Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
I have now passed in review the leading features of the Scheme, which I
put forward as one that is calculated to considerably contribute to the
amelioration of the condition of the lowest stratum of our Society.
It in no way professes to be complete in all its details.
Anyone may at any point lay his finger on this, that, or the other
feature of the Scheme, and show some void that must be filled in if it
is to work with effect. There is one thing, however, that can be
safely said in excuse for the short comings of the Scheme, and that is
that if you wait until you get an ideally perfect plan you will have to
wait until the Millennium, and then you will not need it.
My suggestions, crude though they may be, have, nevertheless, one
element that will in time supply all deficiencies. There is life in
them, with life there is the promise and power of adaptation to all the
innumerable and varying circumstances of the class with which we have
to deal. Where there is life there is infinite power of adjustment.
This is no cast-iron Scheme, forged in a single brain and then set up
as a standard to which all must conform. It is a sturdy plant,
which has its roots deep down in the nature and circumstances of men.
Nay, I believe in the very heart of God Himself. It has already grown
much, and will, if duly nurtured and tended, grow still further, until
from it, as from the grain of mustard-seed in the parable, there shall
spring up a great tree whose branches shall overshadow all the earth.
Once more let me say, I claim no patent rights in any part of this
Scheme. Indeed, I do not know what in it is original and what is not.
Since formulating some of the plans, which I had thought were new under
the sun, I have discovered that they have been already tried in
different parts of the world, and that with great promise. It may be
so with others, and in this I rejoice. I plead for no exclusiveness.
The question is much too serious for such fooling as that. Here are
millions of our fellow-creatures perishing amidst the breakers of the
sea of life, dashed to pieces on sharp rocks, sucked under by eddying
whirlpools, suffocated even when they think they have reached land by
treacherous quicksands; to save them from this imminent destruction I
suggest that these things should be done. If you have any better plan
than mine for effecting this purpose, in God's name bring it to the
light and get it carried out quickly. If you have not, then lend me a
hand with mine, as I would be only too glad to lend you a hand with
yours if it had in it greater promise of successful action than mine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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