`If his children are starving we should feed them first, and punish him afterwards.'
`The rates is quite high enough as it is,' grumbled Harlow, who had four children himself.
`That's quite true, but you must remember that the rates the working classes at present pay are spent mostly for the benefit of other people.Good roads are maintained for people who ride in motor cars and carriages; the Park and the Town Band for those who have leisure to enjoy them; the Police force to protect the property of those who have something to lose, and so on.But if we pay this rate we shall get something for our money.'
`We gets the benefit of the good roads when we 'as to push a 'andcart with a load o' paint and ladders,' said Easton.
`Of course,' said Crass, `and besides, the workin' class gets the benefit of all the other things too, because it all makes work.'
`Well, for my part,' said Philpot, `I wouldn't mind payin' my share towards a 'appeny rate, although I ain't got no kids o' me own.'
The hostility of most of.the working men to the proposed rate was almost as bitter as that of the `better' classes - the noble-minded philanthropists who were always gushing out their sympathy for the `dear little ones', the loathsome hypocrites who pretended that there was no need to levy a rate because they were willing to give sufficient money in the form of charity to meet the case: but the children continued to go hungry all the same.
`Loathsome hypocrites' may seem a hard saying, but it was a matter of common knowledge that the majority of the children attending the local elementary schools were insufficiently fed.It was admitted that the money that could be raised by a halfpenny rate would be more than sufficient to provide them all with one good meal every day.The charity-mongers who professed such extravagant sympathy with the `dear little children' resisted the levying of the rate `because it would press so heavily on the poorer ratepayers', and said that they were willing to give more in voluntary charity than the rate would amount to: but, the `dear little children' - as they were so fond of calling them - continued to go to school hungry all the same.
To judge them by their profession.and their performances, it appeared that these good kind persons were willing to do any mortal thing for the `dear little children' except allow them to be fed.
If these people had really meant to do what they pretended, they would not have cared whether they paid the money to a rate-collector or to the secretary of a charity society and they would have preferred to accomplish their object in the most efficient and economical way.
But although they would not allow the children to be fed, they went to church and to chapel, glittering with jewellery, their fat carcases clothed in rich raiment, and sat with smug smiles upon their faces listening to the fat parsons reading out of a Book that none of them seemed able to understand, for this was what they read:
`And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said: Whosoever shall receive one such little child in My name, receiveth Me.But whoso shall offend one of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
`Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father.'
And this: `Then shall He say unto them: Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for Iwas an hungered and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink: I was a stranger and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not.
`Then shall they answer: "Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered or athirst or a stranger or naked, or sick, and did not minister unto Thee?" and He shall answer them, "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me."'
These were the sayings that the infidel parsons mouthed in the infidel temples to the richly dressed infidel congregations, who heard but did not understand, for their hearts were become gross and their ears dull of hearing.And meantime, all around them, in the alley and the slum, and more terrible still - because more secret - in the better sort of streets where lived die respectable class of skilled artisans, the little children became thinner and paler day by day for lack of proper food, and went to bed early because there was no fire.
Sir Graball D'Encloseland, the Member of Parliament for the borough, was one of the bitterest opponents of the halfpenny rate, but as he thought it was probable that there would soon be another General Election and he wanted the children's fathers to vote for him again, he was willing to do something for them in another way.He had a ten-year-old daughter whose birthday was in that month, so the kind-hearted Baronet made arrangements to give a Tea to all the school children in the town in honour of the occasion.The tea was served in the schoolrooms and each child was presented with a gilt-edged card on which was a printed portrait of the little hostess, with `From your loving little friend, Honoria D'Encloseland', in gold letters.During the evening the little girl, accompanied by Sir Graball and Lady D'Encloseland, motored round to all the schools where the tea was being consumed: the Baronet made a few remarks, and Honoria made a pretty little speech, specially learnt for the occasion, at each place, and they were loudly cheered and greatly admired in response.
The enthusiasm was not confined to the boys and girls, for while the speechmaking was going on inside, a little crowd of grown-up children were gathered round outside the entrance, worshipping the motor car:
and when the little party came out the crowd worshipped them also, going into imbecile ecstasies of admiration of their benevolence and their beautiful clothes.
