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The Universal
Family
Other Worlds of
Space
The Anchor of
Time
Eternal
Progression
The
Urantia Book
UB
PAPER 72
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72:0.1BY
PERMISSION of Lanaforge and with the approval of the
Most Highs of Edentia, I am authorized to narrate
something of the social, moral, and political life of
the most advanced human race living on a not far-distant
planet belonging to the Satania system. |
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72:0.2Of
all the Satania worlds which became isolated because of
participation in the Lucifer rebellion, this planet has
experienced a history most like that of Urantia. The
similarity of the two spheres undoubtedly explains why
permission to make this extraordinary presentation was
granted, for it is most unusual for the system rulers to
consent to the narration on one planet of the affairs of
another. |
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72:0.3This
planet, like Urantia, was led astray by the disloyalty
of its Planetary Prince in connection with the Lucifer
rebellion. It received a Material Son shortly after Adam
came to Urantia, and this Son also defaulted, leaving
the sphere isolated, since a Magisterial Son has never
been bestowed upon its mortal races.
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72:1.1
Notwithstanding all these planetary handicaps a very
superior civilization is evolving on an isolated
continent about the size of Australia. This nation
numbers about 140 million. Its people are a mixed race,
predominantly blue and yellow, having a slightly greater
proportion of violet than the so-called white race of
Urantia. These different races are not yet fully
blended, but they fraternize and socialize very
acceptably. The average length of life on this continent
is now ninety years, fifteen per cent higher than that
of any other people on the planet. |
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72:1.2
The industrial
mechanism of this nation enjoys a certain great
advantage derived from the unique topography of the
continent. The high mountains, on which heavy rains fall
eight months in the year, are situated at the very
center of the country. This natural arrangement favors
the utilization of water power and greatly facilitates
the irrigation of the more arid western quarter of the
continent. |
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72:1.3
These people are
self-sustaining, that is, they can live indefinitely
without importing anything from the surrounding nations.
Their natural resources are replete, and by scientific
techniques they have learned how to compensate for their
deficiencies in the essentials of life. They enjoy a
brisk domestic commerce but have little foreign trade
owing to the universal hostility of their less
progressive neighbors.
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72:1.4
This continental
nation, in general, followed the evolutionary trend of
the planet: The development from the tribal stage to the
appearance of strong rulers and kings occupied thousands
of years. The unconditional monarchs were succeeded by
many different orders of government -- abortive
republics, communal states, and dictators came and went
in endless profusion. This growth continued until about
five hundred years ago when, during a politically
fermenting period, one of the nation's powerful
dictator-triumvirs had a change of heart. He volunteered
to abdicate upon condition that one of the other rulers,
the baser of the remaining two, also vacate his
dictatorship. Thus was the sovereignty of the continent
placed in the hands of one ruler. The unified state
progressed under strong monarchial rule for over one
hundred years, during which there evolved a masterful
charter of liberty. |
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72:1.5
The subsequent
transition from monarchy to a representative form of
government was gradual, the kings remaining as mere
social or sentimental figureheads, finally disappearing
when the male line of descent ran out. The present
republic has now been in existence just two hundred
years, during which time there has been a continuous
progression toward the governmental techniques about to
be narrated, the last developments in industrial and
political realms having been made within the past
decade. |
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72:2.1
This continental
nation now has a representative government with a
centrally located national capital. The central
government consists of a strong federation of one
hundred comparatively free states. These states elect
their governors and legislators for ten years, and none
are eligible for re-election. State judges are appointed
for life by the governors and confirmed by their
legislatures, which consist of one representative for
each one hundred thousand citizens. |
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72:2.2
There are five
different types of metropolitan government, depending on
the size of the city, but no city is permitted to have
more than one million inhabitants. On the whole, these
municipal governing schemes are very simple, direct, and
economical. The few offices of city administration are
keenly sought by the highest types of citizens. |
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72:2.3
The federal
government embraces three co-ordinate divisions:
executive, legislative, and judicial. The federal chief
executive is elected every six years by universal
territorial suffrage. He is not eligible for re-election
except upon the petition of at least seventy-five state
legislatures concurred in by the respective state
governors, and then but for one term. He is advised by a
supercabinet composed of all living ex-chief executives.
