union permitted them, with double pay for it. The
+Government granted a pension of half the wages yearly received by every
+working man and woman that was over sixty years of age and a full
+pension wage to every working man or woman over seventy years of age, no
+matter what their financial condition was at that time.
+
+Every person before casting a ballot at the polls was required to show
+a receipt from the Department of Health that two dollars had been paid
+into the Old Age Pension fund for the previous year, which was a
+salutary measure in preserving the purity of elections by eliminating
+the shiftless and improvident from participation in the election.
+
+The Government obeyed the Fourth Commandment, "Honor thy Father and thy
+Mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God
+giveth thee."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.
+
+I learned that the Department of Health had greater responsibilities
+than any other department of the Government, for the physical, mental
+and moral welfare of the people was in its keeping. One of its duties
+was to prevent the introduction of any diseases into Eurasia, and to
+make it effective every person coming into the country had to undergo a
+physical examination by three Government physicians, and all persons
+that were idiotic or insane or had any of the following diseases, viz.:
+syphilis, tuberculosis, cancer, leprosy, yellow fever, smallpox, or any
+other contagious disease or fever, or was shown on examination to be
+addicted to vicious habits, were denied admission. Another of the duties
+of the Department of Health was to examine every person that applied to
+practice medicine and surgery or to engage in any professional calling.
+The law required a medical examination to be made of the person, who was
+granted a license every year, so as to keep the professions up to a high
+standard.
+
+Before granting license to any man, three male physicians in Government
+employ examined him, and if a female three female physicians examined
+her. The first examination was physical, and if found to be in good
+physical health they were passed up for a mental examination, and if
+they qualified for their profession they were examined morally, when
+they were asked the following questions: "Do you believe in the
+Brotherhood of Man? Will you do unto others always as you would desire
+that others should do to you? Do you promise that you will not render
+obedience directly or indirectly to any person or persons outside of
+Eurasia and that you will render willing obedience to the laws and do
+all that lies in your power to maintain the honor of the country?" If
+they did not agree to those rules of conduct they were denied a license.
+If any person attempted to practice any profession without a license he
+was punished by six months' imprisonment at hard labor.
+
+Any person practicing fortune-telling or any other fraudulent calling
+was tried for obtaining money under false pretenses, and on conviction
+thereof was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at hard labor at the
+rock crusher. The result of this wise law showed in the total absence of
+bands of gypsies, dancing dervishes, holy rollers and strolling
+vagabonds of every description in Eurasia. If a man or woman was found
+anywhere in Eurasia without visible means of support the Department of
+Health found work for them until such time as they could better their
+condition. They were required to work eight hours a day if they were
+able to do manual labor and if not able to work they were sent to a
+Government Sanatorium.
+
+The Department of Health had charge of the sewerage system in every
+district, city as well as country. In the cities it supervised the
+erection of every new building, and any old buildings that it pronounced
+unsanitary had to be torn down. It saw also to the removal of all
+garbage and refuse material. The Department of Health had charge of all
+births, marriages and deaths, and could order the cremation of any dead
+body when it believed that it would be to the benefit of the health of
+the community to do so. The Department of Health was also required by
+law to make a physical examination of children when they were born and
+to take care of them if the mother was unable to do so and to send all
+illegitimate children to the Government Orphan College. It superintended
+the sale of all medicine and drugs, having a Government physician at
+every Government warehouse where they were sold. It had also charge of
+all idiots and insane persons as well as dangerous criminals.
+
+The Superintendent and two Assistant Superintendents of the lunatic
+asylums (of which there were only two, one for males and one for
+females) were required by law to castrate male lunatics and emasculate
+females who had become insane through masturbation or other vicious
+habits and to chloroform dangerous lunatics who had homicidal
+tendencies. Those three physicians in committee examined every dangerous
+lunatic and two of them could order the person chloroformed if in their
+judgment it was necessary. Lady physicians had charge of the female
+lunatic asylum with the same authority as the men. The two asylums were
+located in the center of a fine tract of farming land in the Southern
+part of Eurasia, consisting of ninety-two thousand one hundred and sixty
+acres in a high state of cultivation with flourishing orchards and
+vineyards, and at the time I visited it had a population of sixty
+thousand male inmates and thirty-five thousand female inmates-besides
+the officers and guards.
