"
"He couldn't imagine that you were giving them the work to do--the very
means of life," said the professor.
"Oh no, that's the last thing those fellows want to think of."
"Perhaps," the Altrurian suggested, "they might not have found it such a
hardship to work for your living if their own had been assured, as it is
with us. If you will excuse my saying it, we should think it monstrous in
Altruria for any man to have another's means of life in his power; and in
our condition it is hardly imaginable. Do you really have it in your power
to take away a man's opportunity to earn a living?"
The manufacturer laughed uneasily. "It is in my power to take away his
life; but I don't habitually shoot my fellow-men, and I never dismissed a
man yet without good reason."
"Oh, I beg your pardon," said the Altrurian. "I didn't dream of accusing
you of such inhumanity. But, you see, our whole system is so very
different that, as I said, it is hard for me to conceive of yours, and I
am very curious to understand its workings. If you shot your fellow-man,
as you say, the law would punish you; but if, for some reason that you
decided to be good, you took away his means of living, and he actually
starved to death--"
"Then the law would have nothing to do with it," the professor replied for
the manufacturer, who did not seem ready to answer.
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