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72:2.4
The legislative
division embraces three houses: |
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72:2.5
1. The upper
house is elected by industrial, professional,
agricultural, and other groups of workers, balloting in
accordance with economic function. |
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72:2.6
2. The lower
house is elected by certain organizations of society
embracing the social, political, and philosophic groups
not included in industry or the professions. All
citizens in good standing participate in the election of
both classes of representatives, but they are
differently grouped, depending on whether the election
pertains to the upper or lower house.
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72:2.7
3. The third
house -- the elder statesmen -- embraces the
veterans of civic service and includes many
distinguished persons nominated by the chief executive,
by the regional (subfederal) executives, by the chief of
the supreme tribunal, and by the presiding officers of
either of the other legislative houses. This group is
limited to one hundred, and its members are elected by
the majority action of the elder statesmen themselves.
Membership is for life, and when vacancies occur, the
person receiving the largest ballot among the list of
nominees is thereby duly elected. The scope of this body
is purely advisory, but it is a mighty regulator of
public opinion and exerts a powerful influence upon all
branches of the government.
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72:2.8
Very much of the
federal administrative work is carried on by the ten
regional (subfederal) authorities, each consisting of
the association of ten states. These regional divisions
are wholly executive and administrative, having neither
legislative nor judicial functions. The ten regional
executives are the personal appointees of the federal
chief executive, and their term of office is concurrent
with his -- six years. The federal supreme tribunal
approves the appointment of these ten regional
executives, and while they may not be reappointed, the
retiring executive automatically becomes the associate
and adviser of his successor. Otherwise, these regional
chiefs choose their own cabinets of administrative
officials. |
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72:2.9
This nation is
adjudicated by two major court systems -- the law courts
and the socioeconomic courts. The law courts function on
the following three levels:
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72:2.10
1. Minor courts
of municipal and local jurisdiction, whose decisions may
be appealed to the high state tribunals. |
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72:2.11
2. State
supreme courts, whose decisions are final in all
matters not involving the federal government or jeopardy
of citizenship rights and liberties. The regional
executives are empowered to bring any case at once to
the bar of the federal supreme court.
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72:2.12
3. Federal
supreme court -- the high tribunal for the
adjudication of national contentions and the appellate
cases coming up from the state courts. This supreme
tribunal consists of twelve men over forty and under
seventy-five years of age who have served two or more
years on some state tribunal, and who have been
appointed to this high position by the chief executive
with the majority approval of the supercabinet and the
third house of the legislative assembly. All decisions
of this supreme judicial body are by at least a
two-thirds vote. |
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72:2.13
The socioeconomic
courts function in the following three divisions: |
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1. Parental
courts, associated with the legislative and
executive divisions of the home and social system.
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2. Educational
courts -- the juridical bodies connected with the
state and regional school systems and associated with
the executive and legislative branches of the
educational administrative mechanism.
