Ragged Trousered Philanthropists/Chapter 31
CHAPTER XXXI
The Great Oration
On the Monday morning after the beano a man named Jim Smith was painting an upper room in a house where several of Rushton's men were working. He was an odd looking individual with a big body and short legs, and the other men used to say there was something wrong with the way that 'Little Jim' was made. About ten minutes to eight, while he was waiting for the coddy to shout 'Yo ho,' the signal for breakfast time, he began to hum some of the tunes that had been sung at the beano, for having rubbed down and stopped all the woodwork and painted the window since six o'clock, he decided not to make a start on the door till after breakfast. He only earned 6½d. an hour, and as he said to himself, it was a good two hours' work and if he hadn't earned a bob he hadn't earned nothing. Anyhow he wasn't going to do no more before breakfast. The tune of 'For he's a jolly good fellow' kept running through his head, he thrust his hands deep down in his trousers pockets and began to polka round the room, singing softly:
'I won't do no more before breakfast!
I won't do no more before breakfast!
I won't do no more before breakfast!
So 'ip 'ip 'ip 'ooray!
So 'ip 'ip 'ip 'ooray! So 'ip 'ip 'ip 'ooray!
I won't do no more before breakfast!
......etc.'
'No, and you won't do but very little after breakfast, 'ere!' shouted Hunter, suddenly entering the room.
'I've bin a watchin' of you through the crack of the door for the larst 'arf hour and you've not done a dam stroke all the time. Make out yer time sheet and go to the office at nine o'clock and git yer money. We can't afford to pay you for playing the fool.'
Leaving the man dumbfounded and without waiting for a reply, Misery went downstairs, and after bellowing at the foreman for the lack of discipline on the job, he rode away, having come in so stealthily that none of the men knew of his arrival until they heard him shouting at Smith, who did not wait to have his breakfast but went off at once. When he had gone his mates agreed that it served him right; he ought to have had more sense. Most of them realised that this was the beginning of another slaughter; it would only be a matter of a week or two before all the jobs were finished up. They were working at a large house called 'The Refuge,' nicknamed 'The Hospital' by the men because as the other jobs were completed they were all sent on here, so that there were quite a crowd of them at work. All the inside was finished except the kitchen and scullery, and everyone was busy on the outside. Poor old Joe Philpot, whose rheumatism had been very bad lately, was doing a very rough job, painting the gables from a long ladder. But though there were plenty of younger men more suitable he did not like to complain for fear Crass or Misery should think he was not up to his work. At dinner time all the old hands assembled in the kitchen, including Crass, Easton, Harlow, Bundy and Dick Wantley, who still sat on a pail behind his usual moat. Philpot and Harlow were absent and everybody wondered what had become of them. Several times during the morning they had been seen whispering together and comparing scraps of paper, and various theories were put forward to account for their disappearance.
'Looks to me as if they'll stand a very good chance of gettin' drowned if they've gone very far,' remarked Easton, for the weather had been threatening all the morning and within the last few minutes the sky had become so dark that Crass lit the gas so that they could see the way to their mouths. The wind grew more boisterous every moment; the darkness increased; and presently a torrential downfall of rain beat fiercely against the windows, and poured down the glass. The men glanced gloomily at each other. No more work could be done outside that day, and there was nothing left to do inside. As they were all paid by the hour this meant the loss of half a day's pay.
'If it keeps on like this we won't be able to go home neither,' remarked Easton.
'Well, we're all right 'ere, ain't we?' said the man behind the moat. 'There's a nice fire and plenty of heasy-chairs. Wot the 'ell more do you want?'
'Yes,' remarked another philosopher, 'if we only had a shove ha'penny table or a ring board I reckon we should be able to enjoy ourselves all right.'
At this moment the two truants returned, looking very important. Philpot was armed with a hammer, and carrying a pair of steps, while Harlow bore a large piece of wall-paper which they proceeded to tack on the wall, much to the amusement of the others, who read the following announcement, written in charcoal:
Imperial Bankquet Hall
'The Refuge'
On Thursday at 12.30 Prompt
Professor Owen
Will Deliver a
ORATION
Entitled
The Great Secret, or How to Live
Without Work
The Rev. Joe Philpot
(Late absconding secretary of the Light
Refreshment Fund)
Will take the chair and anything else he can lay
his hands on.
