Changing Winds: A NovelErvine, St. John G. (St. John Greer)
General
Changing Winds: A Novel
Ervine, St. John G. (St. John Greer)
Fiction
"That's why I want to see the Tory Party resuscitated," said Roger. "I
want to limit the number of such people and to make every man feel that
it's a gentlemanly thing to do your best, whatever your job is, and that
payment has nothing whatever to do with the way you do your work!"
The whole industrial system would need re-shaping, the whole social
system would need re-shaping, the Empire would need re-shaping.
"This craving for cheapness has cheapened nothing but life," said Roger,
"and it brings incalculable trouble with it. I mean, a ha'penny saved
now means pounds lost later. Oh, that's a platitude, I know, but we pay
no heed to it. I've never been to America, but we know quite well that
one of the most serious problems for the Americans is the negro problem.
I heard a Rhodes scholar talking about it once. He simply foamed at the
mouth. He hadn't any plan for it ... didn't seem to realise that a plan
could be made ... and you know they've only got that problem through the
greediness of their ancestors. Negroes aren't native to America. The
planters wanted cheap labour and so they imported them ... and the end
of that business is the Negro Problem!"
"And lynchings and a Civil War in between," Henry murmured. "That's the
most hateful part of it ... the killing and the bitterness."
"Great Scott!" said Ninian, "think of all those Yankees killing each
other so that niggers might wear spats and top hats and sing coon songs
in the music halls!... Damn silly, I call it!"
"We've got to make people believe that it isn't what you get that
matters, but what you do," Roger went on. "All this footling squabble
between workmen and employers about a farthing an hour more or a
farthing an hour less ... isn't decent ... it isn't gentlemanly. Oh, I
know very well that the counter-jumper thinks it's very clever to trick
a customer out of a ha'penny ... but it doesn't last, that kind of
profit. We lost America because we behaved like cads to the colonists,
and we'll lose everything if we continue to play the counter-jumper
trick. It isn't very popular now to talk about gentlemen ... people
sneer at the word ... but I'd rather die like a gentleman than live like
a cad ... and that's the spirit I want to see restored to the Tory
Party. It's awfully needed in England now!"
They began to lay plans for an Improved Tory Party that included an
alliance with Labour and a closer confederation of the colonies,
together with a definite understanding with America.
"And what about Ireland?" said Henry.
"Oh, of course, Ireland must have Home Rule and be treated like a
colony. Nobody but a fool wants to treat it in any other way!" said
Roger.
"There are an awful lot of fools in the world," Gilbert said.
"I know that," Roger retorted, "but need we trouble about them?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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