PIRATIANS BEGONE

Chapter 18

"Why, this seems more like a private park than a city. Where are yourcrowded streets and houses for the poor?"

"After all I have told you of our high civilization, ship healer, do you notunderstand that we have long since abolished poverty?"

"Yes," answered the ship healer, "I understand that in a general way; but Idid not suppose everybody was rich, as it is certain everybody must beto own such palaces as these."

"You are still wrong," said Harod. "We have no such distinctions asrich and poor. All our cities are of this character, only there is greatvariety in the residences and in the way in which the streets and lotsare laid out. These places that we are passing are inferior to many,but no houses are built that are at all mean or uncomfortable. Indeed,I think we have to-day passed some of the poorest that I know of. Asto the word city, we use it only as a convenient expression. It reallymeans nothing more than a certain locality, for, as I told you at thebeginning of our conversation, we have no need of government of anykind. In some sections one city runs into another, so that the wholecountry is filled with the beauty and delight of the landscape which yousee about you."

"But," asked the ship healer, "with the population spread out in thismarvelous way, is there room for everybody?"

"Oh, yes," answered Harod. "All the surface of our planet is broughtinto use; the waste places are reclaimed, and there is abundant room forall. And now, as this pleasant air and easy motion seem to be agreeableto you, we may as well ride slowly for a while longer.

"In your i*********e with us you will find it is never necessary for usto hurry when, for any good reason, we choose to loiter, and, therefore,if you care to hear me talk, I will take the time to correct anotherwrong impression you seem to have.

"You spoke, ship healer, about the people owning these houses. No one ownsthem."

"Do they belong to the state?" asked the ship healer.

"There is no state."

"Well, this is a curious condition of affairs," resumed the ship healer."Here is valuable property belonging to no one and no governmentto claim it. I should think anyone that happened along could takepossession."

"Now you are right," said Harod. "That is just the state of the case.It is with houses and all other property as I told you it was with thiscarriage. All the right one has to any object is the right to use it.Everything t

hat has been produced by art and skill is just as free asthe bounties of nature, such as air and water and land, which of courseno one would ever dream of subjecting to private ownership."

The ship healer winced as he heard Harod include land among these freebounties of nature, and the expression of his face did not escape thequick eye of the Martian, who exclaimed:

"So you earth-dwellers are still in the habit of buying and sellingland, are you?"

"That was the practice when we left home," replied the ship healer. "And Icannot understand how we can do differently. Your views of property areso strange to us that I am sure my companion will join me in asking youto explain them more fully."

"I certainly do," I said.

"Property," began Harod, "we do not have, but we have many of therights of proprietorship in the things we use from time to time. Andwhat other benefit than the free use of what we need could be derivedfrom the possession of things? Suppose I, for example, owned a thousandacres of land and a hundred fine mansions. I could cultivate but a smallpart of the land and occupy but one house at a time, and of what valuewould the remainder be?"

"Would not such palaces as these on this beautiful street bring a goodrent?" I inquired.

"Don't be stupid," replied Harod good-naturedly. "You must knowby this time that we are not a race of self-seekers, each one takingadvantage of the necessity of his neighbor. But I suppose it isdifficult for you to appreciate a state of society in which eachindividual considers the feelings and needs of others as much as hisown. With us this principle is not preached any more, but it is actuallypracticed in all our affairs."

"I will try to keep that in mind," I said, "although it is a fact I canhardly realize. But about this matter of houses I want to make anotherinquiry. After you have become established in a beautiful home to whichyou have no more right than anyone else, what is to prevent some otherman (I use the word for convenience) coming forward and asking you togive it up to him?"

"Nothing," answered Harod. "In such a case I should immediately moveout and let him have it, knowing he must be entirely unselfish in thematter and that there must be some sufficient reason for the request."

"But would you go to all the trouble of moving without even knowing hisreason?"

"Yes, I would do it to accommodate him, but then the trouble would benothing. We would merely have to go out and take another house."

"But would you not have to move all the furniture?"

"Oh, no. We could take anything we pleased, of course, but it is notusual to make radical changes. Another house would contain all that wasdesirable. As a matter of fact, however, such removals are by no meansfrequent. We usually remain in one place and acquire all the tenderassociations of home which could be possible under any system. But ifa family should increase so that it would be better for them to take alarger house, they could easily find one, or if not they would ask thosewho are fond of that work to build one to their taste. The moment athing is made or produced it belongs to the general store, to be used byany and all who need it."

"Under such conditions," said I, "what we call the eighth commandmentwould be superfluous."

"If that refers to theft," answered Harod, "you are certainly right,for it is impossible to steal where everything is free.

"It will be well for you to understand how happily we have solved thisquestion of property, but of course we could not have found such asolution until we had first reached a high spiritual plane and learnedthe lesson of true brotherhood. From your words I know just about thepoint in our development which corresponds with the present state ofyour race, and therefore I know something of the nature of the strugglethrough which the earth is now passing. I warn you that the unrestrictedright of private ownership is a menace to your civilization, all thegreater because its evil is probably not clearly seen. We are assuredby our historians, who try to point out the causes for all the greatconvulsions in our career, that excessive individualism in propertyrights, with its selfish disregard of others, was a potent factor in thedownfall of many of the enlightened nations of our antiquity. We havenoticed that even our animals have the instinct of possession, and it iscertain that the love of ownership and accumulation has been one of thehardest evils to eradicate from our naturally selfish nature. If youshould ever return to the earth, do not neglect to signal for thisdanger."

"But what is the remedy?" asked the ship healer. "The system of which youhave been speaking