+
+The mildest and most tractable of the inmates were in communities
+organized in military style in different parts of the grounds and were
+busily employed in doing everything that was required to make the
+institution self-stustaining. The physicians of the State prisons were
+required by law after one year's imprisonment (one year after sentence
+was passed was allowed to prove innocence) to castrate all males
+convicted of rape, incest, or any other infamous crime against nature,
+and to castrate every male prisoner who committed sodomy or other
+infamous crime while in prison; but only after trial and conviction for
+the crime before the District Court, and they could by a majority vote
+chloroform any dangerous criminal that showed homicidal tendencies.
+
+I saw no red-light sign of houses of prostitution, and on making
+inquiries I was informed that there were no houses of prostitution in
+Eurasia, for as soon as information was given to any Magistrate the law
+required him or her to issue an order for the arrest of the female
+practicing prostitution, and on conviction she was committed to the
+female reformatory for five years, subject to parole after one year, and
+for a second offense of the same crime she was deprived of the power to
+propagate the race. Gentle reader, don't think that this law is cruel or
+unjust, for the amount of evil that a depraved woman can commit in
+spreading, that loathsome disease, syphilis, is incalculable, and Christ
+when he told the woman that had committed adultery that he did not
+condemn her also added: "Go and sin no more." A committee of six
+physicians, three males and three females, in the service of the
+Government in every district were required by law to examine every
+person desiring marriage and if the person examined was affected with
+tuberculosis, cancer, scrofula, leprosy, syphilis, or any other
+loathsome or contagious disease, then that person was denied a license
+to marry; and also if they were mentally unsound.
+
+Under the law no person was allowed to marry until twenty-one years of
+age, male and female, and any person violating this law was punished by
+one year's imprisonment at hard labor in the district in which this law
+had been violated. In no case was a Government physician permitted to
+receive any compensation for services rendered as physician, for they
+were the servants of the people, elected by the people in every district
+and paid by the Government a salary fixed by law, and no bonds were
+required of them or of any public official, for the people elected every
+public official with the exception of officers in the Army and Navy, who
+were elected by the soldiers up to the grade of Colonel, and the
+Brigadiers and Major-Generals were appointed by the Minister of War, was
+was Commander-in-Chief and directed all the operations of the Army and
+Navy in war, and also the agents of the Department of Information, who
+were appointed by the Minister of that department on the recommendation
+of his assistant chiefs, of whom there was one in every district who was
+elected by the people after having passed a successful examination
+showing their ability to do the work required of them.
+
+Every person appointed to office, as well as those elected by the
+people, had to be examined physically, mentally and morally in the same
+manner as those applying for a license to practice a profession or
+desiring to marry. All were placed on the same footing. The law for
+divorce was enforced by the Department of Health, as doctors were, from
+their knowledge of human frailty, the best judges to decide whether a
+man and woman should live together in the married state or be separated,
+and while the law provided for a compulsory decree of divorce for
+adultery, which was a felony, it also allowed divorce for
+incompatibility of temperament. A court of six Government physicians,
+three males and three females, heard all divorce cases in every
+district.
+
+The Minister of Health gave me the reasons why the marriage law was
+passed fixing twenty-one years of age as the time when young men and
+women could marry. He said it was done to allow the youths of both sexes
+to become well acquainted with one another before being united in
+marriage, and also to be well trained in useful callings, so that both
+parties to the marriage contract would be able to assist each other, for
+many an innocent young girl had ruined her life by marrying a man at an
+age when she was ignorant of the duties of wifehood and motherhood, "but
+by keeping our boys and girls in training schools until they are
+eighteen and then teaching them trades in the Army until they are
+twenty-one years of age we fit them for the duties of life."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A VISIT TO THE MINISTER OF STATE.
+
+Before returning to the United States of America I called on the
+Minister of State, who is also the presiding officer of the Parliament,
+and told him that I would regard it as a great favor if he would tell me
+how such changes had taken place in the Government of his country ,
+"for," said I, "from what I read about your Government when I was a boy
+it was an absolute monarchy, and one man's will was the law of the
+land."
+
+"You have the key to the problem in that statement," he replied, "for I
+am free to confess that it would have taken centuries to have brought
+about our present system of government under so-called democracy. Near
+the middle of the last century an absolute ruler in our country by a
+stroke of his pen freed twenty-three millions of slaves, while in your
+country it required four years of bloody war at a cost of ten thousand
+millions of dollars and the lives of one million of brave men, and
+through the widespread demoralization that ensued through your bravest
+and best being killed or giving to the corrupt element in your country
+(for a dishonest man is always a coward) the opportunity to inaugurate
+a reign of monopoly where graft and bribery flourishes and the slave
+element that you freed are a menace (and will be as long as they remain
+in the country) to society.
