Lawson came down to see me to-night, and as usual we talked shop.
"It's all very well," he said, "for you to talk about education being all wrong. Any idiot can burn down a house that took many men to build. Have you got a definite scheme to put in its place?"
The question was familiar to me. I had had it fired at me scores of times in the days when I talked Socialism from a soap-box in Hyde Park.
"I think I have a scheme," I said modestly.
Lawson lay back in his chair.
"Good! Cough it up, my son!"
I smoked hard for a minute.
"Well, Lawson, it's like this, my scheme could only be a success if the economic basis of society were altered. So long as one million people take half the national yearly income you can't have any decent scheme of education."
"Right O!" said Lawson cheerfully, "for the sake of argument, or rather peace, we'll give you a Utopia where there are no idle rich. Fire away!"
"Good! I'll talk about the present day education first.