At The End of The Lecture
A Meeting will be Arranged
And carried out according to The Marquis of
Queensberry's Rules.
A collection will be took up in aid of the cost
of printing.
'Well, 'e's the finest speaker I ever 'eard,' said the man on the pail, with enthusiam. 'I wouldn't miss this 'ere lecture for anything. I got 'ere about two hours before the doors was opened so as to be sure to get a seat.'
'I've 'eard a 'ell of a lot about Socialism,' said Crass, with a sneer, 'but up to now I've never met nobody wot could tell you plainly exactly wot it is.'
'Yes, that's what I should like to know, too,' said Easton.
'Socialism means "what's yours is mine, and what's mine's me own,"' observed Bundy, and during the laughter that greeted this definition Slyme was heard to say that Socialism meant Materialism, Atheism and Free Love, and if it were ever to come about it would degrade men and women to the level of brute beasts. Harlow said Socialism was a very fine idea, but he was afraid it would never come off. Sawkins said that Socialism was a lot of bloody rot, and Crass expressed the opinion, which he had culled from the delectable columns of the 'Obscurer,' that it meant robbing the industrious for the benefit of the idle and thriftless.
Philpot had by this time finished his bread and cheese, and, crossing over to the corner of the room, ascended the pulpit, being immediately greeted with a tremendous outburst of hooting, howling and booing, which he smilingly acknowledged by removing his cap from his bald head, winking his goggle eyes, and bowing repeatedly. When the storm of shrieks, yells, groans and catcalls had in some degree subsided, he addressed the meeting as follows:
'Gentlemen, first of hall I beg to thank you for the magnificent reception you 'ave given me, and I shall try to deserve your good opinion by shutting my mouth as soon as possible.
'Putting hall jokes aside, I think we're hall agreed about one thing, and that is, that there's plenty of room for improvement in things in general (hear, hear). As our lecturer, Professor Owen, pointed hout in one of 'is lectures, and as most of you 'ave read in the newspapers, although trade was never 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!'
'Seems to me as if 'e's swallered a bloody dictionary,' remarked Dick Wantley.
'Horder, horder!' shouted the chairman, banging the pail with the plumber's hammer.
'Socialism,' continued Owen, 'is not a wild dream of Superhuman Unselfishness. No one will be asked to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others or to love his neighbours better than himself, as is the case under the present system, which demands that the majority shall be content to labour and live in wretchedness for the benefit of a few.
'Under existing circumstances the community is exposed to the danger of being invaded and robbed and massacred by some foreign power. Therefore the community has organized and owns and controls an Army and Navy to protect it from that danger. Under existing circumstances the community is menaced by another equally great danger: the people are mentally and physically degenerating from lack of proper food and clothing. Socialists say that the community should undertake and organize the business of producing and distributing all these things; that the State should be the only employer of labour and should own all the factories, mills, mines, farms, railways, and fishing fleets.
'Socialists say that the community should undertake the business of providing suitable dwellings for all its members, that the State should be the only landlord and that all the land and all the houses should belong to the whole people.
'The hundreds of thousands of pounds that are yearly wasted in well meant but useless charity accomplish no lasting good, because while charity deals with the symptoms it ignores the disease, which is the private ownership of the means of producing the necessaries of life, and the restriction of production by a few selfish individuals for their own profit. And for that disease there is no other remedy than the public ownership and cultivation of the land; the public ownership of the mines, railways, canals, ships, factories, and all other means of production; and the establishment of an Industrial Civil Service, a National Army of Industry, for the purpose of producing the necessaries, comforts and refinements of life in all the abundance which has been made possible by science and machinery for the use and benefit of the whole of the people.'
'Yes; and where's the money to come from for all this?' shouted Crass, fiercely.
'Hear, hear,' cried the man behind the moat.
'There's no money difficulty about it,' replied Owen. 'We can easily find all the money we shall need.'
'Of course,' said Slyme, 'there's all the money in the Post Office Savings Bank. The Socialists could steal that for a start. And as for the mines and land and factories, they can all be took from the owners by force.'
