Life in a Thousand WorldsHarris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Science
Life in a Thousand Worlds
Harris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Utopias
This scheme was pleasing to all the capitalists and they rejoiced in the
bright prospect of the future. So they built great barns and thus laid
away the products of the soil. Then they appointed agents to sell
whatsoever the people wished.
And it came to pass, as the seasons came and went, that these
capitalists gave the laborers less for their toil, and charged them more
for food at the supply stations. Thus the conditions became so severe
that a man could work from the rising of the Sun to the setting thereof,
and they earn scarcely enough to keep his family alive.
After this manner the land owners grew more and more wealthy, built
unto themselves handsome little villages, and lived in happiness and
refinement. They also erected for themselves select schools and reserved
beautiful plots for their luxury and amusement.
Then did the members of this Trust, in order to protect themselves from
all possible trouble, pass a civil law forbidding any laborer to own an
inch of soil. Thus it was very easy to convict a man of theft if soil
could be found upon his person or premises.
Now, behold, there were many little spots of vegetation scattered here
and there over this whole world. But the agents of the Trust sent out
numerous expeditions to gather up all the loose earth that could be
found and carry it to the soil centers. This work was so completely done
that every nook and corner yielded its accumulated dust to enlarge the
gardens at the soil centers and thereby increase the riches of the
Trust.
Now, as time passed on, the children of the laborers were also employed
to assist in earning bread, and in the course of a few hundred years
the school houses in the district of the laborers were torn down, as it
was impossible for these children to receive an education, since they
must needs work for their sustenance.
After many ages the members of the Trust had become so hardened that
they no longer regarded the wishes of the laboring people, but pushed
everything to increase their own selfish gain, insomuch that they
succeeded in securing the passage of certain laws making the burdens of
the laborers still more heavy.
And now, when the capitalists saw that the people did not rebel, they
again counseled among themselves on this wise:
"Why should there be so much labor lost in continually quarrying new
sepulchers in our diamond ridges, and why should there be so much dust
lying idle in the old graves? Come, let us have a law that the dust in
all graves over one hundred years old shall be sold at auction, unless
the graves are redeemed by a certain amount of soil. Then these empty
tombs can be again filled with the dead of our servants and their
children. Thus let it be continued throughout coming generations
forever. Each year this auction shall be held to dispose of the dust
remaining in one-hundred-year-old sepulchers."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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