Page:Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.djvu/139

 'Suppose we admits as it's wrong, just for the sake of argyment,' said Crass in a jeering tone; 'wot then? Wot about it? 'Ow's it goin' to be altered?'

'Yes!' cried Harlow triumphantly, 'That's the bloody question! 'Ow's it agoin' to be altered? It can't be done!'

There was a general murmur of satisfaction. Nearly everyone seemed very pleased to think that the existing state of things could not possibly be altered.

'Whether it can be altered or not, whether it's right or wrong, Landlordism is one of the causes of poverty,' Owen repeated. 'Poverty is not caused by men and women getting married; it's not caused by machinery; it's not caused by "over-production"; it's not caused by drink or laziness, and it's not caused by "over-population." It's caused by Private Monopoly. That is the present system. They have monopolised everything that it is possible to monopolise. They have got the whole earth, the minerals in the earth and the streams that water the earth. If it had been possible to monopolise the air and compress it into huge gasometers, it would have been done long ago, and we should have been compelled to work in order to get money to buy air to breathe. And if that seemingly impossible thing were accomplished to-morrow, you would see thousands of people dying for want of air—or of the money to buy it—even as now thousands are dying for want of the other necessaries of life. You would see people going about gasping for breath, and telling each other that the likes of them could not expect to have air to breathe unless they had the money to pay for it. Most of you here, for instance, would think so and say so, even as you think that it's right for a few people to own the Earth, the Minerals and the Water, which are all just as necessary as is the air. In exactly the same spirit as you now say: "It's their land," "It's their water," "It's their coal," "It's their iron," so you would say: "It's their air, these are their gasometers, and what right have the likes of us to expect them to allow us to breathe for nothing?"

'I suppose you think the landlords ought to let people live in their 'ouses for nothing?' said Crass, breaking the silence that followed.

'Certainly,' remarked Harlow, pretending to be suddenly converted to Owen's views; 'I reckon the landlord ought to pay the rent to the tenant!' 127