第96章 ASSISTANCE IN GENERAL.(9)

At the present there is no central institution,either governmental or otherwise,in this country or any other,which charges itself with the duty of collecting and collating the ideas and conclusions on Social Economy,so far as they are likely to help the solution of the problem we have in hand.The British Home Office has only begun to index its own papers.The Local Government Board is in a similar condition,and,although each particular Blue Book may be admirably indexed,there is no classified index of the whole series.If this is the case with the Government,it is not likely that the innumerable private organisations which are pecking here and there at the social question should possess any systematised method for the purpose of comparing notes and storing information.This Intelligence Department,which I propose to found on a small scale at first,will have in it the germ of vast extension which will,if adequately supported become a kind of University,in which the accumulated experiences of the human race will be massed,digested,and rendered available to the humblest toiler in the great work of social reform.At the present moment,who is there that can produce in any of our museums and universities as much as a classified index of publications relating to one of the many heads under which Ihave dealt with this subject?Who is there among all our wise men and social reformers that can send me a list of all the best tracts upon--say,the establishment of agricultural colonies or the experiments that have been made in dealing with inebriates;or the best plans for the construction of a working man's cottage?

For the development of this Scheme I want an Office to begin with,in which,under the head of the varied subjects treated of in this volume,I may have arranged the condensed essence of all the best books that have been written,and the names and addresses of those whose opinions are worth having upon them,together with a note of what those opinions are,and the results of experiments which have been made in relation to them.I want to establish a system which will enable me to use,not only the eyes and hands of Salvation Officers,but of sympathetic friends in all parts of the world,for purposes of noticing and reporting at once every social experiment of importance,any words of wisdom on the social question,whether it may be the breeding of rabbits,the organisation of an emigration service,the best method of conducting a Cottage Farm,or the best way of cooking potatoes.

There is nothing in the whole range of our operations upon which we should not be accumulating and recording the results of human experience.What I want is to get the essence of wisdom which the wisest have gathered from the widest experience,rendered instantly available for the humblest worker in the Salvation Factory or Farm Colony,and for any other toiler in similar fields of social progress.

It can be done,and in the service of the people it ought to be done.

I look for helpers in this department among those who hitherto may not have cared for the Salvation Army,but who in the seclusion of their studies and libraries will assist in the compiling of this great Index of Sociological Experiments,and who would be willing,in this form,to help in this Scheme,as Associates,for the ameliorating of the condition of the people,if in nothing else than in using their eyes and ears,and giving me the benefit of their brains as to where knowledge lies,and how it can best be utilised.I propose to make a beginning by putting two capable men and a boy in an office,with instructions to cut out,preserve,and verify all contemporary records in the daily and weekly press that have a bearing upon any branch of our departments.Round these two men and a boy will grow up,I confidently believe,a vast organisation of zealous unpaid workers,who will co-operate in making our Intelligence Department a great storehouse of information--a universal library where any man may learn what is the sum of human knowledge upon any branch of the subject which we have taken in hand.

SECTION 6.--CO-OPERATION IN GENERAL.

If anyone asked me to state in one word what seemed likely to be the key of the solution of the Social Problem I should answer unhesitatingly Co-operation.It being always understood that it is Co-operation conducted on righteous principles,and for wise and benevolent ends;otherwise Association cannot be expected to bear any more profitable fruit than Individualism.Co-operation is applied association--association for the purpose of production and distribution.Co-operation implies the voluntary combination of individuals to the attaining an object by mutual help,mutual counsel,and mutual effort.There is a great deal of idle talk in the world just now about capital,as if capital were the enemy of labour.

It is quite true that there are capitalists not a few who may be regarded as the enemies,not only of labour,but of the human race;but capital itself,so far from being a natural enemy of labour,is the great object which the labourer has constantly in view.

However much an agitator may denounce capital,his one great grievance is that he has not enough of it for himself.Capital,therefore,is not an evil in itself;on the contrary,it is good--so good that one of the great aims of the social reformer ought to be to facilitate its widest possible distribution among his fellow-men.It is the congestion of capital that is evil,and the labour question will never be finally solved until every labourer is his own capitalist.

All this is trite enough,and has been said a thousand times already,but,unfortunately,with the saying of it the matter ends.

Co-operation has been brought into practice in relation to distribution with considerable success,but co-operation,as a means of production,has not achieved anything like the success that was anticipated.