"Yes," replied Mr. George, "so far as efficiency in the government, and
order, safety, and peace in the community, are concerned, the plan
certainly succeeds admirably well. But there is another very important
point in which it seems to me it does not succeed at all."
"What is that?" asked Rollo.
"Why, in the division of the fruits of the labor," replied Mr. George.
"I don't know what you mean by that," said Rollo.
"Well, I will explain it," said Mr. George. "If we suppose that there
are thirty millions of people in Great Britain----"
"Are there thirty millions?" said Rollo.
"Not quite, perhaps," said Mr. George; "but I will take thirty millions
for my calculation. Now, out of thirty millions of people, including
men, women, and children, of all ages, there will be, according to the
usual proportion, about ten millions of men and women able to work, or
to superintend work. There are undoubtedly that number now engaged in
various industrial and useful occupations in England. Some are
cultivating the land, raising wheat, or other kinds of food; some are
rearing sheep or cattle; some are digging ore in the mines of Cornwall
or Wales; some are raising coal and iron ore from the immense coal and
iron mines in the northern part of the island; some are tending the
mills and machine shops and manufactories where such vast quantities of
goods are made; and some are planning or superintending these
operations, or are performing professional services of various kinds.
Now, if we suppose that the average earnings of all these people would
be a dollar a day, that would make the amount ten millions a day in all,
or three thousand millions of dollars a year, to be divided, in some way
or other, among the English people."
"But the workmen in England don't earn a dollar a day, do they?" said
Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George; "the laborers and the operatives do not earn so
much as that, or at least they are not paid so much; but I have no doubt
but that the whole amount produced would average that. In fact, I
presume it would average more than that a great deal, and that the whole
amount produced by the annual industry of England is a great deal more
than three thousand millions of dollars."
"Well," said Rollo, "go on."
"I was going to explain to you, you remember, how government, by an
aristocracy in England, operates in respect to the division of the
fruits of labor among those who produce them. And the fact is, that it
operates in such a manner as to give an immensely large proportion of
the value to the aristocratic classes themselves, and an exceedingly
small portion to the people who actually do the work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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