in 1924 — to be precise, on the morning of january 3 — the city of san francisco awoke to read in one of its daily papers a curious letter, which had been received by walter bassett and which had evidently been written by some crank. walter bassett was the greatest captain of industry west of the rockies, and was one of the small group that controlled the nation in everything but name. as such, he was the recipient of lucubrations from countless cranks; but this particular lucubration was so different from the average ruck of similar letters that, instead of putting it into the waste-basket, he had turned it over to a reporter. it was signed “goliah,” and the superscription gave his address as “palgrave island.” the letter was as follows:
“mr. walter bassett,
“dear sir:
“i am inviting you, with nine of your fellow-captains of industry, to visit me here on my island for the purpose of considering plans for the reconstruction of society upon a more rational basis. up to the present, social evolution has been a blind and aimless, blundering thing. the time has come for a change. man has risen from the vitalized slime of the primeval sea to the mastery of matter; but he has not yet mastered society. man is to-day as much the slave to his collective stupidity, as a hundred thousand generations ago he was a slave to matter.
“there are two theoretical methods whereby man may become the master of society, and make of society an intelligent and efficacious device for the pursuit and capture of happiness and laughter. the first theory advances the proposition that no government can be wiser or better than the people that compose that government; that reform and development must spring from the individual; that in so far as the individuals become wiser and better, by that much will their government become wiser and better; in short, that the majority of individuals must become wiser and better, before their government becomes wiser and better. the mob, the political convention, the abysmal brutality and stupid ignorance of all concourses of people, give the lie to this theory. in a mob the collective intelligence and mercy is that of the least intelligent and most brutal members that compose the mob. on the other hand, a thousand passengers will surrender themselves to the wisdom and discretion of the captain, when their ship is in a storm on the sea. in such matter, he is the wisest and most experienced among them.
“the second theory advances the proposition that the majority of the people are not pioneers, that they are weighted down by the inertia of the established; that the government that is representative of them represents only their feebleness, and futility, and brutishness; that this blind thing called government is not the serf of their wills, but that they are the serfs of it; in short, speaking always of the great mass, that they do not make government, but that government makes them, and that government is and has been a stupid and awful monster, misbegotten of the glimmerings of intelligence that come from the inertia-crushed mass.
“personally, i incline to the second theory. also, i am impatient. for a hundred thousand generations, from the first social groups of our savage forbears, government has remained a monster. to-day, the inertia-crushed mass has less laughter in it than ever before. in spite of man’s mastery of matter, human suffering and misery and degradation mar the fair world.
“wherefore i have decided to step in and become captain of this world-ship for a while. i have the intelligence and the wide vision of the skilled expert. also, i have the power. i shall be obeyed. the men of all the world shall perform my bidding and make governments so that they shall become laughter-producers. these modelled governments i have in mind shall not make the people happy, wise, and noble by decree; but they shall give opportunity for the people to become happy, wise, and noble.
“i have spoken. i have invited you, and nine of your fellow-captains, to confer with me. on march third the yacht energon will sail from san francisco. you are requested to be on board the night before. this is serious. the affairs of the world must be handled for a time by a strong hand. mine is that strong hand. if you fail to obey my summons, you will die. candidly, i do not expect that you will obey. but your death for failure to obey will cause obedience on the part of those i subsequently summon. you will have served a purpose. and please remember that i have no unscientific sentimentality about the value of human life. i carry always in the background of my consciousness the innumerable billions of lives that are to laugh and be happy in future aeons on the earth.
“yours for the reconstruction of society,
“goliah.”
the publication of this letter did not cause even local amusement. men might have smiled to themselves as they read it, but it was so palpably the handiwork of a crank that it did not merit discussion. interest did not arouse till next morning. an associated press despatch to the eastern states, followed by interviews by eager-nosed reporters, had brought out the names of the other nine captains of industry who had received similar letters, but who had not thought the matter of sufficient importance to be made public. but the interest aroused was mild, and it would have died out quickly had not gabberton cartooned a chronic presidential aspirant as “goliah.” then came the song that was sung hilariously from sea to sea, with the refrain, “goliah will catch you if you don’t watch out.”
the weeks passed and the incident was forgotten. walter bassett had forgotten it likewise; but on the evening of february 22, he was called to the telephone by the collector of the port. “i just wanted to tell you,” said the latter, “that the yacht energon has arrived and gone to anchor in the stream off pier seven.”
what happened that night walter bassett has never divulged. but it is known that he rode down in his auto to the water front, chartered one of crowley’s launches, and was put aboard the strange yacht. it is further known that when he returned to the shore, three hours later, he immediately despatched a sheaf of telegrams to his nine fellow-captains of industry who had received letters from goliah. these telegrams were similarly worded, and read: “the yacht energon has arrived. there is something in this. i advise you to come.”
bassett was laughed at for his pains. it was a huge laugh that went up (for his telegrams had been made public), and the popular song on goliah revived and became more popular than ever. goliah and bassett were cartooned and lampooned unmercifully, the former, as the old man of the sea, riding on the latter’s neck. the laugh tittered and rippled through clubs and social circles, was restrainedly merry in the editorial columns, and broke out in loud guffaws in the comic weeklies. there was a serious side as well, and bassett’s sanity was gravely questioned by many, and especially by his business associates.
