remarked old Linden.`Wot the 'ell's the good of eddication to the likes of us?'
`None whatever,' said Crass, `it just puts foolish idears into people's 'eds and makes 'em too lazy to work.'
Barrington, who took no part in the conversation, still sat silently smoking.Owen was listening to this pitiable farrago with feelings of contempt and wonder.Were they all hopelessly stupid? Had their intelligence never developed beyond the childhood stage? Or was he mad himself?
`Early marriages is another thing,' said Slyme: `no man oughtn't to be allowed to get married unless he's in a position to keep a family.'
`How can marriage be a cause of poverty?' said Owen, contemptuously.
`A man who is not married is living an unnatural life.Why don't you continue your argument a little further and say that the practice of eating and drinking is the cause of poverty or that if people were to go barefoot and naked there would be no poverty? The man who is so poor that he cannot marry is in a condition of poverty already.'
`Wot I mean,' said Slyme, `is that no man oughtn't to marry till he's saved up enough so as to 'ave some money in the bank; an' another thing, I reckon a man oughtn't to get married till 'e's got an 'ouse of 'is own.It's easy enough to buy one in a building society if you're in reg'lar work.'
At this there was a general laugh.
`Why, you bloody fool,' said Harlow, scornfully, `most of us is walkin' about 'arf our time.It's all very well for you to talk;you've got almost a constant job on this firm.If they're doin'
anything at all you're one of the few gets a show in.And another thing,' he added with a sneer, `we don't all go to the same chapel as old Misery,'
`Old Misery' was Ruston & Co.'s manager or walking foreman.`Misery'
was only one of the nicknames bestowed upon him by the hands: he was also known as `Nimrod' and `Pontius Pilate'.
`And even if it's not possible,' Harlow continued, winking at the others, `what's a man to do during the years he's savin' up?'
`Well, he must conquer hisself,' said Slyme, getting red.
`Conquer hisself is right!' said Harlow and the others laughed again.
`Of course if a man tried to conquer hisself by his own strength,'
replied Slyme, `'e would be sure to fail, but when you've got the Grace of God in you it's different.'
`Chuck it, fer Christ's sake!' said Harlow in a tone of disgust.
`We've only just 'ad our dinner!'
`And wot about drink?' demanded old Joe Philpot, suddenly.
`'Ear, 'ear,' cried Harlow.`That's the bleedin' talk.I wouldn't mind 'avin 'arf a pint now, if somebody else will pay for it.'
Joe Philpot - or as he was usually called, `Old Joe' - was in the habit of indulging freely in the cup that inebriates.He was not very old, being only a little over fifty, but he looked much older.He had lost his wife some five years ago and was now alone in the world, for his three children had died in their infancy.Slyme's reference to drink had roused Philpot's indignation; he felt that it was directed against himself.The muddled condition of his brain did not permit him to take up the cudgels in his own behalf, but he knew that although Owen was a tee-totaller himself, he disliked Slyme.
`There's no need for us to talk about drink or laziness,' returned Owen, impatiently, `because they have nothing to do with the matter.
The question is, what is the cause of the lifelong poverty of the majority of those who are not drunkards and who DO work? Why, if all the drunkards and won't-works and unskilled or inefficient workers could be by some miracle transformed into sober, industrious and skilled workers tomorrow, it would, under the present conditions, be so much the worse for us, because there isn't enough work for all NOWand those people by increasing the competition for what work there is, would inevitably cause a reduction of wages and a greater scarcity of employment.The theories that drunkenness, laziness or inefficiency are the causes of poverty are so many devices invented and fostered by those who are selfishly interested in maintaining the present states of affairs, for the purpose of preventing us from discovering the real causes of our present condition.'
`Well, if we're all wrong,' said Crass, with a sneer, `praps you can tell us what the real cause is?'
`An' praps you think you know how it's to be altered,' remarked Harlow, winking at the others.
`Yes; I do think I know the cause,' declared Owen, `and I do think Iknow how it could be altered -'
`It can't never be haltered,' interrupted old Linden.`I don't see no sense in all this 'ere talk.There's always been rich and poor in the world, and there always will be.'
`Wot I always say is there 'ere,' remarked Philpot, whose principal characteristic - apart from thirst - was a desire to see everyone comfortable, and who hated rows of any kind.`There ain't no use in the likes of us trubblin our 'eds or quarrelin about politics.It don't make a dam bit of difference who you votes for or who gets in.
They're hall the same; workin the horicle for their own benefit.You can talk till you're black in the face, but you won't never be able to alter it.It's no use worrying.The sensible thing is to try and make the best of things as we find 'em: enjoy ourselves, and do the best we can for each other.Life's too short to quarrel and we'll hall soon be dead!'