‘I am against some of his ways,’ said Wentworth. ‘I am against improvident marriages. In the middle circles of society we can’t marry till we have a chance of keeping a wife. But almost directly poor lads or girls—especially in our great cities—are of age, and often before, they are married, and have families that they can’t keep, and then the taxpayer, often little better off than themselves, has to pay for their support. Is that fair?’ ‘Well, it do seem rather hard.’ ‘As long as that is the case wages must be low, for the supply will be in excess of the demand. Suppose you get Parliament to come to the aid of such. The result is you will have more improvident marriages. Then you tax still more heavily the middle and the upper classes, and the middle classes become paupers themselves. I see a remedy for this. We shall have the children of the working classes better educated, and then they will not think of marrying till they can live in a decent manner. They will shrink from inflicting hardships on innocent children, as they do now.’ ‘Well, they have to wait a long time.’ ‘I fear so. But how is trade at Sloville?’ ‘Why, just now very bad.’ ‘Shall I tell you one reason?’ ‘Just as you please; only, whatever you say I shall report to the United Buffaloes.’ ‘Well, I don’t want to go out of my way to offend them, especially since they all vote together. But you had a strike here last summer, had you not?’ ‘Yes, and a pretty time of it we had.’ ‘It is over now, and what is the result?’ ‘Why, that we are going on pretty much as usual.’ ‘Not exactly. That strike cost a lot of money.’ ‘I believe you.’ ‘And that is all thrown away, and to that extent the working men are so much the poorer. Is not that a fact?’ ‘Well, it is no use denying of it; but the masters have suffered as well, though you get no benefit by their suffering.’ ‘And whose fault is that?’ ‘The Unions’, I suppose. ‘They were beaten, at any rate.’ ‘The Unions. I am glad you mention them, because there is another thing I have to say. I fear that you can never get good work as long as men are all paid alike, whether they are good workmen or not.’ ‘But that is what we insist on more than anything else.’