"
"And what," the minister faintly said, "do you think will be the outcome
of it all?"
"We had that question the other night, didn't we? Our legal friend here
seemed to feel that we might rub along indefinitely as we are doing, or
work out an Altruria of our own; or go back to the patriarchal stage and
own our working-men. He seemed not to have so much faith in the logic of
events as I have. I doubt if it is altogether a woman's logic. _Parole
femmine, fatti maschi,_ and the logic of events isn't altogether words;
it's full of hard knocks, too. But I'm no prophet. I can't forecast the
future; I prefer to take it as it comes. There's a little tract of William
Morris's, though--I forget just what he calls it--that is full of curious
and interesting speculation on this point. He thinks that, if we keep the
road we are now going, the last state of labor will be like its first, and
it will be owned."
"Oh, I don't believe that will ever happen in America," I protested.
"Why not?" asked the banker. "Practically, it is owned already in a vastly
greater measure than we recognize. And where would the great harm be? The
new slavery would not be like the old.
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