TO-DAY'S WORK
Self-interest being the strongest motive in human nature, he who wishes
his interests to be served will be wise to attend to them himself.
If you, Mr. Smith, as a working man, wish to have better wages, shorter
hours, more holidays, and cheaper living, you had better take a hand in
the class war by becoming a recruit in the army of Labour.
The first line of the Labour army is the Trade Unions.
The second line is the Municipality.
The third line is Parliament.
If working men desire to improve their conditions they will be wise to
serve their own interests by using the Trade Unions, the Municipalities,
and the House of Commons for all they are worth; and they are worth a
lot.
Votes you have in plenty, for all practical purposes, and of money you
can yourselves raise more than you need, without either hurting
yourselves or incurring obligations to men of other classes.
One penny a week from 4,000,000 of working men would mean a yearly
income of L866,000.
We are always hearing that the working classes cannot find enough money
to pay the election expenses of their own parliamentary candidates nor
to keep their own Labour members if elected.
If 4,000,000 workers paid one penny a week (the price of a Sunday paper,
or of one glass of cheap beer) they would have L866,000 at the end of a
year.
Election expenses of 200 Labour candidates at L500 each would be
L100,000.
Pay of 200 Labour members at L200 a year would be L40,000.
Total, L140,000: leaving a balance in hand of L726,000.
Election expenses of 2000 candidates for School Board, Municipal
Councils, and Boards of Guardians at L50 per man would be L100,000.
Leaving a balance of L626,000.
Now the cause of Labour has very few friends amongst the newspapers. As
I have said before, at times of strikes and other industrial crises, the
Press goes almost wholly against the workers.
The 4,000,000 men I have supposed to wake up to their own interest could
establish weekly and daily papers of _their own_ at a cost of L50,000
for each paper. Say one weekly paper at a penny, one daily paper at a
penny, or one morning and one evening paper at a halfpenny each.
These papers would have a ready-made circulation amongst the men who
owned them. They could be managed, edited, and written by trained
journalists engaged for the work, and could contain all the best
features of the political papers now bought by working men.
Say, then, that the weekly paper cost L50,000 to start, and that the
morning and evening papers cost the same. That would be L150,000, and
the papers would pay in less than a year.
You see, then, that 4,000,000 of men could finance 3 newspapers, 200
parliamentary and 2000 local elections, and pay one year's salary to 200
Members of Parliament for L390,000, or less than _one halfpenny_ a week
for one year.
If you paid the full penny a week for one year you could do all I have
said and have a balance in hand of L476,000.
Surely, then, it is nonsense to talk about the difficulty of finding
money for election expenses.
But you might not be able to get 4,000,000 of men to pay even one penny.
Then you could produce the same result if _one_ million (half your
present Trade Union membership) pay twopence a week.
And even at a cost of twopence a week do you not think the result would
be worth the cost? Imagine the effect on the Press, and on Parliament,
and on the employers, and on public opinion of your fighting 200
parliamentary and 2000 municipal elections, and founding three
newspapers. Then the moral effect of the work the newspapers would do
would be sure to result in an increase of the Trade Union membership.
A penny looks such a poor, contemptible coin, and even the poor labourer
often wastes one. But remember that union is strength, and pennies make
pounds. 1000 pennies make more than L4; 100,000 pennies come to more
than L400; 1,000,000 pennies come to L4000; 1,000,000 pennies a week for
a year give you the enormous sum of L210,000.
We _Clarion_ men founded a paper called the _Clarion_ with less than
L400 capital, and with no friends or backers, and although we have never
given gambling news, nor general news, and had no Trade Unions behind
us, we have carried our paper on for ten years, and it is stronger now
than ever.
Why, then, should the working classes, and especially the Trade Unions,
submit to the insults and misrepresentations of newspapers run by
capitalists, when they can have better papers of their own to plead
their own cause?
Suppose it cost L100,000 to start a first-class daily Trade Union organ.
How much would that mean to 2,000,000 of Unionists? If it cost L100,000
to start the paper, and if it lost L100,000 a year, it would only mean
one halfpenny a week for the first year, and one farthing a week for the
next. But I am quite confident that if the Unions did the thing in
earnest they could start a paper for L50,000, and run it at a profit
after the first six months.