+
+"The last absolute ruler we had was one of those great men that God in
+His infinite wisdom brings into the world at stated intervals to
+exercise a dominating influence in human affairs and to give a fresh
+impetus to human progress. Of the great men that we class with him are
+the following: Confucius, Buddha , Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell,
+Abraham Lincoln. The first thing he did when he became Emperor was to
+summon sixty of the most liberal minded men and women in the empire to
+the palace to draw up under his supervision a political, civil and penal
+code, which with slight modification is in force at the present time,
+and he called all the newspaper editors into conference and asked them
+to assist him in promoting the welfare of the people and then he issued
+a decree granting liberty of speech and of the press throughout Eurasia,
+which he announced as the name of the Empire in future, and the reason
+that he gave for it was that his people were composed of a great many
+nationalities and by dividing the empire into districts and numbering
+them in arithmetical order he abolished the old political divisions and
+he also decreed that the present language we speak should be the
+official language of the empire for the ancient language of the ruling
+class had created a bitter feeling amongst great numbers of the people
+and besides the present had become the commercial language of the world.
+
+"He reorganized the Cabinet into fourteen departments and held the
+Minister at the head of each department responsible. He converted the
+Army and Navy (who were eating up the hard-earned wages of the working
+men and women of our land in idleness and dissipation), into a great
+industrial army and assigned them to work under the different
+departments as they were required, weeding out the worthless and
+reducing to the ranks all officers that conducted themselves in a manner
+unbecoming a gentleman and by election of officers giving every soldier
+equal opportunity to rise to the highest rank. This great measure
+eliminated the aristocracy in the Army and made the Emperor the idol of
+the soldiers, so that from that time forward every effort of the
+aristocracy to oppose the Emperor in giving to the country a Government
+by the people was futile for the Army supported him with a force that
+was irresistible. He ordered the districts laid out according to
+latitude and longitude, making due allowance for population, the
+smallest district being one degree of latitude in breadth and two
+degrees of longitude in length, and the largest (which were situated in
+the frozen regions of the Arctic or in the great desert) five degrees of
+latitude in breadth and ten degrees of longitude in length, and when
+they were surveyed he ordered that the land should be assessed without
+improvements at its full value, and the owner had to swear that he would
+sell to the Government the land at its assessed valuation.
+
+"The aristocracy almost to a man swore to a low valuation, so when five
+years had passed the Emperor issued a decree appropriating to Government
+use all land over and above six hundred and forty acres held by private
+owners and paying for it one-fifth of the total assessment for the
+previous five years with twenty per cent. added for improvements, the
+aristocracy had to accept it and their power was broken forever, for the
+Emperor leased the land to the cultivators of the soil at the rate of
+four per cent. per annum of the price that the Government paid for the
+land, dividing the land into small farms and giving the renter the right
+of purchase at any time.
+
+"The aristocracy and the Church have been in every country the enemies
+of liberty and human progress. The Emperor saw the evil effects of the
+liquor traffic and to abate the evil he abolished the manufacture and
+sale of liquors by individuals and placed their manufacture and sale in
+the care of the Department of Manufactures and year by year he added
+tobacco, drugs and chemicals, sugar, salt, tea, coffee, coal oil, stone
+coal, charcoal and all the metals, and placed the coinage and currency
+of the Empire under the control of the Department of Finance known
+throughout the world as the Bank of Eurasia. He established our present
+system of education and forbade the teaching of religious dogmas in the
+public schools, and when every district in the Empire was surveyed and
+the people thereof enjoyed a District Government by electing their
+Governors, Judges and other public officials and the Government owned
+and operated all public utilities, he decided that the time had arrived
+for a Government of the people, for the people and by the people and
+called a general election to elect members of Parliament and to submit
+to the people the political, civil and penal code of the Empire. The
+people by an overwhelming vote ratified the code and endorsed the
+Government. Four years afterward the Emperor called a general election
+to choose his successor and retired to private life, beloved by his
+people.
+
+"Your people had a President who gained worldwide fame not only by the
+vigorous way that he wielded the Big Stick, but also through his
+undaunted courage and inflexible honesty. Place him again in the
+Presidential chair and he will open the way for a government of the
+people, for the people and by the people."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Edition of Chris. Evans' Eurasia
+