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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b841e47 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #53516 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53516) diff --git a/old/53516-0.txt b/old/53516-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5ea6161..0000000 --- a/old/53516-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1129 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's This Misery of Boots, by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: This Misery of Boots - -Author: H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - -Release Date: November 13, 2016 [EBook #53516] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIS MISERY OF BOOTS *** - - - - -Produced by Mary Glenn Krause, MWS, ellinora and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - Transcriber Note: - - Obvious typos and punctuation errors corrected. - Italic text is represented by underscores surrounding the _italic - text_. - Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPS. - A small decoration on the title page is represented by [Decoration]. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THIS - MISERY _of_ BOOTS - - BY - H. G. WELLS - - _Author of “Socialism and the Family,” “In the - Days of the Comet,” “A Modern - Utopia,” etc._ - - [Decoration] - - - BOSTON - THE BALL PUBLISHING CO. - 1908 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THIS MISERY OF - BOOTS - - - - - CHAPTER I - - THE WORLD AS BOOTS AND SUPERSTRUCTURE - - -“It does not do,” said a friend of mine, “to think about boots.” For my -own part, I have always been particularly inclined to look at boots, and -think about them. I have an odd idea that most general questions can be -expressed in terms of foot-wear—which is perhaps why cobblers are often -such philosophical men. Accident it may be, gave me this persuasion. A -very considerable part of my childhood was spent in an underground -kitchen; the window opened upon a bricked-in space, surmounted by a -grating before my father’s shop window. So that, when I looked out of -the window, instead of seeing—as children of a higher upbringing would -do—the heads and bodies of people, I saw their under side. I got -acquainted indeed with all sorts of social types as boots simply, -indeed, as the soles of boots; and only subsequently, and with care, -have I fitted heads, bodies, and legs to these pediments. - -There would come boots and shoes (no doubt holding people) to stare at -the shop, finicking, neat little women’s boots, good sorts and bad -sorts, fresh and new, worn crooked in the tread, patched or needing -patching; men’s boots, clumsy and fine, rubber shoes, tennis shoes, -goloshes. Brown shoes I never beheld—it was before that time; but I have -seen pattens. Boots used to come and commune at the window, duets that -marked their emotional development by a restlessness or a kick.... But -anyhow, that explains my preoccupation with boots. - -But my friend did not think it _did_, to think about boots. - -My friend was a realistic novelist, and a man from whom hope had -departed. I cannot tell you how hope had gone out of his life; some -subtle disease of the soul had robbed him at last of any enterprise, or -belief in coming things; and he was trying to live the few declining -years that lay before him in a sort of bookish comfort, among -surroundings that seemed peaceful and beautiful, by not thinking of -things that were painful and cruel. And we met a tramp who limped along -the lane. - -“Chafed heel,” I said, when we had parted from him again; “and on these -pebbly byways no man goes barefooted.” My friend winced; and a little -silence came between us. We were both recalling things; and then for a -time, when we began to talk again, until he would have no more of it, we -rehearsed the miseries of boots. - -We agreed that to a very great majority of people in this country boots -are constantly a source of distress, giving pain and discomfort, causing -trouble, causing anxiety. We tried to present the thing in a concrete -form to our own minds by hazardous statistical inventions. “At the -present moment,” said I, “one person in ten in these islands is in -discomfort through boots.” - -My friend thought it was nearer one in five. - -“In the life of a poor man or a poor man’s wife, and still more in the -lives of their children, this misery of the boot occurs and recurs—every -year so many days.” - -We made a sort of classification of these troubles. - -There is the TROUBLE OF THE NEW BOOT. - -(i) They are made of some bad, unventilated material; and “draw the -feet,” as people say. - -(ii) They do not fit exactly. Most people have to buy ready-made boots; -they cannot afford others, and, in the submissive philosophy of poverty, -they wear them to “get used” to them. This gives you the little-toe -pinch, the big-toe pinch, the squeeze and swelling across the foot; and, -as a sort of chronic development of these pressures, come corns and all -the misery of corns. Children’s feet get distorted for good by this -method of fitting the human being to the thing; and a vast number of -people in the world are, as a consequence of this, ashamed to appear -barefooted. (I used to press people who came to see me in warm pleasant -weather to play Badminton barefooted on the grass—a delightful thing to -do—until I found out that many were embarrassed at the thought of -displaying twisted toes and corns, and such-like disfigurements.) - -(iii) The third trouble of new boots is this: they are unseasoned and in -bad condition, and so they squeak and make themselves an insulting -commentary on one’s ways. - -But these are but trifling troubles to what arises as the boots get into -wear. Then it is the pinch comes in earnest. Of these TROUBLES OF THE -WORN BOOT, I and my friend, before he desisted, reckoned up three -principal classes. - -(i) There are the various sorts of chafe. Worst of the chafes is -certainly the heel chafe, when something goes wrong with the upright -support at the heel. This, as a boy, I have had to endure for days -together; because there were no other boots for me. Then there is the -chafe that comes when that inner lining of the boot rucks up—very like -the chafe it is that poor people are always getting from over-darned and -hastily-darned socks. And then there is the chafe that comes from -ready-made boots one has got a trifle too large or long, in order to -avoid the pinch and corns. After a little while, there comes a -transverse crease across the loose-fitting forepart; and, when the boot -stiffens from wet or any cause, it chafes across the base of the toes. -They have you all ways. And I have a very lively recollection too of the -chafe of the knots one made to mend broken laces—one cannot be always -buying new laces, and the knots used to work inward. And then the chafe -of the crumpled tongue. - -(ii) Then there are the miseries that come from the wear of the sole. -There is the rick of ankle because the heel has gone over, and the sense -of insecurity; and there is the miserable sense of not looking well from -behind that many people must feel. It is almost always painful to me to -walk behind girls who work out, and go to and fro, consuming much -foot-wear, for this very reason, that their heels seem always to wear -askew. Girls ought always to be so beautiful, most girls could be so -beautiful, that to see their poor feet askew, the grace of their walk -gone, a sort of spinal curvature induced, makes me wretched, and angry -with a world that treats them so. And then there is the working through -of nails, nails in the shoe. One limps on manfully in the hope presently -of a quiet moment and a quiet corner in which one may hammer the thing -down again. Thirdly, under this heading I recall the flapping sole. My -boots always came to that stage at last; I wore the toes out first, and -then the sole split from before backwards. As one walked it began -catching the ground. One made fantastic paces to prevent it happening; -one was dreadfully ashamed. At last one was forced to sit by the wayside -frankly, and cut the flap away. - -(iii) Our third class of miseries we made of splitting and leaks. These -are for the most part mental miseries, the feeling of shabbiness as one -sees the ugly yawn, for example, between toe cap and the main upper of -the boot; but they involve also chills, colds, and a long string of -disagreeable consequences. And we spoke too of the misery of sitting -down to work (as multitudes of London school children do every wet -morning) in boots with soles worn thin or into actual holes, that have -got wet and chilling on the way to the work-place.... - -From these instances my mind ran on to others. I made a discovery. I had -always despised the common run of poor Londoners for not spending their -Sundays and holidays in sturdy walks, the very best of exercise. I had -allowed myself to say when I found myself one summer day at Margate: -“What a soft lot all these young people must be who loaf about the -band-stand here, when they might be tramping over the Kentish hills -inland!” But now I repented me of that. Long tramps indeed! Their boots -would have hurt them. Their boots would not stand it. I saw it all. - -And now my discourse was fairly under way. “_Ex pede Herculem_,” I said; -“these miseries of boots are no more than a sample. The clothes people -wear are no better than their boots; and the houses they live in far -worse. And think of the shoddy garment of ideas and misconceptions and -partial statements into which their poor minds have been jammed by way -of education! Think of the way _that_ pinches and chafes them! If one -expanded the miseries of these things.... Think, for example, of the -results of the poor, bad, unwise food, of badly-managed eyes and ears -and teeth! Think of the quantity of toothache.” - -“I tell you, it does not _do_ to think of such things!” cried my friend, -in a sort of anguish; and would have no more of it at any price.... - -And yet in his time he had written books full of these very matters, -before despair overtook him. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - PEOPLE WHOSE BOOTS DON’T HURT THEM - - -Well, I did not talk merely to torment him; nor have I written this -merely to torment you. You see I have a persistent persuasion that all -these miseries are preventable miseries, which it lies in the power of -men to cure. - -Everybody does not suffer misery from boots. - -One person I know, another friend of mine, who can testify to that; who -has tasted all the miseries of boots, and who now goes about the world -free of them, but not altogether forgetful of them. A stroke of luck, -aided perhaps by a certain alacrity on his own part, lifted him out of -the class in which one buys one’s boots and clothes out of what is left -over from a pound a week, into the class in which one spends seventy or -eighty pounds a year on clothing. Sometimes he buys shoes and boots at -very good shops; sometimes he has them made for him; he has them stored -in a proper cupboard, and great care is taken of them; and so his boots -and shoes and slippers never chafe, never pinch, never squeak, never -hurt nor worry him, never bother him; and, when he sticks out his toes -before the fire, they do not remind him that he is a shabby and -contemptible wretch, living meanly on the dust heaps of the world. You -might think from this he had every reason to congratulate himself and be -happy, seeing that he has had good follow after evil; but, such is the -oddness of the human heart, he isn’t contented at all. The thought of -the multitudes so much worse off than himself in this matter of -foot-wear, gives him no sort of satisfaction. Their boots pinch _him_ -vicariously. The black rage with the scheme of things that once he felt -through suffering in his own person in the days when he limped shabbily -through gaily busy, fashionable London streets, in split boots that -chafed, he feels now just as badly as he goes about the world very -comfortably himself, but among people whom he knows with a pitiless -clearness to be almost intolerably uncomfortable. He has no optimistic -illusion that things are all right with them. Stupid people who have -always been well off, who have always had boots that fit, may think -that; but not so, he. In one respect the thought of boots makes him even -more viciously angry now, than it used to do. In the old days he was -savage with his luck, but hopelessly savage; he thought that bad boots, -ugly uncomfortable clothes, rotten houses, were in the very nature of -things. Now, when he sees a child sniffing and blubbering and halting -upon the pavement, or an old country-woman going painfully along a lane, -he no longer recognises the Pinch of Destiny. His rage is lit by the -thought, that there are fools in this world who ought to have foreseen -and prevented this. He no longer curses fate, but the dulness of -statesmen and powerful responsible people who have neither the heart, -nor courage, nor capacity, to change the state of mismanagement that -gives us these things. - -Now do not think I am dwelling unduly upon my second friend’s good -fortune, when I tell you that once he was constantly getting pain and -miserable states of mind, colds for example, from the badness of his -clothing, shame from being shabby, pain from the neglected state of his -teeth, from the indigestion of unsuitable food eaten at unsuitable -hours, from the insanitary ugly house in which he lived and the bad air -of that part of London, from things indeed quite beyond the unaided -power of a poor over-worked man to remedy. And now all these -disagreeable things have gone out of his life; he has consulted dentists -and physicians, he has hardly any dull days from colds, no pain from -toothache at all, no gloom of indigestion.... - -I will not go on with the tale of good fortune of this lucky person. My -purpose is served if I have shown that this misery of boots is not an -unavoidable curse upon mankind. If one man can evade it, others can. By -good management it may be altogether escaped. If you, or what is more -important to most human beings, if any people dear to you, suffer from -painful or disfiguring boots or shoes, and you can do no better for -them, it is simply because you are getting the worse side of an -ill-managed world. It is not the universal lot. - -And what I say of boots is true of all the other minor things of life. -If your wife catches a bad cold because her boots are too thin for the -time of the year, or dislikes going out because she cuts a shabby ugly -figure, if your children look painfully nasty because their faces are -swollen with toothache, or because their clothes are dirty, old, and -ill-fitting, if you are all dull and disposed to be cross with one -another for want of decent amusement and change of air—don’t submit, -don’t be humbugged for a moment into believing that this is the dingy -lot of all mankind. Those people you love are living in a badly-managed -world and on the wrong side of it; and such wretchednesses are the daily -demonstration of that. - -Don’t say for a moment: “Such is life.” Don’t think their miseries are -part of some primordial curse there is no escaping. The disproof of that -is for any one to see. There are people, people no more deserving than -others, who suffer from none of these things. You may feel you merit no -better than to live so poorly and badly that your boots are always -hurting you; but do the little children, the girls, the mass of decent -hard-up people, deserve no better fate? - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - AT THIS POINT A DISPUTE ARISES - - -Now let us imagine some one who will dispute what I am saying. I do not -suppose any one will dispute my argument that a large part of the misery -of civilised life—I do not say “all” but only a “large part”—arises out -of the network of squalid insufficiencies of which I have taken this -misery of boots as the simplest example. But I do believe quite a lot of -people will be prepared to deny that such miseries can be avoided. They -will say that every one cannot have the best of things, that of all -sorts of good things, including good leather and cobbling, there is not -enough to go round, that lower-class people ought not to mind being -shabby and uncomfortable, that they ought to be very glad to be able to -live at all, considering what they are, and that it is no good stirring -up discontent about things that cannot be altered or improved. - -Such arguments are not to be swept aside with a wave of the hand. It is -perfectly true that every one cannot have the best of things; and it is -in the nature of things that some boots should be better and some worse. -To some people, either by sheer good luck, or through the strength of -their determination to have them, the exquisitely good boots, those of -the finest leather and the most artistic cut, will fall. I have never -denied that. Nobody dreams of a time when every one will have exactly as -good boots as every one else; I am not preaching any such childish and -impossible equality. But it is a long way from recognising that there -must be a certain picturesque and interesting variety in this matter of -foot-wear, to the admission that a large majority of people can never -hope for more than to be shod in a manner that is frequently painful, -uncomfortable, unhealthy, or unsightly. That admission I absolutely -refuse to make. There is enough good leather in the world to make good -sightly boots and shoes for all who need them, enough men at leisure and -enough power and machinery to do all the work required, enough -unemployed intelligence to organise the shoemaking and shoe distribution -for everybody. What stands in the way? - -Let us put that question in a rather different form. Here on the one -hand—you can see for yourself in any unfashionable part of Great -Britain—are people badly, uncomfortably, painfully shod, in old boots, -rotten boots, sham boots; and on the other great stretches of land in -the world, with unlimited possibilities of cattle and leather and great -numbers of people, who, either through wealth or trade disorder, are -doing no work. And our question is: “Why cannot the latter set to work -and make and distribute boots?” - -Imagine yourself trying to organise something of this kind of Free -Booting expedition; and consider the difficulties you would meet with. -You would begin by looking for a lot of leather. Imagine yourself -setting off to South America, for example, to get leather; beginning at -the very beginning by setting to work to kill and flay a herd of cattle. -You find at once you are interrupted. Along comes your first obstacle in -the shape of a man who tells you the cattle and the leather belong to -him. You explain that the leather is wanted for people who have no -decent boots in England. He says he does not care a rap what you want it -for; before you may take it from him you have to buy him off; it is his -private property, this leather, and the herd and the land over which the -herd ranges. You ask him how much he wants for his leather; and he tells -you frankly, just as much as he can induce you to give. - -If he chanced to be a person of exceptional sweetness of disposition, -you might perhaps argue with him. You might point out to him that this -project of giving people splendid boots was a fine one that would put an -end to much human misery. He might even sympathise with your generous -enthusiasm; but you would, I think, find him adamantine in his resolve -to get just as much out of you for his leather as you could with the -utmost effort pay. - -Suppose now you said to him: “But how did you come by this land and -these herds, so that you can stand between them and the people who have -need of them, exacting this profit?” He would probably either embark -upon a long rigmarole, or, what is much more probable, lose his temper -and decline to argue. Pursuing your doubt as to the rightfulness of his -property in these things, you might admit he deserved a certain -reasonable fee for the rough care he had taken of the land and herds. -But cattle breeders are a rude, violent race; and it is doubtful if you -would get far beyond your proposition of a reasonable fee. You would in -fact have to buy off this owner of the leather at a good thumping -price—he exacting just as much as he could get from you—if you wanted to -go on with your project. - -Well, then you would have to get your leather here; and, to do that, you -would have to bring it by railway and ship to this country. And here -again you would find people without any desire or intention of helping -your project, standing in your course, resolved to make every possible -penny out of you on your way to provide sound boots for every one. You -would find the railway was private property, and had an owner or owners; -you would find the ship was private property, with an owner or owners; -and that none of these would be satisfied for a moment with a mere fee -adequate to their services. They too would be resolved to make every -penny of profit out of you. If you made inquiries about the matter, you -would probably find