A Cityless and Countryless World
An Outline of Practical Co-Operative Individualism
Henry Olerich
[A condensed and edited version of the book
originally published by Gilmore & Olerich, Holstein, Iowa, 1893 /
CHAPTER 7 - Interior of "Big-House"]
By the time I shall have told you all about our social and industrial
system, you will no longer be astonished that we have such an
abundance of grand things, all with less than two hours of labor a
day.
[We] now use electric and compressed air engines. The power is
furnished by the wind. Our present engines, then, require no fuel and
produce no smoke. Hereafter I shall tell you much more about our
engines and other motive power.
Our engine and engine-room, as well as all other departments, are
kept as neat and clean as any parlor. We have learned that it pays to
be clean and orderly. Each particular work is done by a particular
man, woman, or child, who pride themselves in doing it promptly,
orderly and well.
The main edifice of the big-house, as I have said, is about eight
stories high, and sometimes higher. There are electric elevators in
different parts of the building. Some of them run vertically from the
bottom to the top, and some of them run horizontally from end to end
of the building. The kitchen is a large, clean, well-ventilated
apartment with plenty of first- class cooks and bakers. The cooking
and baking is all done by electric heat, generated by the engine. The
cooks can put on as much or as little heat as they desire. We can boil
potatoes in closed vessels in less than five minutes of time.
[W]e have no feeble, sickly women in our world. Feebleness and
disease are the consequences of antecedent causes, and as soon as the
causes are removed, feebleness will turn into strength and disease
will disappear.
Each division of the kitchen, as well as all other departments of
labor, has a foreman, who holds his position by the common consent of
his co-laborers in the same division, and by virtue of his superior
fitness in his own work and in directing the labor of all in the most
productive, harmonious and delightful channel. The foreman labors just
the same as any one else. He receives no higher pay. He is only
foreman in so far as his co-laborers are willing to acknowledge him or
her as such.
[W]e economize material wealth and labor by our voluntary
co-operation, and our work is little more than sportive exercise.
Instead of being laborious, a cook with us, whether man or woman, does
nearly all her work by machinery, run by electric power. This she can
generally do by sitting in an easy chair in her elegant kitchen, which
is kept scrupulously clean by a set of dusters and wipers who have
chosen that as their favorite occupation. She has no black, sooty
kettles to handle, because the heat she uses to cook with does neither
blacken her kitchen nor her kettles. She is always neatly dressed, can
even wear delicate gloves most the time if she so desires, and has all
the pleasant companions, both male and female, whose company she can
enjoy as she is doing her short day s work. With men cooks it is, of
course, the same.
"Compare this short, easy, pleasant day s work of our cooks with
the long, toilsome, unpleasant drudgery of [other] women, who must
prepare all the meals, often out of the very poorest material; who,
besides preparing meals, must bear and nurse all the offspring, and
work at other drudgery, generally from ten to sixteen hours a day. And
this is very often not all. Many mothers, besides doing all this
physical drudgery in a little penned-up house, in which an
invigorating breath of wholesome air seldom enters, are called upon to
please and satisfy an overworked, cranky boss of a husband, and
sometimes ignorant, uncultivated sons and daughters. This overwork is
one of the many causes that enfeeble women, and that spread the robe
of pallor and disease over their countenance. I say this is only one
of the many causes that produce feebleness and disease, but besides
this one there are countless others. To some of the most conspicuous
ones I shall call your attention as we proceed with our explanation.
Now, I do not mean to say here that men, as a rule, are not
overworked, for they are very much so; but not so much so as the
masses of mothers who are raising families.
We are purely vegetarians, eating no flesh meat of any kind. Of
course our primitive ancestors, like yours, were cannibals; then
meat-eaters, but this habit of killing and eating flesh meat has long
since become antiquated. We also use no coffee, tea, tobacco, nor any
kind of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. Experience has taught us
that no benefit is derived from the use of them; but often a great
deal of evil.
We have no rich idlers who live upon the labor of others, and who
waste more food than they eat; and we have no starving poor who would
be glad to get the leavings. With us all able- bodied persons must
earn their meals by productive labor. No amount of speculation and
scheming in our world will ever secure a meal for any one.
We endeavor to build all our habits and customs on the so-called laws
of life, health and happiness. Every act that conduces to the fullness
of them we consider right, and every act that detracts from the
fullness of them we consider wrong.
CONTENTS
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