Thomas Dixon
Comrades: A Story of Social Adventure in California
"Through thick an' thin," Tom added.
"And hereafter, Tom," Norman said with a smile, "I'd like to be consulted before you hold any more sessions of your court up the beach."
Tom started.
"You've heard about it?"
"Yes."
"By gum, I knowed I oughter licked that kid again!" the old miner observed, regretfully.
Norman, said gravely: "Tom, we are getting into deep water. I've begun to have some doubts about our safety. A leader must lead. And I'm going to do it. Can I depend on you to execute my orders and mine alone?"
"Every day in the year," was the firm reply.
"The same here," Joe echoed.
Barbara had drawn apart from the group of men and stood watching them with keen, suspicious interest as the two miners started homeward with restored good humour.
"What did you mean by saying that you were afraid of coming trouble?" Barbara eagerly asked of Norman. "What have you heard? What do you suspect?"
"Nothing," he answered, thoughtfully. "But I've had the blues for a week. It's been growing on me that we are not getting on except into situations more and more impossible. There's a screw loose somewhere in our system. There's going to be a wreck unless we find and repair it."
"I have felt this, too, and I think I know the cause."
"What?"
"Liberty which has degenerated into licence. We lack authority and the power to enforce it."
"And this is the one thing we cursed in the old system – the law, power, authority."
"No," Barbara quickly objected. "We did not rebel against law or the exercise of authority. We rebelled against its unjust use."
"And what depresses me is that I am convinced that we must use the power of law with more stern, direct, and personal pressure than ever known under the system of capitalism, or we must fail."
"Is not such pressure desirable?"
"It depends on who applies the pressure – but it seems inevitable – and it depresses me."
Barbara broke into a joyous laugh.
"Away with gloomy forebodings! It's only a day's fog. It will lift. The sun is shining behind it now."
Her laughter was contagious. Norman smiled in quick sympathy, and a response of hope and courage was just forming itself on his lips when he looked toward the house and saw an excited crowd packed in the doorway.
"What on earth is the matter?" Barbara gasped.
"Some accident has happened," he replied, quickly. "Come, we must hurry!"
Catherine's lithe figure darted down the steps and met them on the lawn.
"What is it?" Norman cried.
"A murder!"
"A murder?" Barbara repeated, incredulously.
"Yes – wilful, deliberate, cruel, horrible!" Catherine went on excitedly.
"Not old Tom and Joe?" Norman broke in.
"No – Blanche – "
"Oh, God, I knew it," Barbara gasped. "Go on."
"Blanche kept on playing fast and loose with the two boys who fought over her the other night. George Mann found his rival in her room just now, waylaid him in the hall, and when he came out sprang on him like a fiend, stabbed him through the heart and cut his throat. The brothers of the dead boy swear they will kill the murderer on sight, and they've locked him in your room, Norman, for safety. The men are excited to frenzy. Nobody likes the boy who did the crime. The rougher ones swear they are going to hang him. They tried to break in your door twice, but Herman knocked the ringleaders down and with Tom and Joe beat the crowd back. Something must be done at once to prevent another outbreak."
Norman hurried to the scene and joined Wolf in his defence of the prisoner. Tom formed a guard of ten men heavily armed and marched the prisoner to the top of the house, placed him in the small room in one of the central towers, and stationed one man inside and five on the stairway leading into the tower.
The executive council met immediately and voted unanimously to erect a prison, establish a penal colony on the small island at the north of Ventura, and restore the whipping-post for minor offenders.
The announcement of this momentous act was made to the general assembly without request for debate or an expression of opinion. It was received in silence.
The Bard could not protest. He was still confined to his room from the effects of a recent argument with his wife.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE CORDS TIGHTEN
On Wolf's urgent advice Norman determined to use the autocratic power invested in him by the deed of gift to establish a complete code of law and enforce it without fear or favour. As the cords tightened, scores who became dissatisfied with their lot offered their resignations and asked to return to their old homes.
In answer to their clamour Norman posted this notice on the bulletin board:
"Every member of the army of the Brotherhood of Man enlisted for five years' service. Resignations will not be considered and deserters will be tried by court-martial. I am going to use my power for the best interests of the Brotherhood. I ask the coöperation of all the loyal members of the colony. Of traitors I ask no quarter, and I expect to give none.
"Norman Worth,"Trustee and General Manager."
The effects of the proclamation were instantaneous. The helplessness of any attempt to resist authority firmly established under such daring leadership was at once apparent to the most stupid mind.
Loafing, drinking, stealing, carousing, and disorder of all kind were reduced at once to a minimum.