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3. Industrial
courts -- the jurisdictional tribunals vested with
full authority for the settlement of all economic
misunderstandings. |
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72:2.14
The federal
supreme court does not pass upon socioeconomic cases
except upon the three-quarters vote of the third
legislative branch of the national government, the house
of elder statesmen. Otherwise, all decisions of the
parental, educational, and industrial high courts are
final. |
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72:3.1
On this continent it is against the law for two families
to live under the same roof. And since group dwellings
have been outlawed, most of the tenement type of
buildings have been demolished. But the unmarried still
live in clubs, hotels, and other group dwellings. The
smallest homesite permitted must provide fifty thousand
square feet of land. All land and other property used
for home purposes are free from taxation up to ten times
the minimum homesite allotment. |
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72:3.2
The home life of this people has greatly improved during
the last century. Attendance of parents, both fathers
and mothers, at the parental schools of child culture is
compulsory. Even the agriculturists who reside in small
country settlements carry on this work by
correspondence, going to the near-by centers for oral
instruction once in ten days -- every two weeks, for
they maintain a five-day week. |
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72:3.3
The average number of children in each family is five,
and they are under the full control of their parents or,
in case of the demise of one or both, under that of the
guardians designated by the parental courts. It is
considered a great honor for any family to be awarded
the guardianship of a full orphan. Competitive
examinations are held among parents, and the orphan is
awarded to the home of those displaying the best
parental qualifications. |
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72:3.4
These people regard the home as the basic institution of
their civilization. It is expected that the most
valuable part of a child's education and character
training will be secured from his parents and at home,
and fathers devote almost as much attention to child
culture as do mothers. |
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72:3.5
All sex instruction is administered in the home by
parents or by legal guardians. Moral instruction is
offered by teachers during the rest periods in the
school shops, but not so with religious training, which
is deemed to be the exclusive privilege of parents,
religion being looked upon as an integral part of home
life. Purely religious instruction is given publicly
only in the temples of philosophy, no such exclusively
religious institutions as the Urantia churches having
developed among this people. In their philosophy,
religion is the striving to know God and to manifest
love for one's fellows through service for them, but
this is not typical of the religious status of the other
nations on this planet. Religion is so entirely a family
matter among these people that there are no public
places devoted exclusively to religious assembly.
Politically, church and state, as Urantians are wont to
say, are entirely separate, but there is a strange
overlapping of religion and philosophy. |
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72:3.6
Until twenty years ago the spiritual teachers
(comparable to Urantia pastors), who visit each family
periodically to examine the children to ascertain if
they have been properly instructed by their parents,
were under governmental supervision. These spiritual
advisers and examiners are now under the direction of
the newly created Foundation of Spiritual Progress, an
institution supported by voluntary contributions.
Possibly this institution may not further evolve until
after the arrival of a Paradise Magisterial Son.
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72:3.7
Children remain legally subject to their parents until
they are fifteen, when the first initiation into civic
responsibility is held. Thereafter, every five years for
five successive periods similar public exercises are
held for such age groups at which their obligations to
parents are lessened, while new civic and social
responsibilities to the state are assumed. Suffrage is
conferred at twenty, the right to marry without parental
consent is not bestowed until twenty-five, and children
must leave home on reaching the age of thirty. |
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72:3.8
Marriage and divorce laws are uniform throughout the
nation. Marriage before twenty -- the age of civil
enfranchisement -- is not permitted. Permission to marry
is only granted after one year's notice of intention,
and after both bride and groom present certificates
showing that they have been duly instructed in the
parental schools regarding the responsibilities of
married life. |
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72:3.9
Divorce regulations are somewhat lax, but decrees of
separation, issued by the parental courts, may not be
had until one year after application therefor has been
recorded, and the year on this planet is considerably
longer than on Urantia. Notwithstanding their easy
divorce laws, the present rate of divorces is only one
tenth that of the civilized races of Urantia.
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72:4.1
The educational system of this nation is compulsory and
coeducational in the precollege schools that the student
attends from the ages of five to eighteen. These schools
are vastly different from those of Urantia. There are no
classrooms, only one study is pursued at a time, and
after the first three years all pupils become assistant
teachers, instructing those below them. Books are used
only to secure information that will assist in solving
the problems arising in the school shops and on the
school farms. Much of the furniture used on the
continent and the many mechanical contrivances -- this
is a great age of invention and mechanization -- are
produced in these shops. Adjacent to each shop is a
working library where the student may consult the
necessary reference books. Agriculture and horticulture
are also taught throughout the entire educational period
on the extensive farms adjoining every local school.
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72:4.2
The feeble-minded are trained only in agriculture and
animal husbandry, and are committed for life to special
custodial colonies where they are segregated by sex to
prevent parenthood, which is denied all subnormals.
These restrictive measures have been in operation for
seventy-five years; the commitment decrees are handed
down by the parental courts.
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72:4.3
Everyone takes one month's vacation each year. The
precollege schools are conducted for nine months out of
the year of ten, the vacation being spent with parents
or friends in travel. This travel is a part of the
adult-education program and is continued throughout a
lifetime, the funds for meeting such expenses being
accumulated by the same methods as those employed in
old-age insurance. |
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72:4.4
One quarter of the school time is devoted to play --
competitive athletics -- the pupils progressing in these
contests from the local, through the state and regional,
and on to the national trials of skill and prowess.
