The Urantia Book
PAPER 72
GOVERNMENT ON A NEIGHBORING PLANET
Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
72:0.1 BY 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.
72:0.2 Of 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.
72:0.3 This 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.
1. THE CONTINENTAL NATION
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
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.
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.
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.
72:2.4 The legislative division embraces three
houses:
72:2.5 1. The upper house is elected by
industrial, professional, agricultural, and other groups of
workers, balloting in accordance with economic function.
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.
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.
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.
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:
72:2.10 1. Minor courts of municipal
and local jurisdiction, whose decisions may be appealed to the
high state tribunals.
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.
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.
72:2.13 The socioeconomic courts function in
the following three divisions:
1. Parental courts,
associated with the legislative and executive divisions of the
home and social system.
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.
3. Industrial courts -- the
jurisdictional tribunals vested with full authority for the
settlement of all economic misunderstandings.
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.
3. THE HOME LIFE
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
4. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
5. INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION
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.
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.
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.
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:
1. Legal rates of interest on
invested capital.
2. Reasonable salary for skill
employed in industrial operations.
3. Fair and equitable wages for
labor.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
6. OLD-AGE INSURANCE
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.
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.
72:6.3 The funds for old-age pensions are
derived from four sources:
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.
72:6.5 2. Bequests -- many wealthy citizens
leave funds for this purpose.
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.
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.
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.
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.
7. TAXATION
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
72:7.8 Income to support the federal
government is derived from the following five sources:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
8. THE SPECIAL COLLEGES
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
72:8.6 4. Professional training schools.
These special institutions provide the technical training for
the various learned professions, twelve in number.
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.
9. THE PLAN OF UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
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 the
following features:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
10. DEALING WITH CRIME
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.
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.
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.
11. MILITARY PREPAREDNESS
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
12. THE OTHER NATIONS
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
