`The hundreds of thousands of pounds that are yearly wasted in well-meant but useless charity accomplish no lasting good, because while charity soothes the symptoms it ignores the disease, which is -the PRIVATE OWNERSHIP of the means of producing the necessaries of life, and the restriction of production, by a few selfish individuals for their own profit.And for that disease there is no other remedy than the one I have told you of - the PUBLIC OWNERSHIP and cultivation of the land, the PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF the mines, railways, canals, ships, factories and all the other means of production, and the establishment of an Industrial Civil Service - a National Army of Industry - for the purpose of producing the necessaries, comforts and refinements of life in that abundance which has been made possible by science and machinery - for the use and benefit of THE WHOLE OF THEPEOPLE.'
`Yes: and where's the money to come from for all this?' shouted Crass, fiercely.
`Hear, hear,' cried the man behind the moat.
`There's no money difficulty about it,' replied Barrington.`We can easily find all the money we shall need.'
`Of course,' said Slyme, who had been reading the Daily Ananias, `there's all the money in the Post Office Savings Bank.The Socialists could steal that for a start; and as for the mines and land and factories, they can all be took from the owners by force.'
`There will be no need for force and no need to steal anything from anybody.'
`And there's another thing I objects to,' said Crass.`And that's all this 'ere talk about hignorance: wot about all the money wots spent every year for edication?'
`You should rather say - "What about all the money that's wasted every year on education?" What can be more brutal and senseless than trying to "educate" a poor little, hungry, ill-clad child? Such so-called "instruction" is like the seed in the parable of the Sower, which fell on stony ground and withered away because it had no depth of earth;and even in those cases where it does take root and grow, it becomes like the seed that fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it bore no fruit.
`The majority of us forget in a year or two all that we learnt at school because the conditions of our lives are such as to destroy all inclination for culture or refinement.We must see that the children are properly clothed and fed and that they are not made to get up in the middle of the night to go to work for several hours before they go to school.We must make it illegal for any greedy, heartless profit-hunter to hire them and make them labour for several hours in the evening after school, or all day and till nearly midnight on Saturday.We must first see that our children are cared for, as well as the children of savage races, before we can expect a proper return for the money that we spend on education.'
`I don't mind admitting that this 'ere scheme of national ownership and industries is all right if it could only be done,' said Harlow, `but at present, all the land, railways and factories, belongs to private capitalists; they can't be bought without money, and you say you ain't goin' to take 'em away by force, so I should like to know how the bloody 'ell you are goin' to get 'em?'
`We certainly don't propose to buy them with money, for the simple reason that there is not sufficient money in existence to pay for them.
`If all the gold and silver money in the World were gathered together into one heap, it would scarcely be sufficient to buy all the private property in England.The people who own all these things now never really paid for them with money - they obtained possession of them by means of the "Money Trick" which Owen explained to us some time ago.'
`They obtained possession of them by usin' their brain,' said Crass.
`Exactly,' replied the lecturer.`They tell us themselves that that is how they got them away from us; they call their profits the "wages of intelligence".Whilst we have been working, they have been using their intelligence in order to obtain possession of the things we have created.The time has now arrived for us to use our intelligence in order to get back the things they have robbed us of, aid to prevent them from robbing us any more.As for how it is to be done, we might copy the methods that they have found so successful.'
`Oh, then you DO mean to rob them after all,' cried Slyme, triumphantly.`If it's true that they robbed the workers, and if we're to adopt the same method then we'll be robbers too!'
`When a thief is caught having in his possession the property of others it is not robbery to take the things away from him and to restore them to their rightful owners,' retorted Barrington.
`I can't allow this 'ere disorder to go on no longer,' shouted Philpot, banging the table with the plumber's hammer as several men began talking at the same time.
`There will be plenty of tuneropperty for questions and opposition at the hend of the horation, when the pulpit will be throwed open to anyone as likes to debate the question.I now calls upon the professor to proceed with the second part of the horation: and anyone wot interrupts will get a lick under the ear-'ole with this' - waving the hammer - `and the body will be chucked out of the bloody winder.'
Loud cheers greeted this announcement.It was still raining heavily, so they thought they might as well pass the time listening to Barrington as in any other way.
`A large part of the land may be got back in the same way as it was taken from us.The ancestors of the present holders obtained possession of it by simply passing Acts of Enclosure: the nation should regain possession of those lands by passing Acts of Resumption.
And with regard to the other land, the present holders should be allowed to retain possession of it during their lives and then it should revert to the State, to be used for the benefit of all.