And now the world will have to pause a little, and take up that
other side of the problem, and in right earnest strive for some
solution of that. For it has become pressing. What is the use
of your spun shirts? They hang there by the million unsaleable;
and here, by the million, are diligent bare backs that can get no
hold of them. Shirts are useful for covering human backs;
useless otherwise, an unbearable mockery otherwise. You have
fallen terribly behind with that side of the problem! Manchester
Insurrections, French Revolutions, and thousandfold phenomena
great and small, announce loudly that you must bring it forward a
little again. Never till now, in the history of an Earth which
to this hour nowhere refuses to grow corn if you will plough it,
to yield shirts if you will spin and weave in it, did the mere
manual two-handed worker (however it might fare with other
workers) cry in vain for such "wages" as _he_ means by "fair
wages," namely food and warmth! The Godlike could not and cannot
be paid; but the Earthly always could. Gurth, a mere swineherd,
born thrall of Cedric the Saxon, tended pigs in the wood, and did
get some parings of the pork. Why, the four-footed worker has
already got all that this two-handed one is clamouring for! How
often must I remind you? There is not a horse in England, able
and willing to work, but _has_ due food and lodging; and goes
about sleek-coated, satisfied in heart. And you say, It is
impossible. Brothers, I answer, if for you it be impossible,
what is to become of you? It is impossible for us to believe it
to be impossible. The human brain, looking at these sleek
English horses, refuses to believe in such impossibility for
English men. Do you depart quickly; clear the ways soon, lest
worse befall. We for our share do purpose, with full view of the