bassett had ever been a short-tempered man, and after he sent the second sheaf of telegrams to his brother captains, and had been laughed at again, he remained silent. in this second sheaf he had said: “come, i implore you. as you value your life, come.” he arranged all his business affairs for an absence, and on the night of march 2 went on board the energon. the latter, properly cleared, sailed next morning. and next morning the newsboys in every city and town were crying “extra.”
in the slang of the day, goliah had delivered the goods. the nine captains of industry who had failed to accept his invitation were dead. a sort of violent disintegration of the tissues was the report of the various autopsies held on the bodies of the slain millionaires; yet the surgeons and physicians (the most highly skilled in the land had participated) would not venture the opinion that the men had been slain. much less would they venture the conclusion, “at the hands of parties unknown.” it was all too mysterious. they were stunned. their scientific credulity broke down. they had no warrant in the whole domain of science for believing that an anonymous person on palgrave island had murdered the poor gentlemen.
one thing was quickly learned, however; namely, that palgrave island was no myth. it was charted and well known to all navigators, lying on the line of 160 west longitude, right at its intersection by the tenth parallel north latitude, and only a few miles away from diana shoal. like midway and fanning, palgrave island was isolated, volcanic and coral in formation. furthermore, it was uninhabited. a survey ship, in 1887, had visited the place and reported the existence of several springs and of a good harbour that was very dangerous of approach. and that was all that was known of the tiny speck of land that was soon to have focussed on it the awed attention of the world.
goliah remained silent till march 24. on the morning of that day, the newspapers published his second letter, copies of which had been received by the ten chief politicians of the united states — ten leading men in the political world who were conventionally known as “statesmen.” the letter, with the same superscription as before, was as follows:
“dear sir:
“i have spoken in no uncertain tone. i must be obeyed. you may consider this an invitation or a summons; but if you still wish to tread this earth and laugh, you will be aboard the yacht energon, in san francisco harbour, not later than the evening of april 5. it is my wish and my will that you confer with me here on palgrave island in the matter of reconstructing society upon some rational basis.
“do not misunderstand me, when i tell you that i am one with a theory. i want to see that theory work, and therefore i call upon your cooperation. in this theory of mine, lives are but pawns; i deal with quantities of lives. i am after laughter, and those that stand in the way of laughter must perish. the game is big. there are fifteen hundred million human lives to-day on the planet. what is your single life against them? it is as naught, in my theory. and remember that mine is the power. remember that i am a scientist, and that one life, or one million of lives, mean nothing to me as arrayed against the countless billions of billions of the lives of the generations to come. it is for their laughter that i seek to reconstruct society now; and against them your own meagre little life is a paltry thing indeed.
“whoso has power can command his fellows. by virtue of that military device known as the phalanx, alexander conquered his bit of the world. by virtue of that chemical device, gunpowder, cortes with his several hundred cut-throats conquered the empire of the montezumas. now i am in possession of a device that is all my own. in the course of a century not more than half a dozen fundamental discoveries or inventions are made. i have made such an invention. the possession of it gives me the mastery of the world. i shall use this invention, not for commercial exploitation, but for the good of humanity. for that purpose i want help — willing agents, obedient hands; and i am strong enough to compel the service. i am taking the shortest way, though i am in no hurry. i shall not clutter my speed with haste.
“the incentive of material gain developed man from the savage to the semi-barbarian he is to-day. this incentive has been a useful device for the development of the human; but it has now fulfilled its function and is ready to be cast aside into the scrap-heap of rudimentary vestiges such as gills in the throat and belief in the divine right of kings. of course you do not think so; but i do not see that that will prevent you from aiding me to fling the anachronism into the scrap-heap. for i tell you now that the time has come when mere food and shelter and similar sordid things shall be automatic, as free and easy and involuntary of access as the air. i shall make them automatic, what of my discovery and the power that discovery gives me. and with food and shelter automatic, the incentive of material gain passes away from the world for ever. with food and shelter automatic, the higher incentives will universally obtain — the spiritual, aesthetic, and intellectual incentives that will tend to develop and make beautiful and noble body, mind, and spirit. then all the world will be dominated by happiness and laughter. it will be the reign of universal laughter.
“yours for that day,
o
“goliah.”
still the world would not believe. the ten politicians were at washington, so that they did not have the opportunity of being convinced that bassett had had, and not one of them took the trouble to journey out to san francisco to make the opportunity. as for goliah, he was hailed by the newspapers as another tom lawson with a panacea; and there were specialists in mental disease who, by analysis of goliah’s letters, proved conclusively that he was a lunatic.
the yacht energon arrived in the harbour of san francisco on the afternoon of april 5, and bassett came ashore. but the energon did not sail next day, for not one of the ten summoned politicians had elected to make the journey to palgrave island. the newsboys, however, called “extra” that day in all the cities. the ten politicians were dead. the yacht, lying peacefully at anchor in the harbour, became the centre of excited interest. she was surrounded by a flotilla of launches and rowboats, and many tugs and steamboats ran excursions to her. while the rabble was firmly kept off, the proper authorities and even reporters were permitted to board her. the mayor of san francisco and the chief of police reported that nothing suspicious was to be seen upon her, and the port authorities announced that her papers were correct and in order in every detail. many photographs and columns of descriptive matter were run in the newspapers.
