`Of course the workers don't create the raw materials,' replied Owen.
`But I am not aware that the capitalists or the landlords do so either.The raw materials exist in abundance in and on the earth, but they are of no use until labour has been applied to them.'
`But then, you see, the earth belongs to the landlords!' cried Crass, unguardedly.
`I know that; and of course you think it's right that the whole country should belong to a few people -'
`I must call the lecturer to horder,' interrupted Philpot.`The land question is not before the meeting at present.'
`You talk about the producers being robbed of most of the value of what they produce,' said Harlow, `but you must remember that it ain't all produced by hand labour.What about the things what's made by machinery?'
`The machines themselves were made by the workers,' returned Owen, `but of course they do not belong to the workers, who have been robbed of them by means of the Money Trick.'
`But who invented all the machinery?' cried Crass.
`That's more than you or I or anyone else can say,' returned Owen, `but it certainly wasn't the wealthy loafer class, or the landlords, or the employers.Most of the men who invented the machinery lived and died unknown, in poverty and often in actual want.The inventors too were robbed by the exploiter-of-labour class.There are no men living at present who can justly claim to have invented the machinery that exists today.The most they can truthfully say is that they have added to or improved upon the ideas of those who lived and worked before them.Even Watt and Stevenson merely improved upon steam engines and locomotives already existing.Your question has really nothing to do with the subject we are discussing: we are only trying to find out why the majority of people have to go short of the benefits of civilization.One of the causes is - the majority of the population are engaged in work that does not produce those things; and most of what IS produced is appropriated and wasted by those who have no right to it.
`The workers produce Everything! If you walk through the streets of a town or a city, and look around, Everything that you can see -Factories, Machinery, Houses, Railways, Tramways, Canals, Furniture, Clothing, Food and the very road or pavement you stand upon were all made by the working class, who spend all their wages in buying back only a very small part of the things they produce.Therefore what remains in the possession of their masters represents the difference between the value of the work done and the wages paid for doing it.
This systematic robbery has been going on for generations, the value of the accumulated loot is enormous, and all of it, all the wealth at present in the possession of the rich, is rightly the property of the working class - it has been stolen from them by means of the Money Trick.'...
For some moments an oppressive silence prevailed.The men stared with puzzled, uncomfortable looks alternately at each other and at the drawings on the wall.They were compelled to do a little thinking on their own account, and it was a process to which they were unaccustomed.In their infancy they had been taught to distrust their own intelligence and to leave "thinking' to their `pastors' and masters and to their `betters' generally.All their lives they had been true to this teaching, they had always had blind, unreasoning faith in the wisdom and humanity of their pastors and masters.That was the reason why they and their children had been all their lives on the verge of starvation and nakedness, whilst their `betters' - who did nothing but the thinking - went clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
Several men had risen from their seats and were attentively studying the diagrams Owen had drawn on the wall; and nearly all the others were making the same mental efforts - they were trying to think of something to say in defence of those who robbed them of the fruits of their toil.
`I don't see no bloody sense in always runnin' down the rich,' said Harlow at last.`There's always been rich and poor in the world and there always will be.'
`Of course,' said Slyme.`It says in the Bible that the poor shall always be with us.'
`What the bloody 'ell kind of system do you think we ought to 'ave?'
demanded Crass.`If everything's wrong, 'ow's it goin' to be altered?'
At this, everybody brightened up again, and exchanged looks of satisfaction and relief.Of course! It wasn't necessary to think about these things at all! Nothing could ever be altered: it had always been more or less the same, and it always would be.
`It seems to me that you all HOPE it is impossible to alter it,' said Owen.`Without trying to find out whether it could be done, you persuade yourselves that it is impossible, and then, instead of being sorry, you're glad!'
Some of them laughed in a silly, half-ashamed way.
`How do YOU reckon it could be altered?' said Harlow.
`The way to alter it is, first to enlighten the people as to the real cause of their sufferings, and then -'
`Well,' interrupted Crass, with a self-satisfied chuckle, `it'll take a better bloody man than you to enlighten ME!'
`I don't want to be henlightened into Darkness!' said Slyme piously.
`But what sort of System do you propose, then?' repeated Harlow.
`After you've got 'em all enlightened - if you don't believe in sharing out all the money equal, how ARE you goin' to alter it?'
`I don't know 'ow 'e's goin' to alter it,' sneered Crass, looking at his watch and standing up, `but I do know what the time is - two minits past one!'
`The next lecture,' said Philpot, addressing the meeting as they all prepared to return to work, `the next lecture will be postponded till tomorrer at the usual time, when it will be my painful dooty to call upon Mr Owen to give 'is well-known and most hobnoxious address entitled "Work and how to avoid it." Hall them as wants to be henlightened kindly attend.'
`Or hall them as don't get the sack tonight,' remarked Easton grimly.
