,transcriber ,note3 ,obvious typos and punctuation errors corrected4 ,italic text is represented by underscores surrounding the italic text4 ,small capitals have been converted to ,,all ,,caps4 ,a small decoration on the title page is represented by ,decoration4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,this ,,misery of ,,boots ,,by ,h4 ,g4 ,,wells ,author of 8,socialism and the ,family10 8,in the ,days of the ,comet10 8,a ,modern ,utopia10 etc4 ,decoration ,,boston ,,the ,,ball ,,publishing ,,co4 #aijh ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,this ,,misery ,,of ,,boots ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,world ,,as ,,boots ,,and ,,superstructure 8,it does not do10 said a friend of mine1 8to think about boots40 ,for my own part1 ,i have always been particularly inclined to look at boots1 and think about them4 ,i have an odd idea that most general questions can be expressed in terms of foot-wear--which is perhaps why cobblers are often such philosophical men4 ,accident it may be1 gave me this persuasion4 ,a very considerable part of my childhood was spent in an underground kitchen2 the window opened upon a bricked-in space1 surmounted by a grating before my father's shop window4 ,so that1 when ,i looked out of the window1 instead of seeing--as children of a higher upbringing would do--the heads and bodies of people1 ,i saw their under side4 ,i got acquainted indeed with all sorts of social types as boots simply1 indeed1 as the soles of boots2 and only subsequently1 and with care1 have ,i fitted heads1 bodies1 and legs to these pediments4 ,there would come boots and shoes 7no doubt holding people7 to stare at the shop1 finicking1 neat little women's boots1 good sorts and bad sorts1 fresh and new1 worn crooked in the tread1 patched or needing patching2 men's boots1 clumsy and fine1 rubber shoes1 tennis shoes1 goloshes4 ,brown shoes ,i never beheld--it was before that time2 but ,i have seen pattens4 ,boots used to come and commune at the window1 duets that marked their emotional development by a restlessness or a kick4444 ,but anyhow1 that explains my preoccupation with boots4 ,but my friend did not think it did1 to think about boots4 ,my friend was a realistic novelist1 and a man from whom hope had departed4 ,i cannot tell you how hope had gone out of his life2 some subtle disease of the soul had robbed him at last of any enterprise1 or belief in coming things2 and he was trying to live the few declining years that lay before him in a sort of bookish comfort1 among surroundings that seemed peaceful and beautiful1 by not thinking of things that were painful and cruel4 ,and we met a tramp who limped along the lane4 8,chafed heel10 ,i said1 when we had parted from him again2 8and on these pebbly byways no man goes barefooted40 ,my friend winced2 and a little silence came between us4 ,we were both recalling things2 and then for a time1 when we began to talk again1 until he would have no more of it1 we rehearsed the miseries of boots4 ,we agreed that to a very great majority of people in this country boots are constantly a source of distress1 giving pain and discomfort1 causing trouble1 causing anxiety4 ,we tried to present the thing in a concrete form to our own minds by hazardous statistical inventions4 8,at the present moment10 said ,i1 8one person in ten in these islands is in discomfort through boots40 ,my friend thought it was nearer one in five4 8,in the life of a poor man or a poor man's wife1 and still more in the lives of their children1 this misery of the boot occurs and recurs--every year so many days40 ,we made a sort of classification of these troubles4 ,there is the ,,trouble ,,of ,,the ,,new ,,boot4 7i7 ,they are made of some bad1 unventilated material2 and 8draw the feet10 as people say4 7ii7 ,they do not fit exactly4 ,most people have to buy ready-made boots2 they cannot afford others1 and1 in the submissive philosophy of poverty1 they wear them to 8get used0 to them4 ,this gives you the little-toe pinch1 the big-toe pinch1 the squeeze and swelling across the foot2 and1 as a sort of chronic development of these pressures1 come corns and all the misery of corns4 ,children's feet get distorted for good by this method of fitting the human being to the thing2 and a vast number of people in the world are1 as a consequence of this1 ashamed to appear barefooted4 7,i used to press people who came to see me in warm pleasant weather to play ,badminton barefooted on the grass--a delightful thing to do--until ,i found out that many were embarrassed at the thought of displaying twisted toes and corns1 and such-like disfigurements47 7iii7 ,the third trouble of new boots is this3 they are unseasoned and in bad condition1 and so they squeak and make themselves an insulting commentary on one's ways4 ,but these are but trifling troubles to what arises as the boots get into wear4 ,then it is the pinch comes in earnest4 ,of these ,,troubles ,,of ,,the ,,worn ,,boot1 ,i and my friend1 before he desisted1 reckoned up