'There will be no need for force and no need to steal anything from anybody.'
'And there's another thing I objects to,' said Crass, 'and that's all this 'ere talk about hignorance. Wot about all the money wots spent every year for eddication!'
'You should rather say, What about all the money that's wasted every year on education! What can be more brutal or senseless than trying to "educate" a poor little hungry, ill-clad child? The majority of us forget in a year or two all that we learnt at school because the conditions of our lives are such as to destroy all inclination for culture or refinement. We must see that the children are properly clothed and fed and that they are not made to get up in the middle of the night to go to work for several hours before they go to school. We must make it illegal for any greedy, heartless profit-hunter to hire their labour for several hours in the evening after school, or all day until nearly midnight on Saturday. We must first see that our children are fed and clothed and cared for before we can expect a proper return for the money that we spend on education.'
'I don't mind admitting that this 'ere scheme of national ownership and industries is all right if it could only be done,' said Harlow, 'but at present all the land, railways and factories belongs to private capitalists; they can't be bought without money, and you say you ain't goin' to take 'em away by force, so I should like to know how the bloody 'ell you are goin' to get 'em!'
'We certainly don't propose to buy them with money, for the simple reason that there is not sufficient money in existence to pay for them. The people who own all these things now never really paid for them with money, they obtained possession of them by means of the "money trick" which I explained some time ago.'
'They obtained possession of them by usin' their brains,' said Crass.
'Exactly,' replied the lecturer. 'They tell us themselves that that is how they got them away from us; they call their profits the "wages of intelligence". Whilst we have been working they have been using their intelligence in order to obtain possession of the things we have created. The time has now arrived for us to use our intelligence in order to get back the things they have robbed us of.'
'Oh, then you do mean to rob them after all,' cried Slyme, triumphantly.
'When a thief is caught having in his possession the property of others it is not robbery to take the things away from him and to restore them to their rightful owners,' retorted Owen.
'I can't allow this 'ere disorder to go on no longer,' shouted Philpot, banging the table with the plumber's hammer as several men began talking at the same time. 'There will be plenty of tuneropperty for questions and opposition at the hend of the horation, when the pulpit will be throwed open to anyone as likes to debate the question. I now calls upon the professor to proceed with the horation, and anyone wot interrupts will get a lick under the ear 'ole with this'—waving the hammer—'and the body will be chucked out of the bloody winder.'
Loud cheers greeted this announcement, because as it was still raining heavily the audience thought they might as well pass the time in listening to Owen as in any other way.
'A large part of the land may be got back in the same way as it was taken from us. The ancestors of the present holders obtained possession of it by simply passing Acts of Enclosure; the nation should regain possession of those lands by passing Acts of Resumption. And with regard to the other land, the present holders should be allowed to retain possession of it during their lives and then it should revert to the State, to be used for the benefit of all. Britain should belong to the British people, not to a few selfish individuals. As for the railways, they have already been nationalised in some other countries, and what other countries can do we can do also. As for the method by which we can obtain possession of them, the difficulty is not to discover a method, but rather to decide which of many methods we shall adopt. One method would be to pass an act declaring that as it was contrary to the public interest that they should be owned by private individuals, the railways would henceforth be the property of the nation. All railway servants, managers and officials would continue in their employment, the only difference being that they would now be in the employ of the State. As to the shareholders'
'They could all be knocked on the 'ead, I suppose,' interrupted Crass.
'Or go to the workhouse,' said Slyme.
'Or to 'ell,' suggested the man behind the moat.
'the State would continue to pay to the shareholders the same dividends they had received on an average for, say, the previous three years. These payments would be continued to the present shareholders for life, or the payments might be limited to a stated number of years and the shares would be made non-transferable. As for the factories, shops, and other means of production and distribution, the State must adopt the same methods of doing business as the present owners. I mean that even as the big Trusts and Companies are crushing by competition the individual workers and small traders, so the State should crush the trusts by competition. It is surely justifiable for the State to do for the benefit of the whole people that which the capitalists are already doing for the profit of a few shareholders. The first step in this direction will be the establishment of Retail Stores for the purpose of supplying all national and municipal employees with the necessaries of life at the lowest possible prices. At first the Administration will purchase these things from the private manufacturers in such large quantities that it will be able to obtain them at the very cheapest rate, and as there will be no heavy rents to pay for showy shops and no advertising expenses, and as the object of the Administration will be not to make profit but to supply its workmen and officials with goods at the lowest price, they will be able to sell them much cheaper than the profit-making private stores.
