Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Science
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Cooperation; Social groups; Social institutions
Mr. Plimsoll, after he had lived for some time among the poor, on 7s.
6d. a week, was compelled to recognize that the kindly feelings he took
with him when he began this life "changed into hearty respect and
admiration" when he saw how the relations between the poor are permeated
with mutual aid and support, and learned the simple ways in which that
support is given. After a many years' experience, his conclusion was
that "when you come to think of it, such as these men were, so were the
vast majority of the working classes."(20) As to bringing up orphans,
even by the poorest families, it is so widely-spread a habit, that it
may be described as a general rule; thus among the miners it was found,
after the two explosions at Warren Vale and at Lund Hill, that "nearly
one-third of the men killed, as the respective committees can testify,
were thus supporting relations other than wife and child." "Have you
reflected," Mr. Plimsoll added, "what this is? Rich men, even
comfortably-to-do men do this, I don't doubt. But consider the
difference." Consider what a sum of one shilling, subscribed by each
worker to help a comrade's widow, or 6d. to help a fellow-worker to
defray the extra expense of a funeral, means for one who earns 16s. a
week and has a wife, and in some cases five or six children to
support.(21) But such subscriptions are a general practice among the
workers all over the world, even in much more ordinary cases than a
death in the family, while aid in work is the commonest thing in their
lives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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