Likewise, the oratorical and musical contests, as well
as those in science and philosophy, occupy the attention
of students from the lower social divisions on up to the
contests for national honors. |
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72:4.5
The school government is a replica of the national
government with its three correlated branches, the
teaching staff functioning as the third or advisory
legislative division. The chief object of education on
this continent is to make every pupil a self-supporting
citizen. |
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72:4.6
Every child graduating from the precollege school system
at eighteen is a skilled artisan. Then begins the study
of books and the pursuit of special knowledge, either in
the adult schools or in the colleges. When a brilliant
student completes his work ahead of schedule, he is
granted an award of time and means wherewith he may
execute some pet project of his own devising. The entire
educational system is designed to adequately train the
individual. |
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72:5.1
The
industrial situation among this people is far from their
ideals; capital and labor still have their troubles, but
both are becoming adjusted to the plan of sincere
co-operation. On this unique continent the workers are
increasingly becoming shareholders in all industrial
concerns; every intelligent laborer is slowly becoming a
small capitalist. |
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72:5.2
Social antagonisms
are lessening, and good will is growing apace. No grave
economic problems have arisen out of the abolition of
slavery (over one hundred years ago) since this
adjustment was effected gradually by the liberation of
two per cent each year. Those slaves who satisfactorily
passed mental, moral, and physical tests were granted
citizenship; many of these superior slaves were war
captives or children of such captives. Some fifty years
ago they deported the last of their inferior slaves, and
still more recently they are addressing themselves to
the task of reducing the numbers of their degenerate and
vicious classes.
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72:5.3
These people have
recently developed new techniques for the adjustment of
industrial misunderstandings and for the correction of
economic abuses which are marked improvements over their
older methods of settling such problems. Violence has
been outlawed as a procedure in adjusting either
personal or industrial differences. Wages, profits, and
other economic problems are not rigidly regulated, but
they are in general controlled by the industrial
legislatures, while all disputes arising out of industry
are passed upon by the industrial courts. |
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72:5.4
The industrial
courts are only thirty years old but are functioning
very satisfactorily. The most recent development
provides that hereafter the industrial courts shall
recognize legal compensation as falling in three
divisions: |
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1. Legal rates of
interest on invested capital.
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2. Reasonable
salary for skill employed in industrial operations.
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3. Fair and
equitable wages for labor.
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72:5.5
These
shall first be met in accordance with contract, or in
the face of decreased earnings they shall share
proportionally in transient reduction. And thereafter
all earnings in excess of these fixed charges shall be
regarded as dividends and shall be prorated to all three
divisions: capital, skill, and labor.
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72:5.6
Every ten years
the regional executives adjust and decree the lawful
hours of daily gainful toil. Industry now operates on a
five-day week, working four and playing one. These
people labor six hours each working day and, like
students, nine months in the year of ten. Vacation is
usually spent in travel, and new methods of
transportation having been so recently developed, the
whole nation is travel bent. The climate favors travel
about eight months in the year, and they are making the
most of their opportunities.
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72:5.7
Two hundred years
ago the profit motive was wholly dominant in industry,
but today it is being rapidly displaced by other and
higher driving forces. Competition is keen on this
continent, but much of it has been transferred from
industry to play, skill, scientific achievement, and
intellectual attainment. It is most active in social
service and governmental loyalty. Among this people
public service is rapidly becoming the chief goal of
ambition. The richest man on the continent works six
hours a day in the office of his machine shop and then
hastens over to the local branch of the school of
statesmanship, where he seeks to qualify for public
service. |
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72:5.8
Labor is becoming
more honorable on this continent, and all able-bodied
citizens over eighteen work either at home and on farms,
at some recognized industry, on the public works where
the temporarily unemployed are absorbed, or else in the
corps of compulsory laborers in the mines. |
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72:5.9
These people are
also beginning to foster a new form of social disgust --
disgust for both idleness and unearned wealth. Slowly
but certainly they are conquering their machines. Once
they, too, struggled for political liberty and
subsequently for economic freedom. Now are they entering
upon the enjoyment of both while in addition they are
beginning to appreciate their well-earned leisure, which
can be devoted to increased self-realization.
