I
THIS essay concerns men, but it concerns women more.
When citizens begin to learn, through newspapers and general rumour,
that voluntary war-work is afoot, and that volunteers are badly wanted,
and that there is work for all who love their country, then those who
love their country are at once sharply divided into two classes--the
people to whom the work comes, and the people who have to go out to
seek the work. The former are the people of prominent social position;
the latter are the remainder of the population. The prominent persons
will see work rolling up to their front doors in quantities huge
enough to overthrow the entire house. The remainder will look out of
the window and see nothing at all unusual in the street. They are then
apt to say: ‘This is very odd. There is much work to do. I am ready to
do my share. Why doesn’t somebody come along and ask me to do it?’ And
they feel rather hurt at the neglect, and finally they sigh: ‘Well, if
no one gives me anything to do, of course I can’t do anything.’
Such an attitude would be quite reasonable if society was like a
telephone-exchange, and anybody could get precisely the person he or
she was after by paying a girl a pound or two a week to stick plugs
into holes. But society not being like a telephone-exchange, the
attitude is unreasonable. Patriots cannot expect the organisers of
war-work to run up and down streets knocking at doors and crying:
‘Come! You are the very woman I need!’ However much urgent war-work
is waiting to be done, nine-tenths of the individuals who are anxious
to do it will have to put themselves to a certain amount of trouble in
order to discover the work, perhaps to a great deal of trouble. Having
located the work, they may even have almost to beg for the privilege of
doing it. Again, they are rather hurt. They demand, why should they go
on their knees? They are not asking a favour.
A woman will say:
‘I went and offered my services. And he looked at me as if I was a
doubtful character, and you never heard such a cross-examination as I
had to go through! It was most humiliating.’
True! True! But could she reasonably expect the cross-examiner to see
into the inside of her head? The first use and the last use of the
gift of speech is to ask questions. Moreover, respected madam, it is
quite probable that the cross-examiner was not a bit suspicious, and
that his manner was simply due to dumbfoundedness, to mere inability
to believe that so ideal a person as yourself had, so to speak, fallen
from heaven straight into his net. And further, respected madam, are
not you yourself suspicious? If the cross-examiner had come to you,
instead of you going to him, might not your first thought have been:
‘What advantage is he trying to gain by coming to me? I shall say No!’
If it is true that people who ask for work are stared at, it is equally
true that people who are asked to work also stare--a little haughtily.
And when the latter graciously promise assistance, they often say to
themselves: ‘I shall do as little as I can, because I’m not going to be
taken advantage of.’ And they almost invariably end by doing more than
they can, and by insisting on being taken advantage of. Human nature
is mean, but it is also noble.
Axiom: The preliminary trouble and weariness and annoyance incidental
to getting the work are themselves a necessary and inevitable part of
war-work, just as much as bandaging the brows of heroes.