the crew was reported to be composed principally of scandinavians — fair-haired, blue-eyed swedes, norwegians afflicted with the temperamental melancholy of their race, stolid russian finns, and a slight sprinkling of americans and english. it was noted that there was nothing mercurial and flyaway about them. they seemed weighty men, oppressed by a sad and stolid bovine-sort of integrity. a sober seriousness and enormous certitude characterized all of them. they appeared men without nerves and without fear, as though upheld by some overwhelming power or carried in the hollow of some superhuman hand. the captain, a sad-eyed, strong-featured american, was cartooned in the papers as “gloomy gus” (the pessimistic hero of the comic supplement).
some sea-captain recognized the energon as the yacht scud, once owned by merrivale of the new york yacht club. with this clue it was soon ascertained that the scud had disappeared several years before. the agent who sold her reported the purchaser to be merely another agent, a man he had seen neither before nor since. the yacht had been reconstructed at duffey’s shipyard in new jersey. the change in her name and registry occurred at that time and had been legally executed. then the energon had disappeared in the shroud of mystery.
in the meantime, bassett was going crazy — at least his friends and business associates said so. he kept away from his vast business enterprises and said that he must hold his hands until the other masters of the world could join with him in the reconstruction of society — proof indubitable that goliah’s bee had entered his bonnet. to reporters he had little to say. he was not at liberty, he said, to relate what he had seen on palgrave island; but he could assure them that the matter was serious, the most serious thing that had ever happened. his final word was that, the world was on the verge of a turnover, for good or ill he did not know, but, one way or the other, he was absolutely convinced that the turnover was coming. as for business, business could go hang. he had seen things, he had, and that was all there was to it.
there was a great telegraphing, during this period, between the local federal officials and the state and war departments at washington. a secret attempt was made late one afternoon to board the energon and place the captain under arrest — the attorney–general having given the opinion that the captain could be held for the murder of the ten “statesmen.” the government launch was seen to leave meigg’s wharf and steer for the energon, and that was the last ever seen of the launch and the men on board of it. the government tried to keep the affair hushed up, but the cat was slipped out of the bag by the families of the missing men, and the papers were filled with monstrous versions of the affair.
the government now proceeded to extreme measures. the battleship alaska was ordered to capture the strange yacht, or, failing that, to sink her. these were secret instructions; but thousands of eyes, from the water front and from the shipping in the harbour, witnessed what happened that afternoon. the battleship got under way and steamed slowly toward the energon. at half a mile distant the battleship blew up — simply blew up, that was all, her shattered frame sinking to the bottom of the bay, a riff-raff of wreckage and a few survivors strewing the surface. among the survivors was a young lieutenant who had had charge of the wireless on board the alaska. the reporters got hold of him first, and he talked. no sooner had the alaska got under way, he said, than a message was received from the energon. it was in the international code, and it was a warning to the alaska to come no nearer than half a mile. he had sent the message, through the speaking tube, immediately to the captain. he did not know anything more, except that the energon twice repeated the message and that five minutes afterward the explosion occurred. the captain of the alaska had perished with his ship, and nothing more was to be learned.
the energon, however, promptly hoisted anchor and cleared out to sea. a great clamour was raised by the papers; the government was charged with cowardice and vacillation in its dealings with a mere pleasure yacht and a lunatic who called himself “goliah,” and immediate and decisive action was demanded. also, a great cry went up about the loss of life, especially the wanton killing of the ten “statesmen.” goliah promptly replied. in fact, so prompt was his reply that the experts in wireless telegraphy announced that, since it was impossible to send wireless messages so great a distance, goliah was in their very midst and not on palgrave island. goliah’s letter was delivered to the associated press by a messenger boy who had been engaged on the street. the letter was as follows:
“what are a few paltry lives? in your insane wars you destroy
millions of lives and think nothing of it. in your fratricidal
commercial struggle you kill countless babes, women, and men, and you
triumphantly call the shambles ‘individualism.’ i call it anarchy.
i am going to put a stop to your wholesale destruction of human
beings. i want laughter, not slaughter. those of you who stand in
the way of laughter will get slaughter.
“your government is trying to delude you into believing that the
destruction of the alaska was an accident. know here and now that
it was by my orders that the alaska was destroyed. in a few short
months, all battleships on all seas will be destroyed or flung to the
scrap-heap, and all nations shall disarm; fortresses shall be
dismantled, armies disbanded, and warfare shall cease from the earth.
mine is the power. i am the will of god. the whole world shall be
in vassalage to me, but it shall be a vassalage of peace.
“i am
“goliah.”
“blow palgrave island out of the water!” was the head-line retort of the newspapers. the government was of the same frame of mind, and the assembling of the fleets began. walter bassett broke out in ineffectual protest, but was swiftly silenced by the threat of a lunacy commission. goliah remained silent. against palgrave island five great fleets were hurled — the asiatic squadron, the south pacific squadron, the north pacific squadron, the caribbean squadron, and half of the north atlantic squadron, the two latter coming through the panama canal.
“i have the honour to report that we sighted palgrave island on the evening of april 29,” ran the report of captain johnson, of the battleship north dakota, to the secretary of the navy. “the asiatic squadron was delayed and did not arrive until the morning of april 30. a council of the admirals was held, and it was decided to attack early next morning. the destroyer, swift vii, crept in, unmolested, and reported no warlike preparations on the island. it noted several small merchant steamers in the harbour, and the existence of a small village in a hopelessly exposed position that could be swept by our fire.