Do not forget the power of the penny. If 10,000,000 of working men and
women gave _one penny a year_ it would reach a yearly income of _forty
thousand pounds_. A good deal may be done with L40,000, Mr. Smith.
Now a few words as to the three lines of operations. You have your Trade
Unions, and you have a very modest kind of Federation. If your 2,000,000
Unionists were federated at a weekly subscription of one penny per man,
your yearly income would be nearly half a million: a very useful kind of
fund. I should strongly advise you to strengthen your Trades Federation.
Next as to Municipal affairs. These are of more importance to you than
Parliament. Let me give you an idea. Suppose, as in the case of
Manchester and Liverpool, the difference between a private gas company
and a Municipal gas supply amounts to more than a shilling on each 1000
feet of gas. Setting the average workman's gas consumption at 4000 feet
per quarter, that means a saving to each Manchester working man of
sixteen shillings a year, or just about fourpence a week.
Suppose a tram company carries a man to his work and back at one penny,
and the Corporation carries him at one halfpenny. The man saves a penny
a day, or 25s. a year. Now if 100,000 men piled up their tram savings
for one year as a labour fund it would come to L125,000.
All that money those men are now giving to tram companies _for nothing_.
Is that practical?
You may apply the same process of thought to all the other things you
use. Just figure out what you would save if you had Municipal or State
managed
Railways Coalmines
Tramways Omnibuses
Gas Water
Milk Bread
Meat Butter and cheese
Vegetables Beer
Houses Shops
Boots Clothing
and other necessaries.
On all those needful things you are now paying big percentages of profit
to private dealers, all of which the Municipality would save you.
And you can municipalise all those things and save all that money by
sticking together as a Labour Party, and by paying _one penny a week_.
Again I advise you to read those books by George Haw and R. B. Suthers.
Read them, and give them to other workers to read.
And then set about making a Labour Party _at once_.
Next as to Parliament. You ought to put at least 200 Labour members into
the House. Never mind Liberalism and Toryism. Mr. Morley said in January
that what puzzled him was to "find any difference between the new
Liberalism and the new Conservatism." Do not try to find a difference,
John. Have a Labour Party.
"Self-interest is the strongest motive in human nature." Take care of
your own interests and stand by your own class.
You will ask, perhaps, what these 200 Labour representatives are to do.
They should do anything and everything they can do in the House of
Commons for the interests of the working class.
But if you want programmes and lists of measures, get the Fabian
Parliamentary and Municipal programmes, and study them. You will find
the particulars as to price, etc., at the end of this book.
But here are some measures which you might be pushing and helping
whenever a chance presents itself, in Parliament or out of Parliament.
Removal of taxation from articles used by the workers, such as tea
and tobacco, and increase of taxation on large incomes and on land.
Compulsory sale of land for the purpose of Municipal houses, works,
farms, and gardens.
Nationalisation of railways and mines.
Taxation to extinction of all mineral royalties.
Vastly improved education for the working classes.
Old age pensions.
Adoption of the Initiative and Referendum.
Universal adult suffrage.
Eight hours' day and standard rates of wages in all Government and
Municipal works.
Establishment of a Department of Agriculture.
State insurance of life.
Nationalisation of all banks.
The second ballot.
Abolition of property votes.
Formation of a citizen army for home defence.
Abolition of workhouses.
Solid legislation on the housing question.
Government inquiry into the food question, with a view to restore
British agriculture.
Those are a few steps towards the desired goal of _Socialism_.
You may perhaps wonder why I do not ask you to found a Socialist Party.
I do not think the workers are ready for it. And I feel that if you
found a Labour Party every step you take towards the emancipation of
Labour will be a step towards _Socialism_.
But I should like to think that many workers will become Socialists at
once, and more as they live and learn.
The fact is, Mr. Smith, I do not want to ask too much of the mass of
working folks, who have been taught little, and mostly taught wrong, and
whose opportunities of getting knowledge have been but poor.
I am not asking working men to be plaster saints nor stained-glass
angels, but only to be really what their flatterers are so fond of
telling them they are now: shrewd, hard-headed men, distrusting theories
and believing in facts.
