All the engineers perished. The ship went down. Some were saved. Some
were lost. The rich were mostly saved. The poor were mostly lost. But
the engineers: they all drowned. They all stuck to their posts. Not one
of them lived to tell how the rest died. They had no chance to tell the
world about each other. How heroic they were. How they nonchalantly
smoked their pipes as they stood waist deep in water. How they cracked
jokes to the last. They just stayed below. They took their medicine.
They may have squealed. God knows. But they didn't run. They kept the
lights burning as long as their hearts kept beating. Who has told their
story? Let me tell it. While you are busy with the somebodies let me
speak of the nobodies. While you are celebrating the people with names
let me celebrate the people who have no names. While you are trying to
estimate how much money went down in the cabin let me try to figure how
much manhood went down in the engine room. While you are counting up the
gods who are not men let me count up the men who are gods. It may be
easy to die with the band playing and the world looking on. But to die
in the stillness with no one looking on may be a bit more solemn. I'm
not against dying. Dying has its points. Dying may be the surest way to
life. Nor am I against living. Living too has things to be said for it.
Living may be the noblest way to death. But I want to say things about
these men and boys I never saw. I want to say things about all the men
and boys I have never seen. The world over, everywhere, yellow or black
or white; the men and boys. I want to call the attention of forgetful
people to the crowd. The crowd itself forgets the crowd. It was sad to
have the crew die. It was sad to have the steerage bunch die locked in a
hole. But that wasn't half as sad as to have the crowd on shore more
curious about the millionaires who died than about the paupers who died.
I'm not drawing lines on heroes. I'm not worrying about heroes anyway.
I'm thinking of people. My heart is drawn to people. It dont hurt what
they wear. Let them wear velvet or canvas. Do you suppose I care whether
they're bad or good? Rich or poor, they're people. Every man belongs
somewhere in the crowd. Do you suppose I care whether he's at the top or
the bottom? When the boat went to pot people went with it. Some because
they had to. Some because they chose to. I cant separate the heroes from
the cowards. So I accept them all as people. When I read of the fifty
engineers that perished I felt as if fifty gods had been snuffed out.
People talk of a man or two or of a few dozen men as if their death was
only a soso bit of news. To me dying seems sense enough. I can see how
we might get used to dying and enjoy it. But we shouldn't waste people.
Our civilization is jealous of property and prodigal of people. I cant
see such waste with equanimity. I want to save people. There's such use
for people. They are so precious. They are our brothers. I want my
brothers. I dont like you to drown them cruelly in the sea. I dont want
you to destroy them in railroad disasters. I hate your wars. They rob me
of my people. What do I care about your balance in bank? One man's life
is worth all balances in bank. Even a mean man's life? Yes. Any man's
life. I pass the derelicts on the street. They are thrown aside. They
have no right in the stream. If they raise a protest they are called to
order. The police tell them to move on. And the priests do too. And the
statesmen. The stores and the factories say move on. There's no place
for them to rest. They're hounded across the earth. So the engineers
perished. No one said much about it. They took the engineers for
granted. Did they take anyone else for granted? They always take the
poor for granted. They expect them to be heroes. And they expect them to
die without a growl. If they growl they are in a panic. If they say: You
die too, they are ungrateful. If they refuse to die they are set down
for cowards. Or maybe killed. They do die. They are sacrificed
everywhere. They give up their lives for everybody and for each other.
Trainmen. Sailors. Soldiers. They are all set up to be shot at or
starved. The women who scrub the floors. The mothers who wash our
clothes. They die for us. These engineers died for us. Fifty-three of
them. Gods who kept a world moving. Gods who stood by the law. Laborers
keep our world going. They're always dying for us. Dying for everybody.
With no decoration. No medals or shoulder straps. Their names dont get
into the papers. They get no hero badges. Poems are not written to them.
No one says: He died like a gentleman. No. Laborers are so busy dying
like men they have no time to die like gentlemen. They just get a little
line or two when the time comes. All the engineers perished. That sort
of a line. Just a statistical record without adjectives. Just a farewell
without gunfire. Just a shrug of the shoulders. Three hundred nobodies
were buried in a mine. Three hundred mere men. Three hundred dirty
Italians perhaps. Three hundred nobodies the slaves of one somebody.
