EURASIA

By

Christopher Evans

CONTENTS

 I. A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE. II. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. III. A VISIT TO A STATE PRISON. IV. THE BANK OF EURASIA. V. DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION. VI. DEPARTMENT OF MINES. VII. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. VIII. THE WAR DEPARTMENT. IX. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. X. DEPARTMENT OF RAILWAYS. XI. THE INCOME TAX. XII. DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURES. XIII. PUBLIC UTILITIES. XIV. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. XV. DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. XVI. UNITED WORKERS OF EURASIA. XVII. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. XVIII. A VISIT TO THE MINISTER OF STATE. 

PREFACE. 

In "Eurasia" the author describes an ideal republic where many of theproblems that confront us are worked out. The book describes in aninteresting and readable way how government is administered in thisideal republic. The government is one in which women take their fullshare of responsibility, the school children are trained in theproblems they will meet in life, and more emphasis is laid on characterbuilding than on the dead languages. The children of both sexes aretaught useful trades. All school children are taught to swim. The idleare employed in the construction of roads, canals and irrigation works. The problems of distribution are so arranged that the worker receives amore equitable reward for his labor. 

The author, Chris. Evans, speaks with a firsthand knowledge when hediscusses the army prison management and the administration of law. Mr. Evans, who was born in Vermont, is an old cavalryman, having served inthe Civil War. After the war he served with the cavalry in the West, fighting Indians. 

CHAPTER I. 

A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE. 

One pleasant afternoon in the month of May, 19--, I launched my boat, and after rowing about half a mile from shore I shipped my oars, stepped the mast, hoisted sail and reclining on a cushioned seat at thestern with my hand on the tiller, I waited for a breeze to spring up, and whilst so doing I fell asleep. How long I slept I know not, forwhen I awoke my boat was close to shore, and to my' astonishment I wasin strange waters. I went ashore, when I was accosted in English with aforeign accent by a venerable looking man with the question: "Where didyou come from?" I replied: "From the United States of America, and whatcountry is this?" His answer was Eurasia, and beckoning to a man inuniform, who was passing by and who immediately joined us, he told himthat I was from the United States of America and did not know whatcountry I was in. The official addressed me very kindly and invited meto accompany him, and leaving the boat in charge of my firstacquaintance, with instructions to take good care of it, he escorted meinto the city and left me at a hotel with a request that I would permithim to call on me the next day at ten a. M. , and he would show me allthe principal buildings and introduce me to the President, "who I haveno doubt will be delighted to see you. " At the appointed time hearrived, and, taking my place by his side in an automobile driven byelectricity, we passed in succession the buildings occupied by thedifferent Departments of State, and stopped in front of a modestbuilding set back a short distance from the street, and at the gate wewere at once admitted by the officer on duty, who informed us that thePresident was holding a Cabinet meeting and would receive meimmediately. The President's private secretary met me at the door andintroduced me to the President, who shook my hand warmly, andintroduced me to his Cabinet in the following order:

 Mr. __, the Minister of State. Mrs. __, the Minister of Justice. Mr. __, the Minister of Railways. Mrs. __, the Minister of Education. Mr. __, the Minister of Finance. Mrs. __, the Minister of Information. Mr. __, the Minister of Agriculture. Mrs. __, the Minister of Health. Mr. __, the Minister of Commerce. Mrs. __, the Minister of Manufactures. Mr. __, the Minister of Mines. Mrs. __, the Minister of War. Mr. __, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mrs. __, the Minister of Labor. 

I informed the President that I wished to learn all I could about theGovernment and Institutions of the country, to which he replied byhanding me the Official Directory, and added that he and his Cabinetwould assist me to the fullest extent. I expressed my heartfelt thanksfor their kindness, and, going back to my hotel, I opened the OfficialDirectory. I found the country governed by a President elected directlyby the people for five years, but the law provided that if hisgovernment was not satisfactory to the people, a petition signed byfive per cent. Of the voters called for an election, and if a majorityvoted against him, he was removed from office and the Minister of Stateassumed the Presidency for the remainder of the term. The Cabinet wascomposed of fourteen members-seven men and seven women-and were chosenby the Parliament, who were free to select them from their own membersor outsiders, provided that the person chosen was a voter andtwenty-five years of age. When the Parliament met, which it did on thefirst day of January, and adjourned on the first of March, sine die, the Ministers presented their reports of their work for the previoustwo years, and if the Parliament approved them, they continued inoffice; but if the Parliament by a majority vote disapproved of any ofthem, then the Minister resigned and the Parliament appointed anotherperson to take his or her place. The members of Parliament were electedfor two years and to serve without pay, but their expenses were paid bythe Government and the amount necessary was fixed by law and could notbe raised or lowered, only by two-thirds vote of the qualified votersof the Nation. The country was divided into districts and everydistrict elected a member for every hundred thousand of population, provided that every other member from a district should be a female, thus giving both sexes full representation in the Government. Eachdistrict was governed by a Governor, elected for two years, and a Courtof Judges, consisting of a Chief Justice, a Prosecuting Attorney, anAttorney for the Defense and twelve Justice Jurors, who tried allfelony cases and civil cases that could not be settled by Arbitration, and who sat also as a Board of Equalization and as Supervisors. 

The law provided that eight Jurors or two-thirds of them (if any wereabsent through sickness or any other reasonable cause), in every casecould bring in a verdict of guilty in criminal cases or for theComplainant or Defendant in civil cases, and if eight did not find theDefendant guilty, the case was dismissed-but if guilty the Defendanthad only to say "I appeal, " and a copy of the evidence was sentimmediately to the Supreme Court, composed of Judges, elected by thepeople, one from each district, to serve for five years. 

The Court sat six days in each week, excepting four weeks inJuly-August, when all the Courts were allowed by law four weeks'vacation. They were required to work eight hours each day beginning ateight a. M. , with one hour rest at noon, and ending at five p. M. ; butthey could work longer if they so desired, but the law forbade anyadjournment and to prevent bribery the documents in every case-civil orcriminal-arriving daily were placed in a lottery wheel, and, on theCourt assembling at eight a. M. , the wheel was revolved, and in thepresence of the Minister of Justice a blind boy and girl drew thedocuments out and handed them to pages who delivered them to the Judgesin alphabetical order. Three Judges, forming a committee, decided everycase that came into their hands on the same day. There was no delay inJustice, and, if any Judge misbehaved, the voters in his district couldremove him under the same law that applied to the President. 

The law of recall applied to all officers of the Government elected bythe people. The salary of the Supreme Court Judges was fixed by law atten dollars per day and that of a Chief Justice of a district at fivedollars per day. That of the Prosecuting Attorney and Attorney for theDefense at four dollars per day, and that of Justice and Jurors atthree dollars per day the year 'round. 

No costs were charged to either complainant or defendant in any case, either civil or criminal, but if a person brought complaint withoutjust and sufficient cause, the law provided that they should beexamined by the Court, and if found sane, they should be imprisoned forone year at hard labor, and if insane, to be sent immediately to theLunatic Asylum. In every case the complainant was first warned by theCourt of what would happen if the charge proved to be unfounded. 

I made inquiries among the people and was told that the law was a greatpromoter of peace and good will. 

CHAPTER II. 

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. 

During the following week I called on the Minister of Justice andinformed her of my desire to learn the workings of her Department. Shehanded me a copy of the Penal Code, and I was astonished to find howsimple the course of procedure was compared with that of my owncountry. Felonies ranked in the following order: Murder, Rape, Incestand crimes against nature, Arson, Robbery, Assault to Murder, Manslaughter, Mayhem, Bribery, Larceny and Perjury. The law held onedegree of murder and that was with malice aforethought, but where aperson killed a human being wantonly, without cause or malice, thehomicide was committed to the Lunatic Asylum, and, after one year'simprisonment, deprived of the sexual organs, and if his or her conductendangered the peace or safety of the community, were to bechloroformed. 

The penalty for murder was imprisonment for life, subject to paroleafter ten years. Rape fiends were sentenced to twenty-five years, andafter one year's imprisonment to be desexualized and subject to paroleafter five years. 

Persons found guilty of Incest and crimes against nature received thesame punishment as Rape fiends and subject to parole after five years. The penalty for Arson was twenty years, subject to parole after fouryears. For Robbery fifteen years and subject to parole after threeyears. The same penalty for Assault to Murder and subject to paroleafter three years. Manslaughter, Mayhem and Bribery were punished byimprisonment for ten years and subject to parole after two years. Larceny and Perjury were punished by five years' imprisonment, andsubject to parole after one year. Public officials who embezzled publicfunds were committed for Perjury as well as Larceny, and were debarredfrom ever holding office. The law provided that in the course of thetrial of any person charged with Felony, if the evidence showed theyhad committed a felony, other than the one for which they were beingtried, then the Court could sentence them for the crime that theevidence showed they had committed, even if there was not sufficientevidence to convict them of the crime with which they were charged. 

Any person found guilty was remanded to the custody of the Governor ofthe district to await the decision of the Supreme Court. If theyappealed, and the appeal was not confirmed, they were sent to thenearest State Prison, of which there are at the present timetwenty-five. 

No fines were imposed for any crime and no confiscation of property forany cause. 

