But when we begin to ask more about it, we see things in a slightly different light. The grand works of art are here, true enough; but we soon find out that those who have been most active in their production are rarely the ones who can afford to enjoy their beauty. Wonderful scientific discoveries are constantly being made, but the reward is to the speculating capitalist and not to the inventor. No sooner is a thing produced than it passes into the hands of others: the builders of ships cannot afford to travel in them; those who construct our railways cannot afford the luxury of steam locomotion; tramways are constructed, and they build fortunes for those who do not make them; builders do not inhabit the fine houses they build, but live in wretched tenements only fitted for the population of the farm yard; engineers and mechanics make machinery with which to drive themselves and their fellow-workers from remunerative employment; the miners bring up coal, which heats the boilers of capitalists, while their own hearths are fireless; they delve into the bowels of the earth for iron which they afterwards forge into guns and cannons for their own destruction; and they toil beneath the earth’s surface to bring up gold and silver, which they then convert into coin to hamper their exchanges with their fellow-laborers, and to make them poorer wherever it circulates. Notwithstanding all the giant strides which are constantly being made in all the branches of invention and industry, the worker’s condition only seems to get worse, and he finds himself at the mercy of those who work not themselves but accumulate the wealth of others. Oh! The glories of civilization!
Civilization is the dwelling together in society; and a civilization is successful so far as it is associated with harmony. Civil warfare, political intrigue, and internal strife of all kinds, are its destruction. Mutual peace and individual prosperity mark its success. Which course are we now pursuing?
Surely, if ever a people were well ruled, we of the present day may claim to be so. Centuries ago, Aristotle is said to have perfected the art of government, and we have been improving on him ever since, until the individual has become almost forgotten and the State is supreme. Whether it be a theocracy, autocracy, limited monarchy, or republic, which keeps guard over our actions, we find in all alike the one common political basis—the division of the people into the rulers and the ruled. The government may differ in form, but they are alike in fact: whatever they may be called, presidents are virtually kings, plutocracies are intensified aristocracies, elections are conquests, and elective rule is not better than hereditary rule. Whatever the form of government, they are all marked by this
