Comrades: A Story of Social Adventure in CaliforniaDixon, Thomas, Jr.
General
Comrades: A Story of Social Adventure in California
Dixon, Thomas, Jr.
California -- Fiction; Socialism -- Fiction
"A number of good people are clamouring for the use of this hall for
religious services every night. We may deny their demands now. But we
cannot as they increase. How are we to meet them? Shall we tax the
unbeliever to support a church? Or shall we tax the believer to pay
for lighting this hall for a weekly ball?
"If religion is allowed, who shall determine how many preachers each
denomination can have? How many sisters shall be allowed the Catholics
and how many monks, and how shall they be distributed? To whom shall
they answer, the State, or their superior church dignitary?
"Shall Protestants be allowed a sum equal to the amount used in
support of religious orders? If so, who shall determine how it shall
be expended?
"If churches are built, who shall determine their cost and their style
of architecture if the State erects them?
"When our theatre is opened, shall admission be free? If not, what
shall be done when the receipts fall below expenses?
"What compensation can we give to those who hate theatres? If a small
majority want a dance-hall and musical extravaganza, and a minority
want only the serious drama, which shall it be? Suppose a majority
demand a race-course? Shall the resources of the colony be used thus
against the bitter protest of those who do not believe in racing?
Suppose, just before the race-course is finished, the majority become
a minority and the work is stopped--has the new majority the right to
destroy the property and accumulate a new fund for a different
purpose?
"Must a doctor always come when he's called--even for imaginary,
hysterical, and foolish causes? Will the people vote for and elect
their own doctor, or will he be assigned? If the doctor proves a
failure, how will they get rid of him? If they get rid of him, how
can he be saddled on another community? Shall one community suffer at
the hands of an incompetent man, while a physician of genius ministers
to the one next door? If a great surgeon is needed by ten persons at
the same hour, who shall decide which operation he shall perform, and
who shall live or die in consequence?
"Who shall say when a doctor is not fit to practise?
"We have just established a weekly paper. Within a year the population
will need a daily. Who shall say when an editor is competent?
"Some men fail in early life and make their great success later. At
what period, or after how long a trial, shall it be decided that a man
is a failure and must quit his chosen or assigned work?
"Many young men promise well at first and make later miserable
failures. Many are failures at first and make great successes. Who
shall decide which to continue and which to stop? If a youth is forced
to abandon a work on which he has set his heart, how can he be made of
service to the community in a work he loathes?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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