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

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 public ‘ouses.’

 

Harlow made no comment on this question. He had at one time belonged

to the Union and he was rather ashamed of having fallen away from it.

 

`Wot good ‘as the Society ever done ‘ere?’ said Easton. `None that I

ever ‘eard of.’

 

`It might be able to do some good if most of us belonged to it; but

after all, that’s another matter. Whether we could help ourselves or

not, the fact remains that we don’t. But you must admit that this

competition of the employers is one of the causes of unemployment and

poverty, because it’s not only in our line - exactly the same thing

happens in every other trade and industry. Competing employers are

the upper and nether millstones which grind the workers between them.’

 

`I suppose you think there oughtn’t to be no employers at all?’

sneered Crass. `Or p’raps you think the masters ought to do all the

bloody work theirselves, and give us the money?’

 

`I don’t see ‘ow its goin’ to be altered,’ remarked Harlow. `There

MUST be masters, and SOMEONE ‘as to take charge of the work and do the

thinkin’.’

 

`Whether it can be altered or not,’ said Owen, `Landlordism and

Competing Employers are two of the causes of poverty. But of course

they’re only a small part of the system which produces luxury,

refinement and culture for a few, and condemns the majority to a

lifelong struggle with adversity, and many thousands to degradation,

hunger and rags. This is the system you all uphold and defend,

although you don’t mind admitting that it has made the world into a

hell.’

 

Crass slowly drew the Obscurer cutting from his waistcoat pocket, but

after a moment’s thought he replaced it, deciding to defer its

production till a more suitable occasion.

 

`But you ‘aven’t told us yet ‘ow you makes out that money causes

poverty,’ cried Harlow, winking at the others. `That’s what I’M

anxious to ‘ear about!’

 

`So am I,’ remarked the man behind the moat. `I was just wondering

whether I ‘adn’t better tell ole Misery that I don’t want no wages

this week.’

 

`I think I’ll tell ‘im on Saterday to keep MY money and get ‘imself a

few drinks with it,’ said Philpot. `It might cheer ‘im up a bit and

make ‘im a little more sociable and friendly like.’

 

`Money IS the principal cause of poverty,’ said Owen.

 

`‘Ow do yer make it out?’ cried Sawkins.

 

But their curiosity had to remain unsatisfied for the time being

because Crass announced that it was `just on it’.