three principal classes4 7i7 ,there are the various sorts of chafe4 ,worst of the chafes is certainly the heel chafe1 when something goes wrong with the upright support at the heel4 ,this1 as a boy1 ,i have had to endure for days together2 because there were no other boots for me4 ,then there is the chafe that comes when that inner lining of the boot rucks up--very like the chafe it is that poor people are always getting from over-darned and hastily-darned socks4 ,and then there is the chafe that comes from ready-made boots one has got a trifle too large or long1 in order to avoid the pinch and corns4 ,after a little while1 there comes a transverse crease across the loose-fitting forepart2 and1 when the boot stiffens from wet or any cause1 it chafes across the base of the toes4 ,they have you all ways4 ,and ,i have a very lively recollection too of the chafe of the knots one made to mend broken laces--one cannot be always buying new laces1 and the knots used to work inward4 ,and then the chafe of the crumpled tongue4 7ii7 ,then there are the miseries that come from the wear of the sole4 ,there is the rick of ankle because the heel has gone over1 and the sense of insecurity2 and there is the miserable sense of not looking well from behind that many people must feel4 ,it is almost always painful to me to walk behind girls who work out1 and go to and fro1 consuming much foot-wear1 for this very reason1 that their heels seem always to wear askew4 ,girls ought always to be so beautiful1 most girls could be so beautiful1 that to see their poor feet askew1 the grace of their walk gone1 a sort of spinal curvature induced1 makes me wretched1 and angry with a world that treats them so4 ,and then there is the working through of nails1 nails in the shoe4 ,one limps on manfully in the hope presently of a quiet moment and a quiet corner in which one may hammer the thing down again4 ,thirdly1 under this heading ,i recall the flapping sole4 ,my boots always came to that stage at last2 ,i wore the toes out first1 and then the sole split from before backwards4 ,as one walked it began catching the ground4 ,one made fantastic paces to prevent it happening2 one was dreadfully ashamed4 ,at last one was forced to sit by the wayside frankly1 and cut the flap away4 7iii7 ,our third class of miseries we made of splitting and leaks4 ,these are for the most part mental miseries1 the feeling of shabbiness as one sees the ugly yawn1 for example1 between toe cap and the main upper of the boot2 but they involve also chills1 colds1 and a long string of disagreeable consequences4 ,and we spoke too of the misery of sitting down to work 7as multitudes of ,london school children do every wet morning7 in boots with soles worn thin or into actual holes1 that have got wet and chilling on the way to the work-place4444 ,from these instances my mind ran on to others4 ,i made a discovery4 ,i had always despised the common run of poor ,londoners for not spending their ,sundays and holidays in sturdy walks1 the very best of exercise4 ,i had allowed myself to say when ,i found myself one summer day at ,margate3 8,what a soft lot all these young people must be who loaf about the band-stand here1 when they might be tramping over the ,kentish hills inland60 ,but now ,i repented me of that4 ,long tramps indeed6 ,their boots would have hurt them4 ,their boots would not stand it4 ,i saw it all4 ,and now my discourse was fairly under way4 8,ex pede ,herculem10 ,i said2 8these miseries of boots are no more than a sample4 ,the clothes people wear are no better than their boots2 and the houses they live in far worse4 ,and think of the shoddy garment of ideas and misconceptions and partial statements into which their poor minds have been jammed by way of education6 ,think of the way that pinches and chafes them6 ,if one expanded the miseries of these things4444 ,think1 for example1 of the results of the poor1 bad1 unwise food1 of badly-managed eyes and ears and teeth6 ,think of the quantity of toothache40 8,i tell you1 it does not do to think of such things60 cried my friend1 in a sort of anguish2 and would have no more of it at any price4444 ,and yet in his time he had written books full of these very matters1 before despair overtook him4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,,ii ,,people ,,whose ,,boots ,,don',t ,,hurt ,,them ,well1 ,i did not talk merely to torment him2 nor have ,i written this merely to torment you4 ,you see ,i have a persistent persuasion that all these miseries are preventable miseries1 which it lies in the power of men to cure4 ,everybody does not suffer misery from boots4 ,one person ,i know1 another friend of mine1 who can testify to that2 who has tasted all the miseries of boots1 and who now goes about the world free of them1 but not altogether forgetful of them4 ,a stroke of luck1 aided perhaps by a certain alacrity on his own part1 lifted him out of the class in which one buys one's boots and clothes out of what is left over from a pound a week1 into the class