“it had been decided that all the vessels should rush in, scattered, upon the island, opening fire at three miles, and continuing to the edge of the reef, there to retain loose formation and engage. palgrave island repeatedly warned us, by wireless, in the international code, to keep outside the ten-mile limit; but no heed was paid to the warnings.
“the north dakota did not take part in the movement of the morning of may 1. this was due to a slight accident of the preceding night that temporarily disabled her steering-gear. the morning of may 1 broke clear and calm. there was a slight breeze from the south-west that quickly died away. the north dakota lay twelve miles off the island. at the signal the squadrons charged in upon the island, from all sides, at full speed. our wireless receiver continued to tick off warnings from the island. the ten-mile limit was passed, and nothing happened. i watched through my glasses. at five miles nothing happened; at four miles nothing happened; at three miles, the new york, in the lead on our side of the island, opened fire. she fired only one shot. then she blew up. the rest of the vessels never fired a shot. they began to blow up, everywhere, before our eyes. several swerved about and started back, but they failed to escape. the destroyer, dart xxx, nearly made the ten-mile limit when she blew up. she was the last survivor. no harm came to the north dakota, and that night, the steering-gear being repaired, i gave orders to sail for san francisco.”
to say that the united states was stunned is but to expose the inadequacy of language. the whole world was stunned. it confronted that blight of the human brain, the unprecedented. human endeavour was a jest, a monstrous futility, when a lunatic on a lonely island, who owned a yacht and an exposed village, could destroy five of the proudest fleets of christendom. and how had he done it? nobody knew. the scientists lay down in the dust of the common road and wailed and gibbered. they did not know. military experts committed suicide by scores. the mighty fabric of warfare they had fashioned was a gossamer veil rent asunder by a miserable lunatic. it was too much for their sanity. mere human reason could not withstand the shock. as the savage is crushed by the sleight-of-hand of the witch doctor, so was the world crushed by the magic of goliah. how did he do it? it was the awful face of the unknown upon which the world gazed and by which it was frightened out of the memory of its proudest achievements.
but all the world was not stunned. there was the invariable exception — the island empire of japan. drunken with the wine of success deep-quaffed, without superstition and without faith in aught but its own ascendant star, laughing at the wreckage of science and mad with pride of race, it went forth upon the way of war. america’s fleets had been destroyed. from the battlements of heaven the multitudinous ancestral shades of japan leaned down. the opportunity, god-given, had come. the mikado was in truth a brother to the gods.
the war-monsters of japan were loosed in mighty fleets. the philippines were gathered in as a child gathers a nosegay. it took longer for the battleships to travel to hawaii, to panama, and to the pacific coast. the united states was panic-stricken, and there arose the powerful party of dishonourable peace. in the midst of the clamour the energon arrived in san francisco bay and goliah spoke once more. there was a little brush as the energon came in, and a few explosions of magazines occurred along the war-tunnelled hills as the coast defences went to smash. also, the blowing up of the submarine mines in the golden gate made a remarkably fine display. goliah’s message to the people of san francisco, dated as usual from palgrave island, was published in the papers. it ran:
“peace? peace be with you. you shall have peace. i have spoken to this purpose before. and give you me peace. leave my yacht energon alone. commit one overt act against her and not one stone in san francisco shall stand upon another.
“to-morrow let all good citizens go out upon the hills that slope down to the sea. go with music and laughter and garlands. make festival for the new age that is dawning. be like children upon your hills, and witness the passing of war. do not miss the opportunity. it is your last chance to behold what henceforth you will be compelled to seek in museums of antiquities.
“i promise you a merry day,
“goliah.”
the madness of magic was in the air. with the people it was as if all their gods had crashed and the heavens still stood. order and law had passed away from the universe; but the sun still shone, the wind still blew, the flowers still bloomed — that was the amazing thing about it. that water should continue to run downhill was a miracle. all the stabilities of the human mind and human achievement were crumbling. the one stable thing that remained was goliah, a madman on an island. and so it was that the whole population of san francisco went forth next day in colossal frolic upon the hills that overlooked the sea. brass bands and banners went forth, brewery wagons and sunday-school picnics — all the strange heterogeneous groupings of swarming metropolitan life.
on the sea-rim rose the smoke from the funnels of a hundred hostile vessels of war, all converging upon the helpless, undefended golden gate. and not all undefended, for out through the golden gate moved the energon, a tiny toy of white, rolling like a straw in the stiff sea on the bar where a strong ebb-tide ran in the teeth of the summer sea-breeze. but the japanese were cautious. their thirty- and forty-thousand-ton battleships slowed down half a dozen miles offshore and manoeuvred in ponderous evolutions, while tiny scout-boats (lean, six-funnelled destroyers) ran in, cutting blackly the flashing sea like so many sharks. but, compared with the energon, they were leviathans. compared with them, the energon was as the sword of the arch-angel michael, and they the forerunners of the hosts of hell.
but the flashing of the sword, the good people of san francisco, gathered on her hills, never saw. mysterious, invisible, it cleaved the air and smote the mightiest blows of combat the world had ever witnessed. the good people of san francisco saw little and understood less. they saw only a million and a half tons of brine-cleaving, thunder-flinging fabrics hurled skyward and smashed back in ruin to sink into the sea. it was all over in five minutes. remained upon the wide expanse of sea only the energon, rolling white and toylike on the bar.
