The Great Oration
so good as now there's more misery and poverty than there ever 'as been, and more of small shopkeepers goin' hup the spout. Now, some people tells us as Free Trade means plenty of cheap food. Well, we've got the one but not the other. Then there's hothers as tells us as this "Friscal Policy" is wot we want ('hear, hear,' from Crass and several others). And then there's another lot as ses that Socialism is the only 'ope for the poor. Well, we know pretty well all about Free Trade and the Friscal Policy, but most of us don't know exactly what Socialism means; and I say as its the dooty of hevery man to try and find hout which is the right thing to vote for, and then to do wot 'e can to 'elp to bring it about. And that's the reason we've gorn to the enormous expense of hengaging Professor Owen to come 'ere this afternoon and tell us exactly what Socialism is. So now I will call upon 'im to address you.'
Philpot was loudly applauded as he descended from the pulpit, and in response to clamourous demands Owen mounted the steps, beneath which the chairman sat on a carpenter's stool, with an upturned pail for a table, a plumber's hammer in his hand, and a chipped jam jar of tea by his side.
'Mr Chairman and Gentlemen,' said Owen, 'it is childish to imagine that any measures of Tariff Reform or Political Reform, or abolishing the House of Lords, or disestablishing the Church, or miserable Old Age Pensions, or a contemptible tax on land, can deal with the abject condition of millions of Englishmen, their wives and children. You may be deceived into thinking that such measures as those are great things. You may fight for them and vote for them but after you have got them you will find that they will make no appreciable improvement in your condition. You will still have to slave and drudge to gain a bare sufficiency of the necessaries of life. You will still have to eat the same kind of food and wear the same kind of clothes and boots as now. Your masters will still have you in their power to insult you and sweat you and drive you. Such measures are not remedies, but delusions to distract your attention from the only real solution, which is to be found only in the Public Ownership of the Machinery, and the National Organization of Industry for the production and distribution of the necessaries of life, not for the profit of a few, but for the benefit of all!
'That is the next great change, not merely desirable, but imperatively necessary and inevitable! That is Socialism!'
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