|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 29
We have to take up a totally new method of meeting and dealing with
the poor; and rich and poor alike must learn to think--which is an
accomplishment not possessed by many of either class. In the early
part of the century, when the ideas of the Revolution were still very
vital, there was hope that a time might come when wealth and power
would be shared so as to secure genuine human existence to the whole
population. Then came the mad hopes that followed the Reform Bill,
when grave Parliamentary men wept and huzzaed like schoolboys on
seeing that remarkable measure passed. People thought that the good
days had at last come, and even the workers who were still left out in
the cold fancied that in some vague way they were to receive benefits
worth having. The history of human delusions is a very sad one, as sad
almost as the history of human wickedness; and all those poor
enthusiasts had a sad awakening, for they found that the barren fights
of placemen would still go on, that the people would continue to be
shorn, and that the condition of the poor was uncommonly likely to be
worse than ever. The hour of hopefulness passed away, and there
succeeded bitter years of savage despair. The unhappy Chartists
struggled hard; and there is something pathetic in thinking how good
men were treated for preaching political commonplaces which are now
deemed almost Conservative. The wild time in which every crown in
Europe tottered was followed by another period of optimism; for the
great religious revival had begun, and the Church resumed her ancient
power over the people, despite the shock given by Newman's secession.
Then once again the query "Are we wealthy?" was answered with
enthusiasm; and even the poor were told that they were wealthy, for
had they not the reversion of complete felicity to crown their entry
into a future world? We must believe that there is some compensation
for this life's ills, or else existence would become no longer
bearable; but it was hard for people in general to think that
everything was for the best on this earth. Soon came the day of doubt
and bitterness, which assailed eager philanthropists and mere ordinary
people as well. The poor folk did not feel the effects of Darwin's
work, but those effects were terrible in certain quarters, for many
precipitate thinkers became convinced that we must perish like the
dumb beasts. Wherefore came the question, "Why should the poor go
without their share of the good things of this world, since there is
nothing for them in the next?" A very ugly query it is too, because,
when the question of number arises, rash spirits may say, as it was
said long ago, "Are we not many, and are you not few?"
I have not any fine theories, and I do not want to stir up enmities;
and I therefore say to the instructors of the poor, "Instead of egging
your men on to warfare, why not teach them how to use the laws which
they already have? No new laws are wanted; every rational and
necessary reform may be achieved by dint of measures now on the
statute-book--measures which seem to slumber as soon as the agitation
raised in passing them has glorified a certain number of placemen."
Every year we have the outcry, to which we have so often alluded,
about disgraceful dwellings; yet there is not a bad case in London or
elsewhere which could not be cured if the law were quietly set in
motion by men of business. As a matter of fact, a very great portion
of the wealth of the country is now at the service of the poor; but
they do not choose to take it--or, at any rate, they know nothing
about it. Look at the School Board elections, and see how many
exercise the right to vote. Yet, if the majority elected their own
School Board, they could divert enough charities to educate our whole
population, and they could do as they chose in their own schools.
Again, the Local Government Act renders it possible for the populace
to secure any public institutions that they may want, and in the main
they can order their own social life to their liking. What is the use
of incessant declamation? Organisation would be a thousand times
better. Let quiet men who do not want mere self-advertisement tell the
people what is their property and how to get it, and there will be no
need of the outcry of one class against another. It is a bitter grief
for all thinking men to observe the inequalities that continue to make
life positively accursed in many quarters, and the sights of shame
that abound ought to be seen no more; but rage can do nothing, while
wise teaching can do everything. The population question must be dealt
with by the people themselves; they must resolve to crush their masses
no more into slums; they must choose for themselves a nobler and a
purer life--and that can be accomplished by the laws which they may
set in action at once. Then they will be able to say, "England is
wealthy, and we have our share."
Some excellent articles have been turned out by the brilliant
professor of biology who inspects our fisheries for us. He has done
rare service for the people in his own way--no one better, for he was
one of the first who eagerly advocated the education of the masses;
but I fear he is now becoming "disillusionised." He talked once about
erecting a Jacob's Ladder from the gutter to the university; and he
has found that the ladder--such as it is--has merely been used to
connect the tradesman's shop and the artisan's dwelling with the
exalted place of education. The poor gutter-child cannot climb the
ladder; he is too hungry, too thin, too weak for the feat, and hence
the professor's famous epigram has become one of the things at which
scientific students of the human race smile sadly and kindly. And now
the professor grows savage and so wildly Conservative that we fear he
may denounce Magna Charta next as a gross error. I know very well that
all men are not equal, and the professor's keenest logic cannot make
me see that point any more clearly than at present. But suppose that
one fine day some awkward leader of the people says, "You tell us,
professor, that we are wealthy, and that it is right that some men
should be gorged while we are bitten with famine. If Britain is so
wealthy, how is it that eleven million acres of good agricultural land
are now out of cultivation, while the people whom the land used to
feed are crushed in the slums of the towns in the case of labourers,
or gone beyond the sea in the case of the farmers?" I want to be
impartial, but freely own that I should not like to answer that
question, and I do not believe the professor could. The men who used
to supply our fighting force are now becoming extinct. If they go into
the town and pick up some kind of work, then the second generation are
weaklings and a burden to us; while, if they go abroad, they are still
removed from the Mother of Nations, who needs her sons of the soil,
even though she may feel proud of the gallant new States which they
are rearing. And, while rats and mice and obscure vermin are gradually
taking possession of the land on which Britons were bred, the signs of
bursting wealth are thick among us. Is a nation rich that cannot
afford even to keep the kind of men who once defended her? To me the
gradual return of the land to its primitive wildness is more than
depressing. There are districts on the borders of Hertford and Essex
which might make a sentimental traveller sit down and cry. It all
seems strange; it looks so poverty-stricken, so filthy, so sordid, so
like the site of a slum after all the houses have been levelled for a
dozen years; and this in the midst of our England! I say nothing about
land-laws and so forth, but I will say that those who fancy the towns
can survive when the farms are deserted are much mistaken. "Are we
wealthy?" "Yes," and "No." We are wealthy in the wrong places, and we
are poor in the wrong places; and the combination will end in mischief
unless we are very soon prepared to make an alteration in most of our
ways of living. In many respects it is a good world; but it might be
made better, nobler, finer in every quarter, if the poor would only
recognise wise and silent leaders, and use the laws which men have
made in order to repair the havoc which other men have also made.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|