in which one spends seventy or eighty pounds a year on clothing4 ,sometimes he buys shoes and boots at very good shops2 sometimes he has them made for him2 he has them stored in a proper cupboard1 and great care is taken of them2 and so his boots and shoes and slippers never chafe1 never pinch1 never squeak1 never hurt nor worry him1 never bother him2 and1 when he sticks out his toes before the fire1 they do not remind him that he is a shabby and contemptible wretch1 living meanly on the dust heaps of the world4 ,you might think from this he had every reason to congratulate himself and be happy1 seeing that he has had good follow after evil2 but1 such is the oddness of the human heart1 he isn't contented at all4 ,the thought of the multitudes so much worse off than himself in this matter of foot-wear1 gives him no sort of satisfaction4 ,their boots pinch him vicariously4 ,the black rage with the scheme of things that once he felt through suffering in his own person in the days when he limped shabbily through gaily busy1 fashionable ,london streets1 in split boots that chafed1 he feels now just as badly as he goes about the world very comfortably himself1 but among people whom he knows with a pitiless clearness to be almost intolerably uncomfortable4 ,he has no optimistic illusion that things are all right with them4 ,stupid people who have always been well off1 who have always had boots that fit1 may think that2 but not so1 he4 ,in one respect the thought of boots makes him even more viciously angry now1 than it used to do4 ,in the old days he was savage with his luck1 but hopelessly savage2 he thought that bad boots1 ugly uncomfortable clothes1 rotten houses1 were in the very nature of things4 ,now1 when he sees a child sniffing and blubbering and halting upon the pavement1 or an old country-woman going painfully along a lane1 he no longer recognises the ,pinch of ,destiny4 ,his rage is lit by the thought1 that there are fools in this world who ought to have foreseen and prevented this4 ,he no longer curses fate1 but the dulness of statesmen and powerful responsible people who have neither the heart1 nor courage1 nor capacity1 to change the state of mismanagement that gives us these things4 ,now do not think ,i am dwelling unduly upon my second friend's good fortune1 when ,i tell you that once he was constantly getting pain and miserable states of mind1 colds for example1 from the badness of his clothing1 shame from being shabby1 pain from the neglected state of his teeth1 from the indigestion of unsuitable food eaten at unsuitable hours1 from the insanitary ugly house in which he lived and the bad air of that part of ,london1 from things indeed quite beyond the unaided power of a poor over-worked man to remedy4 ,and now all these disagreeable things have gone out of his life2 he has consulted dentists and physicians1 he has hardly any dull days from colds1 no pain from toothache at all1 no gloom of indigestion4444 ,i will not go on with the tale of good fortune of this lucky person4 ,my purpose is served if ,i have shown that this misery of boots is not an unavoidable curse upon mankind4 ,if one man can evade it1 others can4 ,by good management it may be altogether escaped4 ,if you1 or what is more important to most human beings1 if any people dear to you1 suffer from painful or disfiguring boots or shoes1 and you can do no better for them1 it is simply because you are getting the worse side of an ill-managed world4 ,it is not the universal lot4 ,and what ,i say of boots is true of all the other minor things of life4 ,if your wife catches a bad cold because her boots are too thin for the time of the year1 or dislikes going out because she cuts a shabby ugly figure1 if your children look painfully nasty because their faces are swollen with toothache1 or because their clothes are dirty1 old1 and ill-fitting1 if you are all dull and disposed to be cross with one another for want of decent amusement and change of air--don't submit1 don't be humbugged for a moment into believing that this is the dingy lot of all mankind4 ,those people you love are living in a badly-managed world and on the wrong side of it2 and such wretchednesses are the daily demonstration of that4 ,don't say for a moment3 8,such is life40 ,don't think their miseries are part of some primordial curse there is no escaping4 ,the disproof of that is for any one to see4 ,there are people1 people no more deserving than others1 who suffer from none of these things4 ,you may feel you merit no better than to live so poorly and badly that your boots are always hurting you2 but do the little children1 the girls1 the mass of decent hard-up people1 deserve no better fate8 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,,iii ,,at ,,this ,,point ,a ,,dispute ,,arises ,now let us imagine some one who will dispute what ,i am saying4 ,i do not suppose any one will dispute my argument that a large part of the misery of civilised life--,i do not say 8all0 but only a 8large part0--arises out of