CHAPTER XXVII-ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE ECONOMICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PRODUCE.

THE principles upon which the arrangements for the economical distribution of produce are to be based, will chiefly relate to the means of saving space and time. In most cases both of these two advantages will be gained. A proof of this double advantage will be afforded by the future social system in the arrangement for the distribution of tea from the national tea stores to the Associated Homes. In this case space will be economized by a few large rooms serving the purpose of storing the tea, instead of depositing it in the innumerable shops of small grocers; and time will be saved by the distribution of tea in large canisters, which will be sent directly from the national store-rooms to the Associated Homes, where the inmates will have a sufficient quantity at hand for a month or two. Similar arrangements will economize the distribution of all articles of grocery and consumption. The present petty shops of the retail dealers may then be closed.

The author anticipates, with great confidence, that, when convinced of the rational superiority of the new social order, the very shopkeepers themselves will assiduously assist in the clearing out of their shops, and help in depositing their goods and wares in the national storehouses.

In order to save the utmost amount of time in the distribution of produce, the store-rooms for articles of consumption, and especially of grocery, will be situated in the immediate. vicinity of the Associated Homes, or even in the interior of the social palace, and those goods that are to serve as materials for production will lie in the immediate neighbourhood, or on the promises of the national workshops, where they will be at hand whenever they are wanted. Thus the building of the national workshops for shoemaking will be contiguous to the store house containing leather, and the tailors' workshops will be near the cloth-halls, or both workshop and store-room will be under one and the same roof.

As soon as the time for the clearing out of the present shops and warehouses arrives, the principle of the contiguity of work and materials must at once be carried out. If, for instance, a

certain square or street were selected for the workshops of the tailors, the same square or street would also have some of its houses converted into store-rooms for cloth, buttons, and other materials used in tailoring, whilst others might serve the purpose of receiving the finished garments.

The concentration of the distribution of produce, and the consequent closing of all the shops and warehouses of the present wholesale and retail dealers, will, moreover, place at the disposal of the people a great number of premises, houses, and buildings, the space of which may be utilised for national workshops, or converted into Associated Homes and public store-houses.

By the closing of all private shops and warehouses a great quantity of gas will also be saved; for in almost all the national store-rooms the distribution of produce will take place by daylight, and many of them will, perhaps, remain closed for days and weeks together. The closing of private trading establishments, in which so much gas is now used, will thus not only obviate this stupid waste, but will at the same time save an immense amount of labour in the manufacture of gas, in coalmining, and coal-heaving.

The saving of gas and candles will be further greatly increased by the regulation of the hours of labour and occupation being adapted to the duration of the natural daylight, the night being allotted for the purpose of repose.

Nothing seems more unnatural than the manner in which the inhabitants of large European cities convert night into day and day into night, by having their shops and warehouses lit up by glaring gaslights till midnight, and by rising from their beds when the sun almost stands in the zenith. They scarcely ever witness, and therefore cannot enjoy, the beauty of the brilliant sunrise. They permit the solemn quietude of the night to be disturbed by the deafening noise and incongruous bustle of street traffic, and, in addition to this, they have their shops and streets lit up with a hideous glare of light, which, throwing its reflex into the very sky, dispels the majestic and silent darkness of the night, so absolutely necessary, and so inviting, for a sound and invigorating sleep.

The waste of gas that takes place in the great city of London can best be seen on a dark night, and when the clouds

descens.w. The

is emitted by the many millions of gaslamps in streets, in shops, and on the trucks and stands of costermengers, is then cast in such daming masses on the dark sky, that it gives the redex of a large conda ration extending for many miles—such as the burning of Babylon by Sardanapalus may have presented to its inhabitants.

This gigantic waste of gas would even seem strange if the Chinese or Hottentots lighted their towns in a similar wasteful manner; but that the civilized and highly intelligent Europeans should not yet have perceived the lamentable stupidity that adheres to their system of lighting streets and shops, is inexplicable.