One act, however, of the executive council under Norman's direction precipitated a storm in an unexpected quarter.
The council removed Blanche and a group of wayward girls with whom she associated to a cottage outside the lawn.
The women of the Brotherhood were practically unanimous in their demands that the whole group be immediately expelled from the colony. A committee of three aggressive women presented their demand to Norman in no uncertain language.
His reply was equally emphatic:
"Comrades," he said, firmly, "I shall do nothing of the kind. We are going to work out this experiment in human society without compromise. We have successfully cut communication with the outside world. The crew of our ship are no longer allowed to land and only picked men unload her cargo. We are not going to play the baby act and dump these girls back on the old civilization which we have denounced. They may be wayward but they are our sisters."
"They are not mine," shouted one of the committee. "The brazen creatures! And we do not propose to have our sons and daughters corrupted by association with them."
"Then we must find some other solution than that of transportation," Norman insisted.
"Send them to the penal colony, then," demanded the committee.
"And back in a circle we immediately travel to the crimes of civilization from which we fled. I prefer to send the boys who associate with them. They are the real offenders."
"I deny that assertion," firmly declared the leader of the committee. "My boy is one of the unfortunate victims of these brazen wretches. Before we came to this island he never gave me a word of impudence. From the night he met Blanche at our first ball he was beyond my advice or control. These girls are the enemies of society and this colony cannot exist if they remain within its life."
"I refuse to believe it," Norman cried, with scorn. "It is your duty to reform these girls and restore them to mental and physical sanity, and as the leader of this colony I direct you to take up this divine work."
"And I, for one," spoke, for the first time, the silent gray-haired member of the committee, "refuse to smirch my hands with the task."
Norman, looked into the calm face of this white-haired, motherly looking woman with amazement.
"I can't understand you, comrade mother!" he exclaimed, with bitterness.
"That's because you're young, handsome, inexperienced, and, above all, because you are a man," was the quick reply. "I have spent a busy life since my own children grew out of the home nest in New York City in trying to help other people's children less fortunate than my own. I've helped scores of boys and never had one to disappoint me yet. I've tried to help scores of girls of the type we are discussing. I've always regretted it. I found them shallow, false, lazy, stupid, worthless. I have never looked at one of them except to blush that I am a woman. I speak from the saddest and most hopeless experiences of my life."
Norman cut the argument short with a gesture of angry impatience. "This discussion is a waste of breath. As long as I am in command of this colony no such insane act of injustice shall be committed against these girls."
"Then it's time you gave place to a man of greater wisdom and less sentimental mush in his brain," replied the calm, gray-haired woman.
"Thank you," the young leader replied, with chilling politeness, "you may be right – but in the meantime I accept the responsibility. Good day."
He had made three enemies whose power he was soon to feel. As they passed through the doorway Catherine greeted them politely and soothed their ruffled spirits with gentle words.
CHAPTER XXIV
SOME INTERROGATION POINTS
The establishment of a police and detective service completed the efficient organization of the colony. Its life now began to move with clock-like regularity.
But these changes were not made without provoking fierce debates and bitter prophecies in the general assembly over which Norman presided every Friday night.
He began to listen to these endless wrangles, however, with a sense of growing anger. It became clearer each week that they were the source of cliques and factions, of plots and counter-plots, within the colony. His patience reached the limit on the night he announced the completion of the jail.
"This is a sad present I am forced to make you to-night, comrades," he said, with a note of weariness in his voice. "But I have no choice in the matter. It was forced on the executive council. Crimes were committed which threatened the existence of our society. We had to meet the issue squarely. We could have begged the question by calling in the authorities of the State of California, acknowledged our defeat, and surrendered. We are not ready to surrender. We haven't begun to fight yet."
He had scarcely taken his seat when Diggs, the human interrogation-point, slowly unwound his lank figure, adjusted his eye-glasses, and gazed smilingly at the chairman.
Norman squirmed with rage as the glint of light from Diggs's big lenses began to irritate his spirit.
Barbara slipped her little hand under the table and found his. He clasped it gratefully and refused to let go. She allowed him to hold it a minute and drew it away laughing.
"Comrades," the man of questions slowly began, "we are making rapid progress. Our new building will soon be finished and another colony of two thousand enthusiastic souls will be added to our commonwealth. If we are going to successfully carry on this work we must begin to develop with infinite patience the details of this larger life.
"I submit to you some questions that are profoundly interesting to me.
"How are we to prevent speculation, wages being unequal? How is one community to exchange products with another? How determine which line of goods each community shall make?
"What is to be done with a strong minority who are bitterly opposed to the action of the majority when we assume our permanent democratic form?
