Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2) by Roberts B H Brigham Henry
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 1440 lines and 172865 words, and 29 pages
CHAP. PAGE
THE TITLE, PURPOSE, AND METHOD OF THIS BOOK 1
FOREWORDS 6
WHAT TO READ 174
THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK
The motto of this book is expressed in its title: BRITAIN FOR THE BRITISH.
At present Britain does not belong to the British: it belongs to a few of the British, who employ the bulk of the population as servants or as workers.
It is because Britain does not belong to the British that a few are very rich and the many are very poor.
This state of affairs is contrary to Christianity, is contrary to justice, and contrary to reason. It is bad for the rich, it is bad for the poor; it is against the best interests of the British nation and the human race.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK
FOR WHOM THIS BOOK IS INTENDED
To the Tory and the Radical; to the Roman Catholic, the Anglican, and the Nonconformist; to the workman and the employer; to the scholar and the peer; to the labourer's wife, the housemaid, and the duchess; to the advocates of Temperance and of Co-operation; to the Trade Unionist and the non-Unionist; to the potman, the bishop, and the brewer; to the artist and the merchant; to the poet and the navvy; to the Idealist and the Materialist; to the poor clerk, the rich financier, the great scientist, and the little child, I commend the following beautiful prayer from the Litany of the Church of England:--
That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand; and to comfort and help the weak-hearted; and to raise up them that fall; and finally to beat down Satan under our feet.
That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts.
That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them.
THE METHOD OF THIS BOOK
As to the method of this book, I shall begin by calling attention to some of the evils of the present industrial, social, and political system.
I shall next try to show the sources of those evils, the causes from which they arise.
FOREWORDS
To-day we Socialists are still more puzzled by the fact that the majority of our working men are not Socialists.
Perhaps it is because the men and women of the middle and upper classes are more in the habit of reading and thinking for themselves, whereas the workers take most of their opinions at second-hand from priests, parsons, journalists, employers, and members of Parliament, whose little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and whose interests lie in bolstering up class privilege by darkening counsel with a multitude of words.
When it pleases those who call themselves your "betters" to flatter you, Mr. Smith , you hear that you are a "shrewd, hard-headed, practical man." I hope that is true, whether your "betters" believe it or not.
I am a practical man myself, and shall offer you in this book nothing but hard fact and cold reason.
I assume, Mr. Smith, that you, as a hard-headed, practical man, would rather be well off than badly off, and that with regard to your own earnings you would rather be paid twenty shillings in the pound than five shillings or even nineteen shillings and elevenpence in the pound.
And I assume that as a family man you would rather live in a comfortable and healthy house than in an uncomfortable and unhealthy house; that you would be glad if you could buy beef, bread, gas, coal, water, tea, sugar, clothes, boots, and furniture for less money than you now pay for them; and that you would think it a good thing, and not a bad thing, if your wife had less work and more leisure, fewer worries and more nice dresses, and if your children had more sports, and better health, and better education.
And I assume that you would like to pay lower rents, even if some rich landlord had to keep fewer race-horses.
And I assume that as a humane man you would prefer that other men and women and their children should not suffer if their sufferings could be prevented.
If, then, I assure you that you are paying too much and are being paid too little, and that many other Britons, especially weak women and young children, are enduring much preventible misery; and if I assert, further, that I know of a means whereby you might secure more ease and comfort, and they might secure more justice, you will, surely, as a kind and sensible man, consent to listen to the arguments and statements I propose to place before you.
Suppose a stranger came to tell you where you could get a better house at a lower rent, and suppose your present landlord assured you that the man who offered the information was a fool or a rogue, would you take the landlord's word without investigation? Would it not be more practical and hard-headed to hear first what the bringer of such good news had to tell?
Well, the Socialist brings you better news than that of a lower rent. Will you not hear him? Will you turn your back on him for no better reason than because he is denounced as a fraud by the rich men whose wealth depends upon the continuation of the present system?
THE UNEQUAL DIVISION OF WEALTH
Non-socialists say that self-interest is the strongest motive in human nature.
Let us take them at their word.
Self-interest being the universal ruling motive, it behoves you, Mr. Smith, to do the best you can for yourself and family.
Self-interest being the universal ruling motive, it is evident that the rich man will look out for his own advantage, and not for yours.
Therefore as a selfish man, alive to your own interests, it is clear that you will not trust the rich man, nor believe in the unselfishness of his motives.
As a selfish man you will look out first for yourself. If you can get more wages for the work you do, if you can get the same pay for fewer hours and lighter work, self-interest tells you that you would be a fool to go on as you are. If you can get cheaper houses, cheaper clothes, food, travelling, and amusement than you now get, self-interest tells you that you would be a fool to go on paying present prices.
Your landlord, your employer, your tradesman will not take less work or money from you if he can get more.
Self-interest counsels you not to pay a high price if you can get what you want at a lower price.
Your employer will not employ you unless you are useful to him, nor will he employ you if he can get another man as useful to him as you at a lower wage.
Such persons as landlords, capitalists, employers, and contractors will tell you that they are useful, and even necessary, to the working class, of which class you are one.
Self-interest will counsel you, firstly, that if these persons are really useful or necessary to you, it is to your interest to secure their services at the lowest possible price; and, secondly, that if you can replace them by other persons more useful or less costly, you will be justified in dispensing with their services.
Now, the Socialist claims that it is cheaper and better for the people to manage their own affairs than to pay landlords, capitalists, employers, and contractors to manage their affairs for them.
That is to say, that as it is cheaper and better for a city to make its own gas, or to provide its own water, or to lay its own roads, so it would be cheaper and better for the nation to own its own land, its own mines, its own railways, houses, factories, ships, and workshops, and to manage them as the corporation tramways, gasworks, and waterworks are now owned and managed.
Your "betters," Mr. Smith, will tell you that you might be worse off than you are now. That is not the question. The question is, Might you be better off than you are now?
They will tell you that the working man is better off now than he was a hundred years ago. That is not the question. The question is, Are the workers as well off now as they ought to be and might be?
They will tell you that the British workers are better off than the workers of any other nation. That is not the question. The question is, Are the British workers as well off as they ought to be and might be?
They will tell you that Socialists are discontented agitators, and that they exaggerate the evils of the present time. That is not the question. The question is, Do evils exist at all to-day, and if so, is no remedy available?
Your "betters" have admitted, and do admit, as I will show you presently, that evils do exist; but they have no remedy to propose.
Self-interest will counsel you to secure the best conditions you can for yourself, and will warn you not to expect unselfish service from selfish men.
Ask yourself, then, whether, since self-interest is the universal motive, it would not be wise for you to make some inquiry as to whether the persons intrusted by you with the management of your affairs are managing your affairs to your advantage or to their own.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page