goliah spoke to the mikado and the elder statesmen. it was only an ordinary cable message, despatched from san francisco by the captain of the energon, but it was of sufficient moment to cause the immediate withdrawal of japan from the philippines and of her surviving fleets from the sea. japan the sceptical was converted. she had felt the weight of goliah’s arm. and meekly she obeyed when goliah commanded her to dismantle her war vessels and to turn the metal into useful appliances for the arts of peace. in all the ports, navy-yards, machine-shops, and foundries of japan tens of thousands of brown-skinned artisans converted the war-monsters into myriads of useful things, such as ploughshares (goliah insisted on ploughshares), gasolene engines, bridge-trusses, telephone and telegraph wires, steel rails, locomotives, and rolling stock for railways. it was a world-penance for a world to see, and paltry indeed it made appear that earlier penance, barefooted in the snow, of an emperor to a pope for daring to squabble over temporal power.
goliah’s next summons was to the ten leading scientists of the united states. this time there was no hesitancy in obeying. the savants were ludicrously prompt, some of them waiting in san francisco for weeks so as not to miss the scheduled sailing-date. they departed on the energon on june 15; and while they were on the sea, on the way to palgrave island, goliah performed another spectacular feat. germany and france were preparing to fly at each other’s throats. goliah commanded peace. they ignored the command, tacitly agreeing to fight it out on land where it seemed safer for the belligerently inclined. goliah set the date of june 19 for the cessation of hostile preparations. both countries mobilized their armies on june 18, and hurled them at the common frontier. and on june 19, goliah struck. all generals, war-secretaries, and jingo-leaders in the two countries died on that day; and that day two vast armies, undirected, like strayed sheep, walked over each other’s frontiers and fraternized. but the great german war lord had escaped — it was learned, afterward, by hiding in the huge safe where were stored the secret archives of his empire. and when he emerged he was a very penitent war lord, and like the mikado of japan he was set to work beating his sword-blades into ploughshares and pruning-hooks.
but in the escape of the german emperor was discovered a great significance. the scientists of the world plucked up courage, got back their nerve. one thing was conclusively evident — goliah’s power was not magic. law still reigned in the universe. goliah’s power had limitations, else had the german emperor not escaped by secretly hiding in a steel safe. many learned articles on the subject appeared in the magazines.
the ten scientists arrived back from palgrave island on july 6. heavy platoons of police protected them from the reporters. no, they had not see goliah, they said in the one official interview that was vouchsafed; but they had talked with him, and they had seen things. they were not permitted to state definitely all that they had seen and heard, but they could say that the world was about to be revolutionized. goliah was in the possession of a tremendous discovery that placed all the world at his mercy, and it was a good thing for the world that goliah was merciful. the ten scientists proceeded directly to washington on a special train, where, for days, they were closeted with the heads of government, while the nation hung breathless on the outcome.
but the outcome was a long time in arriving. from washington the president issued commands to the masters and leading figures of the nation. everything was secret. day by day deputations of bankers, railway lords, captains of industry, and supreme court justices arrived; and when they arrived they remained. the weeks dragged on, and then, on august 25, began the famous issuance of proclamations. congress and the senate co-operated with the president in this, while the supreme court justices gave their sanction and the money lords and the captains of industry agreed. war was declared upon the capitalist masters of the nation. martial law was declared over the whole united states. the supreme power was vested in the president.
in one day, child-labour in the whole country was abolished. it was done by decree, and the united states was prepared with its army to enforce its decrees. in the same day all women factory workers were dismissed to their homes, and all the sweat-shops were closed. “but we cannot make profits!” wailed the petty capitalists. “fools!” was the retort of goliah. “as if the meaning of life were profits! give up your businesses and your profit-mongering.” “but there is nobody to buy our business!” they wailed. “buy and sell — is that all the meaning life has for you?” replied goliah. “you have nothing to sell. turn over your little cut-throating, anarchistic businesses to the government so that they may be rationally organized and operated.” and the next day, by decree, the government began taking possession of all factories, shops, mines, ships, railroads, and producing lands.
the nationalization of the means of production and distribution went on apace. here and there were sceptical capitalists of moment. they were made prisoners and haled to palgrave island, and when they returned they always acquiesced in what the government was doing. a little later the journey to palgrave island became unnecessary. when objection was made, the reply of the officials was “goliah has spoken”— which was another way of saying, “he must be obeyed.”
the captains of industry became heads of departments. it was found that civil engineers, for instance, worked just as well in government employ as before, they had worked in private employ. it was found that men of high executive ability could not violate their nature. they could not escape exercising their executive ability, any more than a crab could escape crawling or a bird could escape flying. and so it was that all the splendid force of the men who had previously worked for themselves was now put to work for the good of society. the half-dozen great railway chiefs co-operated in the organizing of a national system of railways that was amazingly efficacious. never again was there such a thing as a car shortage. these chiefs were not the wall street railway magnates, but they were the men who formerly had done the real work while in the employ of the wall street magnates.