the network of squalid insufficiencies of which ,i have taken this misery of boots as the simplest example4 ,but ,i do believe quite a lot of people will be prepared to deny that such miseries can be avoided4 ,they will say that every one cannot have the best of things1 that of all sorts of good things1 including good leather and cobbling1 there is not enough to go round1 that lower-class people ought not to mind being shabby and uncomfortable1 that they ought to be very glad to be able to live at all1 considering what they are1 and that it is no good stirring up discontent about things that cannot be altered or improved4 ,such arguments are not to be swept aside with a wave of the hand4 ,it is perfectly true that every one cannot have the best of things2 and it is in the nature of things that some boots should be better and some worse4 ,to some people1 either by sheer good luck1 or through the strength of their determination to have them1 the exquisitely good boots1 those of the finest leather and the most artistic cut1 will fall4 ,i have never denied that4 ,nobody dreams of a time when every one will have exactly as good boots as every one else2 ,i am not preaching any such childish and impossible equality4 ,but it is a long way from recognising that there must be a certain picturesque and interesting variety in this matter of foot-wear1 to the admission that a large majority of people can never hope for more than to be shod in a manner that is frequently painful1 uncomfortable1 unhealthy1 or unsightly4 ,that admission ,i absolutely refuse to make4 ,there is enough good leather in the world to make good sightly boots and shoes for all who need them1 enough men at leisure and enough power and machinery to do all the work required1 enough unemployed intelligence to organise the shoemaking and shoe distribution for everybody4 ,what stands in the way8 ,let us put that question in a rather different form4 ,here on the one hand--you can see for yourself in any unfashionable part of ,great ,britain--are people badly1 uncomfortably1 painfully shod1 in old boots1 rotten boots1 sham boots2 and on the other great stretches of land in the world1 with unlimited possibilities of cattle and leather and great numbers of people1 who1 either through wealth or trade disorder1 are doing no work4 ,and our question is3 8,why cannot the latter set to work and make and distribute boots80 ,imagine yourself trying to organise something of this kind of ,free ,booting expedition2 and consider the difficulties you would meet with4 ,you would begin by looking for a lot of leather4 ,imagine yourself setting off to ,south ,america1 for example1 to get leather2 beginning at the very beginning by setting to work to kill and flay a herd of cattle4 ,you find at once you are interrupted4 ,along comes your first obstacle in the shape of a man who tells you the cattle and the leather belong to him4 ,you explain that the leather is wanted for people who have no decent boots in ,england4 ,he says he does not care a rap what you want it for2 before you may take it from him you have to buy him off2 it is his private property1 this leather1 and the herd and the land over which the herd ranges4 ,you ask him how much he wants for his leather2 and he tells you frankly1 just as much as he can induce you to give4 ,if he chanced to be a person of exceptional sweetness of disposition1 you might perhaps argue with him4 ,you might point out to him that this project of giving people splendid boots was a fine one that would put an end to much human misery4 ,he might even sympathise with your generous enthusiasm2 but you would1 ,i think1 find him adamantine in his resolve to get just as much out of you for his leather as you could with the utmost effort pay4 ,suppose now you said to him3 8,but how did you come by this land and these herds1 so that you can stand between them and the people who have need of them1 exacting this profit80 ,he would probably either embark upon a long rigmarole1 or1 what is much more probable1 lose his temper and decline to argue4 ,pursuing your doubt as to the rightfulness of his property in these things1 you might admit he deserved a certain reasonable fee for the rough care he had taken of the land and herds4 ,but cattle breeders are a rude1 violent race2 and it is doubtful if you would get far beyond your proposition of a reasonable fee4 ,you would in fact have to buy off this owner of the leather at a good thumping price--he exacting just as much as he could get from you--if you wanted to go on with your project4 ,well1 then you would have to get your leather here2 and1 to do that1 you would have to bring it by railway and ship to this country4 ,and here again you would find people without any desire or intention of helping your project1 standing in your course1 resolved to make every possible penny out of you on your way to provide sound boots for every one4 ,you would find the railway was private property1 and had an owner or owners2 you would find the ship was private