Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell (read novel full TXT) 📖

one stroke reduce the number of

applicants and secure the very best men for the work - we should have

better doctors, better architects, better engineers than before.

 

`As regards those disagreeable tasks for which there was a difficulty

in obtaining volunteers, we should adopt the opposite means. Suppose

that six hours was the general thing; and we found that we could not

get any sewer men; we should reduce the hours of labour in that

department to four, or if necessary to two, in order to compensate for

the disagreeable nature of the work.

 

`Another way out of such difficulties would be to have a separate

division of the Industrial army to do all such work, and to make it

obligatory for every man to put in his first year of State service as

a member of this corps. There would be no hardship in that. Everyone

gets the benefit of such work; there would be no injustice in

requiring everyone to share. This would have the effect also of

stimulating invention; it would be to everyone’s interest to think out

means of doing away with such kinds of work and there is no doubt that

most of it will be done by machinery in some way or other. A few

years ago the only way to light up the streets of a town was to go

round to each separate gas lamp and light each jet, one at a time:

now, we press a few buttons and light up the town with electricity.

In the future we shall probably be able to press a button and flush

the sewers.’

 

`What about religion?’ said Slyme. `I suppose there won’t be no

churches nor chapels; we shall all have to be atheists.’

 

`Everybody will be perfectly free to enjoy their own opinions and to

practise any religion they like; but no religion or sect will be

maintained by the State. If any congregation or body of people wish

to have a building for their own exclusive use as a church or chapel

or lecture hall it will be supplied to them by the State on the same

terms as those upon which dwelling houses will be supplied; the State

will construct the special kind of building and the congregation will

have to pay the rent, the amount to be based on the cost of

construction, in paper money of course. As far as the embellishment

or decoration of such places is concerned, there will of course be

nothing to prevent the members of the congregation if they wish from

doing any such work as that themselves in their own spare time of

which they will have plenty.’

 

`If everybody’s got to do their share of work, where’s the minister

and clergymen to come from?’

 

`There are at least three ways out of that difficulty. First,

ministers of religion could be drawn from the ranks of the Veterans -

men over forty-five years old who had completed their term of State

service. You must remember that these will not be worn out wrecks, as

too many of the working classes are at that age now. They will have

had good food and clothing and good general conditions all their

lives; and consequently they will be in the very prime of life. They

will be younger than many of us now are at thirty; they will be ideal

men for the positions we are speaking of. All well educated in their

youth, and all will have had plenty of leisure for self culture during

the years of their State service and they will have the additional

recommendation that their congregation will not be required to pay

anything for their services.

 

`Another way: If a congregation wished to retain the full-time

services of a young man whom they thought specially gifted but who had

not completed his term of State service, they could secure him by

paying the State for his services; thus the young man would still

remain in State employment, he would still continue to receive his pay

from the National Treasury, and at the age of forty-five would be

entitled to his pension like any other worker, and after that the

congregation would not have to pay the State anything.

 

`A third - and as it seems to me, the most respectable way - would be

for the individual in question to act as minister or pastor or

lecturer or whatever it was, to the congregation without seeking to

get out of doing his share of the State service. The hours of

obligatory work would be so short and the work so light that he would

have abundance of leisure to prepare his orations without sponging on

his co-religionists.’

 

`‘Ear, ‘ear!’ cried Harlow.

 

`Of course,’ added Barrington, `it would not only be congregations of

Christians who could adopt any of these methods. It is possible that

a congregation of agnostics, for instance, might want a separate

building or to maintain a lecturer.’

 

`What the ‘ell’s an agnostic?’ demanded Bundy.

 

`An agnostic,’ said the man behind the moat, `is a bloke wot don’t

believe nothing unless ‘e see it with ‘is own eyes.’

 

`All these details,’ continued the speaker, `of the organization of

affairs and the work of the Co-operative Commonwealth, are things

which do not concern us at all. They have merely been suggested by

different individuals as showing some ways in which these things could

be arranged. The exact methods to be adopted will be decided upon by

the opinion of the majority when the work is being done. Meantime,

what we have to do is to insist upon the duty of the State to provide

productive work for the unemployed, the State feeding of

schoolchildren, the nationalization or Socialization of Railways;

Land; the Trusts, and all public services that are still in the hands

of private companies. If you wish to see these things done, you must

cease from voting for Liberal and Tory sweaters, shareholders of

companies, lawyers, aristocrats, and capitalists; and you must fill

the House of Commons with Revolutionary Socialists. That is - with

men who are in favour of completely changing the present system. And

in the day that you do that, you will have solved the poverty

“problem”. No more tramping the streets begging for a job! No more

hungry children at home. No more broken boots and ragged clothes. No

more women and children killing themselves with painful labour whilst

strong men stand idly by; but joyous work and joyous leisure for all.’