the real owners of railway and ship were companies -of shareholders, and that the profit squeezed out of your poor people’s -boots at this stage went to fill the pockets of old ladies at Torquay, -spendthrifts in Paris, well-booted gentlemen in London clubs, all sorts -of glossy people.... - -Well, you get the leather to England at last; and now you want to make -it into boots. You take it to a centre of population, invite workers to -come to you, erect sheds and machinery upon a vacant piece of ground, -and start off in a sort of fury of generous industry, boot-making.... Do -you? There comes along an owner for that vacant piece of ground, -declares it is his property, demands an enormous sum for rent. And your -workers all round you, you find, cannot get house room until they too -have paid rent—every inch of the country is somebody’s property, and a -man may not shut his eyes for an hour without the consent of some owner -or other. And the food your shoemakers eat, the clothes they wear, have -all paid tribute and profit to land-owners, cart-owners, house-owners, -endless tribute over and over and above the fair pay for work that has -been done upon them.... - -So one might go on. But you begin to see now one set of reasons at least -why every one has not good comfortable boots. There could be plenty of -leather; and there is certainly plenty of labour and quite enough -intelligence in the world to manage that and a thousand other desirable -things. But this institution of Private Property in land and naturally -produced things, these obstructive claims that prevent you using ground, -or moving material, and that have to be bought out at exorbitant prices, -stand in the way. All these owners hang like parasites upon your -enterprise at its every stage; and, by the time you get your sound boots -well made in England, you will find them costing about a pound a -pair—high out of the reach of the general mass of people. And you will -perhaps not think me fanciful and extravagant when I confess that when I -realise this, and look at poor people’s boots in the street, and see -them cracked and misshapen and altogether nasty, I seem to see also a -lot of little phantom land-owners, cattle-owners, house-owners, owners -of all sorts, swarming over their pinched and weary feet like leeches, -taking much and giving nothing, and being the real cause of all such -miseries. - -Now is this a necessary and unavoidable thing?—that is our question. Is -there no other way of managing things than to let these property-owners -exact their claims, and squeeze comfort, pride, happiness, out of the -lives of the common run of people? Because, of course, it is not only -the boots they squeeze into meanness and badness. It is the claim and -profit of the land-owner and house-owner that make our houses so ugly, -shabby, and dear, that make our roadways and railways so crowded and -inconvenient, that sweat our schools, our clothing, our food—boots we -took merely by way of one example of a universal trouble. - -Well, there are a number of people who say there is a better way and -that the world could be made infinitely better in all these matters, -made happier and better than it ever has been in these respects, by -refusing to have private property in all these universally necessary -things. They say that it is possible to have the land administered, and -such common and needful things as leather produced, and boots -manufactured, and no end of other such generally necessary services -carried on, not for the private profit of individuals, but for the good -of all. They propose that the State should take away the land, and the -railways, and shipping, and many great organised enterprises from their -owners, who use them simply to squeeze the means for a wasteful private -expenditure out of the common mass of men, and should administer all -these things, generously and boldly, not for profit, but for service. It -is this idea of extracting _profit_ they hold which is the very root of -the evil. These are the Socialists; and they are the only people who do -hold out any hope of far-reaching change that will alter the present -dingy state of affairs, of which this painful wretchedness of boots is -only one typical symbol. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - IS SOCIALISM POSSIBLE? - - -I will not pretend to be impartial in this matter, and to discuss as -though I had an undecided mind, whether the world would be better if we -could abolish private property in land and in many things of general -utility; because I have no doubt left in the matter. I believe that -private property in these things is no more necessary and unavoidable -than private property in our fellow-creatures, or private property in -bridges and roads. The idea that anything and everything may be claimed -as private property belongs to the dark ages of the world; and it is not -only a monstrous injustice, but a still more monstrous inconvenience. -Suppose we still admitted private property in high roads, and let every -man who had a scrap of high road haggle a bargain with us before we -could drive by in a cab! You say life would be unendurable. But indeed -it amounts to something a little like that if we use a railway now; and -it is quite like that if one wants a spot of ground somewhere upon which -one may live. I see no more difficulty in managing land, factories, and -the like, publicly for the general good, than there is in managing roads -and bridges, and the post office and the police. So far I see no -impossibility whatever in Socialism. To abolish private property in -these things would be to abolish all that swarm of parasites, whose -greed for profit and dividend hampers and makes a thousand useful and -delightful enterprises costly or hopeless. It would abolish them; but is -that any objection whatever? - -And as for taking such property from the owners; why shouldn’t we? The -world has not only in the past taken slaves from their owners, with no -compensation or with a meagre compensation; but in the history of -mankind, dark as it is, there are innumerable cases of slave-owners -resigning their inhuman rights. You may say that to take away property -from people is unjust and robbery; but is that really so? Suppose you -found a number of children in a nursery all very dull and unhappy -because one of them, who had been badly spoilt, had got all the toys -together and claimed them all, and refused to let the others have any. -Would you not dispossess the child, however honest its illusion that it -was right to be greedy? That is practically the position of the -property-owner to-day. You may say, if you choose, that property-owners, -land-owners for example, must be bought out and not robbed; but since -getting the money to buy them out involves taxing the property of some -one else, who may possibly have a better claim to it than the land-owner -to his, I don’t quite see where the honesty of that course comes in. You -can only give property for property in buying and selling; and if -private property is not robbery, then not only Socialism but ordinary -taxation must be. But if taxation is a justifiable proceeding, if you -can tax me (as I am taxed) for public services, a shilling and more out -of every twenty shillings I earn, then I do not see why you should not -put a tax upon the land-owner if you want to do so, of a half or two -thirds or all his land, or upon the railway share-holder of ten or -fifteen or twenty shillings in the pound on his shares. In every change -some one has to bear the brunt; every improvement in machinery and -industrial organisation deprives some poor people of an income; and I do -not see why we should be so extraordinarily tender to the rich, to those -who have been unproductive all their lives, when they stand in the way -of the general happiness. And though I deny the right to compensation I -do not deny its probable advisability. So far as the question of method -goes it is quite conceivable that we may partially compensate the -property owners and make all sorts of mitigating arrangements to avoid -cruelty to them in our attempt to end the wider cruelties of to-day. - -But, apart from the justice of the case, many people seem to regard -Socialism as a hopeless dream, because, as they put it, “it is against -human nature.” Every one with any scrap of property in land, or shares, -or what not, they tell us, will be bitterly opposed to the coming of -Socialism; and, as such people have all the leisure and influence in the -world, and as all able and energetic people tend naturally to join that -class, there never can be any effectual force to bring Socialism about. -But that seems to me to confess a very base estimate of human nature. -There are, no doubt, a number of dull, base, rich people who hate and -dread Socialism for purely selfish reasons; but it is quite possible to -be a property owner and yet be anxious to see Socialism come to its own. - -For example, the man whose private affairs I know best in the world, the -second friend I named, the owner of all those comfortable boots, gives -time and energy and money to further this hope of Socialism, although he -pays income tax on twelve hundred a year, and has shares and property to -the value of some thousands of pounds. And that he does out of no -instinct of sacrifice. He believes he would be happier and more -comfortable in a Socialistic state of affairs, when it would not be -necessary for him to hold on to that life-belt of invested property. He -finds it—and quite a lot of well-off people are quite of his way of -thinking—a constant flaw upon a life of comfort and pleasant interests -to see so many people, who might be his agreeable friends and -associates, detestably under-educated, detestably housed, in the most -detestable clothes and boots, and so detestably broken in spirit that -they will not treat him as an equal. It makes him feel he is like that -spoilt child in the nursery; he feels ashamed and contemptible; and, -since individual charity only seems in the long run to make matters -worse, he is ready to give a great deal of his life, and lose his entire -little heap of possessions if need be, very gladly lose it, to change -the present order of things in a comprehensive manner. - -I am quite convinced that there are numbers of much richer and more -influential people who are of his way of thinking. Much more likely to -obstruct the way to Socialism is the ignorance, the want of courage, the -stupid want of imagination of the very poor, too shy and timid and -clumsy to face any change they can evade! But, even with them, popular -education is doing its work; and I do not fear but that in the next -generation we shall find Socialists even in the slums. The unimaginative -person who owns some little bit of property, an acre or so of freehold -land, or a hundred pounds in the savings bank, will no doubt be the most -tenacious passive resister to Socialistic ideas; and such, I fear, we -must reckon, together with the insensitive rich, as our irreconcilable -enemies, as irremovable pillars of the present order. The mean and timid -elements in “human nature” are, and will be, I admit, against Socialism; -but they are not all “human nature,” not half human nature. And when, in -the whole history of the world, have meanness and timidity won a -struggle? It is passion, it is enthusiasm, and indignation that mould -the world to their will—and I cannot see how any one can go into the -back streets of London, or any large British town, and not be filled up -with shame, and passionate resolve to end so grubby and mean a state of -affairs as is displayed there. - -I don’t think the “human nature” argument against the possibility of -Socialism will hold water. