CHAPTER IX.
A NEW GOVERNMENT AND A DIALOGUE ON GOVERNMENT.
Our hero and heroine seemed to both become younger by their experience of the unalloyed happiness which followed their marriage. Their faces seemed softer and their eyes even kinder and gentler in expression. The honeymoon was, owing to Oliver Spence's position, necessarily a very short one, so that in a few weeks Oliver was again giving close personal attention to the State affairs of Australia. Mary was of great service to him by her advice and assistance. She particularly interested herself in the welfare of the weaker sex, and personally saw that the wish of the Dictator, that all women who desired employment, should, on receipt of their application be given suitable work, and paid the same wages as men should be effectively carried out, and the fact that all women in need of employment could at once go to the National Workshops, and, like the men, receive the employment for which their physical or mental organization best fitted them, did more in a few months to abolish the compulsory unchastity of prostitution than all the canting or prurient members of Social Purity societies, could, by their methods, have accomplished in some centuries. It also obviated the necessity of mercenary marriages, a most vile form of life-long prostitution, which the disciples of Social Purity, had quite ignored.
So invaluable did Mary's help in governing, become to Oliver, that towards the period when his term of office was to expire, Australia was in fact governed by Oliver and Mary conjointly. Nor did the people object to this dual Dictatorship; on the contrary, they valued and esteemed the benign influence and actions of the Dictator's beautiful wife, so that when the Dictatorship expired, the National Electoral Convention elected them both the Joint-Rulers of Australia. It was thought that the female half of Australian humanity had rights to conserve quite as much as the male half, and those rights could best be conserved by endowing Oliver's amiable wife, with administrative and legislative powers equal to his own.
The Joint-Rulers frequently had long conversations together about the affairs of State and the principles of government, which, had they, been reported, would not have been without interest to the reader. The following condensed abstract of one of these dialogues may serve to illustrate the principles of government upon which the new order of things was founded:—
Mary: "Although, my dear Oliver, we are the supreme rulers of Australia, I cannot conceal from you that I still have some lingering belief in Democracy or government by the people. We, as you know, are after all, the appointed of a minority."
Oliver: "Government by the people might be right enough, my dear, when they have for some considerable time enjoyed the advantages of leisure, education, independence, and comfort. Pure Democracy is, I believe, the only form of Government which is theoretically sound, and were the people possessed of the advantages I have just mentioned, and were there no wealthy class, but only a wealthy people, pure Democracy would be possible and beneficial. But, hitherto, wealth has been the monopoly of a class. Wealth is power, great power, whoever possesses the wealth of a people, will rule that people, consequently, we have had in Australia, what was in name a Democratic Government, but, in fact, an Oligarchy, composed of the few man who owned Australia's wealth. Though the masses had the vote, there was no real Democracy, only Plutocracy, or Government 'by the wealthy. The masses could read, but they were not educated, they had neither means, nor leisure, to obtain a knowledge of economics, and of the processes by which they were robbed and degraded. Indeed, their knowledge of how to read actually had, under the circumstances, a pernicious effect, for by its means they were enabled to read the class-owned newspapers, which, having an enormous circulation, drugged with lies, their gullible, ill-informed, toiling readers."
Mary: "What you have said about the former condition of the working-people, I know to be absolute truth, my dear Oliver, but why would it not have been better to wait until, by oral propaganda, and the use of an independent Democratic press, we had converted the majority and thus changed things peacefully?"