wall street was dead. there was no more buying and selling and speculating. nobody had anything to buy or sell. there was nothing in which to speculate. “put the stock gamblers to work,” said goliah; “give those that are young, and that so desire, a chance to learn useful trades.” “put the drummers, and salesmen, and advertising agents, and real estate agents to work,” said goliah; and by hundreds of thousands the erstwhile useless middlemen and parasites went into useful occupations. the four hundred thousand idle gentlemen of the country who had lived upon incomes were likewise put to work. then there were a lot of helpless men in high places who were cleared out, the remarkable thing about this being that they were cleared out by their own fellows. of this class were the professional politicians, whose wisdom and power consisted of manipulating machine politics and of grafting. there was no longer any graft. since there were no private interests to purchase special privileges, no bribes were offered to legislators, and legislators for the first time legislated for the people. the result was that men who were efficient, not in corruption, but in direction, found their way into the legislatures.
with this rational organization of society amazing results were brought about. the national day’s work was eight hours, and yet production increased. in spite of the great permanent improvements and of the immense amount of energy consumed in systematizing the competitive chaos of society, production doubled and tripled upon itself. the standard of living increased, and still consumption could not keep up with production. the maximum working age was decreased to fifty years, to forty-nine years, and to forty-eight years. the minimum working age went up from sixteen years to eighteen years. the eight-hour day became a seven-hour day, and in a few months the national working day was reduced to five hours.
in the meantime glimmerings were being caught, not of the identity of goliah, but of how he had worked and prepared for his assuming control of the world. little things leaked out, clues were followed up, apparently unrelated things were pieced together. strange stories of blacks stolen from africa were remembered, of chinese and japanese contract coolies who had mysteriously disappeared, of lonely south sea islands raided and their inhabitants carried away; stories of yachts and merchant steamers, mysteriously purchased, that had disappeared and the descriptions of which remotely tallied with the crafts that had carried the orientals and africans and islanders away. where had goliah got the sinews of war? was the question. and the surmised answer was: by exploiting these stolen labourers. it was they that lived in the exposed village on palgrave island. it was the product of their toil that had purchased the yachts and merchant steamers and enabled goliah’s agents to permeate society and carry out his will. and what was the product of their toil that had given goliah the wealth necessary to realize his plans? commercial radium, the newspapers proclaimed; and radiyte, and radiosole, and argatium, and argyte, and the mysterious golyte (that had proved so valuable in metallurgy). these were the new compounds, discovered in the first decade of the twentieth century, the commercial and scientific use of which had become so enormous in the second decade.
the line of fruit boats that ran from hawaii to san francisco was declared to be the property of goliah. this was a surmise, for no other owner could be discovered, and the agents who handled the shipments of the fruit boats were only agents. since no one else owned the fruit boats, then goliah must own them. the point of which is: that it leaked out that the major portion of the world’s supply in these precious compounds was brought to san francisco by those very fruit boats. that the whole chain of surmise was correct was proved in later years when goliah’s slaves were liberated and honourably pensioned by the international government of the world. it was at that time that the seal of secrecy was lifted from the lips of his agents and higher emissaries, and those that chose revealed much of the mystery of goliah’s organization and methods. his destroying angels, however, remained for ever dumb. who the men were who went forth to the high places and killed at his bidding will be unknown to the end of time — for kill they did, by means of that very subtle and then-mysterious force that goliah had discovered and named “energon.”
but at that time energon, the little giant that was destined to do the work of the world, was unknown and undreamed of. only goliah knew, and he kept his secret well. even his agents, who were armed with it, and who, in the case of the yacht energon, destroyed a mighty fleet of war-ships by exploding their magazines, knew not what the subtle and potent force was, nor how it was manufactured. they knew only one of its many uses, and in that one use they had been instructed by goliah. it is now well known that radium, and radiyte, and radiosole, and all the other compounds, were by-products of the manufacture of energon by goliah from the sunlight; but at that time nobody knew what energon was, and goliah continued to awe and rule the world.
one of the uses of energon was in wireless telegraphy. it was by its means that goliah was able to communicate with his agents all over the world. at that time the apparatus required by an agent was so clumsy that it could not be packed in anything less than a fair-sized steamer trunk. to-day, thanks to the improvements of hendsoll, the perfected apparatus can be carried in a coat pocket.
it was in december, 1924, that goliah sent out his famous “christmas letter,” part of the text of which is here given:
“so far, while i have kept the rest of the nations from each other’s throats, i have devoted myself particularly to the united states. now i have not given to the people of the united states a rational social organization. what i have done has been to compel them to make that organization themselves. there is more laughter in the united states these days, and there is more sense. food and shelter are no longer obtained by the anarchistic methods of so-called individualism but are now wellnigh automatic. and the beauty of it is that the people of the united states have achieved all this for themselves. i did not achieve it for them. i repeat, they achieved it for themselves. all that i did was to put the fear of death in the hearts of the few that sat in the high places and obstructed the coming of rationality and laughter. the fear of death made those in the high places get out of the way, that was all, and gave the intelligence of man a chance to realize itself socially.
“in the year that is to come i shall devote myself to the rest of the world. i shall put the fear of death in the hearts of all that sit in the high places in all the nations. and they will do as they have done in the united states — get down out of the high places and give the intelligence of man a chance for social rationality. all the nations shall tread the path the united states is now on.