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - SOCIALISM MEANS REVOLUTION - - -Let us be clear about one thing: that Socialism means revolution, that -it means a change in the every-day texture of life. It may be a very -gradual change, but it will be a very complete one. You cannot change -the world, and at the same time not change the world. You will find -Socialists about, or at any rate men calling themselves Socialists, who -will pretend that this is not so, who will assure you that some odd -little jobbing about municipal gas and water is Socialism, and -back-stairs intervention between Conservative and Liberal the way to the -millennium. You might as well call a gas jet in the lobby of a -meeting-house, the glory of God in Heaven! - -Socialism aims to change, not only the boots on people’s feet, but the -clothes they wear, the houses they inhabit, the work they do, the -education they get, their places, their honours, and all their -possessions. Socialism aims to make a new world out of the old. It can -only be attained by the intelligent, outspoken, courageous resolve of a -great multitude of men and women. You must get absolutely clear in your -mind that Socialism means a complete change, a break with history, with -much that is picturesque; whole classes will vanish. The world will be -vastly different, with a different sort of houses, different sorts of -people. All the different trades and industries will be changed, the -medical profession will be carried on under different conditions, -engineering, science, the theatrical trade, the clerical trade, schools, -hotels, almost every trade, will have to undergo as complete an internal -change as a caterpillar does when it becomes a moth. If you are afraid -of so much change as that, it is better you should funk about it now -than later. The whole system has to be changed, if we are to get rid of -the masses of dull poverty that render our present state detestable to -any sensitive man or woman. That, and no less, is the aim of all sincere -Socialists: the establishment of a new and better order of society by -the abolition of private property in land, in natural productions, and -in their exploitation—a change as profound as the abolition of private -property in slaves would have been in ancient Rome or Athens. If you -demand less than that, if you are not prepared to struggle for that, you -are not really a Socialist. If you funk that, then you must make up your -mind to square your life to a sort of personal and private happiness -with things as they are, and decide with my other friend that “it -doesn’t do to think about boots.” - -It is well to insist upon one central idea. Socialism is a common-sense, -matter-of-fact proposal to change our conventional admission of what is -or is not property, and to re-arrange the world according to these -revised conceptions. A certain number of clever people, dissatisfied -with the straightforwardness of this, have set themselves to put it in -some brilliant obscure way; they will tell you that Socialism is based -on the philosophy of Hegel, or that it turns on a theory of Rent, or -that it is somehow muddled up with a sort of white Bogey called the -Overman, and all sorts of brilliant, nonsensical, unappetising things. -The theory of Socialism, so far as English people are concerned, seems -to have got up into the clouds, and its practice down into the drains; -and it is well to warn inquiring men, that neither the epigram above nor -the job beneath are more than the accidental accompaniments of -Socialism. Socialism is a very large, but a plain, honest, and human -enterprise; its ends are to be obtained neither by wit nor cunning, but -by outspoken resolve, by the self-abnegation, the enthusiasm, and the -loyal cooperation of great masses of people. - -The main thing, therefore, is the creation of these great masses of -people out of the intellectual confusion and vagueness of the present -time. Let me suppose that you find yourself in sympathy with this tract, -that you, like my second friend, find the shabby dullness, the positive -misery of a large proportion of the population of our world, make life -under its present conditions almost intolerable, and that it is in the -direction of Socialism that the only hope of a permanent remedy lies. -What are we to do? Obviously to give our best energies to making other -people Socialists, to organising ourselves with all other Socialists, -irrespective of class or the minor details of creed, and to making -ourselves audible, visible, effectual as Socialists, wherever and -whenever we can. - -We have to think about Socialism, read about it, discuss it; so that we -may be assured and clear and persuasive about it. We have to confess our -faith openly and frequently. We must refuse to be called Liberal or -Conservative, Republican or Democrat, or any of those ambiguous things. -Everywhere we must make or join a Socialist organisation, a club or -association or what not, so that we may “count.” For us, as for the -early Christians, preaching our gospel is the supreme duty. Until -Socialists can be counted, and counted upon by the million, little will -be done. When they are—a new world will be ours. - -Above all, if I may offer advice to a fellow-Socialist, I would say: -Cling to the simple essential idea of Socialism, which is the abolition -of private property in anything but what a man has earned or made. Do -not complicate your cause with elaborations. And keep in your mind, if -you can, some sort of talisman to bring you back to that essential -gospel, out of the confusions and warring suggestions of every-day -discussion. - -For my own part, I have, as I said at the beginning, a prepossession -with boots; and my talisman is this:—The figure of a badly fed but -rather pretty little girl of ten or eleven, dirty, and her hands coarse -with rough usage, her poor pretty child’s body in ungainly rags, and, on -her feet, big broken-down boots that hurt her. And particularly I think -of her wretched sticks of legs and the limp of her feet; and all those -phantom owners and profit-takers I spoke of, they are there about her -martyrdom, leech-like, clinging to her as she goes.... - -I want to change everything in the world that made that; and I do not -greatly care what has to go in the process. Do you? - - H. G. WELLS - - * * * * * - -[Here is just a bit of hard fact to carry out what I say. It is a -quotation from a letter from a workman to my friend Mr. Chiozza Money, -one of the best informed writers upon labour questions in England: - - “I am a railway man, in constant work at 30s. per week. I am the - happy, or otherwise, father of six healthy children. Last year I - bought twenty pairs of boots. This year, up to date, I have bought - ten pairs, costing £2; and yet, at the present time, my wife and - five of the children have only one pair each. I have two pairs, both - of which let in the water; but I see no prospect at present of - getting new ones. I ought to say, of course, that my wife is a - thoroughly domesticated woman, and I am one of the most temperate of - men. So much so, that if all I spend in luxuries was saved it would - not buy a pair of boots once a year. But this is the point I want to - mention. During 1903 my wages were 25s. 6d. per week; and I then had - the six children. My next-door neighbour was a boot-maker and - repairer. He fell out of work, and was out for months. During that - time, of course, my children’s boots needed repairing as at other - times. I had not the money to pay for them being repaired, so had to - do what repairing I could myself. One day I found out that I was - repairing boots on one side of the wall, and my neighbour on the - other side out of work, and longing to do the work I was compelled - to do myself....” - -The wall was a commercial organisation of society based on private -property in land and natural productions. These two men must work for -the owners or not at all; they cannot work for one another. Food first, -then rent; and boots, if you can, when all the owners are paid.] - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of This Misery of Boots, by -H. G. 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G. (Herbert George) Wells - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: This Misery of Boots - -Author: H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - -Release Date: November 13, 2016 [EBook #53516] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIS MISERY OF BOOTS *** - - - - -Produced by Mary Glenn Krause, MWS, ellinora and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnote'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Transcriber Note:</div> - </div> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1'> - <li>Obvious typos and punctuation errors corrected. - </li> - </ul> - -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='cover' class='ig001' /> -</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><span class='xxlarge'>THIS</span></div> - <div><span class='xxlarge'>MISERY <i>of</i> BOOTS</span></div> - <div class='c000'>BY</div> - <div><span class='xlarge'>H. G. WELLS</span></div> - <div class='c000'><i>Author of “Socialism and the Family,” “In the</i></div> - <div><i>Days of the Comet,” “A Modern</i></div> - <div><i>Utopia,” etc.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/image001.jpg' alt='small decoration' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>BOSTON</div> - <div>THE BALL PUBLISHING CO.