A Magistrate was elected in every sub-district, according topopulation. One for every ten thousand inhabitants, at a salary ofthree dollars per day the year 'round, and who tried all personscharged with Felony, and if proven guilty, committed them to theDistrict Court-but a charge of Felony could be made before the DistrictCourt, and if probable cause was shown, the case came up for trial. TheMagistrate was authorized by law to release any person charged with amisdemeanor on probation, or to sentence them from one month to twelvemonths' imprisonment at hard labor within the district, and theprisoners were paid for their work from five to twenty-five cents perday, according to their ability and skill, and the money they earnedwas sent to their wives and children, if they had any. If they weresingle, what they earned was paid to them at the expiration of theirsentence. No handcuffs, balls or chains or Oregon Boots were permittedto be used, but if the person in custody was violent, a jacket withstraps at the waist to secure the hands at the side was provided and nopunishment was inflicted for violation of the prison rules-but breadand water for three days at any one time. If a prisoner committedsodomy or other infamous crime against nature, while in custody, he wascastrated, and if he still persisted in committing crimes againstnature, he was chloroformed. No trial by jury was permitted in cases ofmisdemeanor-but an appeal to the Governor was allowed by law and a copyof the evidence in the case was sent to him and he had to decideaccording to the law and evidence within thirty days and publish hisreasons therefor in the District Newspaper. By permission of theMinister of Justice I was granted authority to visit the State Prison, carrying with me a letter instructing every prison official to assistme and to furnish me all the information within their power. The prisonwas located in the center of a Military Preserve, consisting ofninety-two thousand one hundred and sixty acres, all in a high state ofcultivation. Railways traversed the reservation, but no trains butmilitary ones were permitted to stop within its limits. 

CHAPTER III. 

A VISIT TO A STATE PRISON. 

The Minister of Justice placed an automobile at my service, and when Iarrived at the boundary of the reservation, I was stopped by a militaryofficer. I handed him my letter from the Minister of Justice, and, glancing over it, he replied, "You are welcome, " and, taking a seat bymy side, we drove to the prison grounds, where I was introduced to theSuperintendent, and invited by him to be his guest during my stay. Ifound the prisoners garrisoned in company quarters. One hundred andthirty-five privates, nine corporals, three sergeants and one companyclerk constituted a company, with a captain in command of them holdingthe same rank and pay as a captain in the army, and who was chosen fromthe non-commissioned officers in the army for distinguished services. The prisoners were classified in twelve companies. Four companiesformed the first grade, consisting of Companies A, B, C and D; fourcompanies formed the second grade, consisting of Companies E, F, G andH, and four companies formed the third grade, consisting of CompaniesI, K, L, and M. The first grade received fifteen cents per day and thethird grade five cents per day, and no pay was forfeited for violationof prison rules and regulations, but prisoners received no pay duringthe time they were on bread and water. Corporals received fifty percent. More pay than privates, and sergeants and company clerks onehundred per cent. More. Prisoners were required to work eight hourseach day, Sundays excepted-commencing at eight a. M. , with one hour fordinner, and ending at five p. M. , and to attend night school from sixp. M. Until eight p. M. Five nights in the week, and once a weekmusicians and singers visited the prison and gave entertainments. 

The company quarters were only one-story high, but were large and wellventilated, being eighty feet square with wide verandas and furnishedwith steam and hot water pipes for cold weather, and lighted throughoutby incandescent lamps. 

The beds were all singly arranged in rows and well furnished withmattresses, blankets, sheets and pillows, and the room had nine largewash basins at one end of the room, where all the company could washtheir hands and faces and comb their hair. 

The captains were required to sleep in the same rooms with theprisoners, and to eat with them in the dining-room, and were heldresponsible for their care and good conduct. He could sentence them formisconduct to three days on bread and water, but for serious offencesthey were tried by a Court of three Judges, appointed by the Ministerof Justice. 

The regimental dining-room where all the companies dined was dividedinto three sections, with partitions eight feet high between them, eachsection having a door connecting with the kitchen, and the foodfurnished of good quality, but differing in degree according to grade. 

The hospital was on one side of the square, and was fitted with everymodern appliance and at the distance of half a mile was a pest house, to which all prisoners suffering from leprosy, cancer, syphilis andother malignant diseases, were consigned. What most attracted myattention was the bath house, a one-story building, one hundred feetlong, adjoining the laundry. It had a swimming tank in the middle of itsixty feet long, forty feet wide and twelve feet deep. At the two endswere porcelain bathtubs for the old and feeble, with hot and cold waterfaucets, and on one side were shower-bath nozzles overhead, with hotand cold water connections; on the side next the laundry were rows ofshelves reaching to the ceiling and numbered from one to eighteenhundred, holding a change of clothing for the entire regiment ofprisoners, with a passageway and counter in front, and every prisonerwas compelled to bathe on every Sunday, passing over the counter theclothes worked in; when they had undressed and when they had bathed, they received clothes, washed and ironed, to put on. Any prisoner whodid not bathe was placed in solitary confinement for three days onbread and water, then taken to the bathhouse and well scrubbed. 

Two prisoners were assigned to work as chiropodists to keep the feet ofthe prisoners in good condition, and the laundrymen, besides washingand ironing all the clothes, sheets and pillowcases, had to wash anddisinfect all the blankets once a month. There were no wallssurrounding the prison building, but the reservation being theheadquarters of an army corps with barracks on all sides, escapes byprisoners were very rare. 

On marching out of the dining-room after breakfast the roll was called, and also after supper, by the captains of companies, and after nine p. M. The doors were locked and no smoking or talking was permitted. 

A parole commissioner appointed by the Minister of Justice resided atthe prison, who was also Superintendent of the Night School, withauthority to parole any prisoner according to law that in his judgmentwas a fit person to be paroled. A paroled prisoner, if he did not havefriends to take care of him, was given employment by the Government, and no money deposit was required. The Government paid over to him whatmoney he had earned, and gave him a dress suit and a working suit ofclothes and two changes of underclothing-by those acts of justicegiving him encouragement to become a useful member of society. He wasrequired to report by a letter once a month to the Governor of theDistrict from which he came, and the Governor was authorized by law topardon him when he thought proper. Those rules and regulations appliedequally to both sexes. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE BANK OF EURASIA. 

Leaving the prison, I returned to the Capitol and, calling at theDepartment of Finance, was given a copy of the laws governing it, andlearned that it operated under the name of the Bank of Eurasia, withheadquarters in the capital, having a branch in every district and inevery town of one thousand inhabitants or more. It paid out all moneyowed by the Government and received and receipted for all taxes due, and accepted all deposits from one dollar upwards, and issued allbanknotes and bills of exchange, and in consequence there were nopanics and no necessity of issuing clearing-house certificates. Toavoid the folly of locking up large amounts of money received for taxeseach year on the one hand, or permitting stock-gamblers andmoney-sharks, on the other hand, to use it, each district was allowedby law to issue district banknotes of one dollar denomination, guaranteed by the Government, drawing two per cent. A year interest upto eighty per cent. Of the yearly expenses of the district. The taxeswere payable on the first day of November, and if not paid on that daya delinquent tax of ten per cent. The banknotes issued by the districtwere called in and canceled by this means, keeping the money of thepeople in circulation. 

Every branch bank in a district was required to send daily accounts ofall money received and paid out to the central branch bank of thedistrict, which in turn sent a daily account of all bank transactionsin the district to the Bank of Eurasia at the capital. No districttreasurers were required, nor treasurers in any department of theGovernment, but vouchers to be paid by the Government had to be signedand scaled by the proper authorities. The bank also conducted aNational Lottery, with tickets for sale at every branch bank for onedollar per ticket; drawings monthly, and the highest prize drawn wasfive thousand dollars, and the lowest five dollars. Five per cent. Ofthe gross proceeds going to the Government for the maintenance andeducation of orphan children. The amount received each month and thenames of the prize winners was published in the National Gazette (aweekly paper), and a copy sent to every prize winner. This paper waspublished by the Government and every voter was free to subscribe forit without cost, but no advertisements were allowed in it. It publishedthe work of every department of the Government and all bills approvedby Parliament, and all laws recommended by the Parliament for whilstthe Parliament could approve and legalize all Government expenditures, it could only recommend by a two-thirds vote the amending or creatingof any acts pertaining to the Political, Civil and Penal Codes, whichhad to go before the people at the next general election, when theybecame the law of the land by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voterswho took part in the election, and had a universal circulation, as theGovernment owned and operated all railways, telegraphs, teleposts, telephones, wireless telegraphy stations and levees, all water power, steamers and boats for freight and passenger service, and, in fact, allpublic utilities. 

Besides, the Government manufactured and sold all liquors, tobaccos, drugs, teas, salt, sugar, coals, petroleum, lumber, iron in pigs andsteel in plates and bars. It is easy to see that the Bank of Eurasiatransacted an immense volume of business daily. 

The bank coined gold in denominations of fifty dollars, twenty dollars, ten dollars and five dollars; silver in dollar, fifty andtwenty-five-cent pieces; nickel in ten-cent and five-cent pieces, andaluminum in one-cent pieces. All money coined with ten per cent. Alloyand at bullion value. The coinage was readjusted every ten years andsilver, nickel and aluminum coins were exchanged for gold at their facevalue. The Government issued banknotes drawing two per cent. A year, and loaned money on land and on goods in the Government warehouses andconducted a fire insurance business, but no insurance was paid on anyproperty that was insured in the building where the fire broke out, andon no buildings that were not fireproof. No life insurance was allowedand no corporation or individual was allowed to carry on an insurancebusiness and no person was permitted to insure property or life in thecountry in any foreign corporation, and no stock exchanges or gamblingin futures were allowed. 