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72:6.1
This
nation is making a determined effort to replace the
self-respect-destroying type of charity by dignified
government-insurance guarantees of security in old age.
This nation provides every child an education and every
man a job; therefore can it successfully carry out such
an insurance scheme for the protection of the infirm and
aged. |
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72:6.2
Among this people
all persons must retire from gainful pursuit at
sixty-five unless they secure a permit from the state
labor commissioner which will entitle them to remain at
work until the age of seventy. This age limit does not
apply to government servants or philosophers. The
physically disabled or permanently crippled can be
placed on the retired list at any age by court order
countersigned by the pension commissioner of the
regional government. |
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72:6.3
The funds for
old-age pensions are derived from four sources: |
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72:6.4
1. One day's
earnings each month are requisitioned by the federal
government for this purpose, and in this country
everybody works. |
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72:6.5
2. Bequests --
many wealthy citizens leave funds for this purpose. |
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72:6.6
3. The earnings of
compulsory labor in the state mines. After the conscript
workers support themselves and set aside their own
retirement contributions, all excess profits on their
labor are turned over to this pension fund.
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72:6.7
4. The income from
natural resources. All natural wealth on the continent
is held as a social trust by the federal government, and
the income therefrom is utilized for social purposes,
such as disease prevention, education of geniuses, and
expenses of especially promising individuals in the
statesmanship schools. One half of the income from
natural resources goes to the old-age pension fund.
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72:6.8
Although state and
regional actuarial foundations supply many forms of
protective insurance, old-age pensions are solely
administered by the federal government through the ten
regional departments. |
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72:6.9
These government
funds have long been honestly administered. Next to
treason and murder, the heaviest penalties meted out by
the courts are attached to betrayal of public trust.
Social and political disloyalty are now looked upon as
being the most heinous of all crimes.
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72:7.1
The
federal government is paternalistic only in the
administration of old-age pensions and in the fostering
of genius and creative originality; the state
governments are slightly more concerned with the
individual citizen, while the local governments are much
more paternalistic or socialistic. The city (or some
subdivision thereof) concerns itself with such matters
as health, sanitation, building regulations,
beautification, water supply, lighting, heating,
recreation, music, and communication. |
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72:7.2
In all industry
first attention is paid to health; certain phases of
physical well-being are regarded as industrial and
community prerogatives, but individual and family health
problems are matters of personal concern only. In
medicine, as in all other purely personal matters, it is
increasingly the plan of government to refrain from
interfering. |
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72:7.3
Cities have no
taxing power, neither can they go in debt. They receive
per capita allowances from the state treasury and must
supplement such revenue from the earnings of their
socialistic enterprises and by licensing various
commercial activities. |
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72:7.4
The rapid-transit
facilities, which make it practical greatly to extend
the city boundaries, are under municipal control. The
city fire departments are supported by the
fire-prevention and insurance foundations, and all
buildings, in city or country, are fireproof -- have
been for over seventy-five years. |
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72:7.5
There are no
municipally appointed peace officers; the police forces
are maintained by the state governments. This department
is recruited almost entirely from the unmarried men
between twenty-five and fifty. Most of the states assess
a rather heavy bachelor tax, which is remitted to all
men joining the state police. In the average state the
police force is now only one tenth as large as it was
fifty years ago. |
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72:7.6
There is little or
no uniformity among the taxation schemes of the one
hundred comparatively free and sovereign states as
economic and other conditions vary greatly in different
sections of the continent. Every state has ten basic
constitutional provisions which cannot be modified
except by consent of the federal supreme court, and one
of these articles prevents levying a tax of more than
one per cent on the value of any property in any one
year, homesites, whether in city or country, being
exempted. |
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72:7.7
The federal
government cannot go in debt, and a three-fourths
referendum is required before any state can borrow
except for purposes of war. Since the federal government
cannot incur debt, in the event of war the National
Council of Defense is empowered to assess the states for
money, as well as for men and materials, as it may be
required. But no debt may run for more than twenty-five
years. |
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72:7.8
Income to support
the federal government is derived from the following
five sources: |
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72:7.9
1. Import
duties. All imports are subject to a tariff designed
to protect the standard of living on this continent,
which is far above that of any other nation on the
planet. These tariffs are set by the highest industrial
court after both houses of the industrial congress have
ratified the recommendations of the chief executive of
economic affairs, who is the joint appointee of these
two legislative bodies. The upper industrial house is
elected by labor, the lower by capital.