We yearn for the time when all this will be changed, when the day will again be appointed for work, and the night for repose, and when the darkness of the night will again triumphantly reign in place of the glare of gaslights in shops and

streets.

That no street-lamps will be lit in the towns of the new social state is evident from the fact that neither traffic nor pedestrians, nor security will require the burning of any such lights.

The streets, with all their shops closed, will at first present a strange and somewhat deserted aspect in comparison to the gaily and sumptuously arrayed shop-windows and show-rooms which now so universally attract, not only the admiration and curiosity of the passers by, but are also eminently successful in awaking the purchasing propensities of customers.

The disappearance of the animating scene of sightseers and eager customers besieging the gaily dressed shop-windows will, however, have a beneficial effect in another direction. People will lay a much greater value on all articles that combine ornament with usefulness, when they do not see them exhibited to their eyes long time before they can get possession of them, and consequently, the members of the new social state will find themselves agreeably surprised by the reception of every article they draw from the national store-rooms.

The quietness of the streets will, even during the day, be greatly increased by the almost total cessation of the traffic now caused by the requirements of wholesale and retail dealers and their customers. The unloading of goods at the door of

every small shop, the redistribution from these shops by means of vans and carts, either drawn by horses or men, will become a thing of the past; and with this great decrease of the traffic the danger of being crushed to death under the wheels of the modern Jaggernauth will no longer be the sad and common spectacle of our streets.* Some solitary vehicle will, in the future, be seen slowly emerging from the national emporiums of raw materials, or from the store-houses of ready-made goods and articles of consumption; but there will be so few of them that street accidents will be reduced to a minimum. The danger of street accidents will also greatly diminish in consequence of the total disappearance of all private carriages, and of parties riding on horseback; for all these indulgences in luxury, the ultimate result of which is a far-spreading waste of labour, will find no permission to exist in a well-ordered state of society.

In the new social community the hideous cry of the costermonger, his deafening ringing of bells and persistent shaking of rattles, will no more torment our ears; the uncalled-for visits of the itinerant dealer in small wares will cease, and the importunities of the pedlar and commercial traveller will no more trespass upon our time and patience.

By the clearance of all shops and warehouses, a great quantity of goods will immediately become available for distribution, by which the whole nation will at once greatly benefit.†

* The following were the street accidents during 1872 :—

+"A GOOD TIME COMING.-It is understood that the most advanced section of the Ultra Liberals, consisting of the advocates of social progress to the utmost extent, and in particular to the extent of establishing the community of property, contemplate holding a torchlight demonstration

Wearing apparel of all kinds-coats, trousers, waistcoats, for men; and dresses and petticoats for women; shoes, hats, shirts, socks and stockings, neckties, towels, handkerchiefs, watches, etc.-will probably be found in such quantities, that, even after satisfying all just wants, there would finally remain a surplus. Of men's, women's, and children's clothes, shirts, shoes, etc., so much is certainly to be found as will suffice to clothe, most comfortably, every man, woman, and child who is now destitute of those comforts. Rags and poverty will then disappear as by enchantment, and every individual will at once be decently clad, sufficiently fed, and comfortably lodged. And the whole diffusion of these universal benefits will have arisen from the simple expedient of emptying the shops and warehouses in which goods fit for use have been stored up for years.

The waste that now is caused by goods becoming soiled, or otherwise damaged in private shops and warehouses, because they are not saleable in time, is a double disadvantage; for not only is the labour and material employed in their production lost, but society sustains another serious evil by being deprived of the use of necessary and ready-made articles of produce. This double waste will, however, be entirely obviated in the future, because it will lie in the power of the new social state to exactly proportion the supply from its manufactories and workshops to the requirements of the nation.

in Trafalgar Square, to demand the Abolition of Purchase in its universal sense, so as to be made applicable to commodities, in order that all persons in want of any may be enabled to help themselves."-- Punch, Nov. 15th, 1873.