There needn't be irresponsible
whipping and separation of families, and private buying and selling. The
proletariate would probably be owned by the state, as it was at one time
in Greece; or by large corporations, which would be much more in keeping
with the genius of our free institutions; and an enlightened public
opinion would cast safeguards about it in the form of law to guard it from
abuse. But it would be strictly policed, localized, and controlled. There
would probably be less suffering than there is now, when a man may be
cowed into submission to any terms through the suffering of his family;
when he may be starved out and turned out if he is unruly. You may be sure
that nothing of that kind would happen in the new slavery. We have not had
nineteen hundred years of Christianity for nothing."
The banker paused, and, as the silence continued, he broke it with a
laugh, which was a prodigious relief to my feelings, and I suppose to the
feelings of all. I perceived that he had been joking, and I was confirmed
in this when he turned to the Altrurian and laid his hand upon his
shoulder. "You see," he said, "I'm a kind of Altrurian myself.
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