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72:7.10
2. Royalties.
The federal government encourages invention and original
creations in the ten regional laboratories, assisting
all types of geniuses -- artists, authors, and
scientists -- and protecting their patents. In return
the government takes one half the profits realized from
all such inventions and creations, whether pertaining to
machines, books, artistry, plants, or animals.
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72:7.11
3. Inheritance
tax. The federal government levies a graduated
inheritance tax ranging from one to fifty per cent,
depending on the size of an estate as well as on other
conditions. |
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72:7.12
4. Military
equipment. The government earns a considerable sum
from the leasing of military and naval equipment for
commercial and recreational usages.
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72:7.13
5. Natural
resources. The income from natural resources, when
not fully required for the specific purposes designated
in the charter of federal statehood, is turned into the
national treasury.
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72:7.14
Federal
appropriations, except war funds assessed by the
National Council of Defense, are originated in the upper
legislative house, concurred in by the lower house,
approved by the chief executive, and finally validated
by the federal budget commission of one hundred. The
members of this commission are nominated by the state
governors and elected by the state legislatures to serve
for twenty-four years, one quarter being elected every
six years. Every six years this body, by a three-fourths
ballot, chooses one of its number as chief, and he
thereby becomes director-controller of the federal
treasury.
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72:8.1
In
addition to the basic compulsory education program
extending from the ages of five to eighteen, special
schools are maintained as follows: |
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72:8.2
1.
Statesmanship schools. These schools are of three
classes: national, regional, and state. The public
offices of the nation are grouped in four divisions. The
first division of public trust pertains principally to
the national administration, and all officeholders of
this group must be graduates of both regional and
national schools of statesmanship. Individuals may
accept political, elective, or appointive office in the
second division upon graduating from any one of the ten
regional schools of statesmanship; their trusts concern
responsibilities in the regional administration and the
state governments. Division three includes state
responsibilities, and such officials are only required
to have state degrees of statesmanship. The fourth and
last division of officeholders are not required to hold
statesmanship degrees, such offices being wholly
appointive. They represent minor positions of
assistantship, secretaryships, and technical trusts
which are discharged by the various learned professions
functioning in governmental administrative capacities. |
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72:8.3
Judges of the
minor and state courts hold degrees from the state
schools of statesmanship. Judges of the jurisdictional
tribunals of social, educational, and industrial matters
hold degrees from the regional schools. Judges of the
federal supreme court must hold degrees from all these
schools of statesmanship. |
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72:8.4
2. Schools of
philosophy. These schools are affiliated with the
temples of philosophy and are more or less associated
with religion as a public function.
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72:8.5
3. Institutions
of science. These technical schools are co-ordinated
with industry rather than with the educational system
and are administered under fifteen divisions.
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72:8.6
4. Professional
training schools. These special institutions provide
the technical training for the various learned
professions, twelve in number.
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72:8.7
5. Military and
naval schools. Near the national headquarters and at
the twenty-five coastal military centers are maintained
those institutions devoted to the military training of
volunteer citizens from eighteen to thirty years of age.
Parental consent is required before twenty-five in order
to gain entrance to these schools.