'The National Service Retail Stores will be for the benefit of those in the public service only; and gold, silver or copper money will not be accepted in payment for the things sold. At first, all public servants will continue to be paid in metal money, but those who desire it will be paid all or part of their wages in paper money of the same nominal value, which will be accepted in payment for their purchases at the National Stores, and at the National Hotels, Restaurants and other places which will be established for the convenience of those in the State service. The money will resemble bank-notes.
'As the National Service Stores will sell practically everything that could be obtained elsewhere, and as twenty shillings in paper money will be able to purchase much more at the stores than twenty shillings of metal money would purchase anywhere else, it will not be long before nearly all public servants will prefer to be paid in paper money. As far as paying the salaries and wages of most of its officials and workmen is concerned, the Administration will not then have any need of metal money. But it will require metal money to pay the private manufacturers who supply the goods sold in the National Stores. But all these things are made by labour, so in order to avoid having to pay metal money for them the State will now commence to employ productive labour. All the public land suitable for the purpose will be put into cultivation and State factories will be established for manufacturing food, boots, clothing, furniture and all other necessaries and comforts of life. All those who are out of employment and willing to work will be given employment on these farms and in these factories. In order that the men employed shall not have to work unpleasantly hard, and that their hours of labour may be as short as possible—at first, say eight hours per day—and also to make sure that the greatest possible quantity of everything shall be produced, these factories and farms will be equipped with the most up-to-date and efficient labour-saving machinery.
'The quantities of goods we shall be able to produce will be so enormous that we shall be able to pay our workers very high wages—in paper money—and we shall be able to sell our produce so cheaply that all public servants will be able to enjoy abundance of everything.
'When the workers who are being exploited and sweated by the private capitalists realise the position they will come and ask to be allowed to work for the State, also for paper money. That will mean that the State Army of Production Workers will be continually increasing in numbers. More State factories will be built, more land will be put into cultivation. Men will be given employment making bricks, woodwork, paints, glass, wall-papers and all kinds of building materials; and others will be set to work building, on State land, beautiful houses, which will be let to those employed in the service of the State. The rent will be paid with paper money.
'State fishing fleets will be established, and the quantities of commodities of all kinds produced will be so great that the State employees and officials will not be able to use them all. With their paper money they will be able to buy enough and more than enough to satisfy all their needs abundantly, but there will still be a great and continuously increasing surplus stock in the possession of the State.
'The Socialist Administration will now acquire or build fleets of steam trading vessels, which will of course be manned and officered by State employees the same as the Royal Navy is now; these fleets of National trading vessels will carry the surplus stocks I have mentioned to foreign countries, and will there sell or exchange them for some of the products of those countries, things that we do not produce ourselves. These things will be brought to England and sold at the National Service Stores, at the lowest possible price, for paper money, to those in the service of the State. This of course will only have the effect of introducing greater variety into the stocks, it will not diminish the surplus; and as there would be no sense in continuing to produce more of these things than necessary, it would then be the duty of the Administration to curtail or restrict the production of the necessaries of life. This could be done by reducing the hours of the workers without reducing their wages, so as to enable them to continue to purchase as much as before.
'Another way of preventing over-production of mere necessaries and comforts will be to employ a larger number of workers producing the refinements and pleasures of life, more artistic houses, furniture, pictures, musical instruments and so forth.
'In the centre of every district a large Institute or pleasure house could be erected, containing a magnificently appointed and decorated Theatre, Concert Hall, Lecture Hall, Gymnasium, Billiard Rooms, Reading Rooms, Refreshment Rooms, and so on. A detachment of the Industrial Army would be employed as actors, artists, musicians, singers and entertainers. In fact everyone that could be spared from the most important work of all, that of producing the necessaries of life, would be employed in creating pleasure, culture, and education. All these people, like the other branches of the public service, would be paid with paper money, and with it all of them would be able to purchase abundance of all those things which constitute civilisation.
