“The state fixes the wages it will pay according to the desirability or undesirability of the work, the undesirable of course being the best paid—the kind that would have been the worst paid in your day. An average of one hour a day of labor for the state will furnish lodging food and necessary clothing. So in five or six weeks one can lay up enough to maintain him a year, and have the rest of his time to do as he pleases. Notwithstanding the cheapness of everything, nothing is sold by the state except at a trifling advance upon its cost, which constitutes the only kind of taxation that is imposed. The surplus thus raised pays the expenses of state officials, courts, education etc. If anyone wants more than the modest living he can get by working at the rate of six weeks in a year; he can get it by working longer. By working steadily for a year he can accumulate enough to travel around the world. Or he can indulge in a fine painting or two, or a musical instrument or contribute money to some institution not supported by the state, as a church or philosophical society. Or he can lay up money in the state savings institution, until he accumulates a fortune for some pet enterprise or for use in old age. For several thousand years little or nothing has been spent on new public works. Everything really needed was long since built on principles of eternal durability, and repairs are light. Railways, canals etc., of course pay their own way. On the surface of the earth almost everything may be said to be practically finished. The largest fields for discovery are under ground. Stores of mineral wealth never dreamed of in your day have been unearthed and utilized. Thousands of miles of tunnels have been constructed and some mountain ranges have been perforated in so many directions that their interiors are more familiar than their bleak and inhospitable surfaces. Enormous unsuspected caves and openings have been found, from many of which the contained material was ejected by volcanic action in ancient times. “In a great number of places tunnels have penetrated to regions of insupportable heat, and this heat transformed into electricity has been conveyed to the surface and its power distributed to great distances. This plan has been largely practiced in the mountainous regions of Asia and South America, Scandinavia, Alaska and other countries. In such regions heat can be reached without descending, and so the tunnels are self draining. This source of power helps out the sun in the rainy seasons etc.” “You mentioned something about state savings institutions just now; I suppose they receive the money of the people and pay interest on it—or how?”