Page:Last Will and Testament of Cecil Rhodes.djvu/179

Rh a week’s steady labour as a result of a forward policy in South Africa.’ What is the reply to that? I do not reply by a platform address about ‘three acres and a cow’—(laughter)—or with Socialistic statements as to ‘those who have not, taking from those who have.’ I make the practical reply that we have built 200 miles of railway, and that the rails have all been made in England and the locomotives also. We have constructed 1,300 miles of telegraphs, and the poles and wires have all been made in England. Everything we wear has been imported from England. And can you tell me that not a single labourer or unemployed workman in England is likely to secure a week’s steady labour as a result of that enterprise? I can assure you it does them much more good than telling them about three acres and a cow, because nothing has ever come out of that yet. (Laughter.) And as to the Socialistic programme—well, you know the story of one of the Rothschilds, I think, who listened to it all in the train, and then handed the gentleman who addressed him a sovereign as his share of the plunder. (Laughter.) But we have to deal with this question, and I hope I am not tiring you of it, because we have to study the feeling of the English people, and they are most practical. You must show that it is to their benefit that these expansions are made, because the man in the street, if he does not get a share, naturally says: ‘And where do I come in?’ (Laughter.) You must show them that there is a distinct advantage to them in these developments abroad. That is the reason why, when we made a constitution for this country, I submitted a provision that the duty on British goods should not exceed the