'Meanwhile, as a result of all this, the private employers and capitalists, finding that no one would come and work for them to be driven and bullied and sweated for a miserable trifle of metal money, will protest against what they call the unfair competition of State industry, and some of them may threaten to leave the country and take their capital with them. As most of these persons are too lazy to work, and as we shall not need their money, we shall be very glad to see them go. But with regard to their real capital, their factories, farms, mines or machinery, that will be a different matter. To allow these things to remain idle and unproductive, would constitute an injury to the community. So a law will be passed, declaring that all land not cultivated by the owner, or any factory shut down for more than a specified time, will be taken possession of by the State and worked for the benefit of the community. Fair compensation will be paid in paper money to the former owners, who will be granted an income or pension of so much a year either for life or for a stated period according to circumstances and the ages of the persons concerned.
'As for the private traders, the wholesale and retail dealers in the things produced by labour, they will be forced by the State competition to close down their shops and warehouses, first, because they will not be able to replenish their stocks, and secondly because even if they were able to do so they would not be able to sell them. This will throw out of work a great host of people who are at present engaged in useless occupations, such as the managers and assistants in the shops of which there are now half-a-dozen of the same sort in a single street, and the thousands of men and women who are slaving away their lives producing advertisements. These people are in most cases working for such a miserable pittance of metal money that they are unable to procure sufficient of the necessaries of life to secure them from starvation.
'The masons, carpenters, painters, glaziers and all the others engaged in maintaining these unnecessary stores and shops will all be thrown out of employment, but all those who are willing to work will be welcomed by the State and will be at once employed in producing or distributing the necessaries and comforts of life. They will have to work fewer hours than before. They will not have to work so hard for there will be no need to drive or bully, because there will be plenty of people to do the work, and most of it will be done by machinery, and with their paper money they will be able to buy abundance of the things they help to produce. The shops and stores where these people were formerly employed will be acquired by the State, which will pay the former owners fair compensation in the same manner as to the factory owners. Some of the buildings will be utilised by the State as National Service Stores, others transformed into factories, and others will be pulled down to make room for dwellings or public buildings. It will be the duty of the Government to build a sufficient number of houses to accommodate the families of all those in its employment, and as a consequence of this and because of the general disorganisation and decay of what is now called "business," all other house property of all kinds will rapidly depreciate in value. The slums and the wretched dwellings now occupied by the working classes, the miserable, uncomfortable, jerry built "villas" occupied by the lower middle classes and by "business" people, will be left empty and valueless upon the hands of their rack-renting landlords, who will very soon voluntarily offer to hand them, and the ground they stand upon, to the State on those terms accorded to the other property owners, namely, in return for a pension. Some of these people will be content to live in idleness on the income allowed them for life as compensation by the State; others will devote themselves to art or science; and some others will offer their services to the commuuity as managers and superintendents; and the State will always be glad to employ all those who are willing to help in the great work of production and distribution.
'By this time the nation will be the sole employer of labour, and as no one will be able to procure the necessaries of life without paper money, and as the only way to obtain this will be by working, it will mean that every mentally and physically capable person in the community will be helping in the great work of production and distribution. We shall not need, as at present, to maintain a police force to protect the property of the idle rich from the starving wretches whom they have robbed. There will be no unemployed and no overlapping of labour, which will be organised and concentrated for the accomplishment of the only rational object, the creation of the things we require. For every one labour-saving machine in use to-day, we will, if necessary, employ a thousand machines, and consequently there will be produced such a stupendous, enormous, prodigious, overwhelming abundance of everything, that soon the community will be faced once more with the serious problem of over-production.
'To deal with this, it will be necessary to reduce the hours of our workers to four or five hours a day. All young people will be allowed to continue at the public schools and universities and will not be required to take any part in the work of the nation until they are twenty-one years of age. At the age of forty-five everyone will be allowed to retire from the State service on full pay. All these will be able to spend the rest of their days according to their own inclinations. Some will settle down quietly at home, and amuse themselves in the same ways as people of wealth and leisure do at the present day. Some will prefer to continue in the service of the State. Actors, artists, sculptors, musicians and others will go on working for their own pleasure and honour. Some will devote their leisure to science, art, or literature. Others will prefer to travel on the State steamships to different parts of the world to see for themselves all those things of which most of us have now but a dim and vague conception. Thus, for the first time in the history of humanity, the benefits and pleasures conferred upon mankind by science and civilisation will be enjoyed equally by all, upon the one condition, that they shall do their share of the work in order to make all these things possible.
