The Politician despises you, declares that all your sufferings are due to your own vices, that you are incapable of managing your own affairs, and that if you were intrusted with freedom and the use of the wealth you create you would degenerate into a lawless mob of drunken loafers; and you cheer him until you are hoarse.
The Politician tells you that his party is the people's party, and that he is the man to defend your interests; and in spite of all you know of his conduct in the past, you believe him.
The Socialist begs you to form a party of your own, and to do your work yourselves; and you call him a dreamer. I do not know whether the working man is a dreamer, but he seems to me to spend a good deal of his time asleep.
Still, there are hopeful signs of an awakening. The recent decision of the miners to pay one shilling each a year into a fund for securing parliamentary and other representation, is one of the most hopeful signs I have yet seen.
The matter is really a simple one. The workers have enough votes, and they can easily find enough money.
The 2,000,000 of Trade Unionists could alone find the money to elect and support more than a hundred labour representatives.
Say that election expenses for each candidate were £500. A hundred candidates at £500 would cost £50,000.
Pay for each representative at £200 a year would cost for a hundred M.P.s £20,000.
If 2,000,000 Unionists gave 1s. a year each, the sum would be £100,000. That would pay for the election of 100 members, keep them for a year, and leave a balance of £30,000.
With a hundred Labour Members in Parliament, and a proportionate representation of Labour on all County Councils, City, Borough, and Parish Councils, School Boards and Boards of Guardians, the interests of the workers would begin, for the first time in our history, to receive some real and valuable attention.