Were they heroes? No one cares. No one even asks. The world is not
curious. They take care of the world. Like the gods. They do everything.
They are the providence of all alike loafers and workers. But they
remain anonymous. They live a little while and die for good. They are
not names. They are numbers. It's not John this or Stephen that or
William the other. It's twelve men. The story dont list them. The story
says: Twenty died. The next day the story says: Two more have died of
their wounds. Nobodies. Died to save you and me. And yet they are
despised. Not buried in consecrated ground. Though consecrating the
ground they are buried in. Or the sea. The nondescript atoms of destiny.
Lost in the cosmic shuffle. My brothers. My lovers. Given to the sea
when it was not hungry and asked nothing. My darling comrades. Stolen
from me when I had a right to them. I tried not to see the big letters
in the paper. But it was too plain to be avoided. All the gods of the
machine went down. All the engineers perished.
All the engineers perished. All the coal miners were choked to death.
All the children took sick in the factories. All the girls in stores
fainted and had to be sent home. While you've been looking for heroes
I've been looking for women and men. Women and men are good enough for
me. Being a man or a woman is far harder than being a hero. I can find
you heroes but they are growing scarce. The heroes are not improving
any. But the men and women are improving all the time. The heroes are on
top. They dance on the roofs of the world. But the men and women are the
foundations. They are not heroes. They are men and women. When things
happen they are of course scared. All brave people are scared in danger.
Only the cowards have no fear. Only the blind and deaf and loveless are
heroes. A man has a right to be scared. And a woman. That dont mean that
they run or do anything shameful or ridiculous. It only means that they
know what they're up against. But they stay where they belong. They take
care of things. Of this world. They remain in the shadows. Work on
horror-struck in the darkness. Face death trying to beg off in the dead
of the night. The men and women. Who are you who build on men and women?
Who put your palaces on their backs? Who make them carry your burdens?
Who suck them dry? You are heroes. You strut in spectacular places. You
are heroes. But you rob them while they sleep. You are heroes. But you
hit them in the back. You are heroes. But you lock them in the steerage
and let them drown in a box. Yes, you lock them in the steerage. You
have made the labor world a steerage. You have locked all the laborers
in. They live and die without hope. They are jailed in your profits.
Your incomes turn the key in the door. How can they get out? Your world
is for the cabins. There are no boats for the steerage. The boats are
for those who live without working not for those who work without
living. No poor man has a right to live. Existing should satisfy him.
This is not a world of live and let live. It's a world of live and let
die. The heroes own the world that the people make. It takes time to be
a hero. People have no time. They must work. How could the heroes be
heroes if the people stopped working? So the people are not heroes.
They're only men and women. They dont ornament the world. They just feed
it. They just nurse it along through its sicknesses. They just do
everything. Men and women are the ground the heroes walk over. They are
the treasure all the incomes are drawn from. They are the ragtag and
bobtail who are everything and count for nothing. The heroes got the
band playing. No band plays for men and women. A princess in England had
a baby. Parliament was about to congratulate her. Keir Hardie said: Yes,
do it. But he also said: Let's condole with the widows and children of
the miners who were blown to death to-day. Hardie had no taste. They all
told him so. The papers told him so. And the em pees. And the priests of
the church. And scholars in colleges. They agreed that Hardie had no
sense of decorum. For they were congratulating a hero. A princess
mother. But he was only condoling with men and women. What do a hundred
mere men miners amount to compared with one titled baby hero? This world
is not made for men and women. It's made for heroes. It's true it's made
by men and women. But that's no matter. Making a world is one thing. I
can see that. Letting the fellow who didn't make it possess himself of
it. Dont you see that's another thing? Resisting his invasion would be
treason. Every man can see that too. Dont you see it? If you fight for
what dont belong to you you are a hero. If you fight for what does
belong to you you are a coward. How could a bricklayer be a hero? Why,
the very word is against it. Bricklayer. How could such a word describe
a hero? But gentleman. Ah! that's a word now. That's the real thing.