The Bank of Eurasia published every month in the National Gazette theamount of money on hand, so that the people might know when it wasnecessary for the Government to make a new issue of banknotes, so asnot to cripple the circulation. 

I was greatly, impressed with the reply of the Minister of Finance whenI asked him why he published those statements, "We deal honestly withthe people and they trust us. " In answer to my question if there wereany trusts in his country, he smiled and replied, "One trust: thePeople. "

Corporations are allowed, but no watered stock and every stockholderhas the same vote in electing officers of the company, whether he holdsone share or any other number of shares, and any conspiracy to cornerthe market or to enhance the price of any article produced ormanufactured is punished as a felony, the penalty being five years athard labor in prison. 

CHAPTER V. 

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION. 

I called at the Department of Information, and when I was introduced Irealized that I was in the presence of one of the world's greatestteachers. She gave me a warm handshake and said, "I have been expectingyou, and now that you are here, I will take pleasure in showing you theworkings of the department over which I have the honor to preside. There are no Government or private detective agencies in our country, but a constant watch is kept on all public officials as well as privateviolators of the law, by the Government placing for sale in everypostoffice and every military station and every prison Governmentenvelopes with fifty-cent stamps on them, and any person interfering inthe sending or tampering with said letters is punished by imprisonmentfor five years at hard labor. Steel boxes with a slit in the lid toreceive the letters were placed in every postoffice, military stationand prison, and could not be opened except by a commissioner from theDepartment of Information. Any person could buy one, for there was aprinted address on them, and send it to the President, who has at thepresent time three hundred secretaries (young ladies chosen from theorphan home) to read the letters, answer them and send a copy to theMinister of Justice who has them Classified, and acting on theinformation sends orders out to bring the guilty parties to justice, and as punishment is meted out only to the bribetakers, for it is onlyacting according to the mandates of human nature for a relative orfriend to try to get a person out of trouble to offer a bribe, carriedwith it no penalty, but it left the bribetaker at the mercy of theother party, and in consequence of adopting this system very few publicofficials proved untrue, and crime has greatly diminished. Ourdepartment has charge of all mail matter and telegraph, telepost andtelephone lines and wireless stations and all newspaper books andmagazine publications, and we edit the National Gazette; besides wehave charge of all Government scientific research parties, and if youwill call again to-morrow I think I will be able to introduce you tothe Chief Engineer who stands very high in his profession, and who has, by placing an Astronomical Observatory on the summit of Mount Everest, attracted the attention of the civilized world. "

CHAPTER VI. 

DEPARTMENT OF MINES. 

I called at the appointed time and was introduced to the ChiefEngineer, who invited me to accompany him on an inspection tour, towhich I gladly assented, and, after a week's pleasant travel by rail, we arrived at the station on the southwestern slope of Mount Everest atan elevation of twelve thousand feet above the sea. We had arrived inthe evening and enjoyed a good night's rest, and, eating a heartybreakfast, we walked out to take observations of the locality, beforetaking our trip to the summit, and the Chief told me of the way bywhich they finally erected an observatory on the highest mountain ofthe earth. 

"Five years ago the President sent for me, " explained the ChiefEngineer, "and asked if I could plan an observatory on Mount Everest. Ireplied that I would try to do so if the Government saw fit to place mein charge of the undertaking. I received my commission the next dayand, calling to my aid two of the ablest engineers in the service ofthe Government, we selected a site for the entrance of the tunnel andnext we searched for suitable power to do the work. We found awaterfall twenty miles distant, where we built a power house, installedturbines and dynamos and built an electric line to this place. We thenerected a machine shop, in which we placed our electric engines and aircompressors, and built a railroad connecting with the main line, andafter we had done that we started the tunnel. As you will observe, thetunnel is a round bore twelve feet in diameter, and no explosives wereused in making it. We used a tunneling machine driven and operated bycompressed air, boring on the average fifty feet every twenty-fourhours, and we washed the debris away by a powerful stream of waterdirected against the face of the tunnel so as not to obstruct the work. We gave the tunnel for the first five miles a grade of one foot in tenand from that point to the summit a grade of sixty degrees, and laidheavy steel segment rails six feet apart bolted to the solid rock, bythis means dispensing with ties and permitting a free flow of water andslum. We found it necessary to build a chamber within the mouth of thetunnel sixty feet long, with automatic doors opening and shutting, tosecure an abundance of air in the tunnel, and also in the observatory. The tunnel required no timbering, as we bored all the way throughsynetic granite and encountered very little water, and when we wereabout to break through at the summit we provided the workmen with furclothing, and with air respirators, so that they would not be overcomeby the cold and rarety of the atmosphere. We had a car driven byelectricity to carry the men and material into the tunnel, having fourcogwheel drivers on each side, and the tunnel throughout was lighted byelectricity. We built the observatory of composition metal and glass, which was carried up on the car-but come along and you shall see foryourself. "

We entered an observatory car that was run by its own dynamo but incase of the dynamo giving out a trolley wire overhead could furnishpower any moment. After a pleasant ride of an hour's duration we cameout of the tunnel into the observatory and I saw two magnificentlymounted telescopes, one for visitors to look through and the other onefor taking photographic views. I looked through the visitors' telescopeand to my astonishment the sun was blue and when I asked one of theastronomers present the reason for it he replied that the sun was agreat dynamo and that the dazzling brightness seen at low altitudes wascaused by our atmosphere offering like the filament in an incandescentlamp great resistance to the electric energy of the sun producing abrilliant glow and if you were able to go outside the atmosphere of ourearth you would only see the sun as a dark body in space and you wouldfind yourself in absolute darkness and eternal silence. Night fell andwhen I looked again through the telescope and gazed on the countlesshosts of heaven's millions of suns there came into my mind and Irepeated aloud that noble passage in the Bible, "The heavens declarethe glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. " I remarkedto the Chief Engineer as we went down to the station, that a great manypeople visited the observatory, for I had looked in the visitors' book, where every person was required to sign his name. He replied, "Yes, ifa private company owned it, it would make the stockholders wealthy, forit has become to the globe-trotters what Mecca is to the Mohammedansfor no tourist would dare to return home without registering at theobservatory and we encourage them by publishing their names in theNational Gazette. 

"If you would like to accompany me I think I can show you another workwe are engaged in that is adding to the accumulated knowledge of theages. " I gladly assented and after ten days of railway travel wearrived at the great platinum mine of Eurasia. It was on thecontinental divide between Europe and Asia and had been worked on asmall scale at the surface for a great many years, but had not producedmuch platinum and owing to an increasing demand for it in the arts thevalue of it greatly exceeded that of gold, while at the present time itis on a par with silver, owing to the government selling it in themarket of the world for what it will bring and smashing any gamblingring that would attempt to corner the market. We entered a cage andwere lowered to the one thousand-foot level; then we got out of thecage and, walking about twenty yards, we entered a chamber where therewas another shaft and hoisting works and were lowered to thetwo-thousand foot level, which opened out in every direction, connecting with a drainage tunnel eight miles long, which carried offall the water for sixteen square miles of surface. After explaining tome the old methods of mining he said with a smile: "Come with me nowand I will show you our new method, " and entering a large chamber thatlooked like an immense warehouse, we stepped into a cage and went down, changing from one cage to another every thousand feet, until we stoppedat the sixty-four-thousand-foot level. We visited several crosscuts anddrifts on this level and found several hundred men at work taking outplatinum ore of a high grade, and my companion told me that they weredoing the same work on several other thousand-foot levels, the oreimproving in quality as they went down. "You no doubt observed as wecame down that the shaft was circular, but you may not have seen asecond shaft of the same diameter as the hoisting shaft forty feetaway. The second shaft is used for air pipes, water pipes and insulatedelectric wires. "

All the electric current to run the hoists and the compressed air todrive the drilling machines and to maintain free circulation of airthroughout the workings, comes down that shaft and all the surpluswater is pumped up it to the two-thousand-foot level, where it iscarried off by the drainage tunnel and a complete system of escapeladders-besides at every level is a hoisting engine and cage to takethe workmen up if danger threatens them. To insure an even temperaturein the mine we keep a supply of liquid aid on every level, which isrenewed daily, connecting the liquid air chest with the pipe thatsupplies fresh air to the workings. No expense is spared in taking careof the health and safety of the workmen and if a man gets sick orinjured he gets the same pay as if he is working, and if a workman getskilled his wife receives the same pay that he received as long as shelives, and his children are as well provided for by the government. None but married men are employed and there is lively competition tosecure employment with us. "

He informed me that they sank the shaft with rotary drilling machines, cutting a channel one inch wide and five feet in depth, leaving a corenine feet ten inches in diameter in which four holes were drilled fourfeet six inches in depth and loaded with a new explosive as powerful asdynamite but without its injurious fumes and perfectly safe to handleat any temperature. They averaged in sinking twelve feet daily and asthey went down the rock became more compact and finer grained. As therewere no hot springs in the vicinity and no signs of volcanic actioneven in prehistoric times, the temperature of the rock even at thesixty-four-thousand-foot level was only one hundred and twenty degreesFahrenheit, and any increase of temperature in the workings was owingto the electric light generating heat in the dense atmosphere of thelower levels. My companion invited me to weigh myself on the ore scalesand to my astonishment I only weighed one hundred and twenty pounds, and I exclaimed that something was wrong with the scales, but mycompanion offered to take the scales up with us to the surface and testthem. We did so and on weighing myself again the beam tipped at onehundred and sixty pounds my regular weight. 