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72:9.1
Although
candidates for all public offices are restricted to
graduates of the state, regional, or federal schools of
statesmanship, the progressive leaders of this nation
discovered a serious weakness in their plan of universal
suffrage and about fifty years ago made constitutional
provision for a modified scheme of voting which embraces
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72:9.2
1. Every man and
woman of twenty years and over has one vote. Upon
attaining this age, all citizens must accept membership
in two voting groups: They will join the first in
accordance with their economic function -- industrial,
professional, agricultural, or trade; they will enter
the second group according to their political,
philosophic, and social inclinations. All workers thus
belong to some economic franchise group, and these
guilds, like the noneconomic associations, are regulated
much as is the national government with its threefold
division of powers. Registration in these groups cannot
be changed for twelve years.
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72:9.3
2. Upon nomination
by the state governors or by the regional executives and
by the mandate of the regional supreme councils,
individuals who have rendered great service to society,
or who have demonstrated extraordinary wisdom in
government service, may have additional votes conferred
upon them not oftener than every five years and not to
exceed nine such superfranchises. The maximum suffrage
of any multiple voter is ten. Scientists, inventors,
teachers, philosophers, and spiritual leaders are also
thus recognized and honored with augmented political
power. These advanced civic privileges are conferred by
the state and regional supreme councils much as degrees
are bestowed by the special colleges, and the recipients
are proud to attach the symbols of such civic
recognition, along with their other degrees, to their
lists of personal achievements.
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72:9.4
3. All individuals
sentenced to compulsory labor in the mines and all
governmental servants supported by tax funds are, for
the periods of such services, disenfranchised. This does
not apply to aged persons who may be retired on pensions
at sixty-five. |
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72:9.5
4. There are five
brackets of suffrage reflecting the average yearly taxes
paid for each half-decade period. Heavy taxpayers are
permitted extra votes up to five. This grant is
independent of all other recognition, but in no case can
any person cast over ten ballots.
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72:9.6
5. At the time this franchise plan was adopted, the
territorial method of voting was abandoned in favor of
the economic or functional system. All citizens now vote
as members of industrial, social, or professional
groups, regardless of their residence. Thus the
electorate consists of solidified, unified, and
intelligent groups who elect only their best members to
positions of governmental trust and responsibility.
There is one exception to this scheme of functional or
group suffrage: The election of a federal chief
executive every six years is by nation-wide ballot, and
no citizen casts over one vote.
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72:9.7
Thus, except in the election of the chief executive,
suffrage is exercised by economic, professional,
intellectual, and social groupings of the citizenry. The
ideal state is organic, and every free and intelligent
group of citizens represents a vital and functioning
organ within the larger governmental organism. |
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72:9.8
The schools of statesmanship have power to start
proceedings in the state courts looking toward the
disenfranchisement of any defective, idle, indifferent,
or criminal individual. These people recognize that,
when fifty per cent of a nation is inferior or defective
and possesses the ballot, such a nation is doomed. They
believe the dominance of mediocrity spells the downfall
of any nation. Voting is compulsory, heavy fines being
assessed against all who fail to cast their ballots.
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72:10.1
The methods of this people in dealing with crime,
insanity, and degeneracy, while in some ways pleasing,
will, no doubt, in others prove shocking to most
Urantians. Ordinary criminals and the defectives are
placed, by sexes, in different agricultural colonies and
are more than self-supporting. The more serious habitual
criminals and the incurably insane are sentenced to
death in the lethal gas chambers by the courts. Numerous
crimes aside from murder, including betrayal of
governmental trust, also carry the death penalty, and
the visitation of justice is sure and swift. |
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72:10.2
These people are passing out of the negative into the
positive era of law. Recently they have gone so far as
to attempt the prevention of crime by sentencing those
who are believed to be potential murderers and major
criminals to life service in the detention colonies. If
such convicts subsequently demonstrate that they have
become more normal, they may be either paroled or
pardoned. The homicide rate on this continent is only
one per cent of that among the other nations. |
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72:10.3
Efforts to prevent the breeding of criminals and
defectives were begun over one hundred years ago and
have already yielded gratifying results. There are no
prisons or hospitals for the insane. For one reason,
there are only about ten per cent as many of these
groups as are found on Urantia.
