CHAPTER XVIII.
NOT A MAD DREAM
Burglars do not enter the homes of people who are sitting at their doors and windows with loaded shotguns!!! It is quite possible that the widespread circulation of the warnings contained in this book, will cause many of the world's "wolves"—who are well camouflaged in their costumes of "Sheep's Clothing"—to comb some of the tangles out of their more or less worn-out coverings, and to even "appear" to take steps through the League of Nations—and other similar avenues—to not only outlaw war, but also to bring about the establishment of facilities which may "seem" capable of ending the depression;—they may even start placing large numbers of the unemployed back into "apparently" permanent positions. Our widespread public warnings may also cause them to somewhat alter their preparations for the next world war. However, unless a medium of currency other than "Gold or Silver" (as described herein) is universally adopted—and a lifetime "written guarantee" of not less than three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) per year is placed in the hands of every man and woman in every civilized nation on this earth—"any other steps" which our political leaders may offer to take, and any promises that they may make, will not deceive those who have carefully studied and who fully understand the contents of this volume,—any more than such moves have—throughout the past few years—deceived the carefully-trained and well-informed investigators of our Research Bureau.
The world's subversive forces—(and many honest leaders and other well-intentioned people who are thoroughly mesmerized by their influence)—will no doubt make numerous "libelous" attacks on the character and motives of Our Sponsors, and will accuse them of fostering everything from a "money-making scheme," up to and including a plan for the overthrow of the world's major governments.
We cannot expect the co-operation of either "biased" or "bigoted" mentalities, but it is with the belief that there are two hundred million (200,000,000) right-thinking and intelligent men and women, (who will base their opinion of our movement upon the "ideals" we have herein described, and will withhold any judgment as to the "practicability" of our program, until they have received—during a continuous 30-day period—sufficient information with which to form a just opinion,)—that we have published "Mankind United."
THE TRUTH OF THE STATEMENT THAT "WHERE THERE IS NO VISION THE PEOPLE PERISH," HAS THROUGHOUT TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS BEEN FULLY VERIFIED BY THE FACT THAT EVERY CIVILIZATION THROUGHOUT ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY HAS BEEN "SELF-DESTROYED;" DESTROYED BY QUALITIES OF JEALOUSY, ENVY, PRIDE, GREED, SELFISHNESS, BIGOTRY AND SELF-GLORIFICATION. THE WORLD'S INHABITANTS DID NOT, DURING THOSE PERIODS, HAVE SUFFICIENT "VISION" TO ESTABLISH AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM BASED UPON THE "SPIRIT" AS WELL AS THE "LETTER" OF "THE GOLDEN RULE," YET IT HAS BEEN PROVEN—CENTURY AFTER CENTURY—THAT ONLY BY ADOPTING AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM WHICH WILL PROVIDE NEITHER FINANCIAL REWARD NOR ANY OTHER FORM OF GAIN FOR THOSE TEMPTED OR MOTIVATED BY "SELFISH" OR "CRUEL" CHARACTERISTICS OF THOUGHT, CAN MANKIND EVER EVEN "HOPE" TO FIND PEACE, CONTENTMENT OR HAPPINESS.
It will be stated that the result which The International Institute of Universal Research and Administration has promised to bring to pa** is but a "mad dream." In answer to such forms of attack, we might remind our readers that it does not imply any lack of sound substantial value in connection with The Institute's recommendations, merely because its program is an ambitious one, nor because of the fact that it is somewhat of an innovation compared to the generally accepted "poverty-stricken" limitations of generations of "false education." However, as has invariably been the case throughout countless centuries, even the most "advanced thinkers" of each age through which mankind have traveled, have strenuously resisted every recommendation of progress which did not coincide with the erroneous concepts of life which "false education" and "superstition" have—throughout all past centuries—so strongly embedded into the consciousness of man.
Those who find it profitable to prey upon mankind's superstitions, ignorance and poverty, have with an enviable (?) degree of success, perpetuated every form of "fear" and "limitation" which held promise of keeping the human race in mental darkness. Yet, such people know that we live in the midst of "limitless opportunities" for intelligent progress and accomplishment, and that there is nothing capable of delaying mankind's arrival in the promised land of "peace and plenty," other than an educated sense of self-depreciation, fear and limitation; these qualities of false thinking, the world's Hidden Rulers have made it their business to ceaselessly propagate and perpetuate.