property1 with an owner or owners2 and that none of these would be satisfied for a moment with a mere fee adequate to their services4 ,they too would be resolved to make every penny of profit out of you4 ,if you made inquiries about the matter1 you would probably find the real owners of railway and ship were companies of shareholders1 and that the profit squeezed out of your poor people's boots at this stage went to fill the pockets of old ladies at ,torquay1 spendthrifts in ,paris1 well-booted gentlemen in ,london clubs1 all sorts of glossy people4444 ,well1 you get the leather to ,england at last2 and now you want to make it into boots4 ,you take it to a centre of population1 invite workers to come to you1 erect sheds and machinery upon a vacant piece of ground1 and start off in a sort of fury of generous industry1 boot-making4444 ,do you8 ,there comes along an owner for that vacant piece of ground1 declares it is his property1 demands an enormous sum for rent4 ,and your workers all round you1 you find1 cannot get house room until they too have paid rent--every inch of the country is somebody's property1 and a man may not shut his eyes for an hour without the consent of some owner or other4 ,and the food your shoemakers eat1 the clothes they wear1 have all paid tribute and profit to land-owners1 cart-owners1 house-owners1 endless tribute over and over and above the fair pay for work that has been done upon them4444 ,so one might go on4 ,but you begin to see now one set of reasons at least why every one has not good comfortable boots4 ,there could be plenty of leather2 and there is certainly plenty of labour and quite enough intelligence in the world to manage that and a thousand other desirable things4 ,but this institution of ,private ,property in land and naturally produced things1 these obstructive claims that prevent you using ground1 or moving material1 and that have to be bought out at exorbitant prices1 stand in the way4 ,all these owners hang like parasites upon your enterprise at its every stage2 and1 by the time you get your sound boots well made in ,england1 you will find them costing about a pound a pair--high out of the reach of the general mass of people4 ,and you will perhaps not think me fanciful and extravagant when ,i confess that when ,i realise this1 and look at poor people's boots in the street1 and see them cracked and misshapen and altogether nasty1 ,i seem to see also a lot of little phantom land-owners1 cattle-owners1 house-owners1 owners of all sorts1 swarming over their pinched and weary feet like leeches1 taking much and giving nothing1 and being the real cause of all such miseries4 ,now is this a necessary and unavoidable thing8--that is our question4 ,is there no other way of managing things than to let these property-owners exact their claims1 and squeeze comfort1 pride1 happiness1 out of the lives of the common run of people8 ,because1 of course1 it is not only the boots they squeeze into meanness and badness4 ,it is the claim and profit of the land-owner and house-owner that make our houses so ugly1 shabby1 and dear1 that make our roadways and railways so crowded and inconvenient1 that sweat our schools1 our clothing1 our food--boots we took merely by way of one example of a universal trouble4 ,well1 there are a number of people who say there is a better way and that the world could be made infinitely better in all these matters1 made happier and better than it ever has been in these respects1 by refusing to have private property in all these universally necessary things4 ,they say that it is possible to have the land administered1 and such common and needful things as leather produced1 and boots manufactured1 and no end of other such generally necessary services carried on1 not for the private profit of individuals1 but for the good of all4 ,they propose that the ,state should take away the land1 and the railways1 and shipping1 and many great organised enterprises from their owners1 who use them simply to squeeze the means for a wasteful private expenditure out of the common mass of men1 and should administer all these things1 generously and boldly1 not for profit1 but for service4 ,it is this idea of extracting profit they hold which is the very root of the evil4 ,these are the ,socialists2 and they are the only people who do hold out any hope of far-reaching change that will alter the present dingy state of affairs1 of which this painful wretchedness of boots is only one typical symbol4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,,iv ,,is ,,socialism ,,possible8 ,i will not pretend to be impartial in this matter1 and to discuss as though ,i had an undecided mind1 whether the world would be better if we could abolish private property in land and in many things of general utility2 because ,i have no doubt left in the matter4 ,i believe that private property in these things is no more necessary and unavoidable than private property in our fellow-creatures1 or private property in bridges and roads4 ,the