[From "The Daily News," June 19, 1880.]
ON CO-OPERATION.
Brantwood, Coniston, Lancashire,
April 12, 1880.
Dear Mr. Holyoake: I am very glad that you are safe back in England, and am not a little grateful for your kind reference to me while in America, and for your letter about Sheffield Museum.[71] But let me pray for another interpretation of my former letter than mere Utopianism. The one calamity which I perceive or dread for an Englishman is his becoming a rascal, and co-operation among rascals—if it were possible—would bring a curse. Every year sees our workmen more eager to do bad work and rob their customers on the sly. All political movement among such animals I call essentially fermentation and putrefaction—not co-operation.
Ever affectionately yours,
J. Ruskin.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] The "kind reference to Mr. Ruskin while in America" alludes to a public speech made by Mr. Holyoake during his stay in that country. The "letter about Sheffield Museum," was one in high praise of it, written by Mr. Holyoake to the editor of the Sheffield Independent, in which paper it was printed (March 8, 1880).
MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.
I. The Management of Railways.
II. Servants and Houses.
III. Roman Inundations.
IV. Education, for Rich and Poor.
V. Women: Their Work and their Dress.
VI. Literary Criticism.