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an useless weed upon the waters , and , if a truth , it matters not how soon the weed , sinks ; but , if this be my brother ' s fate , what , then , is mine ? The same current bears us both to some haven , though we know not where . I feel that to me life is not a whirlpool , and , therefore , I know that it cannot be to him . I cannot deny my own duty , nor get rid of my task , so I am forced to admit my brother ' s . But , what then ? Perhaps , after all , his duty is to die ; his task in life may be to take leave of it—to take a becoming leave of it and me—with all the grace he can muster ; at least , then , he need not complain of his life being purposeless—there is a duty which will tax his powers to the utmost .
" II faut vivre , said the Frenchman to his master . " Je n ' vois pas la necessite , " replied the master . If a man has no work , no business to do in the world , why need he live ? He has no business in the world ; surely , then , his business is to leave it—the sooner the better . Oh , yes , that would then be his business were he alone in the
world ; but you and I , and all his fellows , are his brethren , and it is our business to keep him with us . I will not believe that his destiny is resignation to death , or to forced idleness , which is death to his soul , so long as he has arms wherewith to work ; and I live in the hope to help to free them from their fetters ; at least , I will not admit this to be his doom until it be also mine , and
then—may I have strength and virtue to bite my lips and keep down quite another French saying , which , I fear , would suggest itself , the counter reply of the man to the master— " II faut vivre en travaillant , ou mourir en combattant . " Yes , let the Doctrinaires say what they will , it is implanted deep in the hearts of us all , this right that no man shall prevent us from earning our bread , no man , nor power of man , no individual , nor the whole race combined ; but then up start
our opponents— " Who prevents ? " say they , " we 5 our great political object is to remove all preventions—all restrictions of labour—are we not Free Traders to the back bone ? " But suppose trade itself bends , what then to the labourer is free trade ? or what use the loosening of the fetters if the prisoner be dead ? True , you give the workman leave to use his tools how and for whom he pleases ; what matter , when you leave him no materials on which to use them ? Your freedom is a
mockery ; for one moment you tell him he may roam the earth where he lists , and the next that on this earth there is no room for him . Alas ! the earth is over full , there is no room for how many ! they find the land owned , appropriated ; from the power to produce for themselves , to pay themselves for their labour , they are shut out by i ; he rights of property ; and the stock or savings of past labour , the store of capital , the power to reproduce , the means of living while they work for
others' pay ; this , too , is property possessed by the paymaster , the capitalist , who wastes it as he wills , and deducts his waste from their pay , until there be none left ; and thus they are spoiled of their property , which is labour , by reason of the property of others , the landowner and the capitalist . Thus do they seem at war with society , struggling for their right to do their duty against their fellows , who prevent them from earning their bread . But they cannot be at war with society , for they are part of it ; how , then , stop this civil strife—make peace between them and their fellows ? Three methods suggest themselves : —
First . To restore the landless to the land , to give him the power to till it , to allow that , inasmuch as he lives on the land , he has , at least , if he can find no other means of living , a right to live by it ; this is the simplest remedy , generally the first thought of . Suppose it to be your remedy , or included in it , to limit the appropriation of the land by declaring that property therein is held only on condition that room be made for fresh comers , that fresh comers be allowed to be fresh owners . " 1 he land , the land ! " has been the cry of the landless
and their leaders from the Gracchi to O'Connor and yourself : but in every agrarian law there seems to me to lurk injustice , inasmuch asm trying to right the landless , you succeed in wronging the landed ; in giving the one the ability to earn his wage , you take from the other the wage he has earned . Nor will the injustice escape punishment , no injustice does . Parcel out the land among all the dwellers thereon , give them the same equality of access to it and power over it as men had before civilization had begun its inarch , and you would quickly place them at its starting point ; for in isolating each man , you would barbarize him , and though you might try to parcel out the labour
which has been put into the land along with the land itself , you could not , it would escape you ; in seizing the fruits of other men ' s labour you would blight them . Give each man his " landed estate , " place him upon it , and ere long your landowners would become savages and rooteaters—but only for a time ; they would again combine their labour and divide it , unite and redistribute themselves , they would soon cease to be rooteaters , but then some would again be landless ; for though you dam up the stream you cannot change its course ; if you force mankind backwards in its march , it will but
retrace its steps ; there is but one path to progress , dreary and toilsome though it be . Any attempt , then , to storm the land , to take forcible possession of the means of producing , would be as unsuccessful as unjust ; and so would it be with the second method , viz ., to seize the stock of saved labour , to take possession of the produce already saved—that is , of the means of reproducing , —to displace the capitalist
from the direction of his capital by robbing him of his store , the reward of his labour or his abstinence . This method is the plan proposed by most practical Communists ; all who would relieve their theories by forcible changes . They say to the capitalists , " You have forfeited your position by your mistakes , —the results of your ignorance or selfishness , —you have misguided the labourer till you
must guide him no longer ; society must find other guides , not one of you will do ; you shut the worker out of the workshop because you have mismanaged it ; therefore , you must cease to be managers . " But , if there be no management , there will be no work : if each worker guides himself , does what seemeth good in his own eyes , " there will be chaos instead of concert , and each man ' s hand will be against his neighbour ' s ; and if there must be a manager , who so fit after all , as the capitalist ? There is no infallible Pope in the
hierarchy of industry ; no man can be guaranteed not to make mistakes ; but , capital is a power gained by the avoidance of mistakes ; who , then , so little likely to make them as the possessor of that power ? Nor must we suppose that the penalty of misdirected labour is paid by the labourer alone ; the employer pays his share of sufferingnot an equal share , but yet no slight one ; hopes blighted—often honour stained , the bitterest disappointment and deep disgrace are the fruits of his failure ; and fame and brain wasted and worn by days of toil and nights of care , prove how ( earful thev are to liim . No punishment which
you could invent would be more sure or more dreaded than that which the eternal Nemesis already allots him , and no other would be just ; officers there must be in the army of industry , or nature would rest unconquered if man would remain her slave ; the law of society for their promotion is , that they should raise themselves from the ranks , fight their way up by conflict with sloth and pleasure ( mind , I am describing the spirit of the law , its principle , not its perversion , —a system must be
judged by its ideal , not its imperfect realization ); true , if the army be defeated tlie soldier suffers most in the retreat ; but the superior safety and ease of the officer is part of his pay , for the expenditure of which pay , safety , ease , and all else included , — he is responsible . Moreover , by the discipline of this army the officer is deprived of his power just in proportion as he misuses it ; by its martial law he is disrated if he fails : the capitalist loses—wastes his capital , inasmuch as he misdirects the labourer .