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72:11.1
Graduates
of the federal military schools may be commissioned as
"guardians of civilization" in seven ranks, in
accordance with ability and experience, by the president
of the National Council of Defense. This council
consists of twenty-five members, nominated by the
highest parental, educational, and industrial tribunals,
confirmed by the federal supreme court, and presided
over ex officio by the chief of staff of co-ordinated
military affairs. Such members serve until they are
seventy years of age. |
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72:11.2
The courses
pursued by such commissioned officers are four years in
length and are invariably correlated with the mastery of
some trade or profession. Military training is never
given without this associated industrial, scientific, or
professional schooling. When military training is
finished, the individual has, during his four years'
course, received one half of the education imparted in
any of the special schools where the courses are
likewise four years in length. In this way the creation
of a professional military class is avoided by providing
this opportunity for a large number of men to support
themselves while securing the first half of a technical
or professional training. |
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72:11.3
Military service
during peacetime is purely voluntary, and the
enlistments in all branches of the service are for four
years, during which every man pursues some special line
of study in addition to the mastery of military tactics.
Training in music is one of the chief pursuits of the
central military schools and of the twenty-five training
camps distributed about the periphery of the continent.
During periods of industrial slackness many thousands of
unemployed are automatically utilized in upbuilding the
military defenses of the continent on land and sea and
in the air. |
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72:11.4
Although these people maintain a powerful war
establishment as a defense against invasion by the
surrounding hostile peoples, it may be recorded to their
credit that they have not in over one hundred years
employed these military resources in an offensive war.
They have become civilized to that point where they can
vigorously defend civilization without yielding to the
temptation to utilize their war powers in aggression.
There have been no civil wars since the establishment of
the united continental state, but during the last two
centuries these people have been called upon to wage
nine fierce defensive conflicts, three of which were
against mighty confederations of world powers. Although
this nation maintains adequate defense against attack by
hostile neighbors, it pays far more attention to the
training of statesmen, scientists, and philosophers. |
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72:11.5
When at peace with
the world, all mobile defense mechanisms are quite fully
employed in trade, commerce, and recreation. When war is
declared, the entire nation is mobilized. Throughout the
period of hostilities military pay obtains in all
industries, and the chiefs of all military departments
become members of the chief executive's cabinet.
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72:12.1
Although
the society and government of this unique people are in
many respects superior to those of the Urantia nations,
it should be stated that on the other continents (there
are eleven on this planet) the governments are decidedly
inferior to the more advanced nations of Urantia. |
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72:12.2
Just now this superior government is planning to
establish ambassadorial relations with the inferior
peoples, and for the first time a great religious leader
has arisen who advocates the sending of missionaries to
these surrounding nations. We fear they are about to
make the mistake that so many others have made when they
have endeavored to force a superior culture and religion
upon other races. What a wonderful thing could be done
on this world if this continental nation of advanced
culture would only go out and bring to itself the best
of the neighboring peoples and then, after educating
them, send them back as emissaries of culture to their
benighted brethren! Of course, if a Magisterial Son
should soon come to this advanced nation, great things
could quickly happen on this world.
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72:12.3
This recital of
the affairs of a neighboring planet is made by special
permission with the intent of advancing civilization and
augmenting governmental evolution on Urantia. Much more
could be narrated that would no doubt interest and
intrigue Urantians, but this disclosure covers the
limits of our permissive mandate.
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72:12.4
Urantians should, however, take note that their sister
sphere in the Satania family has benefited by neither
magisterial nor bestowal missions of the Paradise Sons.
Neither are the various peoples of Urantia set off from
each other by such disparity of culture as separates the
continental nation from its planetary fellows. |
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72:12.5
The
pouring out of the Spirit of Truth provides the
spiritual foundation for the realization of great
achievements in the interests of the human race of the
bestowal world. Urantia is therefore far better prepared
for the more immediate realization of a planetary
government with its laws, mechanisms, symbols,
conventions, and language -- all of which could
contribute so mightily to the establishment of
world-wide peace under law and could lead to the
sometime dawning of a real age of spiritual striving;
and such an age is the planetary threshold to the
utopian ages of light and life. |
72:12.6
Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
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