idea that anything and everything may be claimed as private property belongs to the dark ages of the world2 and it is not only a monstrous injustice1 but a still more monstrous inconvenience4 ,suppose we still admitted private property in high roads1 and let every man who had a scrap of high road haggle a bargain with us before we could drive by in a cab6 ,you say life would be unendurable4 ,but indeed it amounts to something a little like that if we use a railway now2 and it is quite like that if one wants a spot of ground somewhere upon which one may live4 ,i see no more difficulty in managing land1 factories1 and the like1 publicly for the general good1 than there is in managing roads and bridges1 and the post office and the police4 ,so far ,i see no impossibility whatever in ,socialism4 ,to abolish private property in these things would be to abolish all that swarm of parasites1 whose greed for profit and dividend hampers and makes a thousand useful and delightful enterprises costly or hopeless4 ,it would abolish them2 but is that any objection whatever8 ,and as for taking such property from the owners2 why shouldn't we8 ,the world has not only in the past taken slaves from their owners1 with no compensation or with a meagre compensation2 but in the history of mankind1 dark as it is1 there are innumerable cases of slave-owners resigning their inhuman rights4 ,you may say that to take away property from people is unjust and robbery2 but is that really so8 ,suppose you found a number of children in a nursery all very dull and unhappy because one of them1 who had been badly spoilt1 had got all the toys together and claimed them all1 and refused to let the others have any4 ,would you not dispossess the child1 however honest its illusion that it was right to be greedy8 ,that is practically the position of the property-owner to-day4 ,you may say1 if you choose1 that property-owners1 land-owners for example1 must be bought out and not robbed2 but since getting the money to buy them out involves taxing the property of some one else1 who may possibly have a better claim to it than the land-owner to his1 ,i don't quite see where the honesty of that course comes in4 ,you can only give property for property in buying and selling2 and if private property is not robbery1 then not only ,socialism but ordinary taxation must be4 ,but if taxation is a justifiable proceeding1 if you can tax me 7as ,i am taxed7 for public services1 a shilling and more out of every twenty shillings ,i earn1 then ,i do not see why you should not put a tax upon the land-owner if you want to do so1 of a half or two thirds or all his land1 or upon the railway share-holder of ten or fifteen or twenty shillings in the pound on his shares4 ,in every change some one has to bear the brunt2 every improvement in machinery and industrial organisation deprives some poor people of an income2 and ,i do not see why we should be so extraordinarily tender to the rich1 to those who have been unproductive all their lives1 when they stand in the way of the general happiness4 ,and though ,i deny the right to compensation ,i do not deny its probable advisability4 ,so far as the question of method goes it is quite conceivable that we may partially compensate the property owners and make all sorts of mitigating arrangements to avoid cruelty to them in our attempt to end the wider cruelties of to-day4 ,but1 apart from the justice of the case1 many people seem to regard ,socialism as a hopeless dream1 because1 as they put it1 8it is against human nature40 ,every one with any scrap of property in land1 or shares1 or what not1 they tell us1 will be bitterly opposed to the coming of ,socialism2 and1 as such people have all the leisure and influence in the world1 and as all able and energetic people tend naturally to join that class1 there never can be any effectual force to bring ,socialism about4 ,but that seems to me to confess a very base estimate of human nature4 ,there are1 no doubt1 a number of dull1 base1 rich people who hate and dread ,socialism for purely selfish reasons2 but it is quite possible to be a property owner and yet be anxious to see ,socialism come to its own4 ,for example1 the man whose private affairs ,i know best in the world1 the second friend ,i named1 the owner of all those comfortable boots1 gives time and energy and money to further this hope of ,socialism1 although he pays income tax on twelve hundred a year1 and has shares and property to the value of some thousands of pounds4 ,and that he does out of no instinct of sacrifice4 ,he believes he would be happier and more comfortable in a ,socialistic state of affairs1 when it would not be necessary for him to hold on to that life-belt of invested property4 ,he finds it--and quite a lot of well-off people are quite of his way of thinking--a constant flaw upon a life of comfort and pleasant interests to see so many people1 who might be his agreeable friends and associates1 detestably under-educated1 detestably housed1 in the most