So , then , bad as these guides may seem to be , you cannot get better , none who know the road as well , none more anxious to keep ifc ; one guide may be changed for another , one employer drops down , but another takes his place ; still they often guide wrong : is there , then , no help ? Mistakes cannot be avoided , their punishment neither can nor should be encreased , the only hope is to retrieve their
consequences . This , then , seems to me the third and only possible method , viz ., to remedy the mistakes of the capitalist—how ? by the action of society supplying by means of its government , which is its prime minister , the deficiencies of its subordinate agents , who are the capitalists . The " captains of industry " fall , their troops are scattered by reason of their fall ; what , then , does the general do ? he
sends fresh forces to the rescue . The labourer is the soldier of society , the Government is his general ; this general must succour him , or he , too , must fly . Here , then , is the hope of the beaten soldier , the surplus labourer ; the landowner keeps him from the land , the stockowner refuses him his stock , he dares neither rob the one of his land , nor the other
of his stock , for robbery he feels to be both wrong and foolish ; his wish is to work , not steal . te I invade not your rights , " he says ; " I do but ask you not to invade mine : room to live is all my cry ; you will not hear me , you will not make room ;—then I appeal to the police , I put myself under their protection , and you into their charge . " To be the policeman of society is the officeof Government—some say , its only office— -some its first and lowest ; but all agree that it is its office , be it of what kind soever—despot Parliament or
sovereign people . To keep order in the crowd is a chief duty of the policeman ; to force the strong to make room for the weak—not to jostle them down , nor to tread them under foot ; for society is not meant to be a reckless , rushing crowd , but a wellordered community . It is a community , and it aspires to be a well-ordered one ; and it is this aspiration which is the fact of , or rather within ,
Communism , dimly seen behind many a false mask and disguising veil . Yes , amid all this unmeaning jargon of crude schemers and visionary systemmongers , roaring out the rights of robbery and the wrongs of the robber , we shall , if we listen hard , hear one still small voice declaring this solemn , sacred truth—this hopeful , helpful fact—that every section of society , every nation , every commonwealth is no horde of Ishmaelites , but a bond of
fellow-workers , the first article of whose partnership-deed is , that each should give his fellow room , should help , not hinder him , in his work . But enough of aspiration and abstract ideas ; let us descend , or rather ascend , to realization . The enforcement of the right to labour would be the entire fulfilment of this duty of the policeman ; our Poor-law , the enforcement of the right to relief , is a clumsy attempt at it . Why it is clumsy , how
we may hope to make it less clumsy , is the question ; but , before trying to solve it—before attempting to show how practically the Poor-law may be made the compensation for the mistakes of the capitalist , and thereby a cure for the pauperism which is their consequence—we must dwell a little longer on other considerations , possibly somewhat abstract , but yet most important—in fact , indispensable .
The mistake of the capitalist—mistaken production—is not the only , often not the chief , cause of pauperism ; there are also the mistakes of the labourer : we shall make a sad mistake if we forget them . But enough of this for one week . Yours truly , W . E . Forstkr .
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There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .
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OUR SCHOOLS AS THEY OUGHT TO BE . Nov . 15 , 1850 . Sir , —It cannot have failed to strike others besides myself , how few ore the handsome good-looking men in comparison with the numbers of beautiful children that we daily see . The cause of this change in the " human face divine " is mainly our evil system of education ; for , while an enlightened course of training ought , by developing the intellect , by cultivating a love of truth and justice , and by preserving a sound
state of health , to give a more lively radiance , a more thrilling charm to the beauty of the human form and countenance , we find that our vicious system mars those budding beauties , changes the natural expression of truth and confidence fora mask of falsehood and distrust , and sets the stamp of Cain upon the once unclouded brow . As an illustration of this , let any one compare the countenances of two youths of ordinary capacities , who have been trained , tho one under the usual school system , the other in a ra-
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Nov . 16 , 1850 . ] &f ) t ILeaXieV . 805
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[ In this department , as all opinions , however extreme , allb allowed an expression , the editor necessarily HOLDS HIMSELF RESPONSIBLE FOR NONE . ]
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 16, 1850, page 805, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1859/page/13/
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