Then he informed me that there was a progressive fall in weights onevery level as they went down and that if no unforeseen obstacleinterfered they would reach the limit of attraction from the surfacedownward and in his opinion it would be at fifty miles. I asked himwhat they would find there and he replied that in his opinion it wouldbe the same subtle and elastic essence that fills stellar space, but headded: "God alone knows the secret of the universe in his keeping. " Wevisited the great smelting, refining and assaying works in the vicinityand he introduced me to the general superintendent of all the mines onthe continental divide, who invited me to accompany him on a mineinspection tour and he would show me the improved method they used inprospecting for ore and extracting and milling it to the bestadvantage. "When our mining experts discover a mineral belt containingprecious metals or copper, iron, lead, nickel, platinum, cobalt, quicksilver, manganese or any other ore used in manufactures and thearts, the first thing we do is to sink a shaft on the most likely orechimney and at every one hundred feet in depth we run levels to developit and if we continue to find ore as we go down and the ground requiresdrainage, we survey for a drainage tunnel that will drain the mine atthe greatest depth, even if we have to run a tunnel ten miles. We sinkthe shaft to within twenty feet of the tunnel level and then quitsinking until the tunnel is completed. We use a tunneling machine, boring a tunnel six feet in diameter at the rate of one hundred feetper day. We run the tunnel directly under the shaft and then withdrawall the men and machinery from the tunnel, put a six-inch drill intothe shaft that makes a hole into the tunnel, and quickly drains themine. Then we begin to stope out at the lowest level, filling in thewaste upward, and taking out only ore to be conveyed to the mill orsmelter. While the shaft is being sunk the ore taken out is sent to thereduction works and carefully tested to find out the best way ofreducing it so that when the mine is in good condition to work we knowhow to handle ore to the best advantage. 

"We have only a few reduction works for refractory ore, but they are ona grand scale, some of them handling one hundred thousand tons daily, and as the government owns and operates all the railways the cost oftransporting ore is under two mills a ton per mile. We employ a corpsof metallurgists experimenting to discover better methods in reducingand they have made great progress so that ores that were left in themine or on the dump are now worked with handsome profit to thegovernment Our workmen all carry life and health insurance, one-halfpaid by the men monthly and the other half by the government, and wherea mine is shut down by the government the miners are furnishedemployment in another place, so that they are never idle. 

"We also bore thousands of artesian wells throughout the country, someof them to the depth of five thousand feet, for artesian water, gas, and petroleum, and occasionally we locate fine bodies of coal by thosemeans and those that we don't need to supply the market we cap and stopthe flow and use them in the future, always using the best flowingwells for the present time. When we have to use drainage tunnels forour mines we carry the water off from the mouth of the tunnel in aflume, placing quicksilver in the riffles, and if it is a copper minewe place scrap iron in the water and we also use the water for power toassist us in mining, so that at the present time we extract and reduceore at a lower rate than in other parts of the world, for there is nowastefill management and no overproduction, for in all our miningoperations we work those that cost the least, and we operate our coalmines in the same way. "

I thanked him for the courtesy shown me and took the train for thecapital, and my next visit was to the Department of Education. 

CHAPTER VII. 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 

I was ushered into the office of the Minister of Education and wasintroduced to a charming lady who filled that position with signalability. "I am told that you are from the United States of America. "she said with a winning smile, "and I hope that you will have apleasant time while you remain with us. " She spoke perfect English andinformed me that it was the language of Eurasia, but that it differedfrom English used in other countries in one way. "We write the wordsthe way they sound and eliminate all useless letters, saving a greatdeal of time and paper. " She informed me that in no school throughoutthe country, save one, were the dead, or foreign, languages taught, andin that one only for the purpose of correct translation in the interestof science, for practical education is what people need. "We have onegreat university for orphan children and those without a name, and fromit all the departments of the government are supplied with secretaries, clerks, typewriters and messengers, and as they are physically, mentally and morally trained for the duties of life, they are highlyprized in the matrimonial market. All our common schools have agymnasium and swimming tank annexed to the study room; the gymnasiumbeing divided into two compartments, one for boys and one for girls, with a door from each communicating with the study room and also withthe swimming tank. " The tank was only four feet deep so as to remove asmuch as possible the chance for a child being drowned, and no littlechildren were allowed in the tank without two or more boys and girls offourteen years of age being present. 

The doors leading into the tank room were kept under lock and key andwere only opened once a day and that at the noon hour. The youngestchildren, up to the age of twelve years, when they had learned theirlessons both in the forenoon and afternoon went into the gymnasium toplay, and by those means the children are physically well developed andknowing how to swim are not liable to become frightened if thrown intothe water and know what to do to save others from drowning. They aretaught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, typewriting, typesetting and practical geometry, so as to draw lines, angles andcircles and find their volumes and areas, but algebra, astronomy, grammar, geology, physiology, biology and metaphysics are reserved forthe high schools, where every boy and girl is sent when they arefifteen years of age and kept there for three years at the expense ofthe government. The high school is located in the district reserve asnear the center of the district as conditions will permit in thevicinity of the court house and the Governor's residence and hasadjoining it not less than one thousand acres, according to thepopulation of the district, so as to make it as self-sustaining aspossible and to teach the students agriculture, horticulture and thecare and management of stock and poultry. 

"We have a foundry, machine shop, woolen mill, cotton mill and chemicalworks at every high school, and while both sexes are taught farming andgardening the boys are taught mechanical trades and the girls knitting, spinning, weaving, cooking, housekeeping and nursing, so as to know howto take care of the sick and injured, and at the age of eighteen yearsthe boys are drafted into the army and serve three years, buildingrailways, levees, canals, irrigation ditches, docks, warehouses andother public buildings, and the girls are sent to the chemicalfactories, woolen mills, cotton mills, paper mills, flax mills, sugarmills and tobacco factories. No exceptions are made from service; allmust serve. Both boys and girls are dressed in military uniform and aredrilled two hours in rifle practice, firing ten shots at an imitationenemy in a military suit, stuffed with straw, in different positions, from one hundred to one thousand yards distance, every Sunday weatherpermitting and in actual war one brigade of girls is assigned to everydivision of the army to carry off the wounded and nurse them and toassist in the defense whenever it is necessary, and also to garrisonand hold the lines of communication and their presence in the field hasbeen so inspiring to our boys that they never have turned their backsto the enemy. "

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE WAR DEPARTMENT. 

My next trip was to the War Department, where I was shown the Rules andRegulations governing the army, and navy. 

The army was organized in twenty-five corps of eighty thousand meneach, besides the ladies' army corps of an equal number; each corpscomposed of three divisions of foot infantry and one division ofmounted infantry. Each division was composed of three brigades ofinfantry, one regiment of sharpshooters and one regiment of artillery;each brigade of three regiments and each regiment of twelve companies, one hundred and fifty men each. The company was divided into threesergeants' commands and those into three corporal squads. Each companyconsisted of one hundred and thirty-five privates, nine corporals, three sergeants, one company clerk, one lieutenant and a captain. Fourcompanies composed a battalion, commanded by a major, and the regimentby a colonel. There were no lieutenant colonels; the senior majortaking charge of the regiment in case of death or disability of thecolonel until the regiment elected an officer to fill the vacancy. Allvacancies above the rank of colonel were filled by the corps commander, all vacancies up to and including that of colonel by the votes of themen, but the colonel had to be chosen from the majors, a major from thecaptains of his battalion. The lieutenant succeeded to the captaincywithout a vote-but the lieutenant had to be chosen from the sergeantsand company clerk and the sergeant from the corporals of his command. The corporals were elected by the privates of the squads, so that anysoldier could rise from the ranks through merit to high command. 