For the statement that private trading and private management of
production and distribution are the best, and the only "possible," ways
of carrying on the business of the nation is only a _theory_, Mr. Smith;
but the superiority of Municipal management in cheapness, in efficiency,
in health, in comfort, and in pleasantness is a solid _fact_, Mr. Smith,
which has been demonstrated just as often as Municipal and private
management have been contrasted in their action.
One other question I may anticipate. How are the workers to form a
Labour Party?
There are already two Labour parties formed.
One is the Trade Union body, the other is the Independent Labour Party.
The Trade Unions are numerous, but not politically organised nor united.
The Independent Labour Party is organised and united, but is weak in
numbers and poor in funds.
I should like to see the Trade Unions fully federated, and formed into a
political as well as an Industrial Labour Party on lines similar to
those of the Independent Labour Party.
Or I should like to see the whole of your 2,000,000 of Trade Unionists
join the Independent Labour Party.
Or, best of all, I should like to see the Unions, the Independent Labour
Party, and the great and growing body of unorganised and unattached
Socialists formed into one grand Socialist Party.
But I do not want to ask too much.
Meanwhile, I ask you, as a reader of this book, not to sit down in
despair with the feeling that the workers will not move, but to try to
move them. Be you _one_, John Smith. Be you the first. Then you shall
surely win a few, and each of those few shall win a few, and so are
multitudes composed.
Let us make a long story short. I have here given you, as briefly and as
plainly as I can, the best advice of which I am capable, after a dozen
years' study and experience of Labour politics and economics and the
lives of working men and women.
If you approve of this little book I shall be glad if you will recommend
it to your friends.
You will find Labour matters treated of every week in the _Clarion_,
which is a penny paper, published every Friday, and obtainable at 72
Fleet Street, London, E.C., and of all newsagents.
Heaven, friend John Smith, helps those who help themselves; but Heaven
also helps those who try to help their fellow-creatures.
If you are shrewd and strong and skilful, think a little and work a
little for the millions of your own class who are ignorant and weak and
friendless. If you have a wife and children whom you love, remember the
many poor and wretched women and children who are robbed of love, of
leisure, of sunshine and sweet air, of knowledge and of hope, in the
pent and dismal districts of our big, misgoverned towns. If you as a
Briton are proud of your country and your race, if you as a man have any
pride of manhood, or as a worker have any pride of class, come over to
us and help in the just and wise policy of winning Britain for the
British, manhood for _all_ men, womanhood for _all_ women, and love
to-day and hope to-morrow for the children whom Christ loved, but who
by many Christians have unhappily been forgotten.
That it may please thee to succour, help, and comfort _all_ that are
in danger, necessity, and tribulation.
That it may please thee to defend, and provide for, the fatherless
children, and widows, and _all_ that are desolate and oppressed.
That it may please thee to have mercy upon _all_ men.
I end as I began, by quoting those beautiful words from the Litany. If
we would realise the prayer they utter, we must turn to _Socialism_; if
we would win defence for the fatherless children and the widows,
succour, help, and comfort for _all_ that are in danger, necessity, or
tribulation, and mercy for _all_ men, we must win Britain for the
British.
Without the workers we cannot win, with the workers we cannot fail. Will
you be one to help us--_now_?
WHAT TO READ
The following books and pamphlets treat more fully the various subjects
dealt with in _Britain for the British_.
TO-DAY'S WORK. G. Haw. Clarion Press, 72 Fleet Street. 2s. 6d.
DOES MUNICIPAL MANAGEMENT PAY? By R. B. Suthers. 6d. Clarion Press, 72
Fleet Street.
LAND NATIONALISATION. A. R. Wallace. 1s. London, Swan Sonnenschein.
FIVE PRECURSORS OF HENRY GEORGE. By J. Morrison Davidson. 1s. _Labour
Leader_ Office, 53 Fleet Street, E.C.
DISMAL ENGLAND. By R. Blatchford. Clarion Press, 72 Fleet Street, E.C.
1s.
THE WHITE SLAVES OF ENGLAND. By R. Sherard. London, James Bowden. 1s.
NO ROOM TO LIVE. By G. Haw. 2s. 6d.
FIELDS, FACTORIES, AND WORKSHOPS. By Prince Kropotkin. 1s. _Clarion_
Office, 72 Fleet Street, E.C.