</div> - <div>1908</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span> - <h1 class='c003'>THIS MISERY OF <br /> BOOTS</h1> -</div> - -<div> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER I <br /> <br /> THE WORLD AS BOOTS AND SUPERSTRUCTURE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_0_4 c005'>“It does not do,” said a friend of -mine, “to think about boots.” For -my own part, I have always been particularly -inclined to look at boots, and think -about them. I have an odd idea that -most general questions can be expressed -in terms of foot-wear—which is perhaps -why cobblers are often such philosophical -men. Accident it may be, gave me this -persuasion. A very considerable part of -my childhood was spent in an underground -kitchen; the window opened upon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>a bricked-in space, surmounted by a grating -before my father’s shop window. So -that, when I looked out of the window, -instead of seeing—as children of a higher -upbringing would do—the heads and -bodies of people, I saw their under side. -I got acquainted indeed with all sorts of -social types as boots simply, indeed, as -the soles of boots; and only subsequently, -and with care, have I fitted heads, bodies, -and legs to these pediments.</p> - -<p class='c006'>There would come boots and shoes (no -doubt holding people) to stare at the -shop, finicking, neat little women’s boots, -good sorts and bad sorts, fresh and new, -worn crooked in the tread, patched or -needing patching; men’s boots, clumsy -and fine, rubber shoes, tennis shoes, goloshes. -Brown shoes I never beheld—it -was before that time; but I have seen pattens. -Boots used to come and commune -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>at the window, duets that marked their -emotional development by a restlessness -or a kick.... But anyhow, that explains -my preoccupation with boots.</p> - -<p class='c006'>But my friend did not think it <em>did</em>, to -think about boots.</p> - -<p class='c006'>My friend was a realistic novelist, and -a man from whom hope had departed. -I cannot tell you how hope had gone out -of his life; some subtle disease of the soul -had robbed him at last of any enterprise, -or belief in coming things; and he was -trying to live the few declining years that -lay before him in a sort of bookish comfort, -among surroundings that seemed -peaceful and beautiful, by not thinking -of things that were painful and cruel. -And we met a tramp who limped along -the lane.</p> - -<p class='c006'>“Chafed heel,” I said, when we had -parted from him again; “and on these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>pebbly byways no man goes barefooted.” -My friend winced; and a little silence -came between us. We were both recalling -things; and then for a time, when we -began to talk again, until he would have -no more of it, we rehearsed the miseries -of boots.</p> - -<p class='c006'>We agreed that to a very great majority -of people in this country boots are -constantly a source of distress, giving -pain and discomfort, causing trouble, -causing anxiety. We tried to present -the thing in a concrete form to our own -minds by hazardous statistical inventions. -“At the present moment,” said I, “one -person in ten in these islands is in discomfort -through boots.”</p> - -<p class='c006'>My friend thought it was nearer one -in five.</p> - -<p class='c006'>“In the life of a poor man or a poor -man’s wife, and still more in the lives of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>their children, this misery of the boot -occurs and recurs—every year so many -days.”</p> - -<p class='c006'>We made a sort of classification of -these troubles.</p> - -<p class='c006'>There is the <span class='fss'>TROUBLE OF THE NEW -BOOT</span>.</p> - -<p class='c006'>(i) They are made of some bad, unventilated -material; and “draw the feet,” -as people say.</p> - -<p class='c006'>(ii) They do not fit exactly. Most -people have to buy ready-made boots; -they cannot afford others, and, in the submissive -philosophy of poverty, they wear -them to “get used” to them. This gives -you the little-toe pinch, the big-toe pinch, -the squeeze and swelling across the foot; -and, as a sort of chronic development of -these pressures, come corns and all the -misery of corns. Children’s feet get distorted -for good by this method of fitting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>the human being to the thing; and a vast -number of people in the world are, as a -consequence of this, ashamed to appear -barefooted. (I used to press people who -came to see me in warm pleasant weather -to play Badminton barefooted on the -grass—a delightful thing to do—until I -found out that many were embarrassed at -the thought of displaying twisted toes -and corns, and such-like disfigurements.)</p> - -<p class='c006'>(iii) The third trouble of new boots is -this: they are unseasoned and in bad condition, -and so they squeak and make -themselves an insulting commentary on -one’s ways.</p> - -<p class='c006'>But these are but trifling troubles to -what arises as the boots get into wear. -Then it is the pinch comes in earnest. Of -these <span class='fss'>TROUBLES OF THE WORN BOOT</span>, I and -my friend, before he desisted, reckoned -up three principal classes.</p> - -<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>(i) There are the various sorts of -chafe. Worst of the chafes is certainly -the heel chafe, when something goes -wrong with the upright support at the -heel. This, as a boy, I have had to endure -for days together; because there -were no other boots for me. Then there -is the chafe that comes when that inner -lining of the boot rucks up—very like -the chafe it is that poor people are always -getting from over-darned and -hastily-darned socks. And then there is -the chafe that comes from ready-made -boots one has got a trifle too large or -long, in order to avoid the pinch and -corns. After a little while, there comes -a transverse crease across the loose-fitting -forepart; and, when the boot stiffens from -wet or any cause, it chafes across the base -of the toes. They have you all ways. -And I have a very lively recollection too -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>of the chafe of the knots one made to -mend broken laces—one cannot be always -buying new laces, and the knots used to -work inward. And then the chafe of the -crumpled tongue.</p> - -<p class='c006'>(ii) Then there are the miseries that -come from the wear of the sole. There -is the rick of ankle because the heel has -gone over, and the sense of insecurity; -and there is the miserable sense of not -looking well from behind that many people -must feel. It is almost always painful -to me to walk behind girls who work -out, and go to and fro, consuming much -foot-wear, for this very reason, that their -heels seem always to wear askew. Girls -ought always to be so beautiful, most -girls could be so beautiful, that to see -their poor feet askew, the grace of their -walk gone, a sort of spinal curvature induced, -makes me wretched, and angry -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>with a world that treats them so. And -then there is the working through of nails, -nails in the shoe. One limps on manfully -in the hope presently of a quiet moment -and a quiet corner in which one may hammer -the thing down again. Thirdly, -under this heading I recall the flapping -sole. My boots always came to that -stage at last; I wore the toes out first, -and then the sole split from before backwards. -As one walked it began catching -the ground. One made fantastic paces -to prevent it happening; one was dreadfully -ashamed. At last one was forced -to sit by the wayside frankly, and cut the -flap away.</p> - -<p class='c006'>(iii) Our third class of miseries we -made of splitting and leaks. These are -for the most part mental miseries, the feeling -of shabbiness as one sees the ugly -yawn, for example, between toe cap and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>the main upper of the boot; but they involve -also chills, colds, and a long string of -disagreeable consequences. And we spoke -too of the misery of sitting down to work -(as multitudes of London school children -do every wet morning) in boots with soles -worn thin or into actual holes, that have -got wet and chilling on the way to the -work-place....</p> - -<p class='c006'>From these instances my mind ran on -to others. I made a discovery. I had -always despised the common run of poor -Londoners for not spending their Sundays -and holidays in sturdy walks, the -very best of exercise. I had allowed myself -to say when I found myself one summer -day at Margate: “What a soft lot -all these young people must be who loaf -about the band-stand here, when they -might be tramping over the Kentish hills -inland!” But now I repented me of that. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>Long tramps indeed! Their boots would -have hurt them. Their boots would not -stand it. I saw it all.</p> - -<p class='c006'>And now my discourse was fairly -under way. “<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Ex pede Herculem</i></span>,” I said; -“these miseries of boots are no more than -a sample. The clothes people wear are -no better than their boots; and the houses -they live in far worse. And think of the -shoddy garment of ideas and misconceptions -and partial statements into which -their poor minds have been jammed by -way of education! Think of the way -<em>that</em> pinches and chafes them! If one -expanded the miseries of these things.... Think, -for example, of the results -of the poor, bad, unwise food, of badly-managed -eyes and ears and teeth! Think -of the quantity of toothache.”</p> - -<p class='c006'>“I tell you, it does not <em>do</em> to think of -such things!” cried my friend, in a sort of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>anguish; and would have no more of it at -any price....</p> - -<p class='c006'>And yet in his time he had written -books full of these very matters, before -despair overtook him.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER II <br /> <br /> PEOPLE WHOSE BOOTS DON’T HURT THEM</h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_0_4 c005'>Well, I did not talk merely to -torment him; nor have I written -this merely to torment you. You see I -have a persistent persuasion that all these -miseries are preventable miseries, which it -lies in the power of men to cure.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Everybody does not suffer misery from -boots.