detestable clothes and boots1 and so detestably broken in spirit that they will not treat him as an equal4 ,it makes him feel he is like that spoilt child in the nursery2 he feels ashamed and contemptible2 and1 since individual charity only seems in the long run to make matters worse1 he is ready to give a great deal of his life1 and lose his entire little heap of possessions if need be1 very gladly lose it1 to change the present order of things in a comprehensive manner4 ,i am quite convinced that there are numbers of much richer and more influential people who are of his way of thinking4 ,much more likely to obstruct the way to ,socialism is the ignorance1 the want of courage1 the stupid want of imagination of the very poor1 too shy and timid and clumsy to face any change they can evade6 ,but1 even with them1 popular education is doing its work2 and ,i do not fear but that in the next generation we shall find ,socialists even in the slums4 ,the unimaginative person who owns some little bit of property1 an acre or so of freehold land1 or a hundred pounds in the savings bank1 will no doubt be the most tenacious passive resister to ,socialistic ideas2 and such1 ,i fear1 we must reckon1 together with the insensitive rich1 as our irreconcilable enemies1 as irremovable pillars of the present order4 ,the mean and timid elements in 8human nature0 are1 and will be1 ,i admit1 against ,socialism2 but they are not all 8human nature10 not half human nature4 ,and when1 in the whole history of the world1 have meanness and timidity won a struggle8 ,it is passion1 it is enthusiasm1 and indignation that mould the world to their will--and ,i cannot see how any one can go into the back streets of ,london1 or any large ,british town1 and not be filled up with shame1 and passionate resolve to end so grubby and mean a state of affairs as is displayed there4 ,i don't think the 8human nature0 argument against the possibility of ,socialism will hold water4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,chapter ,v ,,socialism ,,means ,,revolution ,let us be clear about one thing3 that ,socialism means revolution1 that it means a change in the every-day texture of life4 ,it may be a very gradual change1 but it will be a very complete one4 ,you cannot change the world1 and at the same time not change the world4 ,you will find ,socialists about1 or at any rate men calling themselves ,socialists1 who will pretend that this is not so1 who will assure you that some odd little jobbing about municipal gas and water is ,socialism1 and back-stairs intervention between ,conservative and ,liberal the way to the millennium4 ,you might as well call a gas jet in the lobby of a meeting-house1 the glory of ,god in ,heaven6 ,socialism aims to change1 not only the boots on people's feet1 but the clothes they wear1 the houses they inhabit1 the work they do1 the education they get1 their places1 their honours1 and all their possessions4 ,socialism aims to make a new world out of the old4 ,it can only be attained by the intelligent1 outspoken1 courageous resolve of a great multitude of men and women4 ,you must get absolutely clear in your mind that ,socialism means a complete change1 a break with history1 with much that is picturesque2 whole classes will vanish4 ,the world will be vastly different1 with a different sort of houses1 different sorts of people4 ,all the different trades and industries will be changed1 the medical profession will be carried on under different conditions1 engineering1 science1 the theatrical trade1 the clerical trade1 schools1 hotels1 almost every trade1 will have to undergo as complete an internal change as a caterpillar does when it becomes a moth4 ,if you are afraid of so much change as that1 it is better you should funk about it now than later4 ,the whole system has to be changed1 if we are to get rid of the masses of dull poverty that render our present state detestable to any sensitive man or woman4 ,that1 and no less1 is the aim of all sincere ,socialists3 the establishment of a new and better order of society by the abolition of private property in land1 in natural productions1 and in their exploitation--a change as profound as the abolition of private property in slaves would have been in ancient ,rome or ,athens4 ,if you demand less than that1 if you are not prepared to struggle for that1 you are not really a ,socialist4 ,if you funk that1 then you must make up your mind to square your life to a sort of personal and private happiness with things as they are1 and decide with my other friend that 8it doesn't do to think about boots40 ,it is well to insist upon one central idea4 ,socialism is a common-sense1 matter-of-fact proposal to change our conventional admission of what is or is not property1 and to re-arrange the world according to these revised conceptions4 ,a certain number of clever people1 dissatisfied with the straightforwardness of this1 have set themselves to put it in some brilliant obscure way2 they will tell you that ,socialism is based on