The corps commander holds the rank of lieutenant general, the generalof division that of major general, and the commander of a brigade thatof a brigadier general. The regiment of sharpshooters was chosen fromthe best rifle shots in the division and in war time received doublepay for they were always at the front of the division and the first toengage the enemy. A one-pounder rapid-fire gun was attached to everycompany and was operated by the lieutenant assisted by the companyclerk. In the artillery regiment there were twelve batteries, sixthree-inch caliber guns and one one-pounder rapid-fire gun to eachbattery, and as they were under the direct control of the generalcommanding the division he could mass them to fire on any point ofattack. The privates were paid fifteen dollars a month, the corporalstwenty dollars, the sergeants twenty-five dollars, company clerksthirty dollars, lieutenants forty dollars, captains sixty dollars, majors eighty dollars, colonels one hundred dollars, brigadier generalsone hundred and fifty dollars, major generals two hundred dollars andthe lieutenant general three hundred dollars a month, and officers andprivates were allowed the same rations and the same amount of clothing. No fixed ration was issued on account of climatic conditions-but plentyand no waste was the rule and every captain and lieutenant had to sitat meals with his men and eat the same food. No violation of this rulewas allowed and as a result of this common sense regulation the menwere well fed and provided, for every colonel was held to account forthe welfare of the men under his command and every officer up to therank of field marshal could be reduced to the ranks for violation ofthe rules and regulations governing the army. As there was a mailboxunder the control of the Minister of Information in every military postin which complaints were posted to be sent to the President it had avery salutary effect in keeping the officers attentive to their duty, as no officer wanted to lose his position and salary and be a private. All trivial violations of the rules by non-commissioned officers andprivates, such as insolence, drunkenness, filthy habits and disorderlyconduct, could be punished by the captain with three days on bread andwater-but no pay could be forfeited for any offense, for no fines wereallowed in the republic. For serious offenses committed by eitherofficer or private in time of peace, such as sodomy, crimes againstnature, adultery, seduction, larceny, embezzlement or any other felony, the accused was sent to the district court for trial and on convictionwas dismissed the service and committed to prison for the term of yearsprovided by the law for the crime he had been convicted of and fiveyears additional for perjury, he having violated his oath of officethat he would be honest and upright in all things so help him God, andany officer could be reduced to the ranks for conduct unbecoming agentleman as the result of a trial before a jury of twelve men drawn byballot from any other command than his own. No sashes, jewelry orregalia of any kind was permitted to be worn. 

Officers and privates were dressed alike and the insignia of rank wasworn on the collar, and no revolvers, bayonets, sabres, swords, rapiersor lances were allowed to be carried-but every officer was required tocarry a rifle so that he could not be marked out by the enemy'ssharpshooters and to set an example of good shooting to his men whenunder fire. Every soldier seriously injured in the service of hiscountry in time of peace as well as in war, received the same pay andcare as if he was still in the service and if he was killed or diedfrom disease his father and mother or either of them, as long as theylived. The army was truly a great industrial army, for every officerand man was required to work eight hours a day and for six days in theweek, at remunerative labor, and two hours on Sundays at riflepractice. The rules and regulations governing the army applied equallyto both sexes. Both boys and girls, when drafted into the army, werefirst sent to the headquarters of the army corps to which they wereassigned, the boys mostly afterward to the department of railways, mines, commerce and agriculture and the girls to the department offinance, manufactures, education and information, distributed all overthe republic so as to become acquainted with the people in general, byso doing wiping out sectional feeling and realizing that God was theirfather and that they all belonged to a common brother- and sisterhoodunited together under a government for the people, of the people, andby the people. I paid a visit to the navy yard and inspected twobattleships that were undergoing some slight repairs to their machinery. 

One was a second-class battleship and her dimensions and armament wereas follows: Length five hundred and twenty-five feet, breadth of beamseventy-five feet, draught of water twenty feet and six inches, heightof gun deck from the water line twelve feet; armament: ten twelve-inchcaliber guns mounted in turrets on the center line of the ship. Theturrets were bolted to the deck, five of them forward and five aft, andwere eighteen feet in diameter, eight feet high, with a slope from deckto parapet of thirty degrees and made of armor steel twelve inchesthick. One gun in each turret and the guns could swing around onfour-fifths of the circle, so that every gun could be brought to bearon an enemy either to port or starboard. No other guns were carried intime of war and no cruisers, torpedo boats, or torpedoes were used, forexperience in war had shown that they were useless waste of men andmoney. The battleship was propelled by rotary engines developing fiftythousand horsepower, driving the ship at a sustained speed of thirtyknots an hour. The ship had four propellers, two on each side at thestern, and the boilers were heated by petroleum with automatic feed. The engineer informed me that they had tried gasoline and otherexplosives (for the rotary engines worked well with them) but theyendangered the safety of the ship and the lives of the crew. There wereonly two decks in the ship, the lower deck just above the waterline andthe gun deck; the lower deck floor was two-inch steel and was notdivided into compartments, having no partitions, so that if solid shotor shell entered the side of the ship it could not scatter a shower ofsteel splinters to kill or wound the men, and for further protectionagainst fragments of shell heavy woolen blankets were hung on theinside from the ceiling. A double partition of two-inch steel ran bowto stern through the center of the ship, reaching from the floor of thehold to the lower deck, with a space between the partitions of fourinches filled in with concrete, and the gun deck was supported by heavysteel pillars, as the space between the lower deck and the gun deck wastwelve feet. A fireproof platform four feet wide with a railing fourfeet high of netting, encircled the smokestack about twenty feet abovethe gun and connected with it by a rope ladder. It was the lookoutstation and the Captain's post in battle from where he directed theaction. 

There was only one smokestack on any battleship and no bridge orsuperstructure or any inflammable material above the waterline, and theofficers and men eat at the same tables and partake of the same food. If any officer or private objected to it or violated this rule, he wasdismissed the service, for it was considered injurious to the serviceon board ship to keep any discontented person. The crew consisted oftwo hundred privates, fifty corporals, five sergeants, ten lieutenants, ten captains, one chief engineer with two assistants, one lieutenantcommander and the commander, who was captain of the ship and had thesame rank and pay as a colonel in the army. 

The gunner and assistant gunners held the same rank and pay as captainsand lieutenants in the army. The chief engineer received the same asthe commander and took orders only from him, and his assistantsreceived the same pay as majors in the army, and the sergeants, corporals and privates the same pay as in the army. The gunners andassistant gunners were chosen from among the crew for the bestshooting, for it was justly held that victory in a naval battle restedmostly on the shooting qualities of the man behind the gun. 

The other battleship was rated first class and her dimensions were asfollows: Length, six hundred and thirty feet, breadth of beam ninetyfeet, draught of water thirty feet. Armament: sixteen twelve-inchcaliber guns in single turrets and placed in the following manner:forward on the lower gun deck, five guns; one on the center line of theship near the bow and two on each side further back. Five guns aft onthe lower gun deck; one on the center line of the ship near the sternand two on each side in the same way as in the first part of the ship. Three guns forward on the upper gun deck, one on the center line of theship and one on each side nearer amidships; three guns aft on the uppergun deck in the relative positions. All the guns were placed so thattwelve guns could be brought to bear on an enemy ship. The lower gundeck was twelve feet above the water line and the upper gun deck two, and they were constructed and equipped as those on the second class. 

The first class battleships carried one hundred and two more men thanthe second class, consisting of six gunners, six assistant gunners, eighteen corporals and seventy privates. No additional force wasrequired for the Engineer department of the ship. I inquired of theChief Engineer what make of engine they used and he replied that it wasthe Hammond & Co. Rotary Engine and added: "We are indebted for thisengine to a countryman of yours named Leonard Hammond, who perfected itso that at present it is in universal use and has revolutionized theindustries of the world by its saving of fuel and the low price atwhich it call be manufactured, so that it has consigned every othermake of engine, reciprocal and turbine, to the scrap pile, and of themost notable benefits derived from it has been in the shipping not onlyin economy of fuel, but also in the small space they occupy so as togive more room for cargo and in the almost total absence of vibration, and in the battleship from their being on the propeller shaft at thestern far below the water line. "

The battleships remain for ten months of the year in the rivers andharbors, where the officers and men are kept busy dredging, buildinglevees, wharves and breakwaters, and they take a cruise to differentparts of the earth during the months of December and January, andduring that time engage in gunnery practice. A battery of three-inchcaliber guns is taken on board each battleship for that as the big gunswill not stand continual firing and are only used on special occasionsto see if the gunners have improved. The men are highly pleased withthe service and the majority of them re-enlist. On inquiry I was toldthat they had thirty first-class and thirty second-class battleshipsand that they kept them always together so that they could strike anenemy with force, but as they held no people in subjection and had nocolonies or outlying possessions there was at the present time verylittle danger of war-but if it should come they were ready to fight andto strike hard. As I left the navy yard I thought what a pity it wasthat the people inhabiting the other countries of the earth were notgoverned as these people are, for then there would be no need ofbattleships and the kindly earth would slumber lapped in Universal Laws. 

CHAPTER IX. 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 

On inquiring at the Department of Commerce I was informed that it hadcharge of all vessels engaged in internal traffic as well as in foreigntrade, and operated lines of steamers running to all ports of theglobe, carrying freight at a rate between home and foreign ports thatdefied competition, but they did not carry freight between foreigncountries. The men for the Mercantile Marine were furnished by the Armyand had the same pay. They were required to load and unload cargo inevery port where they took on or discharged freight, and shippers didnot have to pay wharfage charges or pilot fees, for everyone took hisship into port and out without a pilot. The department also had chargeof all Government warehouses, wharves and docks and appointed allconsuls to foreign countries and received their reports, which werepublished in the National Gazette. 

The business of the Department was run on the principle of the greatestgood to the whole people, so that whenever the profits any yearexceeded the expenses and the sinking fund, freight rates were reduced. 

CHAPTER X. 

DEPARTMENT OF RAILWAYS. 

I went from there to the Department of Railroads and was given a copyof freight and passenger rates which on examination proved to be verysimple and that required no great lawyers with legal cunning to draw upas they did in my country in making tariff schedules to fool the peopleand open a wider door for graft rebates and special privileges. Thepassenger rate was five mills per mile for any and every distance, withchildren under seven years of age free, with but one exception-allchildren attending the District High School were carried free to andfrom school. 

