`I might reasonably ask you, "What's done with them or what you propose to do with them now?" There are many men and women whose lives are so full of toil and sorrow and the misery caused by abject poverty, who are so shut out from all that makes life worth living, that the time they spend in the public house is the only ray of sunshine in their cheerless lives.Their mental and material poverty is so great that they are deprived of and incapable of understanding the intellectual and social pleasures of civilization...Under Socialism there will be no such class as this.Everyone will be educated, and social life and rational pleasure will be within the reach of all.Therefore we do not believe that there will be such a class.Any individuals who abandoned themselves to such a course would be avoided by their fellows; but if they became very degraded, we should still remember that they were our brother men and women, and we should regard them as suffering from a disease inherited from their uncivilized forefathers and try to cure them by placing them under some restraint: in an institute for instance.'
`Another good way to deal with 'em,' said Harlow, `would be to allow them double pay, so as they could drink themselves to death.We could do without the likes of them.'
`Call the next case,' said Philpot.
`This 'ere abundance that you're always talking about,' said Crass, you can't be sure that it would be possible to produce all that.
You're only assoomin' that it could be done.'
Barrington pointed to the still visible outlines of the `Hoblong' that Owen had drawn on the wall to illustrate a previous lecture.
`Even under the present silly system of restricted production, with the majority of the population engaged in useless, unproductive, unnecessary work, and large numbers never doing any work at all, there is enough produced to go all round after a fashion.More than enough, for in consequence of what they call "Over-Production", the markets are periodically glutted with commodities of all kinds, and then for a time the factories are closed and production ceases.And yet we can all manage to exist - after a fashion.This proves that if productive industry were organized on the lines advocated by Socialists there could be produced such a prodigious quantity of everything, that everyone could live in plenty and comfort.The problem of how to produce sufficient for all to enjoy abundance is already solved: the problem that then remains is - How to get rid of those whose greed and callous indifference to the sufferings of others, prevents it being done.'
`Yes! and you'll never be able to get rid of 'em, mate,' cried Crass, triumphantly - and the man with the copper wire stitches in his boot said that it couldn't be done.
`Well, we mean to have a good try, anyhow,' said Barrington.
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.The man with the copper wire stitches in his boot in particular appeared to be very much upset; perhaps he was afraid that if the things advocated by the speaker ever came to pass he would not have any boots at all.To assume that he had some such thought as this, is the only rational way to account for his hostility, for in his case no change could have been for the worse unless it reduced him to almost absolute nakedness and starvation.
To judge by their unwillingness to consider any proposals to alter the present system, one might have supposed that they were afraid of losing something, instead of having nothing to lose - except their poverty.
It was not till the chairman had made several urgent appeals for more questions that Crass brightened up: a glad smile slowly spread over and illuminated his greasy visage: he had at last thought of a most serious and insurmountable obstacle to the establishment of the Co-operative Commonwealth.
`What,' he demanded, in a loud voice, `what are you goin' to do, in this 'ere Socialist Republic of yours, with them wot WON'T WORK'!"As Crass flung this bombshell into the Socialist camp, the miserable, ragged-trousered crew around him could scarce forbear a cheer; but the more intelligent part of the audience only laughed.
`We don't believe that there will be any such people as that,' said Barrington.
`There's plenty of 'em about now, anyway,' sneered Crass.
`You can't change 'uman nature, you know,' cried the man behind the moat, and the one who had the copper wire stitches in his boot laughed scornfully.
