BELLAMY'S UTOPIA

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 146, 22 June 1934, Page 16

BELLAMY'S UTOPIA

"LOOKING BACKWARD"

A PRACTICAL ORGANISATION

BUT TOO; REGIMENTED

Father Time ;has walked half the clistancß. covered .-.I by Edward Bellamy's dream-world in which the Boston author 'gave to literature"a notable New Deal, writes. John P. Wliiteman in the "Christian; Science Monitor." 'Ho wasa'New England writer whose interest in social reform became so intense that he" put aside other books to write his "Looking Backward." His programme, of social reconstruction so * .astonished.,people , that the book sold - amazingly, btnng translated into many languages. ;If was 1887 when his hero, 'Julian■.' West, "went into his sleep r.and the year .2000 .when he emerged from'his living tomb and found that his own city had been entirely reorganised. ; There'are -many readers of "Looking 'Backward" >who claim this writer had the powers ; of "prophecy. They base ■ their . convictions on the fact that already.vwith ,'the .fifty-year mark well •. .passed,- .many .'. of,:, his mechanical and social improvements aro ' already achieved, and even outstripped. Bellamy conceived the idea" of a loudspeaker in Boston homes with printed programmes-containing concerts and services to.be had from'the turning of a button. Here, however, was no inkling: of wireless, but simply of the perfecting, of the telephone system. His Boston of.'the'year 2000 also made use of: pneumatic, tubes to aid in factory and( storehouse in, the efficient distribution; of goods to all citizens. Julian West, who had done the Marath'dn slumber- aet| in ~a hermetically scaled vault under' a Back Bay garden, had ' such'-a splendid opportunity f6r booking backward to conditions as he knew , them ; that-he was made professbr of nineteenth, century history at the ' Government -university ' where he was; to lecture, largely, on the Boston culture "of his own day, to the youth of the : -twent}vfirst "century.. " ' It; is not. difficult to picture students of that . far-removed Boston listening with' .open-nuouthed -amazement; to accounts of the/lay when two-thirds of the -houses were congested tenements, containing.people scarcely ten days removed from, starvation, and hundreds of men. and women without .Those students.an,. West's, .classes must .have! kept: the "prof e'ssor.-busy.-answering -.questions. about", thatr commodity called money, and , goods; sln&: land privately owned, and armies drilling for -war, and millionaires bent on piling- up- more and; more' millions, at; the expense of both'; a labouring class .and intellectuals. I .;• NO MORE. .. / '■'". For, these' advanced scholars, vexing matters such .as^ppyerty, politics, and taxes were just-r-no ;more!■'•.-..."••'.- <'■'■■ •:■ W-hat happened-toti^ individual um-brella-is a good example of the vanishing jof individualism—HThe,age.-of individualism," said one of the characters in the story, "and concert 'was well /characterised by the fact that, -in the nineteenth century, when it rained, the people of Boston put up 300,000 umbrellas over, as many..heads, and in the twentieth century-they put up one umbrella bver'airthe'li'eads:"* jrhi.a_remark._was_.madß when. West "found 'iiimseif rand. scores of others walking during a shower, under a continuous wat erprppf. canopy .let down for -the'"occasion. :■ ■' r■. :" ' In many other' ways these' Utopians of Bellamy's found protection from the storms of depression. The belief had- become general that if every ablebodied citizen, between the ages of 21 and 45 should join an industrial army to create all essentials- and- a whole heap of luxuries there would be plenty for all, and thus labour unions might be eliminated, and the elite Union Club dissolved to be replaced by clubs and associations of, feUow-workers. Then came an industrial army, as well disciplined and as completely or: ganised :as any regiment of soldiers that ever went .to the front in the old daysof international slaughter." But the only uniform was the uniform wage. -. ■■ Dr. Le'ete, the physician who had brought West out of his 100-yeaf trance, thus interprets the .twenty-first century civilisation and the industrial army. ■-."The'..moment'; the nation' assumed' the responsibilities of capital those labour, difficulties vanished. Tiie national organisation of labour under- one direction was thecomplete solution of what was in your day and under your system, justly regarded, as the insolublel-lab-our problem." • -.. .-. : To which West replies: "That is, you have simply applied the principle of universal military service, as it was understood in our day, to the- labour question." A JOB -.'OK EVERYBODY. Here then, we have a civilisation which, gives every man and every, Woman. a job, and that seems to' net each individual, a salary of perhaps 5000 dollars a year, judging by the way the people spend' their, earnings. A large.family of adults live palatially aiid lone : individuals amply. AH retire from official : employment when' fortyrfive and . feel . that life . has just begun with another forty-five years with full.salary. An average old age is ninety years and upwards. When Julian West' goes shopping with a charming young lady who turns out to.be the:great-granddaughter of his sweetheart .of 1887, he finds immense sample rooms where goods are ordered by. such a. simple process that a '.modern shopping enthusiast would feel cheated of her rights to spend a day going about before making' her choice.. Four thousand shops of 1887 have-been reduced to one big sample house in each. ward. And when purchases aro complete, the shopper presents her supply ticket to be punched —and there you are! There being no money and-no private profits Boston has become bankerless, lawycrless, and worryless. "Looking Backward" may well be called a.blue-print Utopia with a comprehensive discussion.; of . every, ..question a sceptic mightf ask answered- in full detail. No wonder. 1,000,000 copies of the book sold all over the world. Bellamy has worked out his economic government—his New Deal —as a social engineer on the basis of ten great industrial divisions. These departmentscreate all goods, needed; by a civilised people.. "■' ' "'"":"■• ■ '•■■ '■■'■■■■ MAGIC OF ARGUMENT. One falls under" the spell of his logic, and finds oneself beginning to feel supremely sorry for those poor creatures who were unfortunate enough to be born back in. the ..nii^atjeenth century. Here is a society'so devoid of class distinctions, so opulent, so confident of the futures that; the 'author appears to think he has left-little for the future to attain. In many pages "Looking Backward" reads like a regimented society, but in others gives. such wide Choice"in work and in purchasing that serf-like uniformity may not result. When it comes to the .status of women, Bellamy shows his last century' environment, and training. While women are members of the industrial arrny'a'rid receive the same amount of credit as men, they are given a separate government of their own with a

woman: president, and public officials looking after feminine interests.

What one misses in "Looking Backward" is the poetic and artistic atmosphere. We get a vivid idea of practical and common-sense organisation of society for the good of all and are thrilled by the general saneness of the entire plan- though it implies too much regimentation.

It is planned economy by a social pioneer who, though now somewhat out-of-date, has one fundamental likeness to President Roosevelt's New Deal—national planning.