Mr. Foley and Lord Armley were waiting together in the library--not the
smaller apartment into which Julia had been shown, but a more spacious,
almost a stately room in the front part of the house. Upon Maraton's
entrance, Lord Armley changed his position, sitting further back amongst
the shadows in a low easy-chair. Maraton took his place so that he was
between the two men. It was Lord Armley who asked the first question.
"Mr. Maraton," he enquired, "are you an Englishman?"
"I think that I may call myself so," Maraton replied, with a smile. "I
was born in America, but my parents were English."
"I asked," Lord Armley continued, "whether you were an Englishman, for
two reasons. One was--well, perhaps you might call it curiosity; the
other because, if you are an Englishman, Mr. Foley and I are going to
make a strong and I hope successful appeal to your patriotism."
"I am afraid," Maraton replied, "that you will be appealing to a
sentiment of which I am ignorant."
"Do you mean," Mr. Foley asked, "that you have no impulse of affection
for your own country?"
"For my country as she exists at present, none at all," Maraton
answered. "That is where I am afraid we shall find this conference so
unsatisfactory. I am not subject to any of the ordinary convictions of
life."
"That certainly makes the task of arguing with you a little difficult,"
Mr. Foley admitted. "We had hoped that the vision of this country
overrun by a triumphant enemy, our towns and our pleasant places in the
hands of an alien race, our women subject to insults from them, our men
treated with scorn--we had an idea that the vision of these things might
count with you for something."
"For nothing at all," Maraton replied. "I am not sure that a successful
invasion of this country would not be one of the best medicines she
could possibly have."
"Are you serious, sir?" Lord Armley asked grimly.
"Absolutely," Maraton answered, without a second's hesitation. "You
people have, after all, only an external feeling for the deficiencies of
your social system. You don't feel, really--you don't understand. To
me, England at the present day--the whole of civilization, indeed, but
we are speaking now only of England--is suffering from an awful disease.
To me she is like a leper. I cannot think that any operation which
could cure her is too severe. She may have to spend centuries in the
hospital, but some day the light will come."
"When you talk like that," Mr. Foley declared, "you seem to us, Mr.
Maraton, to pass outside the pale of logical argument. But we want to
understand you. You mean that for the sake of altering our social
conditions, you would, if you thought it necessary, let this country be
conquered, plunge her for a hundred years or more into misery deeper
than any she has yet known? What good do you suppose could come of
this? The poor who are poor now would starve then. From whom would
come the mammoth war indemnity we should have to pay?"
"Not from the poor," Maraton replied. "That is one of my theories. It
would come from the very class whom I would willingly see enfeebled--the
greedy, grasping, middle class. The poor must exist automatically.
They could not exist on lower wages; therefore, they will not get lower
wages. If there is no employment for them, they will help themselves to
the means for life. If there is money in the country, they have a right
to a part of it and they will take it. The unfit amongst them will die.
The unfit are better dead."
"This is a dangerous doctrine, Mr. Maraton," Lord Armley remarked.
"It is a primitive law," Maraton answered. "Put yourself down amongst
the people, with a wife by your side and children crying to you for
bread. Would you call yourself a man if you let them starve, if you
sent your children sobbing away from you when there was bread to be had
for the fighting, bread to be taken from those who had also meat? I
think not. I am not afraid of plunging the country into disaster. It
is my belief that the sufferings and the loss which would ensue would
not fall upon the class who are already dwelling in misery."
Mr. Foley moved nervously to the mantelpiece and helped himself to a
cigarette.
"Mr. Maraton," he said, "we will not argue on these lines. I like to
feel my feet upon the earth. I like to deal with the things one knows
about. Grant me this, at least; that it is possible to reach the end at
which you are striving, by milder means?"
"It may be," Maraton admitted. "I am not sure. Milder means have been
tried for a good many generations. I tell you frankly that I do not
believe it is possible by legislation to redistribute the wealth of the
world."
Lord Armley, from his seat amongst the shadows, smiled sarcastically.
"You, too, Mr. Maraton," he murmured. "What is your answer, I wonder,
to the oft quoted question? You may redistribute wealth, but how do you
propose to keep it in a state of equilibrium?"
Maraton smiled.
"There would have to be three, perhaps half-a-dozen--who can tell how
many?--redistributions by violent means," he replied, "but remember that
all this time, education, clean living, freedom from sordid anxieties,
would be telling upon the lower orders. As their physical condition
improved, so would their minds. As the conditions under which men live
become more equal, so will their brains become more equal and their
power of acquiring wealth. This, remember, may be the work of a hundred
years--perhaps more--but it is the end at which we should aim."