The characteristics of thought which hinder mankind's progress, are most fittingly exemplified in a statement described by a prominent lecturer * of a few years ago, which was issued through the School Board of Lancaster, Ohio, in the year 1828, through a letter addressed to a debating society of young men; it stated:—
"You are welcome to the use of the school house to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads and telegraphs are 'impossible' and rank infidelity. 'There is nothing in the Bible or the word of God about them.' If God had desired that his intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour by steam, He would have clearly foretold such things through His Holy Prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell."
THIS IS ALSO A REMINDER OF THE DECLARATION OF LOMBROSO, THAT:—"MAN IS BY NATURE THE 'ENEMY' OF INNOVATION."
The lecturer who used the foregoing illustration then continued stating:—
"If this letter, instead of saying in general terms that the railway and telegraph were 'a device of Satan,' had followed the usual custom by specifically uttering a libelous attack on the character and motives of Morse and Stephenson; if it had violated every rule of justice, honor and loving kindness, for the purpose of misrepresenting the intent and the declarations of these discoverers, and had done it in order to discredit them before the world, it would have fittingly shown forth the ever-continuing disposition of the human mind to resist its own progress, and to thrust martyrdom on every one who is first to discern that which is possible of accomplishment."
"What argument or protest would have prevailed with the dense traditional ignorance which constructed that letter? None!! Nothing but 'demonstration' with its persistent a**ertiveness. Nothing but the dynamics of 'truth,' will suffice to overwhelm and drive such mental perversity into silence and oblivion."
"It is fortunate for mankind, that the discoverers and reformers throughout the ages have had the moral courage and mental poise which enabled them to endure the storms of antagonism and persecution, while they persisted in impressing the facts of their discoveries on the world 'in spite of itself.' It is fortunate that these discoverers have known enough to expect that the rude hand of ignorance would strive to thrust back every scientific advance or promise of advance. It is well that they knew that it would be folly to stem the tide of unfriendly bias or to keep pace—by means of 'dispute and recrimination'—with a bewildering flood of utterances which were unjust or benighted. It is well that the great benefactors of the world have known that there is but 'one thing' that will be sufficient to answer all slander and to put to rout all antagonism.—'THAT ONE THING IS PROOF'!! The one who has discovered a scientific verity and knows that it is demonstrable, may wait in serene calm until demonstration justifies him and his cause. If it were not thus, most of them would falter and go down in heart-broken despair, and humanity would either stagnate or revert to barbarism."
"All the discoveries and inventions which by means of demonstration and proof have forced themselves on a resisting world, must surely serve to show how largely the world is in need. If humanity had rightly heeded these things and the lessons they imply, it would realize that it is barely on the threshold of knowledge, and must progress in every direction for many years yet to come, before it will be justified in contemplating its handiwork with the thought that further progress is neither needed nor possible. ITS MONOTONE OF COMPLAINT AND LAMENTATION; ITS TEARS, POVERTY, AND DISASTER, CONSTITUTE BOTH 'CONFESSION' AND 'TESTIMONY' THAT MANKIND IS IN 'DIRE TROUBLE' AND IN SUPREME NEED OF EARLY DELIVERANCE."
FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS, THE HUMAN RACE HAS FOUGHT THROUGH RELIGIOUS, RACIAL AND CLASS ANTAGONISMS, TO ADVANCE ITSELF AND TO SOLVE ITS PROBLEMS THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF ITS SO-CALLED PRINCIPLE OR LAW OF "THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST." YET, NEVER, THROUGHOUT THESE THOUSANDS OF YEARS, HAVE WAYS AND MEANS BEEN DISCOVERED BY WHICH IGNORANCE, SUPERSTITION, POVERTY AND WARS MIGHT BE MADE TO CEASE OCCURRING ON THIS PLANET OF OURS. IT HAS TRIED MANY WAYS IN THE DIRECTION OF THIS RULE OF THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST; WAYS WHICH HAVE ONE AND ALL BEEN MISERABLE FAILURES. "IF THERE BE A WAY WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE NEED, IT MUST SURELY BE SOMEWHAT OR WHOLLY DIFFERENT FROM THE WAYS THAT HAVE FAILED."
