“And the rich men sent ’em there, Henry,” said Mr. Trood.
“They did, because they hadn’t any choice, Ernest. If they’d known what would come of it, they’d have kept ’em out of school and left the poor man’s children to fill the rich men’s pockets, instead of giving them their birthright of education. ’Twasn’t squire and parson sent ’em to school, but those who had a fairer sense of justice; and long-headed chaps like Kellock are the result.”
“He’s got a lot to learn, however. There’s no such things as equality and never can be. Because men ain’t born equal, Henry.”
“He don’t argue that, Mr. Trood,” explained Spry. “He argues that we are handicapped out of the hunt from the start. He says, ‘let all start fair’; he don’t say all can win.”
“Yes, he does,” returned Trood. “He says all should win. He tells us that a man’s intellect is an accident, and that, in justice, them with big brains should give their superfluity to the fools, so as all should share and share alike. And that’s not human nature. Am I, that have worked like a slave to win my position and put all my heart and soul into paper-making from my youth up, to go and seek that lazy dog I sacked last week and say: ‘You’re a damned, worthless waster, but here’s half my wages’?”
“I grant he was out there,” admitted Barefoot. “‘The race is to the strong,’ but socialism don’t seem to see that. Given a fair start for all and food and clothes and education, then the good boy gets his chance; but even if that was so, as things are he’d never be allowed to compete with the gentleman’s son.”
“Yes, he would,” answered Trood. “There’s nothing in the world, even as it’s run now, to stop brains. There’s boys who were charity school boys thirty years ago that the world listens to very respectfully to-day. But Kellock’s let a lot of class hatred come into his talk, and hatred breeds hatred. Never a man wanted power more than him, but his sort go the wrong way to work with their bluster and threats. They don’t help: they’re out for blood. We’re a very fair country at heart and under our constitution we’ve grown to be the finest people on earth. So, naturally, as a whole, the nation don’t want the Constitution swept away till we can get a better. The socialists have no traditions, and don’t agree among themselves yet, and I for one wouldn’t trust people that scoff at tradition and want to be a law to themselves. They would be a great danger, Henry, and if we got all to pieces like that and in sight of civil wars and revolution, we should throw ourselves open to attack from our enemies. Then, while we were wrangling how to govern ourselves, we’d damn soon find England was going to be governed by somebody else.”
“There’s plenty of hungry eyes on the British Empire no doubt,” allowed Mr. Barefoot.
“Plenty; and if our army and navy got bitten with this stuff, it would be good-bye to everything. And that wouldn’t suit Kellock’s friends.”
“And be it as it will,” said Daisy Finch, “a paper mill isn’t a charity. Those that run the Mill have got to live, I suppose.”