 

`Is there any more questions?’ cried Philpot.

 

`Is it true,’ said Easton, `that Socialists intend to do away with the

Army and Navy?’

 

`Yes; it is true. Socialists believe in International Brotherhood and

peace. Nearly all wars are caused by profit-seeking capitalists,

seeking new fields for commercial exploitation, and by aristocrats who

make it the means of glorifying themselves in the eyes of the deluded

common people. You must remember that Socialism is not only a

national, but an international movement and when it is realized, there

will be no possibility of war, and we shall no longer seed to maintain

an army and navy, or to waste a lot of labour building warships or

manufacturing arms and ammunition. All those people who are now

employed will then be at liberty to assist in the great work of

producing the benefits of civilization; creating wealth and knowledge

and happiness for themselves and others - Socialism means Peace on

earth and goodwill to all mankind. But in the meantime we know that

the people of other nations are not yet all Socialists; we do not

forget that in foreign countries - just the same as in Britain - there

are large numbers of profit seeking capitalists, who are so destitute

of humanity, that if they thought it could be done successfully and

with profit to themselves they would not scruple to come here to

murder and to rob. We do not forget that in foreign countries - the

same as here - there are plenty of so-called “Christian” bishops and

priests always ready to give their benediction to any such murderous

projects, and to blasphemously pray to the Supreme Being to help his

children to slay each other like wild beasts. And knowing and

remembering all this, we realize that until we have done away with

capitalism, aristocracy and anti-Christian clericalism, it is our duty

to be prepared to defend our homes and our native land. And therefore

we are in favour of maintaining national defensive forces in the

highest possible state of efficiency. But that does not mean that we

are in favour of the present system of organizing those forces. We do

not believe in conscription, and we do not believe that the nation

should continue to maintain a professional standing army to be used at

home for the purpose of butchering men and women of the working

classes in the interests of a handful of capitalists, as has been done

at Featherstone and Belfast; or to be used abroad to murder and rob

the people of other nations. Socialists advocate the establishment of

a National Citizen Army, for defensive purposes only. We believe that

every able bodied man should be compelled to belong to this force and

to undergo a course of military training, but without making him into

a professional soldier, or taking him away from civil life, depriving

him of the rights of citizenship or making him subject to military

“law” which is only another name for tyranny and despotism. This

Citizen Army could be organized on somewhat similar lines to the

present Territorial Force, with certain differences. For instance, we

do not believe - as our present rulers do - that wealth and

aristocratic influence are the two most essential qualifications for

an efficient officer; we believe that all ranks should be attainable

by any man, no matter how poor, who is capable of passing the

necessary examinations, and that there should be no expense attached

to those positions which the Government grant, or the pay, is not

sufficient to cover. The officers could be appointed in any one of

several ways: They might be elected by the men they would have to

command, the only qualification required being that they had passed

their examinations, or they might be appointed according to merit -

the candidate obtaining the highest number of marks at the

examinations to have the first call on any vacant post, and so on in

order of merit. We believe in the total abolition of courts martial,

any offence against discipline should be punishable by the ordinary

civil law - no member of the Citizen Army being deprived of the rights

of a citizen.’

 

`What about the Navy?’ cried several voices.

 

`Nobody wants to interfere with the Navy except to make its

organization more democratic - the same as that of the Citizen Army -

and to protect its members from tyranny by entitling them to be tried

in a civil court for any alleged offence.

 

`It has been proved that if the soil of this country were

scientifically cultivated, it is capable of producing sufficient to

maintain a population of a hundred millions of people. Our present

population is only about forty millions, but so long as the land

remains in the possession of persons who refuse to allow it to be

cultivated we shall continue to be dependent on other countries for

our food supply. So long as we are in that position, and so long as

foreign countries are governed by Liberal and Tory capitalists, we

shall need the Navy to protect our overseas commerce from them. If we

had a Citizen Army such as I have mentioned, of nine or ten millions

of men and if the land of this country was properly cultivated, we

should be invincible