Part 27 (2/2)
”That, as I told you, is the keystone of my Big Idea. If I sold you the land you would be master of it; you could do as you liked with it. You could let it lie idle; you could allow your buildings and machinery to get out of repair; you could keep scrub stock; all your methods of husbandry might be slovenly or antiquated; you could even rent or sell the land to someone who might be morally or socially undesirable in the community. On the other hand you might be peculiarly successful, when you would proceed to buy out your less successful neighbors, or make loans on their land, and thus create yourself a land monopolist. But as a shareholder in the company you will be subject to the rules laid down by the company. If it says that houses must be painted every four years you will paint your house every fourth year. If it rules that hayracks are not to be left on the front lawn you will have to deposit yours somewhere else. If it orders that crops must be rotated to preserve the fertility of the soil you will obey those instructions. If you do not like the regulations you can use your influence with the board of directors to have them changed. If you fail there you can sell your shares to someone else--provided you can find a purchaser acceptable to the board--and get out. The Big Idea is that the community--the company in this case--shall control the individual, and the individual shall exert his proper measure of control over the community. The two are interlocked and interdependent, each exerting exactly the proper amount of power and accepting proportionate responsibility.”
”But have you provided against the possibility of one man or a group of men buying up a majority of the stock and so controlling the company?
They could then freeze out the smaller owners.”
”Yes,” said Grant, toying with his coffee, ”I have made a provision for that which I think is rather ingenious. Don't imagine that this all came to me in a moment. The central thought struck me last night on my way home, and I knew then I had the embryo of the plan, but I lay awake until daylight working out details. I am going to allot votes on a very unique principle. It seems to me that a man's stake in a country should be measured, not by the amount of money he has, but by the number of mouths he has to feed. I will adopt that rule in my company, and the voting will be according to the number of children in the family. That should curb the ambitious.”
They laughed over this proviso, and Phyllis agreed that it was all a very wonderful plan. ”And when they have paid for all their shares you get your money back,” she commented.
”Oh, no. I don't want my money back. I didn't explain that to you. I will advance the money on the bonds of the company, without interest.
Suppose I am able to finance a hundred farms that way, then as the payments come in, still more farms. The thing will spread like a ripple in a pool, until it covers the whole country. When you turn a sum of money loose, WITH NO INTEREST CHARGE ATTACHED TO IT, there is no limit to what it can accomplish.”
”But what will you do with your bonds, eventually? They will be perfectly secured. I don't see that you are getting rid of your money at all, except the interest, which you are giving away.”
”That, Phyllis, is where autocracy and democracy meet. All progress is like the swinging of a pendulum, with autocracy at one end of the arc and democracy at the other, and progress is the mean of their opposing forces. But there are times when the most democratic countries have to use autocratic methods, as, for example, Great Britain and the United States in the late war. We must learn to make autocracy the servant of democracy, not its enemy. Well--I'm going to be the autocrat in this case. I am going to sit behind the scenes and as long as my company functions all right I will leave it alone, but if it shows signs of wrecking itself I will a.s.sume the role of the benevolent despot and set it to rights again. Oh, Phyllis, don't you see? It's not just MY company I'm thinking about. This is an experiment, in which my company will represent the State. If it succeeds I shall turn the whole machinery over to the State as my contribution to the betterment of humanity. If it fails--well, then I shall have demonstrated that the idea is unsound.
Even that is worth something.
”I like to think of the great inventors, experimenting with the mysterious forces of nature. Their business is to find the natural laws that govern material things. And I am quite sure that there are also natural laws designed to govern man in his social and economic relations.h.i.+ps, and when those laws have been discovered the impossibilities of to-day will become the common practice of to-morrow, just as steam and electricity have made the impossibilities of yesterday the common practice of to-day. The first need is to find the law, and to what more worthy purpose could a man devote himself? When I landed here yesterday--when I walked again through these old streets--I was a being without purpose; I was like a battery that had dried up. All these petty affairs of life seemed so useless, so humdrum, so commonplace, I knew I could never settle down to them again. Then last night from some unknown source came a new idea--an inspiration--and presto! the battery is re-charged, life again has its purposes, and I am eager to be at work.
”I said 'some unknown source,' but it was not altogether unknown. It had something to do with honest old Murdoch, and his good wife pouring coffee for the midnight supper in their cozy dining-room, and Phyllis Bruce across the table! We never know, Phyllis, how much we owe to our friends; to that charmed circle, be it ever so small, in which every note strikes in harmony. I know my Big Idea is only playing on the surface; only skimming about the edges. What the world needs is just friends.”
Grant had talked himself out, but he continued to sit at the little table, reveling in the happiness of a man who feels that he has been called to some purpose worth while. His companion hesitated to interrupt his thoughts; her somewhat drab business experience made her pessimistic toward all idealism, and yet she felt that here, surely, was a man who could carry almost any project through to success. The unique quality in him, which distinguished him from any other man she had ever known, was his complete unselfishness. In all his undertakings he coveted no reward for himself; he was seeking only the common good.
”If all men were like you there would be no problems,” she murmured, and while he could not accept the words quite at par they rang very pleasantly in his ears.
A movement among the diners reminded him of the flight of time, and with a glance at his watch he sprang up in surprise. ”I had no idea the evening had gone!” he exclaimed. ”I have just time to see you home and get back to catch my train.”
He called a taxi and accompanied her into it. They seated themselves together, and the fragrance of her presence was very sweet about him.
It would have been so easy to forget--all that he had been trying to forget--in the intoxication of such environment. Surely it was not necessary that he should go west--that he should see HER again--in order to be sure.
”Phyllis,” he breathed, ”do you imagine I could undertake these things if I cared only for myself--if it were not that I longed for someone's approval--for someone to be proud of me? The strongest man is weak enough for that, and the strongest man is stronger when he knows that the woman he loves--”
He would have taken her in his arms, but she resisted, gently, firmly.
”You have made me think too much of you, Dennison,” she whispered.
CHAPTER XVI
On the way west Grant gradually unfolded his plan to Linder, who accepted it with his customary stoicism.
”I'm not very strong for a scheme that hasn't got any profits in it,”
Linder confessed. ”It doesn't sound human.”
”I don't notice that you have ever figured very high in profits on your own account,” Grant retorted. ”Your usefulness has been in making them for other people. I suppose if I would let you help to swell my bank account you would work for me for board and lodging, but as I refuse to do that I shall have to pay you three times Transley's rate. I don't know what he paid you, but I suspect that for every dollar you earned for yourself you earned two for him, so I am going to base your scale accordingly. You are to go on with the physical work at once; buy the horses, tractors, machinery; break up the land, fence it, build the houses and barns; in short, you are to superintend everything that is done with muscle or its subst.i.tute. I will bring Murdoch out shortly to take charge of the clerical details and the general organization. As for myself, after I have bought the land and placed the necessary funds to the credit of the company I propose to keep out of the limelight. I will be the heart of the undertaking; Murdoch will be the head, and you are to be the hands, and I hope you two conspirators won't give me palpitation. You think it a mistake to work without profits, but Murdoch thinks it a sin. When I lay my plans before him I am quite prepared to hear him insist upon calling in an alienist.”
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