the philosophy of ,hegel1 or that it turns on a theory of ,rent1 or that it is somehow muddled up with a sort of white ,bogey called the ,overman1 and all sorts of brilliant1 nonsensical1 unappetising things4 ,the theory of ,socialism1 so far as ,english people are concerned1 seems to have got up into the clouds1 and its practice down into the drains2 and it is well to warn inquiring men1 that neither the epigram above nor the job beneath are more than the accidental accompaniments of ,socialism4 ,socialism is a very large1 but a plain1 honest1 and human enterprise2 its ends are to be obtained neither by wit nor cunning1 but by outspoken resolve1 by the self-abnegation1 the enthusiasm1 and the loyal cooperation of great masses of people4 ,the main thing1 therefore1 is the creation of these great masses of people out of the intellectual confusion and vagueness of the present time4 ,let me suppose that you find yourself in sympathy with this tract1 that you1 like my second friend1 find the shabby dullness1 the positive misery of a large proportion of the population of our world1 make life under its present conditions almost intolerable1 and that it is in the direction of ,socialism that the only hope of a permanent remedy lies4 ,what are we to do8 ,obviously to give our best energies to making other people ,socialists1 to organising ourselves with all other ,socialists1 irrespective of class or the minor details of creed1 and to making ourselves audible1 visible1 effectual as ,socialists1 wherever and whenever we can4 ,we have to think about ,socialism1 read about it1 discuss it2 so that we may be assured and clear and persuasive about it4 ,we have to confess our faith openly and frequently4 ,we must refuse to be called ,liberal or ,conservative1 ,republican or ,democrat1 or any of those ambiguous things4 ,everywhere we must make or join a ,socialist organisation1 a club or association or what not1 so that we may 8count40 ,for us1 as for the early ,christians1 preaching our gospel is the supreme duty4 ,until ,socialists can be counted1 and counted upon by the million1 little will be done4 ,when they are--a new world will be ours4 ,above all1 if ,i may offer advice to a fellow-,socialist1 ,i would say3 ,cling to the simple essential idea of ,socialism1 which is the abolition of private property in anything but what a man has earned or made4 ,do not complicate your cause with elaborations4 ,and keep in your mind1 if you can1 some sort of talisman to bring you back to that essential gospel1 out of the confusions and warring suggestions of every-day discussion4 ,for my own part1 ,i have1 as ,i said at the beginning1 a prepossession with boots2 and my talisman is this3--,the figure of a badly fed but rather pretty little girl of ten or eleven1 dirty1 and her hands coarse with rough usage1 her poor pretty child's body in ungainly rags1 and1 on her feet1 big broken-down boots that hurt her4 ,and particularly ,i think of her wretched sticks of legs and the limp of her feet2 and all those phantom owners and profit-takers ,i spoke of1 they are there about her martyrdom1 leech-like1 clinging to her as she goes4444 ,i want to change everything in the world that made that2 and ,i do not greatly care what has to go in the process4 ,do you8 ,h4 ,g4 ,,wells 99 99 99 99 99 ,here is just a bit of hard fact to carry out what ,i say4 ,it is a quotation from a letter from a workman to my friend ,mr4 ,chiozza ,money1 one of the best informed writers upon labour questions in ,england3 8,i am a railway man1 in constant work at #cjs4 per week4 ,i am the happy1 or otherwise1 father of six healthy children4 ,last year ,i bought twenty pairs of boots4 ,this year1 up to date1 ,i have bought ten pairs1 costing #b2 and yet1 at the present time1 my wife and five of the children have only one pair each4 ,i have two pairs1 both of which let in the water2 but ,i see no prospect at present of getting new ones4 ,i ought to say1 of course1 that my wife is a thoroughly domesticated woman1 and ,i am one of the most temperate of men4 ,so much so1 that if all ,i spend in luxuries was saved it would not buy a pair of boots once a year4 ,but this is the point ,i want to mention4 ,during #aijc my wages were #bes4 #f;d4 per week2 and ,i then had the six children4 ,my next-door neighbour was a boot-maker and repairer4 ,he fell out of work1 and was out for months4 ,during that time1 of course1 my children's boots needed repairing as at other times4 ,i had not the money to pay for them being repaired1 so had to do what repairing ,i could myself4 ,one day ,i found out that ,i was repairing boots on one side of the wall1 and my neighbour on the other side out of work1 and longing to do the work ,i was compelled to do myself44440 ,the wall was a commercial organisation of society based on private property in land and natural productions4 ,these two men must work for the owners or not at all2 they cannot work for one another4 ,food first1 then rent2 and boots1 if you can1 when all the owners are paid4