'These are the principles upon which the Co-Operative Commonwealth of the future will be organised: the State in which no one will be distinguished or honoured above his fellows except for Virtue or Talent; where no man will find his profit in another's loss, and we shall no longer be masters and servants, but brothers, free men, and friends; where there will be no weary, broken men and women passing their joyless lives in toil and want, and no little children crying because they are hungry or cold.'
As Owen descended from the pulpit and walked back to his accustomed seat a loud shout of applause burst from a few men in the crowd, but the majority maintained a sullen silence. When order was restored Philpot rose and addressed the meeting:
'Is there any gentleman wot would like to ask the speaker a question?'
Crass and most of the others tried hard to think of something to say in defence of the existing state of affairs, or against the proposals put forward by the lecturer; but finding nothing, they maintained a sullen and gloomy silence. To judge by their unwillingness to alter the present system it might have been supposed that they were afraid of losing something, instead of having nothing to lose except their poverty. It was not until the Chairman had made several appeals for questions that Crass brightened up, a glad smile overspreading his greasy visage; at last he had thought of some insurmountable obstacle to the establishment of the Co-operative Commonwealth.
'Do you mean to say,' he said with a sneer, 'as the time will ever come when the gentry will mix up on equal terms with the likes of us?'
'Oh no,' replied the lecturer. 'When we get Socialism there won't be any people like us, we shall all be civilised.'
The man behind the moat seemed very much taken aback at this prospect, and when one or two of the others laughed, he remarked gloomily 'as he didn't see anything to laugh at.'
'Anybody else want to be flattened out?' inquired the Chairman. 'Or any Liberal or Tory Capitalist like to get up in the pulpit and oppose the speaker?' As no one offered, he said: 'It is now my painful dooty to call upon someone to move a resolution.'
'Well, Mr Chairman,' said Harlow, 'I may say as when I come on this firm I was a Liberal, but through listening to several lectures by Professor Owen I've come to the conclusion that it's a mug's game to vote for the Capitalists, whether they calls themselves Liberals or Tories. I couldn't quite make out, though, how Socialism was going to 'elp us but the lecture Professor Owen 'as given us this afternoon has been a bit of an eye-opener to me, and I should like to move as a resolution "That it is the opinion of this 'ere meeting that Socialism is the only Remedy for Unemployment and Poverty."'
'I'll second that resolution,' said Easton.
'And I'll lay a bob both ways,' remarked Bundy.
The resolution was then put, and though the great majority were against it, the Chairman declared it was carried unanimously.
By this time the violence of the storm had in a great measure abated, but as rain was still falling it was decided not to attempt to resume work that day.
'P'raps it's just as well it 'as rained,' remarked one man, 'or else some of us might 'ave got the sack to-night. As it is, there'll be hardly enough for all of us to do to-morrow and Saturday mornin', even if it is fine.'
This was true, and with sudden panic at their hearts they all realised that unless the firm had some other work there would be a great slaughter on Saturday.
'Now, look 'ere,' said Philpot, with a wink, assuming a patronising air. 'I wants you hall to make a speshall heffort and get 'ere very hearly in the mornin', say about four o'clock, and them wot doos the most work to-morrer, will get a prize on Saturday.'
'What'll it be, the sack?' inquired Harlow.
'Yes,' replied Philpot, 'and not honly will you get a prize, but if you hall keep on workin like we've bin doing lately till you're too hold and too wore hout to do any more, you'll be allowed to go to a nice workhouse for the rest of your lives, and each one of you will be given a title—"Pauper!"'
And they laughed! In spite of the fact that the majority of them had mothers or fathers who had already succeeded to the title—they laughed!
As they were going home Crass paused at the gate, and pointing up to the large gable at the end of the house, said to Philpot:
'You'll want the longest ladder, the sixty-five, for that, to-morrow.'
Philpot looked up at the gable. It was very high.