</p> - -<p class='c006'>One person I know, another friend of -mine, who can testify to that; who has -tasted all the miseries of boots, and who -now goes about the world free of them, -but not altogether forgetful of them. -A stroke of luck, aided perhaps by a certain -alacrity on his own part, lifted him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>out of the class in which one buys one’s -boots and clothes out of what is left over -from a pound a week, into the class in -which one spends seventy or eighty -pounds a year on clothing. Sometimes -he buys shoes and boots at very good -shops; sometimes he has them made for -him; he has them stored in a proper cupboard, -and great care is taken of them; -and so his boots and shoes and slippers -never chafe, never pinch, never squeak, -never hurt nor worry him, never bother -him; and, when he sticks out his toes before -the fire, they do not remind him that -he is a shabby and contemptible wretch, -living meanly on the dust heaps of the -world. You might think from this he -had every reason to congratulate himself -and be happy, seeing that he has had good -follow after evil; but, such is the oddness -of the human heart, he isn’t contented at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>all. The thought of the multitudes so -much worse off than himself in this matter -of foot-wear, gives him no sort of satisfaction. -Their boots pinch <em>him</em> vicariously. -The black rage with the scheme of things -that once he felt through suffering in his -own person in the days when he limped -shabbily through gaily busy, fashionable -London streets, in split boots that chafed, -he feels now just as badly as he goes -about the world very comfortably himself, -but among people whom he knows -with a pitiless clearness to be almost intolerably -uncomfortable. He has no -optimistic illusion that things are all right -with them. Stupid people who have always -been well off, who have always had -boots that fit, may think that; but not so, -he. In one respect the thought of boots -makes him even more viciously angry -now, than it used to do. In the old days -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>he was savage with his luck, but hopelessly -savage; he thought that bad boots, -ugly uncomfortable clothes, rotten houses, -were in the very nature of things. Now, -when he sees a child sniffing and blubbering -and halting upon the pavement, or -an old country-woman going painfully -along a lane, he no longer recognises the -Pinch of Destiny. His rage is lit by the -thought, that there are fools in this world -who ought to have foreseen and prevented -this. He no longer curses fate, -but the dulness of statesmen and powerful -responsible people who have neither -the heart, nor courage, nor capacity, to -change the state of mismanagement that -gives us these things.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Now do not think I am dwelling unduly -upon my second friend’s good fortune, -when I tell you that once he was -constantly getting pain and miserable -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>states of mind, colds for example, from -the badness of his clothing, shame from -being shabby, pain from the neglected -state of his teeth, from the indigestion of -unsuitable food eaten at unsuitable hours, -from the insanitary ugly house in which -he lived and the bad air of that part of -London, from things indeed quite beyond -the unaided power of a poor over-worked -man to remedy. And now all -these disagreeable things have gone out -of his life; he has consulted dentists and -physicians, he has hardly any dull days -from colds, no pain from toothache at -all, no gloom of indigestion....</p> - -<p class='c006'>I will not go on with the tale of good -fortune of this lucky person. My purpose -is served if I have shown that this -misery of boots is not an unavoidable -curse upon mankind. If one man can -evade it, others can. By good management -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>it may be altogether escaped. If -you, or what is more important to most -human beings, if any people dear to you, -suffer from painful or disfiguring boots -or shoes, and you can do no better for -them, it is simply because you are getting -the worse side of an ill-managed -world. It is not the universal lot.</p> - -<p class='c006'>And what I say of boots is true of all -the other minor things of life. If your -wife catches a bad cold because her boots -are too thin for the time of the year, or -dislikes going out because she cuts a -shabby ugly figure, if your children look -painfully nasty because their faces are -swollen with toothache, or because their -clothes are dirty, old, and ill-fitting, if you -are all dull and disposed to be cross with -one another for want of decent amusement -and change of air—don’t submit, -don’t be humbugged for a moment into -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>believing that this is the dingy lot of all -mankind. Those people you love are living -in a badly-managed world and on the -wrong side of it; and such wretchednesses -are the daily demonstration of that.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Don’t say for a moment: “Such is life.” -Don’t think their miseries are part of -some primordial curse there is no escaping. -The disproof of that is for any one -to see. There are people, people no more -deserving than others, who suffer from -none of these things. You may feel you -merit no better than to live so poorly and -badly that your boots are always hurting -you; but do the little children, the girls, -the mass of decent hard-up people, deserve -no better fate?</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER III <br /> <br /> AT THIS POINT A DISPUTE ARISES</h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_0_4 c005'>Now let us imagine some one who -will dispute what I am saying. I -do not suppose any one will dispute my -argument that a large part of the misery -of civilised life—I do not say “all” but -only a “large part”—arises out of the network -of squalid insufficiencies of which -I have taken this misery of boots as the -simplest example. But I do believe quite -a lot of people will be prepared to deny -that such miseries can be avoided. They -will say that every one cannot have the -best of things, that of all sorts of good -things, including good leather and cobbling, -there is not enough to go round, -that lower-class people ought not to mind -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>being shabby and uncomfortable, that -they ought to be very glad to be able to -live at all, considering what they are, and -that it is no good stirring up discontent -about things that cannot be altered or improved.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Such arguments are not to be swept -aside with a wave of the hand. It is perfectly -true that every one cannot have the -best of things; and it is in the nature of -things that some boots should be better -and some worse. To some people, either -by sheer good luck, or through the -strength of their determination to have -them, the exquisitely good boots, those -of the finest leather and the most artistic -cut, will fall. I have never denied that. -Nobody dreams of a time when every one -will have exactly as good boots as every -one else; I am not preaching any such -childish and impossible equality. But it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>is a long way from recognising that there -must be a certain picturesque and interesting -variety in this matter of foot-wear, -to the admission that a large majority of -people can never hope for more than to -be shod in a manner that is frequently -painful, uncomfortable, unhealthy, or unsightly. -That admission I absolutely refuse -to make. There is enough good -leather in the world to make good sightly -boots and shoes for all who need them, -enough men at leisure and enough power -and machinery to do all the work required, -enough unemployed intelligence to organise -the shoemaking and shoe distribution -for everybody. What stands in the way?</p> - -<p class='c006'>Let us put that question in a rather -different form. Here on the one hand—you -can see for yourself in any unfashionable -part of Great Britain—are people -badly, uncomfortably, painfully shod, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>old boots, rotten boots, sham boots; and -on the other great stretches of land in the -world, with unlimited possibilities of cattle -and leather and great numbers of people, -who, either through wealth or trade -disorder, are doing no work. And our -question is: “Why cannot the latter set to -work and make and distribute boots?”</p> - -<p class='c006'>Imagine yourself trying to organise -something of this kind of Free Booting -expedition; and consider the difficulties -you would meet with. You would begin -by looking for a lot of leather. Imagine -yourself setting off to South America, -for example, to get leather; beginning at -the very beginning by setting to work to -kill and flay a herd of cattle. You find -at once you are interrupted. Along -comes your first obstacle in the shape of a -man who tells you the cattle and the -leather belong to him. You explain that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>the leather is wanted for people who have -no decent boots in England. He says he -does not care a rap what you want it for; -before you may take it from him you have -to buy him off; it is his private property, -this leather, and the herd and the -land over which the herd ranges. You -ask him how much he wants for his -leather; and he tells you frankly, just as -much as he can induce you to give.</p> - -<p class='c006'>If he chanced to be a person of exceptional -sweetness of disposition, you might -perhaps argue with him. You might -point out to him that this project of giving -people splendid boots was a fine one -that would put an end to much human -misery. He might even sympathise with -your generous enthusiasm; but you -would, I think, find him adamantine in -his resolve to get just as much out of you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>for his leather as you could with the utmost -effort pay.