The Story of Mankind [167]
volunteers. Hundreds of thousands of
young men responded with eager enthusiasm and there followed
four years of bitter civil war. The South, better prepared
and following the brilliant leadership of Lee and Jackson,
repeatedly defeated the armies of the North. Then the
economic strength of New England and the West began to
tell. An unknown officer by the name of Grant arose from obscurity
and became the Charles Martel of the great slave war.
Without interruption he hammered his mighty blows upon the
crumbling defences of the South. Early in the year 1863,
President Lincoln issued his ``Emancipation Proclamation''
which set all slaves free. In April of the year 1865 Lee
surrendered the last of his brave armies at Appomattox. A few
days later, President Lincoln was murdered by a lunatic. But
his work was done. With the exception of Cuba which was
still under Spanish domination, slavery had come to an end in
every part of the civilised world.
But while the black man was enjoying an increasing amount
of liberty, the ``free'' workmen of Europe did not fare quite so
well. Indeed, it is a matter of surprise to many contemporary
writers and observers that the masses of workmen (the so-
called proletariat) did not die out from sheer misery. They
lived in dirty houses situated in miserable parts of the slums.
They ate bad food. They received just enough schooling to
fit them for their tasks. In case of death or an accident, their
families were not provided for. But the brewery and distillery
interests, (who could exercise great influence upon the Legislature,)
encouraged them to forget their woes by offering them
unlimited quantities of whisky and gin at very cheap rates.
The enormous improvement which has taken place since the
thirties and the forties of the last century is not due to the efforts
of a single man. The best brains of two generations devoted
themselves to the task of saving the world from the disastrous
results of the all-too-sudden introduction of machinery.
They did not try to destroy the capitalistic system. This would
have been very foolish, for the accumulated wealth of other
people, when intelligently used, may be of very great benefit
to all mankind. But they tried to combat the notion that true
equality can exist between the man who has wealth and owns
the factories and can close their doors at will without the risk
of going hungry, and the labourer who must take whatever job
is offered, at whatever wage he can get, or face the risk of
starvation for himself, his wife and his children.
They endeavoured to introduce a number of laws which regulated
the relations between the factory owners and the factory
workers. In this, the reformers have been increasingly
successful in all countries. To-day, the majority of the labourers
are well protected; their hours are being reduced to the
excellent average of eight, and their children are sent to the
schools instead of to the mine pit and to the carding-room of
the cotton mills.
But there were other men who also contemplated the sight
of all the belching smoke-stacks, who heard the rattle of the
railroad trains, who saw the store-houses filled with a surplus
of all sorts of materials, and who wondered to what ultimate
goal this tremendous activity would lead in the years to come.
They remembered that the human race had lived for hundreds
of thousands of years without commercial and industrial competition.
Could they change the existing order of things and
do away with a system of rivalry which so often sacrificed human
happiness to profits?
This idea--this vague hope for a better day--was not restricted
to a single country. In England, Robert Owen, the
owner of many cotton mills, established a so-called ``socialistic
community'' which was a success. But when he died, the prosperity
of New Lanark came to an end and an attempt of Louis
Blanc, a French journalist,
young men responded with eager enthusiasm and there followed
four years of bitter civil war. The South, better prepared
and following the brilliant leadership of Lee and Jackson,
repeatedly defeated the armies of the North. Then the
economic strength of New England and the West began to
tell. An unknown officer by the name of Grant arose from obscurity
and became the Charles Martel of the great slave war.
Without interruption he hammered his mighty blows upon the
crumbling defences of the South. Early in the year 1863,
President Lincoln issued his ``Emancipation Proclamation''
which set all slaves free. In April of the year 1865 Lee
surrendered the last of his brave armies at Appomattox. A few
days later, President Lincoln was murdered by a lunatic. But
his work was done. With the exception of Cuba which was
still under Spanish domination, slavery had come to an end in
every part of the civilised world.
But while the black man was enjoying an increasing amount
of liberty, the ``free'' workmen of Europe did not fare quite so
well. Indeed, it is a matter of surprise to many contemporary
writers and observers that the masses of workmen (the so-
called proletariat) did not die out from sheer misery. They
lived in dirty houses situated in miserable parts of the slums.
They ate bad food. They received just enough schooling to
fit them for their tasks. In case of death or an accident, their
families were not provided for. But the brewery and distillery
interests, (who could exercise great influence upon the Legislature,)
encouraged them to forget their woes by offering them
unlimited quantities of whisky and gin at very cheap rates.
The enormous improvement which has taken place since the
thirties and the forties of the last century is not due to the efforts
of a single man. The best brains of two generations devoted
themselves to the task of saving the world from the disastrous
results of the all-too-sudden introduction of machinery.
They did not try to destroy the capitalistic system. This would
have been very foolish, for the accumulated wealth of other
people, when intelligently used, may be of very great benefit
to all mankind. But they tried to combat the notion that true
equality can exist between the man who has wealth and owns
the factories and can close their doors at will without the risk
of going hungry, and the labourer who must take whatever job
is offered, at whatever wage he can get, or face the risk of
starvation for himself, his wife and his children.
They endeavoured to introduce a number of laws which regulated
the relations between the factory owners and the factory
workers. In this, the reformers have been increasingly
successful in all countries. To-day, the majority of the labourers
are well protected; their hours are being reduced to the
excellent average of eight, and their children are sent to the
schools instead of to the mine pit and to the carding-room of
the cotton mills.
But there were other men who also contemplated the sight
of all the belching smoke-stacks, who heard the rattle of the
railroad trains, who saw the store-houses filled with a surplus
of all sorts of materials, and who wondered to what ultimate
goal this tremendous activity would lead in the years to come.
They remembered that the human race had lived for hundreds
of thousands of years without commercial and industrial competition.
Could they change the existing order of things and
do away with a system of rivalry which so often sacrificed human
happiness to profits?
This idea--this vague hope for a better day--was not restricted
to a single country. In England, Robert Owen, the
owner of many cotton mills, established a so-called ``socialistic
community'' which was a success. But when he died, the prosperity
of New Lanark came to an end and an attempt of Louis
Blanc, a French journalist,