Sleeping cars were provided for all persons traveling over one thousandmiles on the train, but no person under that distance was permitted tooccupy one. There were no Pullman or Palace Coaches and no specialtrain was allowed save only to the President or member of his Cabineton official business. The railway lines were run through the country soas to bring the produce of the people to market and to bring all thepeople in touch with one another. Hundreds of short lines were inoperation that by themselves did not pay operating expenses, but asthey formed a part of the whole railway system of the Republic underone management, they were beneficial to the people. The rate for allkinds of freight, except grain and vegetables, was five mills per tonper mile for all distances, and for grain, fruit and vegetables twomills per ton per mile. 

All Government freight and employees were carried free, but a strictaccount was kept so as to prevent fraud. No discrimination betweenpersons or places was allowed. Everyone was placed on the same footing, but to prevent conspiracies in restraint of trade if a person in anydistrict shipped goods into another district and offered them for salefor a less price, with the freight added, than he sold them for in hisown district, he was punished by six months' imprisonment at hard laborin the district where he violated the law, and if any person, either ofhis own account or acting as agent for another party, sold goodsbrought from a foreign country for a less price than the wholesaleprice of the goods at the place where they were produced ormanufactured with twenty per cent. Added for freight and otherexpenses, was punished by six months' imprisonment at hard labor, andif not a citizen of the Republic of Eurasia, was expelled from thecountry after serving out his sentence, for, as a prominent officerremarked to me: "We do not permit any Standard Oil methods in ourcountry. " There were no tariff duties levied. Every article produced ormanufactured (except those produced or manufactured by the Government, which were prohibited) were admitted free, provided the Government ofthat country admitted articles produced or manufactured in Eurasiafree; if not, then a non-intercourse decree was issued by the Presidentof Eurasia to be in force until the other country accepted free trade. The railways were built directly by the Government, employing soldiersto do the work, and no contracts were allowed, Governmentsuperintendents and foremen bossing the construction, even to gettingout ties in the Government forests and the rails made in Governmentmills and foundries. The Government built railroads at less cost thanthey were built for in any other part of the world and politicians hadno chance to get their political friends into soft berths at theexpense of the taxpayers. No money was paid by the General Governmentfor right of way. 

All claims for damages arising out of the building of railways had tobe presented to the District Court, and the law provided that theDistrict Court could grant such compensation as was just, but in nocase could it exceed the assessed value of the land per acre that theowner had sworn to previously as the full value of his land, to be paidout of the funds of the district. There were only two forms of taxationin Eurasia, a land tax and a graduated income tax. There was no tax onimprovements of any kind, either on city or country property, but onthe land only; by this wise system of taxation encouraging the peopleto improve their property and beautify and discouraging landspeculation; and when the Government wanted land owned by privateparties who were citizens of the Republic (for no foreigner waspermitted by law to own land directly or indirectly, so that the curseof Absentee Landlordism which was the ruin of Ireland, should neverblight the happiness of the people of Eurasia), they added up theassessments for the previous five years and divided them by five andadded twenty per cent. To it in payment for the land, together withfair compensation for any buildings there might be on it; so that ifthe owner swore to a low valuation on his land he was the loser; butthe District Court, sitting as a Board of Equalization every year, could fix the value of the land at what they considered proper. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE INCOME TAX. 

The income tax was a graduated income tax beginning with persons havingon income one thousand dollars a year and above what they laid out inimproving their property. All persons whose income was less than onethousand dollars paid no income tax. The tax was one per cent. On onethousand dollars, the rate increasing with the amount of income up tofifty thousand dollars a year, when it was fifty per cent. , leaving theowner twenty-five thousand dollars, and for all incomes over fiftythousand dollars a year the surplus over twenty-five thousand dollarswent to the Government and as a result of this wise policy there wereno Jay Goulds or J. D. Rockefellers in Eurasia. All money received fromland and income taxes went into the District Fund for the expenses ofthe district and schools, and building and maintaining of good, macadamized roads, for every district had a rock crusher from which theroads were supplied with broken stone at a trifling expense to thedistrict. 

CHAPTER XII. 

DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURES. 

The Government derived its revenues from the sale of liquors, drugs, chemicals, tobacco, coffee, tea, sugar, salt, coal, oil, stone, charcoal, iron, steel, copper, lead and the precious metals. Thegreatest revenue was derived from liquors. Every commodity produced ormanufactured by the Government was sold in lots or packages at onedollar a lot or package. The Government made and sold wine in threegrades, The first-grade wine was put up in quart bottles at one dollara quart, the second-grade wine in half-gallon bottles at one dollar abottle, and the third-grade wine in gallon bottles at one dollar agallon; alcohol in half-gallon bottles at one dollar a bottle, andbrandy in the same way and sold at the same price. There were no gradesin brandy. All brandies were sold at one dollar for half a gallon. Whisky, of which there was only manufactured one grade, but out ofdifferent cereals or vegetables, was put up in one-gallon bottles andsold at one dollar a gallon. Beer was sold in five-gallon kegs at onedollar a keg, but the purchaser of beer had to pay in addition for thekeg, which was refunded when he returned the keg in good condition. TheGovernment manufactured pure liquors and no foreign liquors wereadmitted into Eurasia. 

In the chemical factories every drug required by the MedicalPharmacopoeia and every chemical required in the arts and manufactureswas made, but no drugs were sold except on a medical prescription, orchemicals except to responsible parties. The voters of any districtcould by a majority vote prohibit the use of any or all liquors ordrugs in the district, and on receiving official notice of the lawenacted by the district the Minister of Manufactures issued an orderwithdrawing from the district any or all liquors or drugs prohibited, and any person bringing into the district any prohibited drug orliquor, unless under a prescription from a Government physician, waspunished by six months at hard labor within the district. 

At every Government warehouse where drugs and chemicals were sold theGovernment employed a competent physician, on a salary fixed by law, tosuperintend their sale, and he could prescribe and the Governmentfurnished the medicine free to those who were sick and did not have themoney to pay for it. 

Tobacco was manufactured and sold in three grades, viz. , cigars, whichwere sold in packages twenty cigars for a dollar, and smoking tobaccoand chewing at one dollar a package. No cigarettes were manufactured orsold by the Government or admitted into Eurasia, as it was recognizedby all intelligent people who took a warm interest in human progressthat the use of tobacco in the form of cigarettes had an injuriouseffect on the young, through the pernicious habit of inhaling thesmoke. Coffee and tea were put up in three grades at one dollar apackage, the packages weighing in proportion to grade, and sugar wasmade and sold in two grades, viz. , common sugar and refined. The commonwas put up in twenty-five-pound sacks and sold for one dollar a sack, and the refined sugar in twenty-pound sacks and sold at one dollar asack. Salt was put up in one-hundred-pound sacks and five sacks ofcommon salt were sold for one dollar and four sacks of refined salt forone dollar, or at the rate of four dollars a ton for rock salt and fivedollars a ton for refined salt. 

The Government manufactured charcoal on a large scale in fireproofbrick kilns, that turned out ten thousand bushels of charcoal to thekiln, with elevated railroad tracks running between the rows of kilns, so that the wood was unloaded from the cars into the kilns and on theoutside of the kilns were sunken railroad tracks so that the charcoalwhen drawn from the kilns could be loaded into the cars with the least, amount of labor, enabling the Government to sell charcoal inone-hundred-pound sacks at one dollar for two hundred pounds, or at therate of ten dollars a ton. The Government reserved for its own use allanthracite coal, but sold bituminous coal in two-hundred-pound sacksfor a dollar, at the rate of five dollars a ton. The Governmentreserved for its own use crude petroleum, but refined it as coal oiland sold it at ten cents a gallon in dollar lots. 

Pig iron and bar steel were sold by the Government at a price yieldinga profit of twenty per cent. Over cost of production; lead and copperat the same rate of profit, and all the gold and silver mined orbrought into Eurasia was coined and went into circulation. Everycommodity produced or manufactured by the Government in the above listwas sold at the same price, whether the Government warehouse where thegoods were sold was in the most populous city of Eurasia or at a lonelyfishing-station in the icy regions of the Arctic or in the torriddeserts of the Tropics. 

Every person buying a commodity in a Government store was required bylaw to register his name in the Government account book opposite thelist of articles purchased, which was always open to the public forinspection, so that any intelligent person could see who was addictedto the use of intoxicating liquors, and the manager of the warehousewas compelled by law on the complaint of a wife or mother to denyliquor to the husband or son that was complained against and to publishthe name in the district newspaper of largest circulation as well asposting it on the bulletin board on the front of the warehouse, and anyperson who gave liquor directly or indirectly to the person prohibitedwas sentenced, on conviction thereof, to six months' imprisonment athard labor. The Magistrate was forbidden by law to release on probationany person over the age of fifteen years convicted of this offense, anda child under the age of fifteen violating this law was sent to thereform school, of which there was one in every district. 

No credit was allowed in the purchase of goods from the Government andthe manager of the warehouse had discretionary power to limit the saleof any commodity so as to treat rich and poor alike and to preventspeculation. As every purchaser could buy a dollar's worth of anycommodity for sale by the Government and as no rebate was granted nomatter what the amount purchased, it placed every purchaser on anequality in dealing with the Government. No liquor was allowed to bedrunk on or about the premises where it was sold, neither could it besold by any private party directly or indirectly to any person. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PUBLIC UTILITIES. 