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Suppose now you said to him: “But -how did you come by this land and these -herds, so that you can stand between them -and the people who have need of them, -exacting this profit?” He would probably -either embark upon a long rigmarole, -or, what is much more probable, lose his -temper and decline to argue. Pursuing -your doubt as to the rightfulness of his -property in these things, you might admit -he deserved a certain reasonable fee for -the rough care he had taken of the land -and herds. But cattle breeders are a -rude, violent race; and it is doubtful if -you would get far beyond your proposition -of a reasonable fee. You would in -fact have to buy off this owner of the -leather at a good thumping price—he exacting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>just as much as he could get from -you—if you wanted to go on with your -project.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Well, then you would have to get your -leather here; and, to do that, you would -have to bring it by railway and ship to -this country. And here again you would -find people without any desire or intention -of helping your project, standing in -your course, resolved to make every possible -penny out of you on your way to -provide sound boots for every one. You -would find the railway was private property, -and had an owner or owners; you -would find the ship was private property, -with an owner or owners; and that none -of these would be satisfied for a moment -with a mere fee adequate to their services. -They too would be resolved to make every -penny of profit out of you. If you made -inquiries about the matter, you would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>probably find the real owners of railway -and ship were companies of shareholders, -and that the profit squeezed out of your -poor people’s boots at this stage went to -fill the pockets of old ladies at Torquay, -spendthrifts in Paris, well-booted gentlemen -in London clubs, all sorts of glossy -people....</p> - -<p class='c006'>Well, you get the leather to England -at last; and now you want to make it into -boots. You take it to a centre of population, -invite workers to come to you, erect -sheds and machinery upon a vacant piece -of ground, and start off in a sort of fury -of generous industry, boot-making.... -Do you? There comes along an owner -for that vacant piece of ground, declares -it is his property, demands an enormous -sum for rent. And your workers all -round you, you find, cannot get house -room until they too have paid rent—every -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>inch of the country is somebody’s property, -and a man may not shut his eyes for -an hour without the consent of some -owner or other. And the food your shoemakers -eat, the clothes they wear, have all -paid tribute and profit to land-owners, -cart-owners, house-owners, endless tribute -over and over and above the fair pay for -work that has been done upon them....</p> - -<p class='c006'>So one might go on. But you begin -to see now one set of reasons at least why -every one has not good comfortable boots. -There could be plenty of leather; and -there is certainly plenty of labour and -quite enough intelligence in the world to -manage that and a thousand other desirable -things. But this institution of Private -Property in land and naturally produced -things, these obstructive claims that -prevent you using ground, or moving -material, and that have to be bought out -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>at exorbitant prices, stand in the way. -All these owners hang like parasites upon -your enterprise at its every stage; and, by -the time you get your sound boots well -made in England, you will find them costing -about a pound a pair—high out of the -reach of the general mass of people. And -you will perhaps not think me fanciful -and extravagant when I confess that -when I realise this, and look at poor people’s -boots in the street, and see them -cracked and misshapen and altogether -nasty, I seem to see also a lot of little -phantom land-owners, cattle-owners, -house-owners, owners of all sorts, swarming -over their pinched and weary feet like -leeches, taking much and giving nothing, -and being the real cause of all such miseries.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Now is this a necessary and unavoidable -thing?—that is our question. Is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>there no other way of managing things -than to let these property-owners exact -their claims, and squeeze comfort, pride, -happiness, out of the lives of the common -run of people? Because, of course, it is -not only the boots they squeeze into meanness -and badness. It is the claim and -profit of the land-owner and house-owner -that make our houses so ugly, shabby, and -dear, that make our roadways and railways -so crowded and inconvenient, that -sweat our schools, our clothing, our food—boots -we took merely by way of one example -of a universal trouble.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Well, there are a number of people who -say there is a better way and that the -world could be made infinitely better in -all these matters, made happier and better -than it ever has been in these respects, by -refusing to have private property in all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>these universally necessary things. They -say that it is possible to have the land administered, -and such common and needful -things as leather produced, and boots -manufactured, and no end of other such -generally necessary services carried on, -not for the private profit of individuals, -but for the good of all. They propose -that the State should take away the land, -and the railways, and shipping, and many -great organised enterprises from their -owners, who use them simply to squeeze -the means for a wasteful private expenditure -out of the common mass of men, and -should administer all these things, generously -and boldly, not for profit, but for -service. It is this idea of extracting -<em>profit</em> they hold which is the very root of -the evil. These are the Socialists; and -they are the only people who do hold out -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>any hope of far-reaching change that will -alter the present dingy state of affairs, -of which this painful wretchedness of -boots is only one typical symbol.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER IV <br /> <br /> IS SOCIALISM POSSIBLE?</h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_0_4 c005'>I will not pretend to be impartial -in this matter, and to discuss as -though I had an undecided mind, whether -the world would be better if we could -abolish private property in land and in -many things of general utility; because I -have no doubt left in the matter. I believe -that private property in these things -is no more necessary and unavoidable -than private property in our fellow-creatures, -or private property in bridges and -roads. The idea that anything and -everything may be claimed as private -property belongs to the dark ages of the -world; and it is not only a monstrous injustice, -but a still more monstrous inconvenience. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>Suppose we still admitted private -property in high roads, and let every -man who had a scrap of high road haggle -a bargain with us before we could drive -by in a cab! You say life would be unendurable. -But indeed it amounts to -something a little like that if we use a -railway now; and it is quite like that if -one wants a spot of ground somewhere -upon which one may live. I see no more -difficulty in managing land, factories, and -the like, publicly for the general good, -than there is in managing roads and -bridges, and the post office and the police. -So far I see no impossibility whatever in -Socialism. To abolish private property -in these things would be to abolish all -that swarm of parasites, whose greed for -profit and dividend hampers and makes a -thousand useful and delightful enterprises -costly or hopeless. It would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>abolish them; but is that any objection -whatever?</p> - -<p class='c006'>And as for taking such property from -the owners; why shouldn’t we? The -world has not only in the past taken -slaves from their owners, with no compensation -or with a meagre compensation; -but in the history of mankind, dark -as it is, there are innumerable cases of -slave-owners resigning their inhuman -rights. You may say that to take away -property from people is unjust and robbery; -but is that really so? Suppose you -found a number of children in a nursery -all very dull and unhappy because one -of them, who had been badly spoilt, had -got all the toys together and claimed them -all, and refused to let the others have any. -Would you not dispossess the child, however -honest its illusion that it was right -to be greedy? That is practically the position -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>of the property-owner to-day. -You may say, if you choose, that property-owners, -land-owners for example, -must be bought out and not robbed; but -since getting the money to buy them out -involves taxing the property of some one -else, who may possibly have a better claim -to it than the land-owner to his, I don’t -quite see where the honesty of that course -comes in. You can only give property -for property in buying and selling; and -if private property is not robbery, then -not only Socialism but ordinary taxation -must be. But if taxation is a justifiable -proceeding, if you can tax me (as I am -taxed) for public services, a shilling and -more out of every twenty shillings I earn, -then I do not see why you should not put -a tax upon the land-owner if you want to -do so, of a half or two thirds or all his -land, or upon the railway share-holder of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>ten or fifteen or twenty shillings in the -pound on his shares. In every change -some one has to bear the brunt; every improvement -in machinery and industrial -organisation deprives some poor people -of an income; and I do not see why we -should be so extraordinarily tender to the -rich, to those who have been unproductive -all their lives, when they stand in the way -of the general happiness. And though I -deny the right to compensation I do not -deny its probable advisability. So far as -the question of method goes it is quite -conceivable that we may partially compensate -the property owners and make all -sorts of mitigating arrangements to avoid -cruelty to them in our attempt to end the -wider cruelties of to-day.