`Our next division represents those who do work of a kind - "mental"work if you like to call it so - work that benefits themselves and harms other people.Employers - or rather Exploiters of Labour;Thieves, Swindlers, Pickpockets; profit seeking share-holders;burglars; Bishops; Financiers; Capitalists, and those persons humorously called "Ministers" of religion.If you remember that the word "minister" means "servant" you will be able to see the joke.
1 2
+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+| Tramps | Exploiters | || Beggars| of Labour | || Society| Thieves | || People | Swindlers | || Aristoc- | Pickpockets | || racy | Burglars| || Great | Bishops | || Landowners | Financiers | || All those | Capitalists | || possessed | Share- | || of | holders | || hereditary | Ministers | || wealth | of religion | |+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------+`None of these people produce anything themselves, but by means of cunning and scheming they contrive between them to obtain possession of a very large portion of the things produced by the labour of others.
`Number three stands for those who work for wages or salaries, doing unnecessary work.That is, producing things or doing things which -though useful and necessary to the Imbecile System - cannot be described as the necessaries of life or the benefits of civilization.
This is the largest section of all.It comprises Commercial Travellers, Canvassers, Insurance agents, commission agents, the great number of Shop Assistants, the majority of clerks, workmen employed in the construction and adornment of business premises, people occupied with what they call "Business", which means being very busy without producing anything.Then there is a vast army of people engaged in designing, composing, painting or printing advertisements, things which are for the most part of no utility whatever, the object of most advertisements is merely to persuade people to buy from one firm rather than from another.If you want some butter it doesn't matter whether you buy it from Brown or Jones or Robinson.'
1 2 3
+------------+-------------+-------------+-------------------------+| Tramps | Exploiters | All those | || Beggars| of Labour | engaged in | || Society| Thieves | unnecessary | || People | Swindlers | work| || Aristoc- | Pickpockets | | || racy | Burglars| | || Great | Bishops | | || Landowners | Financiers | | || All those | Capitalists | | || possessed | Share- | | || of | holders | | || hereditary | Ministers | | || wealth | of religion | | |+------------+-------------+-------------+-------------------------+During the delivery of this pert of the lecture, the audience began to manifest symptoms of impatience and dissent.Perceiving this, Owen, speaking very rapidly, continued:
`If you go down town, you will see half a dozen drapers' shops within a stone's-throw of each other - often even next door to each other -all selling the same things.You can't possibly think that all those shops are really necessary? You know that one of them would serve the purpose for which they are all intended - to store and serve as a centre for the distribution of the things that are made by work.If you will admit that five out of the six shops are not really necessary, you must also admit that the men who built them, and the salesmen and women or other assistants engaged in them, and the men who design and write and print their advertisements are all doing unnecessary work; all really wasting their time and labour, time and labour that might be employed in helping to produce these things that we are at present short of.You must admit that none of these people are engaged in producing either the necessaries of life or the benefits of civilization.They buy them, and sell them, and handle them, and haggle over, them, and display them, in the plate glass windows of "Stores" and "Emporiums" and make profit out of them, and use them, but these people themselves produce nothing that is necessary to life or happiness, and the things that some of them do produce are only necessary to the present imbecile system.'
`What the 'ell sort of a bloody system do you think we ought to 'ave, then?' interrupted the man on the pail.
`Yes: you're very good at finding fault,' sneered Slyme, `but why don't you tell us 'ow it's all going to be put right?'
`Well, that's not what we're talking about now, is it?' replied Owen.
`At present we're only trying to find out how it is that there is not sufficient produced for everyone to have enough of the things that are made by work.Although most of the people in number three work very hard, they produce Nothing.'
`This is a lot of bloody rot!' exclaimed Crass, impatiently.
`Even if there is more shops than what's actually necessary,' cried Harlow, `it all helps people to get a livin'! If half of 'em was shut up, it would just mean that all them what works there would be out of a job.Live and let live, I say: all these things makes work.'
`'Ear, 'ear,' shouted the man behind the moat.
`Yes, I know it makes "work",' replied Owen, `but we can't live on mere "work", you know.To live in comfort we need a sufficiency of the things that can be made by work.A man might work very hard and yet be wasting his time if he were not producing something necessary or useful.
`Why are there so many shops and stores and emporiums? Do you imagine they exist for the purpose of giving those who build them, or work in them, a chance to earn a living? Nothing of the sort.They are carried on, and exorbitant prices are charged for the articles they sell, to enable the proprietors to amass fortunes, and to pay extortionate rents to the landlords.That is why the wages and salaries of nearly all those who do the work created by these businesses are cut down to the lowest possible point.'
`We knows all about that,' said Crass, `but you can't get away from it that all these things makes Work; and that's what we wants - Plenty of Work.'