The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists [81]
so. Even as you think at present that it's right for so few people to own the Earth, the Minerals and the Water, which are all just as necessary as is the air. In exactly the same spirit as you now say: "It's Their Land," "It's Their Water," "It's Their Coal," "It's Their Iron," so you would say "It's Their Air," "These are their gasometers, and what right have the likes of us to expect them to allow us to breathe for nothing?" And even while he is doing this the air monopolist will be preaching sermons on the Brotherhood of Man; he will be dispensing advice on "Christian Duty" in the Sunday magazines; he will give utterance to numerous more or less moral maxims for the guidance of the young. And meantime, all around, people will be dying for want of some of the air that he will have bottled up in his gasometers. And when you are all dragging out a miserable existence, gasping for breath or dying for want of air, if one of your number suggests smashing a hole in the side of one of th gasometers, you will all fall upon him in the name of law and order, and after doing your best to tear him limb from limb, you'll drag him, covered with blood, in triumph to the nearest Police Station and deliver him up to "justice" in the hope of being given a few half-pounds of air for your trouble.'
`I suppose you think the landlords ought to let people live in their 'ouses for nothing?' said Crass, breaking the silence that followed.
`Certainly,' remarked Harlow, pretending to be suddenly converted to Owen's views, `I reckon the landlord ought to pay the rent to the tenant!'
`Of course, Landlordism is not the only cause,' said Owen, ignoring these remarks. ` The wonderful system fosters a great many others. Employers of labour, for instance, are as great a cause of poverty as landlords are.'
This extraordinary statement was received with astonished silence.
`Do you mean to say that if I'm out of work and a master gives me a job, that 'e's doin' me a injury?' said Crass at length.
`No, of course not,' replied Owen.
`Well, what the bloody 'ell DO yer mean, then?'
`I mean this: supposing that the owner of a house wishes to have it repainted. What does he usually do?'
`As a rule, 'e goes to three or four master painters and asks 'em to give 'im a price for the job.'
`Yes; and those master painters are so eager to get the work that they cut the price down to what they think is the lowest possible point,' answered Owen, `and the lowest usually gets the job. The successful tenderer has usually cut the price so fine that to make it pay he has to scamp the work, pay low wages, and drive and sweat the men whom he employs. He wants them to do two days' work for one day's pay. The result is that a job which - if it were done properly - would employ say twenty men for two months, is rushed and scamped in half that time with half that number of men.
`This means that - in one such case as this - ten men are deprived of one month's employment; and ten other men are deprived of two months' employment; and all because the employers have been cutting each other's throats to get the work.'
`And we can't 'elp ourselves, you nor me either,' said Harlow. `Supposing one of us on this job was to make up 'is mind not to tear into it like we do, but just keep on steady and do a fair day's work: wot would 'appen?'
No one answered; but the same thought was in everyone's mind. Such a one would be quickly marked by Hunter; and even if the latter failed to notice it would not be long before Crass reported his conduct.
`We can't 'elp ourselves,' said Easton, gloomily. `If one man won't do it there's twenty others ready to take 'is place.'
`We could help ourselves to a certain extent if we would stand by each other. If, for instance, we all belonged to the Society,' said Owen.
`I don't believe in the Society,' observed Crass. `I can't see as it's right that a inferior man should 'ave the same wages as me.'
`They're a drunken lot of beer-swillers,' remarked Slyme. `That's why they always 'as their meetings in
`I suppose you think the landlords ought to let people live in their 'ouses for nothing?' said Crass, breaking the silence that followed.
`Certainly,' remarked Harlow, pretending to be suddenly converted to Owen's views, `I reckon the landlord ought to pay the rent to the tenant!'
`Of course, Landlordism is not the only cause,' said Owen, ignoring these remarks. ` The wonderful system fosters a great many others. Employers of labour, for instance, are as great a cause of poverty as landlords are.'
This extraordinary statement was received with astonished silence.
`Do you mean to say that if I'm out of work and a master gives me a job, that 'e's doin' me a injury?' said Crass at length.
`No, of course not,' replied Owen.
`Well, what the bloody 'ell DO yer mean, then?'
`I mean this: supposing that the owner of a house wishes to have it repainted. What does he usually do?'
`As a rule, 'e goes to three or four master painters and asks 'em to give 'im a price for the job.'
`Yes; and those master painters are so eager to get the work that they cut the price down to what they think is the lowest possible point,' answered Owen, `and the lowest usually gets the job. The successful tenderer has usually cut the price so fine that to make it pay he has to scamp the work, pay low wages, and drive and sweat the men whom he employs. He wants them to do two days' work for one day's pay. The result is that a job which - if it were done properly - would employ say twenty men for two months, is rushed and scamped in half that time with half that number of men.
`This means that - in one such case as this - ten men are deprived of one month's employment; and ten other men are deprived of two months' employment; and all because the employers have been cutting each other's throats to get the work.'
`And we can't 'elp ourselves, you nor me either,' said Harlow. `Supposing one of us on this job was to make up 'is mind not to tear into it like we do, but just keep on steady and do a fair day's work: wot would 'appen?'
No one answered; but the same thought was in everyone's mind. Such a one would be quickly marked by Hunter; and even if the latter failed to notice it would not be long before Crass reported his conduct.
`We can't 'elp ourselves,' said Easton, gloomily. `If one man won't do it there's twenty others ready to take 'is place.'
`We could help ourselves to a certain extent if we would stand by each other. If, for instance, we all belonged to the Society,' said Owen.
`I don't believe in the Society,' observed Crass. `I can't see as it's right that a inferior man should 'ave the same wages as me.'
`They're a drunken lot of beer-swillers,' remarked Slyme. `That's why they always 'as their meetings in