INASMUCH AS ALL OF HUMAN SUPERSTITION, POVERTY AND WAR ARE THE EFFECT OF SOME CAUSE, THE ONLY WAY TO ELIMINATE OR TO GET OUT OF THESE TROUBLES, "IS TO UPROOT AND EXTERMINATE THE CAUSE." IS THERE ANY PROMISE OR PROSPECT THAT THIS CAN BE DONE?
The International Institute of Universal Research and Administration, after sixty years of ceaseless investigation, claims that there is a solution and asks only that the substantial, intelligent, clear-thinking people of the world's civilized nations, expend the slight amount of time needed to establish the avenues through which the discoveries of their Research Department may be made available to two hundred million (200,000,000) such people in all parts of our world, in order that these needless causes of human suffering may be attacked simultaneously on a world-wide front. They further state to us—"and stand ready to prove their claims"—that these causes are too widespread and deeply rooted to be exterminated by the efforts of any smaller group, or in an area other than "the entire surface" of our planet in one "over-powering" attack.
"SUPERSTITION," "POVERTY" AND "WAR," BESET THE PEOPLES OF OUR ENTIRE WORLD, AND THESE RELENTLESS ENEMIES TO MANKIND'S FREEDOM—PEACE AND PROGRESS—CAN ONLY BE DESTROYED BY THE "CONCERTED EFFORT" OF "ALL" OF THE WORLD'S ENLIGHTENED THINKERS.
Whenever we of the human race have tired of our bondage to these "age-old" foes, we need only rise up as a body and with "one voice"—"demand our freedom"—in order to gain it. Have we ever had greater opportunities for doing this? more rapid means of transportation or inter-communication, or better avenues of education, than are now available to us?
Our Research Department asks only your invitation to prove that the unemployed of the world can immediately be given profitable and desirable positions,—and through the many avenues of already developed mechanical inventions,—that short working hours and many months of vacations each year "for all" are available—not a thousand years hence—but within less than "one year" after the world accepts its program.
OUR PLANS DO NOT CONFLICT WITH ANY "TRULY" RELIGIOUS OR HUMANITARIAN GROUP, NOR COULD ANY "UNSELFISH" MAN OR WOMAN ON THIS EARTH OBJECT TO OUR RECOMMENDATIONS.
Eight million (8,000,000) combination Branch Registration Bureaus and 4-4-8-3-4 Clubs,—each composed of a membership of not less than twenty-five (25) sincere, intelligent, clear-thinking people,—must be formed throughout the nations of the earth during the following few months, in order that The Institute's program can be readily imparted to those who are capable of acting upon its recommendations, and who are willing to have wars, ignorance and poverty, forever removed from human experience, and are "truly" desirous of helping to accomplish such a result.
These Clubs will literally constitute a group of 8,000,000 "separate research bureaus," whose secretaries and members will have evidenced their willingness to undertake a sincere and careful study of the fundamental causes of poverty and war and to investigate our Research Department's claims that the world's executives, its trained workers, its labor-saving mechanical inventions and its limitless abundance of raw materials, are "more than sufficient" for the immediate eradication of each and every one of the humanly perpetuated and "utterly needless causes" of world-wide illiteracy, poverty and war.
Our plans constitute "an immediately practical solution" to the world's grievous problems of unemployment, poverty, and a rapidly approaching war of self-annihilation;—no worthier invitation to action has ever been offered to intelligent men and women.
It has been rightly stated, that "nothing bigger can come to a human being than to love a great cause more than life itself, and to have the privilege throughout life of working for that cause." Although we ask you to spend but a small part of your life in helping us to establish our program,—your satisfaction and your reward will be permanent—and constantly increasing.
We invite you to participate in the most ambitious and constructive adventure ever undertaken by the people of any age. We invite you to journey with us into a land of "universal unselfishness and generosity;"—a land, the inhabitants of which give "freely" of their individual capabilities and talents for the welfare and happiness of all; and all combine their strength and their talents as a guarantee to one another of security, equal opportunity, freedom, leisure and happiness;—and extend this guarantee to even the least talented of their brethren.
WE INVITE YOU TO HELP US "UNITE MANKIND" UPON THE PLATFORM OF CHRIST JESUS' GOLDEN RULE OF "BROTHERLY LOVE" AND "IMPARTIAL ECONOMIC EQUALITY."
HAVE YOU THE GENEROSITY—THE WISDOM—AND THE COURAGE TO ACCEPT THIS INVITATION???