One man said that if he had his way, all those who had votes should be compelled to record them - whether they liked it or not - or be disenfranchised! Barrington asked him if he believed in Tarrif Reform.The man said no.
`Why not?' demanded Barrington.
The other replied that he opposed Tariff Reform because he believed it would ruin the country.Barrington inquired if he were a supporter of Socialism.The man said he was not, and when further questioned he said that he believed if it were ever adopted it would bring black ruin upon the country - he believed this because Mr Sweater had said so.
When Barrington asked him - supposing there were only two candidates, one a Socialist and the other a Tariff Reformer - how would he like to be compelled to vote for one of them, he was at a loss for an answer.
During the next few days the contest continued.The hired orators continued to pour forth their streams of eloquence; and tons of literature flooded the town.The walls were covered with huge posters: `Another Liberal Lie.' `Another Tory Fraud.'
Unconsciously each of these two parties put in some splendid work for Socialism, in so much that each of them thoroughly exposed the hypocrisy of the other.If the people had only had the sense, they might have seen that the quarrel between the Liberal and Tory leaders was merely a quarrel between thieves over the spoil; but unfortunately most of the people had not the sense to perceive this.They were blinded by bigoted devotion to their parties, and - inflamed with maniacal enthusiasm - thought of nothing but `carrying their flags to victory'.
At considerable danger to themselves, Barrington, Owen and the other Socialists continued to distribute their leaflets and to heckle the Liberal and Tory speakers.They asked the Tories to explain the prevalence of unemployment and poverty in protected countries, like Germany and America, and at Sweater's meetings they requested to be informed what was the Liberal remedy for unemployment.From both parties the Socialists obtained the same kinds of answer - threats of violence and requests `not to disturb the meeting'.
These Socialists held quite a lot of informal meetings on their own.
Every now and then when they were giving their leaflets away, some unwary supporter of the capitalist system would start an argument, and soon a crowd would gather round and listen.
Sometimes the Socialists succeeded in arguing their opponents to an absolute standstill, for the Liberals and Tones found it impossible to deny that machinery is the cause of the overcrowded state of the labour market; that the overcrowded labour market is the cause of unemployment; that the fact of there being always an army of unemployed waiting to take other men's jobs away from them destroys the independence of those who are in employment and keeps them in subjection to their masters.They found it impossible to deny that this machinery is being used, not for the benefit of all, but to make fortunes for a few.In short, they were unable to disprove that the monopoly of the land and machinery by a comparatively few persons, is the cause of the poverty of the majority.But when these arguments that they were unable to answer were put before them and when it was pointed out that the only possible remedy was the Public Ownership and Management of the Means of production, they remained angrily silent, having no alternative plan to suggest.
At other times the meeting resolved itself into a number of quarrelsome disputes between the Liberals and Tories that formed the crowd, which split itself up into a lot of little groups and whatever the original subject might have been they soon drifted to a hundred other things, for most of the supporters of the present system seemed incapable of pursuing any one subject to its logical conclusion.Adiscussion would be started about something or other; presently an unimportant side issue would crop up, then the original subject would be left unfinished, and they would argue and shout about the side issue.In a little while another side issue would arise, and then the first side issue would be abandoned also unfinished, and an angry wrangle about the second issue would ensue, the original subject being altogether forgotten.
They did not seem to really desire to discover the truth or to find out the best way to bring about an improvement in their condition, their only object seemed to be to score off their opponents.
Usually after one of these arguments, Owen would wander off by himself, with his head throbbing and a feeling of unutterable depression and misery at his heart; weighed down by a growing conviction of the hopelessness of everything, of the folly of expecting that his fellow workmen would ever be willing to try to understand for themselves the causes that produced their sufferings.
It was not that those causes were so obscure that it required exceptional intelligence to perceive them; the causes of all the misery were so apparent that a little child could easily be made to understand both the disease and the remedy; but it seemed to him that the majority of his fellow workmen had become so convinced of their own intellectual inferiority that they did not dare to rely on their own intelligence to guide them, preferring to resign the management of their affairs unreservedly into the hands of those who battened upon and robbed them.They did not know the causes of the poverty that perpetually held them and their children in its cruel grip, and - they did not want to know! And if one explained those causes to them in such language and in such a manner that they were almost compelled to understand, and afterwards pointed out to them the obvious remedy, they were neither glad nor responsive, but remained silent and were angry because they found themselves unable to answer and disprove.