THE FABIAN TRACTS, especially No. 5, No. 12, and Nos. 30-37. One penny
each. Fabian Society, 3 Clement's Inn, Strand, or _Clarion_ Office, 72
Fleet Street, E.C.
OUR FOOD SUPPLY IN TIME OF WAR. By Captain Stewart L. Murray. 6d.
_Clarion_ Office, 72 Fleet Street, E.C.
THE CLARION. A newspaper for Socialists and Working Men. One penny
weekly. Office, 72 Fleet Street, E.C.
The _Clarion_ can be ordered of all newsagents
APPENDIX.
The American workingman will not find it very hard to see that the
lesson of "Britain for the British" applies with even greater force to
the conditions in his own country.
American railroads, mines, and factories exploit, cripple and kill
American laborers on an even larger scale than the British ones. We have
even less laws for the protection of the workers and their children and
what we have are not so well enforced.
No one will deny the ability of America to feed herself. She feeds the
world to-day save that some American workers and their families are
rather poorly fed. The great problem with American capitalists is how to
get rid of the wealth produced and given to them by American laborers.
Where Liberal and Conservative parties are mentioned every American
reader will find himself unconsciously substituting Democratic and
Republican.
It will do the average American good to "see himself as others see him"
and to know that manhood suffrage, freedom from established Church and
Republican institutions do not prevent his becoming an economic slave
and living in a slum.
But we fear that some American readers will be shrewd enough to call
attention to the fact that municipal ownership has not abolished, or to
any great extent improved the slums of London, Glasgow and Birmingham.
It is certain some of the thousands of German laborers who are living in
America would be quick to point out that although Bismark has
nationalized the railroads and telegraphs of Germany this has not
altered the fact of the exploitation of German workingmen. Worst of
all, it would be hard to explain to the multitude of Russian exiles now
living in America that they would have been better off had they remained
at home, because the Czar has made more industries government property
than belong to any other nation in the world.
Even native Americans would find it somewhat hard to understand how
matters would be improved by transferring the ownership of the coal
mines, for example, from a Hanna-controlled corporation to a
Hanna-directed government. There would be one or two different links in
the chain of connection uniting Hanna to the mines and the miners but
they would be as well forged and as capable of holding the laborer in
slavery as the present ones.
Happily the chapter on "Why the old Parties will not do" gives us a clue
to the way out. While the government is controlled by capitalist parties
government ownership of industries does little more than simplify the
process of reorganization to be performed when a real labor party shall
gain control. The victory of such a party will for the first time mean
that government-owned industries will be owned and controlled by all the
workers (who will also be all the people, since idlers will have
disappeared).
American workers are fortunate in that there is a political party
already in the field which exactly meets the ideal described in the last
three chapters. The Socialist Party is a trade-union party, a labor
party and the political expression of all the workers in America who
have become intelligent enough to understand their own self-interest.
Those who feel that they wish to lend a hand in securing the triumph of
the ideas set forth in "Britain for the British" should at once join
that party and work for its success.
A. M. SIMONS.
BOOKS BY ROBERT BLATCHFORD
("NUNQUAM.")
+MERRIE ENGLAND.+--Cloth, crown 8vo, 2s, 6d., by Robert Blatchford.
A book on sociology. Called by the Review of Reviews: "The Poor Man's
Plato." Over a million copies sold. Translated into Welsh, Dutch,
French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Norwegian, and Swedish.
+TALES FOR THE MARINES.+--A New Book of Soldier Stories. By Nunquam.
The Daily Chronicle says:
"This volume contains a batch of stories ('cuffers,' we understand is
the correct technical term) supposed to be told by soldiers in the
barrack-room after lights are out; and capital stories they are. If we
were to call them 'rattling' and also 'ripping' we should not be saying
a word too much. For our own part we never want to see a better fight
than that between the bayonet and the sword in 'The Mousetrap,' or to
read a sounder lecture on social philosophy than that delivered by
Sergeant Wren in 'Dear Lady Disdain.' Mr. Blatchford knows the
barrack-room from the inside, and obviously from the inside has learned
to love and to enjoy it."
+JULIE.+--A Study of a Girl by a Man. Nunquam's Story of Slum Life. Price
2/6; by post, 2/8.