"You absolutely mean, then," Mr. Foley persisted, "to destroy the
welfare of the country for this generation and perhaps the next, in
order that a new people may arise, governed according to your methods,
in ages which neither you nor I nor any of us will ever see?"
"That is what I mean," Maraton assented. "Need I remind you that if we
had not possessed in the past men who gave their lives for the sake of
posterity, the nations of the world would be even in a more backward
condition than they are to-day?"
Mr. Foley smiled.
"Mr. Maraton," he said, "now I am going to ask you this question.
To-morrow you go to Manchester to pronounce your doctrines. To-morrow
you are going to incite the working people of England practically to
revolt. Are you going to tell them that it is for posterity they must
strike? Do you mean, when you thunder at them from the platforms, to
tell them the truth?--to tell them that the good which you promise is
not for them nor for their children, nor their children's children, but
for the unborn generations? Do you mean to tell them this?"
Maraton was silent. Lord Armley was watching him closely. Mr. Foley's
eyes were bright, and a little flush had stained the parchment pallor of
his cheeks. He was feeling all the thrill of the fencer who has
touched.
"I cannot convince you, Mr. Maraton," he went on, "that yours is not a
splendid dream, an idyllic vision, which would fade from the canvas
before even the colours were dry, but you have common sense, and I hope
at least I can persuade you to see this. You won't rally the working
men of England to your standard under that motto. That's why their
leaders are ignorant and commonplace men. They know very well that it's
to the pockets of their hearers they must appeal. A shilling a week
more now is what they want, not to have their children born to a better
life, and their children's children move on the upward plane. Human
nature isn't like that, especially the human nature which I admit has
suffered from the selfishness and greediness of the middle classes
through all these years. The people aren't ready to dream dreams. They
want money in their pockets, cash, so much a week--nothing else. I tell
you that self-interest is before the eyes of every one of those
Lancashire operatives to whom you are going to speak. An hour or so
less work a week, an ounce more of tobacco, a glass of beer when he
feels inclined, a little more money in the bank--that's what he wants."
"You may be speaking the truth, Mr. Foley," Maraton confessed quietly.
"At any rate, you have voiced some of my deepest fears. I know that I
cannot bring the people to my standard by showing them the whole of my
mind. But why should I? If I know that my cause is just, if I know
that it is for the good of the world, isn't it my duty to conceal as
much as I find it wise to conceal, to keep my hand to the plough, even
though I drive it through the fields of devastation?"
"Then your mission is not an honest one," Lord Armley declared suddenly.
"It is dishonest that good things may come of it."
"It is possible to reason like that," Maraton admitted.
"Now, listen," Mr. Foley continued. "I will show you the other way. I
will look with you into the future. I cannot agree with all your views
but I, too, would like to see the diminution of capital from the hands
of the manufacturers and the middle classes, and an increase of
prosperity to the operatives. I would like to see the gulf between them
narrowed year by year. I would like to see the working man everywhere
established in quarters where life is wholesome and pleasant. I would
like to see his schools better, even, than they are at present. I would
like to see him, in the years to come, a stronger, a more capable, a
more dignified unit of the Empire. He can only be made so by
prosperity. Therefore, I wish for him prosperity. You want to sow the
country red with ruin and fire, and there isn't any man breathing, not
even you, can tell exactly what the outcome of it all might be. I want
to work at the same thing more gently. Last year for the first time, I
passed a Bill in Parliament which interfered between the relations of
master and man. In a certain trade dispute I compelled the employers,
by Act of Parliament, to agree to a vital principle upon which the men
insisted. The night I drove home from the House I said to Lady
Elisabeth, my niece, that that measure, small though it was, marked a
new era in the social conditions of the country. It did. What I have
commenced, I am prepared to go on with. I am prepared by every logical
and honest means to legislate for labour. I am prepared to legislate in
such a way that the prosperity of the manufacturer, all the
manufacturers in this country, must be shared by the workpeople. I am
prepared to fight, tooth and nail, against twenty per cent dividends on
capital and twenty-five shillings a week wages for the operative. There
are others in the Cabinet of my point of view. In a couple of years we
must go to the country. I am going to the country to ask for a people's
government. Go to Manchester, if you must, but talk common sense to the
people. Let them strike where they are subject to wrongs, and I promise
you that I am on their side, and every pressure that my Government can
bring to bear upon the employers, shall be used in their favour. You
shall win--you as the champion of the men, shall win all along the line.
You shall improve the conditions of every one of those industries in the
north. But--it must be done legitimately and without sinister
complications. I know what is in your mind, Mr. Maraton, quite well.