“and when all the nations are well along on that path, i shall have something else for them. but first they must travel that path for themselves. they must demonstrate that the intelligence of mankind to-day, with the mechanical energy now at its disposal, is capable of organizing society so that food and shelter be made automatic, labour be reduced to a three-hour day, and joy and laughter be made universal. and when that is accomplished, not by me but by the intelligence of mankind, then i shall make a present to the world of a new mechanical energy. this is my discovery. this energon is nothing more nor less than the cosmic energy that resides in the solar rays. when it is harnessed by mankind it will do the work of the world. there will be no more multitudes of miners slaving out their lives in the bowels of the earth, no more sooty firemen and greasy engineers. all may dress in white if they so will. the work of life will have become play and young and old will be the children of joy, and the business of living will become joy; and they will compete, one with another, in achieving ethical concepts and spiritual heights, in fashioning pictures and songs, and stories, in statecraft and beauty craft, in the sweat and the endeavour of the wrestler and the runner and the player of games — all will compete, not for sordid coin and base material reward, but for the joy that shall be theirs in the development and vigour of flesh and in the development and keenness of spirit. all will be joy-smiths, and their task shall be to beat out laughter from the ringing anvil of life.
“and now one word for the immediate future. on new year’s day all nations shall disarm, all fortresses and war-ships shall be dismantled, and all armies shall be disbanded.
“goliah.”
on new year’s day all the world disarmed. the millions of soldiers and sailors and workmen in the standing armies, in the navies, and in the countless arsenals, machine-shops, and factories for the manufacture of war machinery, were dismissed to their homes. these many millions of men, as well as their costly war machinery, had hitherto been supported on the back of labour. they now went into useful occupations, and the released labour giant heaved a mighty sigh of relief. the policing of the world was left to the peace officers and was purely social, whereas war had been distinctly anti-social.
ninety per cent. of the crimes against society had been crimes against private property. with the passing of private property, at least in the means of production, and with the organization of industry that gave every man a chance, the crimes against private property practically ceased. the police forces everywhere were reduced repeatedly and again and again. nearly all occasional and habitual criminals ceased voluntarily from their depredations. there was no longer any need for them to commit crime. they merely changed with changing conditions. a smaller number of criminals was put into hospitals and cured. and the remnant of the hopelessly criminal and degenerate was segregated. and the courts in all countries were likewise decreased in number again and again. ninety-five per cent. of all civil cases had been squabbles over property, conflicts of property-rights, lawsuits, contests of wills, breaches of contract, bankruptcies, etc. with the passing of private property, this ninety-five per cent. of the cases that cluttered the courts also passed. the courts became shadows, attenuated ghosts, rudimentary vestiges of the anarchistic times that had preceded the coming of goliah.
the year 1925 was a lively year in the world’s history. goliah ruled the world with a strong hand. kings and emperors journeyed to palgrave island, saw the wonders of energon, and went away, with the fear of death in their hearts, to abdicate thrones and crowns and hereditary licenses. when goliah spoke to politicians (so-called “statesmen”), they obeyed . . . or died. he dictated universal reforms, dissolved refractory parliaments, and to the great conspiracy that was formed of mutinous money lords and captains of industry he sent his destroying angels. “the time is past for fooling,” he told them. “you are anachronisms. you stand in the way of humanity. to the scrap-heap with you.” to those that protested, and they were many, he said: “this is no time for logomachy. you can argue for centuries. it is what you have done in the past. i have no time for argument. get out of the way.”
with the exception of putting a stop to war, and of indicating the broad general plan, goliah did nothing. by putting the fear of death into the hearts of those that sat in the high places and obstructed progress, goliah made the opportunity for the unshackled intelligence of the best social thinkers of the world to exert itself. goliah left all the multitudinous details of reconstruction to these social thinkers. he wanted them to prove that they were able to do it, and they proved it. it was due to their initiative that the white plague was stamped out from the world. it was due to them, and in spite of a deal of protesting from the sentimentalists, that all the extreme hereditary inefficients were segregated and denied marriage.
goliah had nothing whatever to do with the instituting of the colleges of invention. this idea originated practically simultaneously in the minds of thousands of social thinkers. the time was ripe for the realization of the idea, and everywhere arose the splendid institutions of invention. for the first time the ingenuity of man was loosed upon the problem of simplifying life, instead of upon the making of money-earning devices. the affairs of life, such as house-cleaning, dish and window-washing, dust-removing, and scrubbing and clothes-washing, and all the endless sordid and necessary details, were simplified by invention until they became automatic. we of to-day cannot realize the barbarously filthy and slavish lives of those that lived prior to 1925.
the international government of the world was another idea that sprang simultaneously into the minds of thousands. the successful realization of this idea was a surprise to many, but as a surprise it was nothing to that received by the mildly protestant sociologists and biologists when irrefutable facts exploded the doctrine of malthus. with leisure and joy in the world; with an immensely higher standard of living; and with the enormous spaciousness of opportunity for recreation, development, and pursuit of beauty and nobility and all the higher attributes, the birth-rate fell, and fell astoundingly. people ceased breeding like cattle. and better than that, it was immediately noticeable that a higher average of children was being born. the doctrine of malthus was knocked into a cocked hat — or flung to the scrap-heap, as goliah would have put it.
