Looking Forward

A book has of late swept the market of the country called "Looking Backward.'1 It relates a dream wherein a man of our generation sleeps over a hundred years, to wake up n the year 2000. Ho flnds the entire system of governraent, and of life itself, changed. Everyoue is a pensloner of the governnient receiving the same auiount as his nelghbor.no matter what his ability, genius or energy. He works uniil 45, then no more is required of hlm. But in youth all belong to the industria1 army, working at all emploj-ments, not for reward of pay or praise, hut from necessity. The Government owns all factorics and store houses, furnishes the t.ie food and cooks the meals; owns all the land and houses; in f act is absolutely a paternal one. Here is sociaüsm and ultra Georgeism ii purest essence. All are alike in every particular. Men and wornen have their individuality entirely swallowed up in tlie vast machine, which runs as thougü they were mere blocks of wood instcad of flesh and blood. The pessimism of the book does hann to many of its readers in unsettling them from the present, which is so full of opportunities, causing them to waste fruitless longings after a Utopia, unattuinable ns well as undesirable. The present age and we trust all future ages wlH demand strong individuality. It is a person, not a machine, which worKs with heart, soul and mlnd. All advancement must come from agitation rather than from a quiet, sleep? and monotonoussortof alazy man's millennium. The monotony of having everyone in the same pattern would make life uneudurab!e. Yei Bellamy is not without many thoughtless ones running after him desirous of a change, seeking a patent way to be happy.