I know your proposal. It is in your mind to have the railway strike,
the coal strike, the ironfounders' strike, and the strike of the
Lancashire operatives, all take place on the same day. You intend to
lay the country pulseless and motionless. You won't accept terms. You
court disaster--disaster which you refer to as an operation. Don't do
it. Try my way. I offer you certain success. I offer you my alliance,
a seat in Parliament at once, a place in my Government in two years'
time. What more can you ask for? What more can you do for the people
than fight for them side by side with me?"
Maraton had moved a little nearer to the window. He was looking out
into the night. Very faintly now in the distant woods he could still
catch the song of the nightingale. Almost he fancied in the shadows
that he could catch sight of Julia's strained face leaning towards him,
the face of the prophetess, warning him against the easy ways, calling
to him to remember. His principles had been to him a part of his life.
What if he should be wrong? What if he should bring misery and
suffering upon millions upon millions, for the sake of a generation
which might never be born? There was something practical about Mr.
Foley's offer, an offer which could have been made only by a great man.
His brain moved swiftly. As he stood there, he seemed to look out upon
a vast plain of misery, a country of silent furnaces, of smokeless
chimneys, a country drooping and lifeless, dotted with the figures of
dying men and women. What an offering! What a sacrifice? Would the
people still believe in him when the blow fell? Could he himself pass
out of life with the memory of it all in his mind, and feel that his
life's work had been good? He remained speechless.
"Let me force one more argument upon you," Mr. Foley continued. "You
must know a little what type of mind is most common amongst Labour. I
ask you what will be the attitude of Labour towards the starvation of
the next ten or twenty years, if you should bring the ruin you threaten
upon the country? I ask you to use your common sense. Of what use
would you be? Who would listen to you? If they left you alive, would
any audience of starving men and women, looking back upon the
comparative prosperity of the past, listen to a word from your lips.
Believe me, they would not. They would be more likely, if they found
you, to rend you limb from limb. The operatives of this country are not
dreamers. They don't want to give their wives and children, and their
own selves, body and soul, for a dream. Therefore, I come back to the
sane common sense of the whole affair. By this time next year, if you
use your power to bring destruction upon this country, your name will be
loathed and detested amongst the very people for whose sake you do it."
Maraton turned away.
"You have put some of my own fears before me, Mr. Foley," he confessed,
"in a new and very impressive light. If I thought that I myself were
the only one who could teach, you would indeed terrify me. The
doctrines in which I believe, however, will endure, even though I should
pass."
"Endure to be discarded and despised by all thinking men!" Lord Armley
exclaimed.
"You may be right," Maraton admitted, slowly. "I cannot say. Will you
forgive me if I make you no answer at all to-night? My thoughts are a
little confused. You have made me see myself with your eyes, and I wish
to reconsider certain matters. Before I go, perhaps you will give me
ten minutes more to discuss them?"
Mr. Foley was still a little flushed as they shook hands.
"I am glad," he declared, "very glad that you are at least going to
think over what I have said. You must have common sense. I have read
your book, backwards and forwards. I have read your articles in the
American reviews and in the English papers. There is nothing more
splendid than the visions you write of, but there is no gangway across
from this world into the world of dreams, Mr. Maraton. Remember that,
and remember, too, how great your responsibility is. I have never tried
to hide from you what I believe your real power to be. I have always
said that the moment a real leader was found, the country would be in
danger. You are that leader. For God's sake, Mr. Maraton, realise
your responsibility! . . . Now shall we go back into the gardens or
into the drawing-room? My niece will sing to us, if you are fond of
music."
Maraton excused himself and slipped out into the gardens alone. For
more than an hour he walked restlessly about, without relief, without
gaining any added clearness of vision. The atmosphere of the place
seemed to him somehow enervating. The little 'walk amongst the
rhododendrons was still fragrant 'with perfume, reminiscent of that
strange moment of emotion. The air was still languorous. Although the
nightingale's song had ceased, the atmosphere seemed still vibrating
with the music of his past song. He stood before the window of the room
where he had talked with Julia. What would she say, he wondered? Would
she think that he had sold his soul if he chose the more peaceful way?
It was a night of perplexed thoughts, confused emotions. One thing only
was clear. For the first time in his life certain dreams, which had
been as dear to him as life itself, had received a shattering blow.
Always he had spoken and acted from conviction. It was that which had
given his words their splendid force. It was that which had made the
words which he had spoken live as though they had been winged with fire.
Perhaps it was his own fault. Perhaps he should have avoided altogether
this house of the easier ways.