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houses, towels, dishes, linen, etc. made expressly for him or her, and never used by or for anyone else, would be equally free to do so. Those who saw fit to go to neither extreme, but desired to retain much of our present method in these arrangements could go on with their domestic relations as they are today.
Wherin then, you may ask, is the communism? Simply in this: Production would be carried on, as before stated, by those who voluntarily associated themselves together for that purpose, each according to his or her desire. The land and tools of production, buildings necessary for production and exchange, the means of transportation, communication and distribution, and the products of united effort would all be held in common, and the right of everyone to use to the full extent of their needs and desires would be recognized. It is a well known fact that if all able-bodied persons were occupied in production for a very few hours per day, an abundance of everything desirable could be produced. If all were assured of plenty, then no one would have any incentive to take more than they could use and enjoy.
In Communism there being no money, or other representative of value, there would be no opportunity to hoard; for the man who would carry home a hundred hats, or fifty umbrellas, or twenty suits of clothes, when the store was well supplied all the time and free for him to help himself, would be ridiculed and laughed at so much that he would surely refrain from any further exhibition of the hoarding proclivity. The sense of security which would prevail would be a sufficient safeguard against anyone taking too much.
Cheapness would never be thought of. Utility and beauty would always be the objects sought to be attained in all lines of production. Shoddy would be unknown. No thought of adulteration of food would ever enter the head of anyone, and only the best of everything would be sought for. Buildings would be erected with the greatest care and substantial enough to last many generations. Roads would be made level, straight, wide and with substantial foundations; their surface would be kept constantly in repair.
All the necessary and useful occupations of every description would be carried on by voluntary groups, each group doing that particular work for which it was formed. When any work has been accomplished the group doing it would dissolve into its component parts, the various individuals that had composed it uniting with others in other groups for other and different purposes, as the necessities or expediencies of the times called for united action.
Thus the most infinite variety of combinations for specif purposes, either of utility or pleasure could be formed, accomplish their purpose, and go out of existence, and all the necessities and luxuries of life could be provided without curtailing the liberty of any, and the highest individuality now conceivable be attained.
In this condition, above all others that have ever been proposed, would the true equality of the sexes be attained. No woman would feel dependent upon any man for her support, even during her inability to provide for herself, at the period of childbearing. Full knowing that she need never suffer from want, she would scorn the thought of submitting herself to the sex embrace of any except the man she loved. Nor would she bring unwelcome children into the world. Love alone would draw men and women into the intimate relation that results in parentage, and the loathsome institutions of today (prostitution and marriage) with their attendant female complaints and venereal diseases, would be but dim memories of the past.
Natural selection in sexual relations, as well as in all the varied affairs of life, would have full and unobstructed play, and would as surely work out the betterment of the human race as it now perpetuates and improves many species whose natural surroundings are more hostile than ours.
