Britain For The British Part 29

"In London the water companies make high charges for every separate bath and water closet."

TRAMWAYS

"In Glasgow from 1871 to 1894 a private company had a lease of the tramways from the Corporation.

"When the lease was about to expire the Corporation tried to arrange terms with the company for a renewal, but the company would not accept the terms offered.

"Moreover, there was a strong public feeling in favour of the Corporation working the tramways. The company service was not efficient; it was dear, and their bad treatment of their employees had roused general indignation.

"So the Corporation decided to manage the tramways, and the day after the company's lease expired they placed on the streets an entirely new service of cars, cleaner, handsomer, and more comfortable in every way than their predecessors'.

"The result of the first eleven months' working was a triumph for Munic.i.p.al management.

"The Corporation had many difficulties to contend with. Their horses were new and untrained, their staff was larger and new to the work, and the old company flooded the routes with 'buses to compete with the trams.

"Notwithstanding these difficulties, they introduced halfpenny fares, they lengthened the distance for a penny, they raised the wages of the men and shortened their hours, they refused to disfigure the cars with advertis.e.m.e.nts, thus losing a handsome revenue, and in the end were able to show a profit of 24,000, which was devoted to the common-good fund and to depreciation account.

"Since that time the success of the enterprise has been still more wonderful.

"The private company during the last four weeks of their reign carried 4,428,518 pa.s.sengers.

"The Corporation in the corresponding four weeks of 1895 carried 6,114,789.

In the year 1895-6 the Corporation carried 87,000,000 In the year 1899-1900 127,000,000 In the year 1900-1 132,000,000 In 1895-6 the receipts were 222,121 In 1899-1900 the receipts were 464,886 In 1900-1 the receipts were 484,872 In 1895 there were 31 miles of tramway In 1901 there were 44 " "

In 1895 the number of cars was 170 In 1901 " " was 322

"The citizens of Glasgow have a much better service than the private company provided, the fares are from 30 to 50 per cent. lower, the men work four hours a day less, and get from 5s. a week more wages, and free uniforms, and the capital expended is being gradually wiped out.

"In thirty-three years the capital borrowed will be paid back from a sinking fund provided out of the receipts.

"The gross capital expenditure to May 1901 was 1,947,730.

"The sinking fund amounts to 75,063.

"But the Corporation have, in addition, written off 153,796 for depreciation, they have placed 91,350 to a Permanent Way Renewal Fund, and they have piled up a general reserve fund of 183,428.

"Under a private company 100,000 would have gone into the pockets of a few shareholders _on last year's working_--even if the private company had charged the same fares and paid the same wages as the Corporation did, which is an unlikely a.s.sumption."

If you will read the two books I have mentioned, by Messrs. Haw and Suthers, you will be convinced by _facts_ that _Socialism_ is possible, and that it _will_ pay.

Bear in mind, also, that in all cases where the Munic.i.p.ality has taken over some department of public service and supply, the decrease in cost and the improvement in service which the ratepayers have secured are not the only improvements upon the management of the same work by private companies. Invariably the wages, hours, and conditions of men employed on Munic.i.p.al work are superior to those of men employed by companies.

Another thing should be well remembered. The private trader thinks only of profit. The Munic.i.p.ality considers the health and comfort of the citizens and the beauty and convenience of the city.

Look about and see what the County Council have done and are doing for London; and all their improvements have to be carried out in the face of opposition from interested and privileged parties. They have to improve and beautify London almost by force of arms, working, as one might say, under the guns of the enemy.

But if the citizens were all united, if the city had one will to work for the general boon, as under _Socialism_ happily it should be, London would in a score of years be the richest, the healthiest, and the most beautiful city in the world.

_Socialism_, Mr. Smith, is quite possible, and will not only pay but bless the nation that has the wisdom to afford full scope to its beneficence.

CHAPTER XVII

THE NEED FOR A LABOUR PARTY

I am now to persuade you, Mr. John Smith, a British workman, that you need a Labour Party. It is a queer task for a bookish man, a literary student, and an easy lounger through life, who takes no interest in politics and needs no party at all. To persuade you, a worker, that you need a worker's party, is like persuading you that you need food, shelter, love, and liberty. It is like persuading a soldier that he needs arms, a scholar that he needs books, a woman that she needs a home. Yet my chief object in writing this book has been to persuade you that you need a Labour Party.

Why should Labour have a Labour Party? I will put the answer first into the words of the anti-Socialist, and say, Because "self-interest is the strongest motive of mankind."

That covers the whole ground, and includes all the arguments that I shall advance in favour of a Labour Party.

For if self-interest be the leading motive of human nature, does it not follow that when a man wants a thing done for his own advantage he will be wise to do it himself.

An upper-cla.s.s party may be expected to attend to the interests of the upper cla.s.s. And you will find that such a party has always done what might be expected. A middle-cla.s.s party may be expected to attend to the interests of the middle cla.s.s. And history and the logic of current events prove that the middle cla.s.s has done what might have been expected.

And if you wish the interests of the working cla.s.s to be attended to, you will take to heart the lesson contained in those examples, and will form a working-cla.s.s party.

Liberals will declare, and do declare, in most pathetic tones, that they have done more, and will do more, for the workers than the Tories have done or will do. And Liberals will a.s.sure you that they are really more anxious to help the workers than we Socialists believe.

But those are side issues. The main thing to remember is, that even if the Liberals are all they claim to be, they will never do as much for Labour as Labour could do for itself.

Is not self-interest the ruling pa.s.sion in the human heart? Then how should _any_ party be so true to Labour and so diligent in Labour's service as a Labour Party would be?

What is a Trade Union? It is a combination of workers to defend their own interests from the encroachments of the employers.

Well, a Labour Party is a combination of workers to defend their own interests from the encroachments of the employers, or their representatives in Parliament and on Munic.i.p.al bodies.

Do you elect your employers as officials of your Trade Unions? Do you send employers as delegates to your Trade Union Congress? You would laugh at the suggestion. You know that the employer _could_ not attend to your interests in the Trade Union, which is formed as a defence against him.

Do you think the employer is likely to be more useful or more disinterested in Parliament or the County Council than in the Trade Union?

Whether he be in Parliament or in his own office, he is an employer, and he puts his own interest first and the interests of Labour behind.

Yet these men whom as Trade Unionists you mistrust, you actually send as politicians to "represent" you.

A Labour Party is a kind of political Trade Union, and to defend Trade Unionism is to defend Labour representation.

If a Liberal or a Tory can be trusted as a parliamentary representative, why cannot he be trusted as an employer?

If an employer's interests are opposed to your interests in business, what reason have you for supposing that his interests and yours are not opposed in politics?

Am I to persuade you to join a Labour Party? Then why should I not persuade you to join a Trade Union? Trade Union and Labour Party are both cla.s.s defences against cla.s.s aggression.