NOTES 629 



The rest of us live on the peasant, and render services in ex- 

 change. The justification of civiUsation is that the services 

 rendered have been, on the whole, greater than the value of the 

 sustenance given ; universally the world ranks its prophets, 

 priests, and kings higher than its peasantry. The basic work 

 of the world is done by rural labour, but this has always been 

 taken for granted — by the Labour Party no less than by others. 

 The labour leader may be " a son of toil," but very rarely is 

 he a son of the soil. Almost invariably he is a townsman, who 

 knows little of the country, and who unconsciously adopts the 

 townsman's attitude that the business of the countryman is 

 to feed the town as cheaply as possible. 



If civilisation has been built on the surplus product of 

 labour, many of the troubles of civilisation have sprung from 

 disputes over the division of the surplus. In many instances 

 the problem was settled in summary fashion. In the typical 

 slave-state the whole of the surplus was taken by the master, 

 after he had fed his slaves. On that basis many ancient civi- 

 lisations were founded, notably that of Greece ; and on the 

 ground of pure economics there is perhaps little to be said 

 against a civilisation based on slavery. It produces the goods ; 

 it secures the producers against unemployment and privation, 

 and, therefore, relieves them of most of the anxieties of life ; 

 and, under any reasonable authority, it provides for manu- 

 mission and does not forbid the exceptional slave the " career 

 open to the talents." Epictetus is only one instance of many 

 a slave who rose to greatness and honour. 



It is our ethical, not our economic sense, that has revolted 

 against slavery ; in the long run the world has preferred freedom 

 to security, even if freedom meant unemployment and the 

 chance of starvation. We have indeed paid a long price for 

 freedom, but few will argue that the boon has not been worth 

 the cost. 



The Labour Party is the creation of the new industry. It 

 was because the capitalist secured most of the gains, and labour 

 suffered most of the losses, at the outset of the new industrial 

 age that the trade unions came into being, and in time gave 

 birth to the Labour Party. Sixty years ago the classical 

 economists spoke of the " freedom of contract " between master 

 and man ; but the freedom was a fiction, and labour knew it. 

 In the rebound from Mill it adopted Marx, to whom capital 

 was the enemy, and the workman, " who had nothing to lose 

 but his chains," was the wage-slave of capital. Marx has 

 been the old, and John Ruskin the kindlier new testament of 

 political Labour ; perhaps Mr. Webb is entitled to rank as its 

 Athanasius. But this appears to be only a passing phase ; 

 some doubts of the plenary inspiration of all three writers are 



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