Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/167

 Thursday, evidently after the receipt of this letter, I got, the only reply vouched, this telegram—'If rabies suspected intimation should be given to the police.' On Friday, as a result of doing so, I was visited by a fine specimen of the thick-headed rural constable, with written instructions 'to inquire into my complaint against the owner of a savage dog'!

"To-day, Saturday, my doctor is telegraphing elsewhere for the information denied us by the Board, but it will be Monday before the head can be sent, and probably a fortnight from the date of the bite before the result can be known, and then, if unfavourable, three weeks before I could get to Paris for treatment."

Such were the methods applied by brilliant and devoted Government officials to a comparatively simple though enormously important problem. Would they have good results if applied to industry and production?

Finally before we leave the question of Government control a word has to be said concerning the contention of many Socialists that workers would work cheerfully, contentedly and well for the community, and that industrial friction would be practically abolished. This