第113章 CAN IT BE DONE,AND HOW?(12)

It may be objected that while this Scheme would undoubtedly assist one class of the community by making steady,industrious workmen,it must thereby injure another class by introducing so many new hands into the labour market,already so seriously overstocked.

To this we reply that there is certainly an appearance of force in this objection;but it has,I think,been already answered in the foregoing pages.Further,if the increase of workers,which this Scheme will certainly bring about,was the beginning and the end of it,it would certainly present a somewhat serious aspect.But,even on that supposition,I don't see how the skilled worker could leave his brothers to rot in their present wretchedness,though their rescue should involve the sharing of a portion of his wages.

(1)But there is no such danger,seeing that the number of extra hands thrown on the British Labour Market must be necessarily inconsiderable.

(2)The increased production of food in our Farm and Colonial operations must indirectly benefit the working man.

(3)The taking out of the labour market of a large number of individuals who at present have only partial work,while benefiting them,must of necessity afford increased labour to those left behind.

(4)While every poor workless individual made into a wage earner will of necessity have increased requirements in proportion.

For instance,the drunkard who has had to manage with a few bricks,a soap box,and a bundle of rags,will want a chair,a table,a bed,and at least the other necessary adjuncts to a furnished home,however sparely fitted up it may be.

There is no question but that when our Colonisation Scheme is fairly afloat it will drain off,not only many of those who are in the morass,but a large number who are on the verge of it.Nay,even artisans,earning what are considered good wages,will be drawn by the desire to improve their circumstances,or to raise their children under more favourable surroundings,or from still nobler motives,to leave the old country.Then it is expected that the agricultural labourer and the village artisan,who are ever migrating to the great towns and cities,will give the preference to the Colony Over-Sea,and so prevent that accumulation of cheap labour which is considered to interfere so materially with the maintenance of a high wages standard.

SECTION 5.RECAPITULATION.

I have now passed in review the leading features of the Scheme,which Iput forward as one that is calculated to considerably contribute to the amelioration of the condition of the lowest stratum of our Society.

It in no way professes to be complete in all its details.

Anyone may at any point lay his finger on this,that,or the other feature of the Scheme,and show some void that must be filled in if it is to work with effect.There is one thing,however,that can be safely said in excuse for the short comings of the Scheme,and that is that if you wait until you get an ideally perfect plan you will have to wait until the Millennium,and then you will not need it.

My suggestions,crude though they may be,have,nevertheless,one element that will in time supply all deficiencies.There is life in them,with life there is the promise and power of adaptation to all the innumerable and varying circumstances of the class with which we have to deal.Where there is life there is infinite power of adjustment.

This is no cast-iron Scheme,forged in a single brain and then set up as a standard to which all must conform.It is a sturdy plant,which has its roots deep down in the nature and circumstances of men.

Nay,I believe in the very heart of God Himself.It has already grown much,and will,if duly nurtured and tended,grow still further,until from it,as from the grain of mustard-seed in the parable,there shall spring up a great tree whose branches shall overshadow all the earth.

Once more let me say,I claim no patent rights in any part of this Scheme.Indeed,I do not know what in it is original and what is not.

Since formulating some of the plans,which I had thought were new under the sun,I have discovered that they have been already tried in different parts of the world,and that with great promise.It may be so with others,and in this I rejoice.I plead for no exclusiveness.

The question is much too serious for such fooling as that.Here are millions of our fellow-creatures perishing amidst the breakers of the sea of life,dashed to pieces on sharp rocks,sucked under by eddying whirlpools,suffocated even when they think they have reached land by treacherous quicksands;to save them from this imminent destruction Isuggest that these things should be done.If you have any better plan than mine for effecting this purpose,in God's name bring it to the light and get it carried out quickly.If you have not,then lend me a hand with mine,as I would be only too glad to lend you a hand with yours if it had in it greater promise of successful action than mine.

In a Scheme for the working out of social salvation the great,the only,test that is worth anything is the success with which they attain the object for which they are devised.An ugly old tub of a boat that will land a shipwrecked sailor safe on the beach is worth more to him than the finest yacht that ever left a slip-way incapable of effecting the same object.The superfine votaries of culture may recoil in disgust from the rough-and-ready suggestions which I have made for dealing with the Sunken Tenth,but mere recoiling is no solution.If the cultured and the respectable and the orthodox and the established dignitaries and conventionalities of Society pass by on the other side we cannot follow their example.