"How are the thousand and one matters pertaining to private life and habits to be settled without continually augmenting the power of government? The authority of the most absolute despot who ever lived never dared to sit on questions we must decide. Can we do it?
"If we are ever to attain a condition of equality must we not forbid gifts and exchanges? For, if men are not to be allowed to grow rich by trading, must not the State forbid private exchanges of every nature?
"On the other hand, if the State alone can make exchanges, how can we prevent a shrewd man from getting rich by dealing with the State itself?
"If the State will not make exchanges, what is one to do who has taken a piece of property and finds later he has no use for it? For example: if Miss Blanche grows tired of looking at her piano, which she cannot play, and desires to exchange it for a carriage and pair of horses, must she continue to walk because she cannot effect the exchange?
"If we solve these troubles by declaring all property in common, who shall decide the privilege of use which the various tastes of individuals may demand?
"If each member be allowed a fixed number of units of value for each day of the year, must he spend them at once, or will the State keep an account for each individual? If he doesn't spend all his allowance by the end of the year can he save it and thus accumulate a private fortune?
"Or will the State force him to spend all, thus encouraging reckless habits?
"Suppose that a spendthrift squanders his allowance at once and later breaks his leg, has it amputated, and needs a hundred dollars to buy a wooden leg, how will he get it? Will the State make good his recklessness, force him to buy his own leg, or make him hop through the year on one leg?"
"I move we adjourn!" Joe yelled, from the rear.
"Second the motion!" Tom echoed, from the front.
The Bard, who had recovered sufficiently to attend on crutches, rose painfully, adjusted the bandage on his eye, and once more raised his voice in protest.
"I demand freedom of speech on behalf of my friend whom those rowdies are insulting!" he thundered.
With reluctance the chairman rapped for order, and Diggs wiped his glasses and smilingly proceeded:
"We have established a general nursery for the children. As they grow up, who shall decide at what age each child shall begin to work? Some children are slow, some quick in growth. Will the new State of Ventura take direct charge of all children?
"Or, supposing that separate families are allowed to live apart and parents to govern their own children, how is each child to be protected so that it gets its exact due? How is it to be known whether the parents misappropriate the fund of a child, or favour one more than another?
"As our numbers increase we cannot avoid the religious question."
"Amen, O Lord!" shouted Methodist John.
"A number of good people are clamouring for the use of this hall for religious services every night. We may deny their demands now. But we cannot as they increase. How are we to meet them? Shall we tax the unbeliever to support a church? Or shall we tax the believer to pay for lighting this hall for a weekly ball?
"If religion is allowed, who shall determine how many preachers each denomination can have? How many sisters shall be allowed the Catholics and how many monks, and how shall they be distributed? To whom shall they answer, the State, or their superior church dignitary?
"Shall Protestants be allowed a sum equal to the amount used in support of religious orders? If so, who shall determine how it shall be expended?
"If churches are built, who shall determine their cost and their style of architecture if the State erects them?
"When our theatre is opened, shall admission be free? If not, what shall be done when the receipts fall below expenses?
"What compensation can we give to those who hate theatres? If a small majority want a dance-hall and musical extravaganza, and a minority want only the serious drama, which shall it be? Suppose a majority demand a race-course? Shall the resources of the colony be used thus against the bitter protest of those who do not believe in racing? Suppose, just before the race-course is finished, the majority become a minority and the work is stopped – has the new majority the right to destroy the property and accumulate a new fund for a different purpose?
"Must a doctor always come when he's called – even for imaginary, hysterical, and foolish causes? Will the people vote for and elect their own doctor, or will he be assigned? If the doctor proves a failure, how will they get rid of him? If they get rid of him, how can he be saddled on another community? Shall one community suffer at the hands of an incompetent man, while a physician of genius ministers to the one next door? If a great surgeon is needed by ten persons at the same hour, who shall decide which operation he shall perform, and who shall live or die in consequence?
"Who shall say when a doctor is not fit to practise?
"We have just established a weekly paper. Within a year the population will need a daily. Who shall say when an editor is competent?
"Some men fail in early life and make their great success later. At what period, or after how long a trial, shall it be decided that a man is a failure and must quit his chosen or assigned work?
"Many young men promise well at first and make later miserable failures. Many are failures at first and make great successes. Who shall decide which to continue and which to stop? If a youth is forced to abandon a work on which he has set his heart, how can he be made of service to the community in a work he loathes?
"We must continue to make inventions, or progress ceases. When the cost of experiments is greater than the total income of a citizen, how can the inventor bear the expense? Will any man sacrifice his own funds and his own time on an uncertain experiment when he can receive no benefit from the work?