The Government, through its ownership and operation of all publicutilities, placed within the reach of every person the necessaries andsome of the luxuries of life, no matter what their trade or professionor where situated, so that when I became acquainted with their systemof government I was not surprised at the spirited character and noblebearing of the people, in striking contrast to the cringing servilityof the ignorant laborer in England and the negroes of the United Statesof America, for in Eurasia there were no kings, dukes or lords, butevery man was addressed as "Mister" and every female as "Madame" or"Miss, " and there was practically realized Burns's famous song: "Aman's a man for a' that. "

CHAPTER XIV. 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

I visited several experimental farms under the management of theDepartment of Agriculture and was informed by the superintendent of thefarm that the Government had a small farm of six hundred and fortyacres in every district in which was situated the District High Schoolwhere boys and girls were taught how to farm and to raise stock andpoultry to the best advantage, and also large farms at every militaryreservation where persons convicted of crime were taught how to becomeuseful members of society. The Government raised only thoroughbredstock and poultry on the farms, and the service of the males was givenfree to every farmer that desired to improve his stock. 

As Eurasia covered a vast extent of country, enjoying every variety ofclimate, the Department of Agriculture had all almost unlimited fieldto work in and was yearly producing some new variety of plants thatenriched the labors of the husbandman as well as discovering remediesto successfully combat parasites and other enemies of the fruitraiserand horticulturist as well as the farmer. District fairs were held oncea year in every district at which prizes were given to the best butterand cheese makers and to the best breeder of every kind of live stockand poultry raised in the district, but no stock or poultry importedinto the district could receive a prize. The owner of anythingexhibited at the fair had to make an affidavit that he or she hadraised it on his or her farm. Prizes were given to the owner of thebest cereals and vegetables of all kinds as well as for hemp, flax, cotton and silk, and for the best manufactured articles of everydescription. The Government exhibited at every district fair the mostimproved machinery in use for bettering the means of production withskilled mechanics to operate it and any person desiring to purchase amachine could buy it from the Government at the actual cost ofmanufacture with twenty per cent. Added. The Government prizes at thedistrict fairs excited and aroused a growing interest in the people toimprove their condition and by bringing them together in greatgatherings made them more friendly to one another with a broader anddeeper feeling for humanity. 

CHAPTER XV. 

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 

I did not see any foreign Ambassadors in the Capital and on enquiringfor the cause of their absence was referred to the Minister of ForeignAffairs for information. He told me that the presence of ForeignMinisters in Eurasia would be in violation of the laws as no privilegeswere allowed to any person that could not be enjoyed by all the people, "and no doubt you are aware that under the monarchical system ofgovernment Ambassadors and their suites were privileged persons whocould not be arrested and punished for violating the laws of Eurasia, and they could bring into the country everything that they wanted fortheir own use without paying any duty on them, even if the use of thearticle was prohibited by law; and taking advantage of this immunity, some of them brought into the country and circulated obscene books thatwould not be allowed to go through the mails and that would subject anycitizen of this country to six months at hard labor, if they were foundin his possession. 

"When a government by the people came into power in Eurasia thePresident called our Legations home and dismissed the foreignAmbassadors and Ministers and notified every Government that we haddealings with that in the future the Government of Eurasia wouldcommunicate with them by mail and telegraph and would publish in theNational Gazette of Eurasia all correspondence that passed betweenthem, so that the people of both countries should know the character ofthe men to whom they had entrusted the management of foreign affairs. We do not interfere in the affairs of other countries, but try topromote peace and good will among all nations. We have enforced a lawthat met with bitter opposition in England and the United States ofAmerica and brought us to the verge of war, but the common sense of theworking men and women in both countries forced their Government toyield and it has proved a blessing to the sailors. The law commandsthat if a sailor on any vessel that comes into Eurasian ports, nomatter what flag she flies, makes a complaint of ill-usage, the partycomplained against shall be arrested and tried and if found guilty sentto prison for the term of years corresponding to the offense. "

CHAPTER XVI. 

UNITED WORKERS OF EURASIA. 

I was introduced to the President of the United Workers of Eurasia andhe told me that all the working men and women were united in one greatunion and that the present Minister of Labor was a lady who for yearshad championed the cause of Labor and that she was unceasing in herefforts to better their condition now that she was at the head of theDepartment of Labor. The wages of all Government employees were fixedby law and could not be raised or lowered except by a two-thirds voteof the people, and only one bill from each department could besubmitted by the Parliament to the people to vote on at each election, so that graft and corrupt practices could gain no footing by appealingto selfish interests. 

The law provided a liability fund for sickness, injuries and deathamong working men and women; one-half of the fund payable by theworking men and women and the other half by the employers. The moneyfor the fund had to be paid monthly. Every working man and woman had topay out of his or her wages a fixed sum for which the employer was heldresponsible and every employer had to pay an equal sum for every personin his employ. This law applied equally to every person in Eurasia, theemployer as well as the employed. There was no charge for membership inthe labor union and no walking delegates, for the Government gave thempermission to hold their meetings in the churches, which were allGovernment property, and in the public schools. Whenever the members ofthe union in any district wanted an increase of wages the law requiredthem to serve a written notice on the employer and a copy of it on theDistrict Court. The Chief justice then called both parties before theCourt and ordered them to each select one person as arbitrator, and forthose two selected to settle the dispute and if they could not agree, then the case went immediately before the District Court and a majorityvote of the Court settled it. As a result of this common-sense methodof settling labor disputes there were no strikes. 

Every corporation, before shutting down its works, had to serve tendays' notice on its employees and also file a copy of it with theDistrict Court, stating its reasons for so doing, and if the laborunion protested, the Court heard the case and if there was unsufficientcause shown by the corporation it had to continue work until such timeas it showed good and sufficient reasons to stop work. The Governmentstrictly enforced the eight-hour law, and no working woman waspermitted to work overtime. Children were not allowed to work for wagesunder any circumstances for they were the wards of the State, but mencould work overtime if the union permitted them, with double pay forit. The Government granted a pension of half the wages yearly receivedby every working man and woman that was over sixty years of age and afull pension wage to every working man or woman over seventy years ofage, no matter what their financial condition was at that time. 

Every person before casting a ballot at the polls was required to showa receipt from the Department of Health that two dollars had been paidinto the Old Age Pension fund for the previous year, which was asalutary measure in preserving the purity of elections by eliminatingthe shiftless and improvident from participation in the election. 

The Government obeyed the Fourth Commandment, "Honor thy Father and thyMother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy Godgiveth thee. "

CHAPTER XVII. 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

I learned that the Department of Health had greater responsibilitiesthan any other department of the Government, for the physical, mentaland moral welfare of the people was in its keeping. One of its dutieswas to prevent the introduction of any diseases into Eurasia, and tomake it effective every person coming into the country had to undergo aphysical examination by three Government physicians, and all personsthat were idiotic or insane or had any of the following diseases, viz. :syphilis, tuberculosis, cancer, leprosy, yellow fever, smallpox, or anyother contagious disease or fever, or was shown on examination to beaddicted to vicious habits, were denied admission. Another of theduties of the Department of Health was to examine every person thatapplied to practice medicine and surgery or to engage in anyprofessional calling. The law required a medical examination to be madeof the person, who was granted a license every year, so as to keep theprofessions up to a high standard. 

Before granting license to any man, three male physicians in Governmentemploy examined him, and if a female three female physicians examinedher. The first examination was physical, and if found to be in goodphysical health they were passed up for a mental examination, and ifthey qualified for their profession they were examined morally, whenthey were asked the following questions: "Do you believe in theBrotherhood of Man? Will you do unto others always as you would desirethat others should do to you? Do you promise that you will not renderobedience directly or indirectly to any person or persons outside ofEurasia and that you will render willing obedience to the laws and doall that lies in your power to maintain the honor of the country?" Ifthey did not agree to those rules of conduct they were denied alicense. If any person attempted to practice any profession without alicense he was punished by six months' imprisonment at hard labor. 

Any person practicing fortune-telling or any other fraudulent callingwas tried for obtaining money under false pretenses, and on convictionthereof was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at hard labor at therock crusher. The result of this wise law showed in the total absenceof bands of gypsies, dancing dervishes, holy rollers and strollingvagabonds of every description in Eurasia. If a man or woman was foundanywhere in Eurasia without visible means of support the Department ofHealth found work for them until such time as they could better theircondition. They were required to work eight hours a day if they wereable to do manual labor and if not able to work they were sent to aGovernment Sanatorium. 

The Department of Health had charge of the sewerage system in everydistrict, city as well as country. In the cities it supervised theerection of every new building, and any old buildings that itpronounced unsanitary had to be torn down. It saw also to the removalof all garbage and refuse material. The Department of Health had chargeof all births, marriages and deaths, and could order the cremation ofany dead body when it believed that it would be to the benefit of thehealth of the community to do so. The Department of Health was alsorequired by law to make a physical examination of children when theywere born and to take care of them if the mother was unable to do soand to send all illegitimate children to the Government Orphan College. It superintended the sale of all medicine and drugs, having aGovernment physician at every Government warehouse where they weresold. It had also charge of all idiots and insane persons as well asdangerous criminals. 

