'Those,' continued the Socialist Professor, 'who do most to make a few
men rich are the real enemies of what they suppose themselves to be
defending. Given a thousand women sweated for one man, and there
presently arises indignation either among the women or among the
bystanders. From indignation we get revolution, because the employer
never gives way. He cannot. He would lose, if he did, his wealth, which
is his Heaven. If you divide the thousand women into companies of ten,
each company under its own sweater, and all the sweaters under other
sweaters, you make a hierarchy of sweaters, culminating in one at the
top. That was the old state of things. The man at the top was a Chief,
a Patriarch: he knew his people: he sweated them, but kindly: he tossed
them crumbs: he looked after the sick and the old. Now all this is
changing. The old family tie--such as it was--is dissolved. The man at
the top has disappeared: a Board of Directors has taken his place: there
is nothing left but the Board and its employees. The men who work are no
longer interested in the business of the firm, except so far as their
pay is concerned. Their pay will go up and the dividends will go down.
And with every increase of wages so much Property is destroyed. Let
every thing--everything--be turned into Companies to help the
destruction of Property.'
Said the other Voice: 'Property is strengthened by being diffused.
Companies organise labour: they give capital its proper power: they are
not easily intimidated: they interest all who can save anything. Let us
turn into Companies every industrial and distributive business in the
country.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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