Crying for the Light Volume Ii Part 11

'Well, get rid of his tyranny.'

'How?'

'Become a capitalist yourself. As a rule the capitalist is a working man who has lifted himself out of his cla.s.s by superior self-denial, or tact, or skill, or perseverance. Last night when I went to the Town Hall I saw the name of Brown over a grand shop. When I knew Sloville, Brown's father was one of the poorest men in the place, and there was no boy worse off than poor Brown. I went in and said to him: "I am glad to see you so flourishing." "Yes," said he, "I've much to be thankful for."

"How is it you've got on so?" I said. "By minding my own business, and by not going to the public-house," he replied.'

'Yes,' said Johnson, 'Brown was allus a pushing boy.'

'So have all of us to be nowadays. You don't think we are to sit still, and open our mouths and shut our eyes, and see what Heaven will give us; do you?'

'Yes, but-'

'But what? It is in ourselves that lies the secret of success. Look at Ireland: for ages the people have come to the English Government for aid to fish, to farm, to manufacture, and what is the result? That now there are no people so badly off.'

'Ireland, sir,' said Johnson angrily, 'is ruined by the injustice of England.'

'Not quite so much as you think. Though Ireland has been shamefully treated, as much by Irishmen as Englishmen, however, I admit. But to return to the question of capital, why cannot a workman become an employer? You can run a cotton-mill if you like to co-operate and put by your savings. There is no need to ask Parliament to interfere. You want the landlords abolished. Take to farming yourselves. Land is cheap enough, and farms are to be had almost for the asking. Don't ask Government to take the land and employ all who live in the country on it, whether they are worth their salt or not. This is a free country, and any men who have sufficient confidence in each other, and self-reliance, can become their own employers, as farmers or manufacturers, if they will join their savings for that purpose. There are no better workmen than the English, and I want to see them better off.'

'I am glad to hear that,' said Johnson; 'it seemed to me that you were rather against the working man.'

'I am against some of his ways,' said Wentworth. 'I am against improvident marriages. In the middle circles of society we can't marry till we have a chance of keeping a wife. But almost directly poor lads or girls-especially in our great cities-are of age, and often before, they are married, and have families that they can't keep, and then the taxpayer, often little better off than themselves, has to pay for their support. Is that fair?'

'Well, it do seem rather hard.'

'As long as that is the case wages must be low, for the supply will be in excess of the demand. Suppose you get Parliament to come to the aid of such. The result is you will have more improvident marriages. Then you tax still more heavily the middle and the upper cla.s.ses, and the middle cla.s.ses become paupers themselves. I see a remedy for this. We shall have the children of the working cla.s.ses better educated, and then they will not think of marrying till they can live in a decent manner. They will shrink from inflicting hardships on innocent children, as they do now.'

'Well, they have to wait a long time.'

'I fear so. But how is trade at Sloville?'

'Why, just now very bad.'

'Shall I tell you one reason?'

'Just as you please; only, whatever you say I shall report to the United Buffaloes.'

'Well, I don't want to go out of my way to offend them, especially since they all vote together. But you had a strike here last summer, had you not?'

'Yes, and a pretty time of it we had.'

'It is over now, and what is the result?'

'Why, that we are going on pretty much as usual.'

'Not exactly. That strike cost a lot of money.'

'I believe you.'

'And that is all thrown away, and to that extent the working men are so much the poorer. Is not that a fact?'

'Well, it is no use denying of it; but the masters have suffered as well, though you get no benefit by their suffering.'

'And whose fault is that?'

'The Unions', I suppose. 'They were beaten, at any rate.'

'The Unions. I am glad you mention them, because there is another thing I have to say. I fear that you can never get good work as long as men are all paid alike, whether they are good workmen or not.'

'But that is what we insist on more than anything else.'

'I am sorry for it. Such a condition is fatal to individual excellence.

Let me ill.u.s.trate my remarks: I knew a man employed at a printing-office in connection with printing steel-plates. He was an intelligent, careful workman, and he did more work and better than the others, and earned more money. The other men conspired against him, and he found in his absence his work was spoilt, and his press injured, and he was driven away. Now, such cases are of constant occurrence. Let me give you another case: A man was taken into an office at a lesser rate than the others, and they gave up their work and had to come on the Union. Again, how often is a good man worried out of his place unless he joins the Union and works as slowly, and makes a job last as long, as the others! You complain of the great compet.i.tion from foreign workmen-how is it that they are in this country?'

'Ah! that's the question.'

'A question easily answered. Most of them are brought over on the occasion of a strike, and when they come here they stop here, and add to the overstocked market. Your regulations for the support of your members are excellent, and deserve all praise; your Unions also are most desirable when protection is required against hard and unjust masters, though the number of them is not so large as you endeavour to make it.

But when you set up to dictate to masters as to whom they shall employ, you do injustice to respectable men willing to work, whom you compel to starve, and in the long-run you help to create that depression of trade of which we all complain.'

'Have you anything more agin the Unions?' asked Johnson angrily.

'Yes; I maintain that when they thus endeavour to control the labour market they often drive away trade. Why are our shops filled with American manufactures? For this simple reason: In America the men are always looking out to improve the processes of manufacture. A workman who can strike out a new and improved method is rewarded by his masters and applauded by his fellows. Here masters and men are against him. The workmen are too conservative. You are not offended, I hope, by my plain speaking?'

'Not at all,' replied the visitor in a sulky tone.

'Well, I will add that, so far as I can see, they often drive trade away as well. I will just give you one instance: I was spending an evening with an eminent judge a little while ago.'

'Why, the lawyers are the greatest trades unionists going,' said Johnson pa.s.sionately.

'It may be. I am not a lawyer, and have not much to say on their behalf.

The judge of whom I speak had just been at one of our great Midland towns, where an order had come for a large supply for a foreign Government. "But," said the English firm, "we must have a strike clause inserted in the agreement, as our men will strike directly they hear we've got the order." The agent of the foreign Government declined to agree to such a proposal, and the order was taken to Belgium and executed there.'

'Ah, that was an isolated case.'

'Not a bit of it,' said Mr. Wentworth. 'I can give plenty of other cases that show how often the British workmen unwittingly drive away trade, and make us all suffer in consequence.'

'Well, this is a free country, and the workmen have a right to act as they think best,' said Johnson.

'Undoubtedly; I do not dispute that for an instant. All I say is, don't throw all the blame of poverty on the rich; a good deal of it is due to the poor themselves. Parliament can do little more than it has done. No Act of Parliament can give permanent employment and good wages to a man who drinks, or neglects his duty, or who will not work properly and efficiently.'

'Ah, there are people who think otherwise.'

'I fear there are.'

'According to your way of talk, Mr. Wentworth, Parliament ain't of much use.'

'I fear not. I only defend representative government as the only possible mode of political life in the absence of a benevolent despotism, controlled by a free press. The ideal government is that which interferes least with the people.'

'Then, what do you recommend?'