The Superintendent and two Assistant Superintendents of the lunaticasylums (of which there were only two, one for males and one forfemales) were required by law to castrate male lunatics and emasculatefemales who had become insane through masturbation or other vicioushabits and to chloroform dangerous lunatics who had homicidaltendencies. Those three physicians in committee examined everydangerous lunatic and two of them could order the person chloroformedif in their judgment it was necessary. Lady physicians had charge ofthe female lunatic asylum with the same authority as the men. The twoasylums were located in the center of a fine tract of farming land inthe Southern part of Eurasia, consisting of ninety-two thousand onehundred and sixty acres in a high state of cultivation with flourishingorchards and vineyards, and at the time I visited it had a populationof sixty thousand male inmates and thirty-five thousand femaleinmates-besides the officers and guards. 

The mildest and most tractable of the inmates were in communitiesorganized in military style in different parts of the grounds and werebusily employed in doing everything that was required to make theinstitution self-sustaining. The physicians of the State prisons wererequired by law after one year's imprisonment (one year after sentencewas passed was allowed to prove innocence) to castrate all malesconvicted of rape, incest, or any other infamous crime against nature, and to castrate every male prisoner who committed sodomy or otherinfamous crime while in prison; but only after trial and conviction forthe crime before the District Court, and they could by a majority votechloroform any dangerous criminal that showed homicidal tendencies. 

I saw no red-light sign of houses of prostitution, and on makinginquiries I was informed that there were no houses of prostitution inEurasia, for as soon as information was given to any Magistrate the lawrequired him or her to issue an order for the arrest of the femalepracticing prostitution, and on conviction she was committed to thefemale reformatory for five years, subject to parole after one year, and for a second offense of the same crime she was deprived of thepower to propagate the race. Gentle reader, don't think that this lawis cruel or unjust, for the amount of evil that a depraved woman cancommit in spreading, that loathsome disease, syphilis, is incalculable, and Christ when he told the woman that had committed adultery that hedid not condemn her also added: "Go and sin no more. " A committee ofsix physicians, three males and three females, in the service of theGovernment in every district were required by law to examine everyperson desiring marriage and if the person examined was affected withtuberculosis, cancer, scrofula, leprosy, syphilis, or any otherloathsome or contagious disease, then that person was denied a licenseto marry; and also if they were mentally unsound. 

Under the law no person was allowed to marry until twenty-one years ofage, male and female, and any person violating this law was punished byone year's imprisonment at hard labor in the district in which this lawhad been violated. In no case was a Government physician permitted toreceive any compensation for services rendered as physician, for theywere the servants of the people, elected by the people in everydistrict and paid by the Government a salary fixed by law, and no bondswere required of them or of any public official, for the people electedevery public official with the exception of officers in the Army andNavy, who were elected by the soldiers up to the grade of Colonel, andthe Brigadiers and Major-Generals were appointed by the Minister ofWar, was was Commander-in-Chief and directed all the operations of theArmy and Navy in war, and also the agents of the Department ofInformation, who were appointed by the Minister of that department onthe recommendation of his assistant chiefs, of whom there was one inevery district who was elected by the people after having passed asuccessful examination showing their ability to do the work required ofthem. 

Every person appointed to office, as well as those elected by thepeople, had to be examined physically, mentally and morally in the samemanner as those applying for a license to practice a profession ordesiring to marry. All were placed on the same footing. The law fordivorce was enforced by the Department of Health, as doctors were, fromtheir knowledge of human frailty, the best judges to decide whether aman and woman should live together in the married state or beseparated, and while the law provided for a compulsory decree ofdivorce for adultery, which was a felony, it also allowed divorce forincompatibility of temperament. A court of six Government physicians, three males and three females, heard all divorce cases in everydistrict. 

The Minister of Health gave me the reasons why the marriage law waspassed fixing twenty-one years of age as the time when young men andwomen could marry. He said it was done to allow the youths of bothsexes to become well acquainted with one another before being united inmarriage, and also to be well trained in useful callings, so that bothparties to the marriage contract would be able to assist each other, for many an innocent young girl had ruined her life by marrying a manat an age when she was ignorant of the duties of wifehood andmotherhood, "but by keeping our boys and girls in training schoolsuntil they are eighteen and then teaching them trades in the Army untilthey are twenty-one years of age we fit them for the duties of life. "

CHAPTER XVIII. 

A VISIT TO THE MINISTER OF STATE. 

Before returning to the United States of America I called on theMinister of State, who is also the presiding officer of the Parliament, and told him that I would regard it as a great favor if he would tellme how such changes had taken place in the Government of his country, "for, " said I, "from what I read about your Government when I was a boyit was an absolute monarchy, and one man's will was the law of theland. "

"You have the key to the problem in that statement, " he replied, "for Iam free to confess that it would have taken centuries to have broughtabout our present system of government under so-called democracy. Nearthe middle of the last century an absolute ruler in our country by astroke of his pen freed twenty-three millions of slaves, while in yourcountry it required four years of bloody war at a cost of ten thousandmillions of dollars and the lives of one million of brave men, andthrough the widespread demoralization that ensued through your bravestand best being killed or giving to the corrupt element in your country(for a dishonest man is always a coward) the opportunity to inauguratea reign of monopoly where graft and bribery flourishes and the slaveelement that you freed are a menace (and will be as long as they remainin the country) to society. 

"The last absolute ruler we had was one of those great men that God inHis infinite wisdom brings into the world at stated intervals toexercise a dominating influence in human affairs and to give a freshimpetus to human progress. Of the great men that we class with him arethe following: Confucius, Buddha, Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Abraham Lincoln. The first thing he did when he became Emperor was tosummon sixty of the most liberal minded men and women in the empire tothe palace to draw up under his supervision a political, civil andpenal code, which with slight modification is in force at the presenttime, and he called all the newspaper editors into conference and askedthem to assist him in promoting the welfare of the people and then heissued a decree granting liberty of speech and of the press throughoutEurasia, which he announced as the name of the Empire in future, andthe reason that he gave for it was that his people were composed of agreat many nationalities and by dividing the empire into districts andnumbering them in arithmetical order he abolished the old politicaldivisions and he also decreed that the present language we speak shouldbe the official language of the empire for the ancient language of theruling class had created a bitter feeling amongst great numbers of thepeople and besides the present had become the commercial language ofthe world. 

"He reorganized the Cabinet into fourteen departments and held theMinister at the head of each department responsible. He converted theArmy and Navy (who were eating up the hard-earned wages of the workingmen and women of our land in idleness and dissipation), into a greatindustrial army and assigned them to work under the differentdepartments as they were required, weeding out the worthless andreducing to the ranks all officers that conducted themselves in amanner unbecoming a gentleman and by election of officers giving everysoldier equal opportunity to rise to the highest rank. This greatmeasure eliminated the aristocracy in the Army and made the Emperor theidol of the soldiers, so that from that time forward every effort ofthe aristocracy to oppose the Emperor in giving to the country aGovernment by the people was futile for the Army supported him with aforce that was irresistible. He ordered the districts laid outaccording to latitude and longitude, making due allowance forpopulation, the smallest district being one degree of latitude inbreadth and two degrees of longitude in length, and the largest (whichwere situated in the frozen regions of the Arctic or in the greatdesert) five degrees of latitude in breadth and ten degrees oflongitude in length, and when they were surveyed he ordered that theland should be assessed without improvements at its full value, and theowner had to swear that he would sell to the Government the land at itsassessed valuation. 

"The aristocracy almost to a man swore to a low valuation, so when fiveyears had passed the Emperor issued a decree appropriating toGovernment use all land over and above six hundred and forty acres heldby private owners and paying for it one-fifth of the total assessmentfor the previous five years with twenty per cent. Added forimprovements, the aristocracy had to accept it and their power wasbroken forever, for the Emperor leased the land to the cultivators ofthe soil at the rate of four per cent. Per annum of the price that theGovernment paid for the land, dividing the land into small farms andgiving the renter the right of purchase at any time. 

"The aristocracy and the Church have been in every country the enemiesof liberty and human progress. The Emperor saw the evil effects of theliquor traffic and to abate the evil he abolished the manufacture andsale of liquors by individuals and placed their manufacture and sale inthe care of the Department of Manufactures and year by year he addedtobacco, drugs and chemicals, sugar, salt, tea, coffee, coal oil, stonecoal, charcoal and all the metals, and placed the coinage and currencyof the Empire under the control of the Department of Finance knownthroughout the world as the Bank of Eurasia. He established our presentsystem of education and forbade the teaching of religious dogmas in thepublic schools, and when every district in the Empire was surveyed andthe people thereof enjoyed a District Government by electing theirGovernors, Judges and other public officials and the Government ownedand operated all public utilities, he decided that the time had arrivedfor a Government of the people, for the people and by the people andcalled a general election to elect members of Parliament and to submitto the people the political, civil and penal code of the Empire. Thepeople by an overwhelming vote ratified the code and endorsed theGovernment. Four years afterward the Emperor called a general electionto choose his successor and retired to private life, beloved by hispeople. 

"Your people had a President who gained worldwide fame not only by thevigorous way that he wielded the Big Stick, but also through hisundaunted courage and inflexible honesty. Place him again in thePresidential chair and he will open the way for a government of thepeople, for the people and by the people. "