The Liverpool Review says:
"'Julie,' unlike 'The Master Christian,' is beautiful inside as well as
out. Nunquam, like Corelli, has a mission to perform--to utilize romance
as a finger-post to indicate social wrongs; but, unlike Corelli, he
succeeds in his purpose. And why does he succeed where she fails?
Because he goes at his task sympathetically, with a warm heart; whereas
she goes at it sourly, with a pen dipped in gall. It is all a question
of temperament. If you want an object-lesson in the effect which
temperament has upon artistic achievement, read 'The Master Christian'
and follow it up with 'Julie.'"
+THE BOUNDER.+--The Story of a Man by his Friend. By Nunquam. Price 2/6;
by post, 2/8.
All who loved the Bounder and admired his work should avail themselves
of the opportunity to possess this record of both, before the edition is
exhausted.
+A BOHEMIAN GIRL.+--A Theatrical Novel. By Nunquam. Price 2/6; by post,
2/8.
Manchester City News:
"The swift interchange of thought and repartee in the conversations
remind one of the brilliant 'Dolly Dialogues'; but there is an
underlying earnestness and a deeper meaning in Mr. McGinnis's seemingly
careless story than in Mr. Anthony Hope's society pictures."
+MY FAVORITE BOOKS.+--By Nunquam. Price 2/6; by post, 2/8. With Portrait
of the Author.
The Christian Globe says:
"Instinct with generous and eloquent appreciation of what is brightest
and best in our literature, we have only to complain that there is so
little of it after all. Again we feel the spell of old times in the
charmed garden; the breeze blows fresh, sweet is the odor of the roses,
and we wander with our guide wherever it pleases him to lead us. We can
give the author no higher praise. May his book prosper as it deserves."
+TOMMY ATKINS.+--By Nunquam. Price 2/6; by post, 2/8. Paper, 1/-; by post,
1/3.
A soldier story of great popularity which has already gone through
several editions, and was long ago pronounced by Sir Evelyn Wood, and
other great authorities on the army, to be the best story on army life
ever written.
+DISMAL ENGLAND.+--By Nunquam. Price 2/6; by post, 2/8. Paper, 1/-; by
post, 1/2.
A thrilling and life-like series of sketches of life in its darker
phases.
+PINK DIAMONDS.+--A Wild Story. By Nunquam. Cloth, 2/-; by post, 2/2.
Paper, 6d.; by post, 8d.
A capital antidote to the dumps; full of rollicking action and wild
humor.
+THE NUNQUAM PAPERS.+--2/-; by post, 2/2.
Some of Nunquam's best articles and sketches.
+FANTASIAS.+--By Nunquam. Cloth, 2/-; by post, 2/2. Paper, 6d.; by post,
8d.
Tales and essays of graphic, humorous and pathetic interest.
+A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A DOG.+--By The Whatnot. Cloth and gold, 2/6; by
post, 2/8.
+TO-DAY'S WORK.+--Municipal Government the Hope of Democracy. By George
Haw, author of "No Room to Live." Price 2/6; by post, 2/8.
A reprint, with revisions and additional chapters, of The Outlaw's
articles on Local Government, published in the Clarion under the
heading, "What we can do to-day."
+THE ART OF HAPPINESS.+--By Mont Bloug. With portrait of the Author.
Cloth, 2/-; by post, 2/2.
A mixture of fun and philosophy, of which the large edition is nearly
exhausted, and is not likely to be reprinted. Those who have neglected
to get it should do so while there is yet time. It is a book that any
reader will be thankful for.
+DANGLE'S MIXTURE.+--By A. M. Thompson. Cloth, 1/6; by post, 1/8.
+DANGLE'S ROUGH CUT.+--By A. M. Thompson. Cloth, 1/6; by post, 1/8.
Capital examples of Dangular humor, of which it can be truthfully said
that each is better than the other, while both are amusing enough to
bring out a cheerful smile upon the glummest face.
CLARION PRESS, 72 Fleet Street, London, E. C.
Read _The Clarion_
The Pioneer Journal of Social Reform.
Edited by ROBERT BLATCHFORD,
_Author of "Merrie England," "Britain for the British," etc._
EVERY FRIDAY.
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End of Project Gutenberg's Britain for the British, by Robert Blatchford