all that goliah had predicted that the intelligence of mankind could accomplish with the mechanical energy at its disposal, came to pass. human dissatisfaction practically disappeared. the elderly people were the great grumblers; but when they were honourably pensioned by society, as they passed the age limit for work, the great majority ceased grumbling. they found themselves better off in their idle old days under the new regime, enjoying vastly more pleasure and comforts than they had in their busy and toilsome youth under the old regime. the younger generation had easily adapted itself too the changed order, and the very young had never known anything else. the sum of human happiness had increased enormously. the world had become gay and sane. even the old fogies of professors of sociology, who had opposed with might and main the coming of the new regime, made no complaint. they were a score of times better remunerated than in the old days, and they were not worked nearly so hard. besides, they were busy revising sociology and writing new text-books on the subject. here and there, it is true, there were atavisms, men who yearned for the flesh-pots and cannibal-feasts of the old alleged “individualism,” creatures long of teeth and savage of claw who wanted to prey upon their fellow-men; but they were looked upon as diseased, and were treated in hospitals. a small remnant, however, proved incurable, and was confined in asylums and denied marriage. thus there was no progeny to inherit their atavistic tendencies.
as the years went by, goliah dropped out of the running of the world. there was nothing for him to run. the world was running itself, and doing it smoothly and beautifully. in 1937, goliah made his long-promised present of energon to the world. he himself had devised a thousand ways in which the little giant should do the work of the world — all of which he made public at the same time. but instantly the colleges of invention seized upon energon and utilized it in a hundred thousand additional ways. in fact, as goliah confessed in his letter of march 1938, the colleges of invention cleared up several puzzling features of energon that had baffled him during the preceding years. with the introduction of the use of energon the two-hour work-day was cut down almost to nothing. as goliah had predicted, work indeed became play. and, so tremendous was man’s productive capacity, due to energon and the rational social utilization of it, that the humblest citizen enjoyed leisure and time and opportunity for an immensely greater abundance of living than had the most favoured under the old anarchistic system.
nobody had ever seen goliah, and all peoples began to clamour for their saviour to appear. while the world did not minimize his discovery of energon, it was decided that greater than that was his wide social vision. he was a superman, a scientific superman; and the curiosity of the world to see him had become wellnigh unbearable. it was in 1941, after much hesitancy on his part, that he finally emerged from palgrave island. he arrived on june 6 in san francisco, and for the first time, since his retirement to palgrave island, the world looked upon his face. and the world was disappointed. its imagination had been touched. an heroic figure had been made out of goliah. he was the man, or the demi-god, rather, who had turned the planet over. the deeds of alexander, caesar, genghis khan, and napoleon were as the play of babes alongside his colossal achievements.
and ashore in san francisco and through its streets stepped and rode a little old man, sixty-five years of age, well preserved, with a pink-and-white complexion and a bald spot on his head the size of an apple. he was short-sighted and wore spectacles. but when the spectacles were removed, his were quizzical blue eyes like a child’s, filled with mild wonder at the world. also his eyes had a way of twinkling, accompanied by a screwing up of the face, as if he laughed at the huge joke he had played upon the world, trapping it, in spite of itself, into happiness and laughter.
for a scientific superman and world tyrant, he had remarkable weaknesses. he loved sweets, and was inordinately fond of salted almonds and salted pecans, especially of the latter. he always carried a paper bag of them in his pocket, and he had a way of saying frequently that the chemism of his nature demanded such fare. perhaps his most astonishing failing was cats. he had an ineradicable aversion to that domestic animal. it will be remembered that he fainted dead away with sudden fright, while speaking in brotherhood palace, when the janitor’s cat walked out upon the stage and brushed against his legs.
but no sooner had he revealed himself to the world than he was identified. old-time friends had no difficulty in recognizing him as percival stultz, the german–american who, in 1898, had worked in the union iron works, and who, for two years at that time, had been secretary of branch 369 of the international brotherhood of machinists. it was in 1901, then twenty-five years of age, that he had taken special scientific courses at the university of california, at the same time supporting himself by soliciting what was then known as “life insurance.” his records as a student are preserved in the university museum, and they are unenviable. he is remembered by the professors he sat under chiefly for his absent-mindedness. undoubtedly, even then, he was catching glimpses of the wide visions that later were to be his.
his naming himself “goliah” and shrouding himself in mystery was his little joke, he later explained. as goliah, or any other thing like that, he said, he was able to touch the imagination of the world and turn it over; but as percival stultz, wearing side-whiskers and spectacles, and weighing one hundred and eighteen pounds, he would have been unable to turn over a pecan —“not even a salted pecan.”
but the world quickly got over its disappointment in his personal appearance and antecedents. it knew him and revered him as the master-mind of the ages; and it loved him for himself, for his quizzical short-sighted eyes and the inimitable way in which he screwed up his face when he laughed; it loved him for his simplicity and comradeship and warm humanness, and for his fondness for salted pecans and his aversion to cats. and to-day, in the wonder-city of asgard, rises in awful beauty that monument to him that dwarfs the pyramids and all the monstrous blood-stained monuments of antiquity. and on that monument, as all know, is inscribed in imperishable bronze the prophecy and the fulfilment: “all will be joy-smiths, and their task shall be to beat out laughter from the ringing anvil of life.”
[editorial note. — this remarkable production is the work of harry beckwith, a student in the lowell high school of san francisco, and it is here reproduced chiefly because of the youth of its author. far be it from our policy to burden our readers with ancient history; and when it is known that harry beckwith was only fifteen when the fore-going was written, our motive will be understood. “goliah” won the premier for high school composition in 2254, and last year harry beckwith took advantage of the privilege earned, by electing to spend six months in asgard. the wealth of historical detail, the atmosphere of the times, and the mature style of the composition are especially noteworthy in one so young.]