Oliver: "Because, even if possible, a peaceful radical change would have taken many generations, and we preferred to have the change in our own time. Posterity can take care of itself. I am, besides, very doubtful if the change could ever have been brought about by peaceful means. Everything worth doing in the past, has been done by the sword in the hands of a determined minority. Majorities may crucify a Christ, poison a Socrates, and hang innocent men, like the so-called Anarchists, who, many years ago were judicially murdered in Chicago, but they do not reform abuses, or radically change systems. Majorities are always too much occupied with their own private and domestic affairs, to interest themselves in anything but the doing to death of some unpopular poor man. As to the peaceful reformation of society, men have been trying that, ever since the commencement of the Christian Era. Here is a valuable work by C. Osborne Ward, who was in the days of the existence of the United States of America, a Librarian and Translator to their Department of Labour, his book is entitled "The Ancient Lowly," and he shows that there were not only labour unions more than two thousand years ago but that that the unions tried by peaceful political action and co-operation to reconstruct society. Workers have been trying, by the same means, ever since, but, as you know, without success. Listen to some of the Labourer's electioneering inscriptions, found among the ruins of Pompeii overwhelmed A.D. 79:—
(1.) 'The members of the Fishermens' Union, nominate Pompedins Rufus for member of the Board of Public Works.'
(2.) 'The International Goldworkers' Association of the City of Pompeii demand for Member of the Board of Public Works, Cuspis Pansa.'
(3.) 'Verna, the home-born, with her pupils, in all right, put Mrs. Capella to the front for a seat on the Board of Magistrates.'"
The workers failed then because the men of the sword were against them, and they have failed since for the same reason."
Mary: "But I have read, dear Oliver, that the workers in England enjoyed great prosperity, ease, and plenty during the fifteenth century Surely, that was not brought about by the sword?"
Oliver: "You are in error, my dear, Professor Thorold Rogers, and other historians clearly show that it was chiefly brought about by the temporary success of the partial "Revolt of the Peasants," under the leadership of Wat Tyler."
Mary: "It does seem sad that justice cannot be obtained without the sacrifice of human life."
Oliver: "It is sad enough, my dear, but true, and what is more, the higher the civilization the greater seems the need of political surgery. If a tree shows signs of disease, we lop off the infected branches to prevent the spread of the disease, in the same way, when society becomes corrupt, it is necessary to cut out that corruption in order to save society from complete rottenness, and ultimate disintegration. The history of mankind shows that the more highly civilized a society becomes, the greater is its corruption, and, consequently the greater its need of a surgical operation or judicious pruning."
Mary: "To change the subject, somewhat, Oliver. Do you not think that the old system of Parliamentary Government was in harmony with Democratic principles?"
Oliver: "No, my dear; Parliamentary Government was a huge farce. In the first place, it was not representative, partly because no man can represent another, he can only 'represent' himself, so that, if sent to Parliament with vague instructions to 'represent' his constituents, he simply managed matters in his own interest; and partly because of fraudulent practices at the elections, and the influence of the rich man over those who were employed by him; or who were under obligations to him; or who, strangely enough, admired and respected him, because of the wealth he had legally cheated them out of. In the second place, it being difficult to fix responsibility upon a whole Parliament, its members were almost invariably venal and corrupt and, they were animated by plutocratic class bias. In the third place, it is reasonable to assume that it is easer to pick out one or two good and great men in a nation than to discover a Parliament of such men. You and I, Mary, are entrusted with power for a period of three ears, and the eyes of the whole nation are upon us, we two, and we only, are held directly responsible by the nation, who could, if they so desired, depose us and appoint others in our stead; but in a Parliament, the responsibility is scattered over such a number that it cannot be definitely fixed, so that the majority of members always remain the instruments of plutocratic cliques. It is true that we have been elected by a National Electoral Convention, consisting only of the delegates of the Revolutionary minority, but the nation knows definitely who its rulers are, and can rise and overthrow us if it does not approve of our rule."
Mary: "Do you think, my dear Oliver, that there is any possibility of the people rising against us?"
Oliver: "None, my dear. Without laying too much stress on the apathy, not to say cowardice of the average man of the majority, their remain the facts that the people are now far better off than they were in the days of the Plutocracy, and that we have not left our enemies the money to pay for a counter-revolution."
This concluded the conversation, and after transacting some business, our hero and heroine quitted the Treasury Buildings, where the conversation had taken place, and returned to their private house.