It's natural for a gentleman to be a hero. But no man could accomplish
such a distinction. A man would first have to become a gentleman before
he could in turn become a hero. So the men have given it up. And the
women. They take a back seat. They retire before the grandeur of an
impossible reputation. They just keep on doing what they have always
done. They keep on working and dying. They go down in ships. They
starve. They get maimed by machinery. They look heavy and stunned. They
are stubborn. They make good in their jobs. But they are never mistaken
for heroes. No one points them out on the street for heroes. They bob
along like ordinary atoms. Like ordinary sunlight. Like ordinary air and
water. They are not visited by the great or asked to serve on
committees. They just stay ordinary. They just remain like ordinary food
and shelter. Like ordinary love and hate. Like ordinary gods. And after
a while they perish. They all perish. Like the engineers. Doing last
what they did first. Keeping their appointments. They die ordinary just
as they lived ordinary. Not even aspiring to be heroes. Not referred to
as honorable misses and misters anybody at all. Not spoken of as though
a man or a woman was dead. Spoken of as if a number was wiped off the
slate. These men and women who perish being only men and women. Just as
the engineers who perished were only engineers.
All the engineers perished. Did you ever meet a hero? I have met heroes.
But they never wore medals or labels. Did you ever meet a martyr who was
conscious of martyrdom? I have met martyrs. But they never knew who they
were. And I never told them. Heroes dont hunt for you. You have to hunt
for them. The hero is not the sun. The hero is an atom in the sun. If
light was conscious of being light it would cease to be light. I know
countless heroes. But they never say anything about heroism. Life is not
heroism. Life is life. One man has more life than another man. He is not
better than other men. He is only more alive. He weighs more. He looks
farther. But he is no hero. A man is affronted if you call him a hero.
He would rather just be a man. I think of a certain man. He was
nonchalantly the most effective man I ever met. Was he a hero? He never
went anywhere theatrically to do anything. He just stayed where he was
and acted his part. The engineers just stayed where they were and acted
their part. As the simplest workman does. As the scavengers do. Just
acted their part. Can a god do more? Should a man do less? I don't say
there are no heroes. I say they are countless. You see the hero in the
exception. I see the hero in the rule. My hero never flourishes a whip.
I see him serving. Let my hero stop serving and he abdicates. Dont
believe anything the hero tells you about himself. Sure things dont
insist on their reality. Every man has his place. Do you call a man a
hero for staying in his place? If I heard anybody call me a hero I'd
begin to suspect myself. I'd take my size and shape over again. I'd go
forty days into the wilderness. I'd bury myself in the slums. I'd want
to get away. To be where I'd escape the measurer. I see the heroes
everywhere. But I see no hero. I see people in their places everywhere.
Often most beautifully in hideous places. Often most hideously in
beautiful places. Like the engineers they all serve. Like the engineers
they will all finally perish. Like the engineers they will all reappear
somewhere again. Heroes? The heroes work underground and overhead
unheralded and unseen. The heroes make our shoes. They work in the
trenches. They nurse babies. They take care of the world. They make it
dirty. And they clean it up. They are its crowd. They are the mobs. They
are the herd. They are the mass. They are all always called by all names
but their real names. They are called dangerous. But if it was not for
them nobody would be safe. They are called ugly. But if it was not for
them nobody would be graceful. They are called stupid. But if it was not
for them nobody would be enlightened. They are the eclipsed, the
obscured, the submerged. But if it was not for them nobody would be a
genius. And you sometimes speak of them as cowards. But if it was not
for them nobody would be brave. You repeat it often enough as a matter
of course that if it was not for the light there would be no shadow. Let
me say it once for all the other way. That if it was not for the shadow
there would be no light. I'm glad. I look everywhere. I discover no
hero. I look everywhere. I never fail to discover heroes. All the
engineers perished.
I dont know what it is: I dont know where it leads me: I go on
and on:
Whether along the common road or into the wilderness, I follow: I
go on and on:
The days are as mysterious as the nights: and the years: they
baffle me: I go on and on:
Something persuades me: something I like the feel of: it is
veiled but sure: I go on and on:
I dont know what it is: I dont know where it leads me: I go on
and on.