3. They must be at least thirty-one years old.
For the highest officials the conditions are more rigid.
The teachers in all public schools are selected in the same manner from
among the number who apply, and who have been graduated in rank high
enough for the school in question.
At first this lot system seemed very foolish to me indeed, bordering
upon absurdity, but the more I studied its simplicity and observed its
results, the more I became impressed with its good sense and
efficiency. There are no political parties fomenting discord in a
country under a spoils system; no upheavals every few years and
hilarious campaigns; and no idiotic caricatures of public officials to
work unbridled mischief in the hearts of the most dangerous citizens.
CHAPTER IX.
A Problem in Political Economy.
After I had left the world of Tor-tu I still lingered in the heavens
around the planet and examined a few of its moons. While enjoying this
pleasing diversion, I learned that not far away, less than one billion
miles, there was a world without an atmosphere. This peculiar condition
was not new to me, for I had seen, during my never-to-be-forgotten
journey, many worlds without gaseous air.
I would not have gone thither had it not been for an unaccountable
desire impelling me. Obedient to my impulse, I soon found myself on this
odd planet which I have named Airess.
I at once observed that the people are formed without nose or lungs. The
nose is substituted by an opening into which liquid air is received and
through which it passes to a bodily reservoir of two lobes in the
vicinity of the heart. When I saw how these people were obliged to fill
their living vessels with this air-supplying liquid, I at once thought
of the manner in which we in our world fill our lamps with oil to
furnish light and heat.
Now it is true that nature supplies this liquid air in reasonable
abundance, and no doubt all the people would have been happy until now
had it not been for the unjust scheming of a few unprincipled men.
The strange story of the air problem on this distant world is so similar
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