"Many men are working now over problems all other men believe cannot be solved. If the State must furnish the capital to make the experiments of inventors, who will be responsible for the enormous waste of treasure on senseless and useless and impossible inventions?
"Who can decide whether ideas proposed are useless or impossible? All great inventions which have revolutionized the history of ages have been laughed at by the world.
"How can we punish the jobbery and waste and corruption which may enter from experiments which are not made in good faith? Cannot any group of shrewd men pretend to have invented a machine which will save over half the labour of the colony, and spend millions on this imaginary invention which proves useless? If such an abuse of power should be made, would not the effect be to end forever all experiments and stop the progress of the world?
"When many cities have been built and one is more healthful, beautiful, and cultured than the others, shall those who live in the poorer cities be allowed to move or be forced to remain where they are? How are sculptors, artists, musicians, or architects to be apportioned among different communities? Suppose they all demand the right to live in one place?
"Will the State publish all books by all authors, or will selections be made? If all books are published will not vast sums be wasted in printing worthless trash? If selections are made, what unprejudiced, infallible board can be found competent to decide?
"If a man chooses to be a writer, how many years shall he be allowed to work at his occupation if in the opinion of the judges he shows no talent?
"Will the State permit freedom of opinion in the columns of its papers and the books printed? If so, what shall hinder a treasonable conspiracy from destroying respect for its authority? If opinions are to be edited by the State, how can the freedom of the press be maintained?
"What shall be done with the Negro, the Chinaman, and the Indian when their numbers largely increase? Will these inferior races be placed on an absolute equality with the Aryan and will they be allowed to freely intermarry? If so, can the new mongrel race maintain itself against the progress and power of the great high-bred races of men?
"Are women to receive the same allowance as men, and married women the same as spinsters?
"Shall men and women be required to marry or be allowed to remain single? Shall all women be made to work? If it continues to cost more to support a single woman than a married one, how can equality of rights be maintained?
"As food is the basis of all supply, many must be farmers. How shall this great industry be conducted ultimately? Can we allow individuals to work small farms? If so, who determines the kind of crop each farm shall raise? How much land will a man be required to work?
"An Italian from the north of Italy can raise more on one acre than an Irishman can on ten – whose method shall be used, and whose capacity be taken for the standard?
"How many hours shall constitute a day on the farm? Shall a farmhand get only a dollar a day and a bricklayer two? If so, where is the justice and equality of such an arrangement?
"Can a farmer be allowed vacations? If so, must he ask permission where to go? If not, suppose he goes at seedtime or harvest, gets drunk, stays two weeks or two months, and destroys a year's crop? Who shall pay for this enormous damage, and how shall the penalty be enforced?
"Suppose a poor manager spoils the crop on an immense tract of land, how can any adequate penalty be enforced?
"Shall one general manager decide what kind of crops to raise on each piece of land or each manager decide for himself? Suppose they all raise hay – "
"Then you'll have plenty to eat the balance of your life – you and all the other jackasses in the colony!" old Tom growled.
A laugh rippled the crowd and the speaker paused in angry confusion. For the first time he lost his temper and stood glaring at his tormentors in silent rage.
Norman whispered to Barbara:
"Wolf has urged me for some time to suppress this meeting. Shall I do it?"
"Yes. It's a nuisance. I agree with him. Do it."
Norman rose just as Diggs sat down choking with anger.
"Comrades," the young leader said, in commanding tones. "I think this assembly has completed its work of discussion. The questions propounded here to-night are important. We will meet and solve them in due time, as we come to them. What this community needs now is the spirit of coöperation, of loyalty, and industry. We have been assigned our tasks for the year. Now every man to his work! We have had enough of wrangling and questioning. Let's live and breathe awhile. The executive council has decided to close the weekly sessions of the assembly until the annual election of officers next spring. Hereafter a musicale and dance will be held both Monday and Friday evenings."
The young folks broke into hearty applause led by old Tom and his partner Joe.
The Bard sprang to his feet, his one good eye blazing with inspired wrath.
"And I denounce this act of tyranny as the climax of a series of infamies! You have now forged the chains of slavery on every limb. Free speech has been suppressed – in God's name, what next?"
But the crowd only laughed. The Bard had protested so often his words ceased to have weight. The halo of romance that once wreathed his classic brow had faded with the painful disillusioning which followed a thrashing his wife had given him. He was a prophet without honour and his warnings fell on deaf ears.
Wolf and Catherine stood at the door with a word of cheer, a friendly nod, or a silent pressure of the hand for every one who emerged from the hall. These two alone at every turn grew in prestige among all jarring factions of the struggling colony.