</p> - -<p class='c006'>But, apart from the justice of the case, -many people seem to regard Socialism -as a hopeless dream, because, as they put -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>it, “it is against human nature.” Every -one with any scrap of property in land, -or shares, or what not, they tell us, will be -bitterly opposed to the coming of Socialism; -and, as such people have all the -leisure and influence in the world, and as -all able and energetic people tend naturally -to join that class, there never can be -any effectual force to bring Socialism -about. But that seems to me to confess -a very base estimate of human nature. -There are, no doubt, a number of dull, -base, rich people who hate and dread -Socialism for purely selfish reasons; but it -is quite possible to be a property owner -and yet be anxious to see Socialism come -to its own.</p> - -<p class='c006'>For example, the man whose private -affairs I know best in the world, the -second friend I named, the owner of all -those comfortable boots, gives time and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>energy and money to further this hope -of Socialism, although he pays income -tax on twelve hundred a year, and has -shares and property to the value of some -thousands of pounds. And that he does -out of no instinct of sacrifice. He believes -he would be happier and more comfortable -in a Socialistic state of affairs, -when it would not be necessary for him -to hold on to that life-belt of invested -property. He finds it—and quite a lot -of well-off people are quite of his way of -thinking—a constant flaw upon a life of -comfort and pleasant interests to see so -many people, who might be his agreeable -friends and associates, detestably under-educated, -detestably housed, in the most -detestable clothes and boots, and so detestably -broken in spirit that they will not -treat him as an equal. It makes him feel -he is like that spoilt child in the nursery; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>he feels ashamed and contemptible; and, -since individual charity only seems in the -long run to make matters worse, he is -ready to give a great deal of his life, and -lose his entire little heap of possessions if -need be, very gladly lose it, to change the -present order of things in a comprehensive -manner.</p> - -<p class='c006'>I am quite convinced that there are -numbers of much richer and more influential -people who are of his way of thinking. -Much more likely to obstruct the -way to Socialism is the ignorance, the -want of courage, the stupid want of imagination -of the very poor, too shy and -timid and clumsy to face any change they -can evade! But, even with them, popular -education is doing its work; and I do not -fear but that in the next generation we -shall find Socialists even in the slums. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>The unimaginative person who owns some -little bit of property, an acre or so of -freehold land, or a hundred pounds in the -savings bank, will no doubt be the most -tenacious passive resister to Socialistic -ideas; and such, I fear, we must reckon, -together with the insensitive rich, as our -irreconcilable enemies, as irremovable pillars -of the present order. The mean and -timid elements in “human nature” are, -and will be, I admit, against Socialism; -but they are not all “human nature,” not -half human nature. And when, in the -whole history of the world, have meanness -and timidity won a struggle? It is passion, -it is enthusiasm, and indignation -that mould the world to their will—and I -cannot see how any one can go into the -back streets of London, or any large -British town, and not be filled up with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>shame, and passionate resolve to end so -grubby and mean a state of affairs as is -displayed there.</p> - -<p class='c006'>I don’t think the “human nature” argument -against the possibility of Socialism -will hold water.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER V <br /> <br /> SOCIALISM MEANS REVOLUTION</h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_0_4 c005'>Let us be clear about one thing: that -Socialism means revolution, that it -means a change in the every-day texture -of life. It may be a very gradual -change, but it will be a very complete one. -You cannot change the world, and at the -same time not change the world. You -will find Socialists about, or at any rate -men calling themselves Socialists, who -will pretend that this is not so, who will -assure you that some odd little jobbing -about municipal gas and water is Socialism, -and back-stairs intervention between -Conservative and Liberal the way to the -millennium. You might as well call a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>gas jet in the lobby of a meeting-house, -the glory of God in Heaven!</p> - -<p class='c006'>Socialism aims to change, not only the -boots on people’s feet, but the clothes -they wear, the houses they inhabit, the -work they do, the education they get, their -places, their honours, and all their possessions. -Socialism aims to make a new -world out of the old. It can only be attained -by the intelligent, outspoken, courageous -resolve of a great multitude of -men and women. You must get absolutely -clear in your mind that Socialism -means a complete change, a break with -history, with much that is picturesque; -whole classes will vanish. The world will -be vastly different, with a different sort -of houses, different sorts of people. All -the different trades and industries will be -changed, the medical profession will be -carried on under different conditions, engineering, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>science, the theatrical trade, -the clerical trade, schools, hotels, almost -every trade, will have to undergo as complete -an internal change as a caterpillar -does when it becomes a moth. If you are -afraid of so much change as that, it is -better you should funk about it now than -later. The whole system has to be -changed, if we are to get rid of the masses -of dull poverty that render our present -state detestable to any sensitive man or -woman. That, and no less, is the aim of -all sincere Socialists: the establishment of -a new and better order of society by the -abolition of private property in land, in -natural productions, and in their exploitation—a -change as profound as the abolition -of private property in slaves would -have been in ancient Rome or Athens. If -you demand less than that, if you are not -prepared to struggle for that, you are not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>really a Socialist. If you funk that, then -you must make up your mind to square -your life to a sort of personal and private -happiness with things as they are, and -decide with my other friend that “it -doesn’t do to think about boots.”</p> - -<p class='c006'>It is well to insist upon one central idea. -Socialism is a common-sense, matter-of-fact -proposal to change our conventional -admission of what is or is not property, -and to re-arrange the world according to -these revised conceptions. A certain -number of clever people, dissatisfied with -the straightforwardness of this, have set -themselves to put it in some brilliant obscure -way; they will tell you that Socialism -is based on the philosophy of Hegel, -or that it turns on a theory of Rent, or -that it is somehow muddled up with a sort -of white Bogey called the Overman, and -all sorts of brilliant, nonsensical, unappetising -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>things. The theory of Socialism, -so far as English people are concerned, -seems to have got up into the -clouds, and its practice down into the -drains; and it is well to warn inquiring -men, that neither the epigram above nor -the job beneath are more than the accidental -accompaniments of Socialism. Socialism -is a very large, but a plain, honest, -and human enterprise; its ends are to be -obtained neither by wit nor cunning, but -by outspoken resolve, by the self-abnegation, -the enthusiasm, and the loyal cooperation -of great masses of people.</p> - -<p class='c006'>The main thing, therefore, is the creation -of these great masses of people out -of the intellectual confusion and vagueness -of the present time. Let me suppose -that you find yourself in sympathy -with this tract, that you, like my second -friend, find the shabby dullness, the positive -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>misery of a large proportion of the -population of our world, make life under -its present conditions almost intolerable, -and that it is in the direction of Socialism -that the only hope of a permanent -remedy lies. What are we to do? Obviously -to give our best energies to making -other people Socialists, to organising -ourselves with all other Socialists, irrespective -of class or the minor details of -creed, and to making ourselves audible, -visible, effectual as Socialists, wherever -and whenever we can.</p> - -<p class='c006'>We have to think about Socialism, read -about it, discuss it; so that we may be -assured and clear and persuasive about it. -We have to confess our faith openly and -frequently. We must refuse to be called -Liberal or Conservative, Republican or -Democrat, or any of those ambiguous -things. Everywhere we must make or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>join a Socialist organisation, a club or -association or what not, so that we may -“count.” For us, as for the early Christians, -preaching our gospel is the supreme -duty. Until Socialists can be counted, -and counted upon by the million, little will -be done. When they are—a new world -will be ours.</p> - -<p class='c006'>Above all, if I may offer advice to a -fellow-Socialist, I would say: Cling to -the simple essential idea of Socialism, -which is the abolition of private property -in anything but what a man has earned -or made. Do not complicate your cause -with elaborations. And keep in your -mind, if you can, some sort of talisman -to bring you back to that essential gospel, -out of the confusions and warring suggestions -of every-day discussion.</p> - -<p class='c006'>For my own part, I have, as I said at -the beginning, a prepossession with boots; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>and my talisman is this:—The figure of -a badly fed but rather pretty little girl of -ten or eleven, dirty, and her hands coarse -with rough usage, her poor pretty child’s -body in ungainly rags, and, on her feet, -big broken-down boots that hurt her. -And particularly I think of her wretched -sticks of legs and the limp of her feet; -and all those phantom owners and profit-takers -I spoke of, they are there about -her martyrdom, leech-like, clinging to her -as she goes....</p> - -<p class='c006'>I want to change everything in the -world that made that; and I do not greatly -care what has to go in the process. -Do you?</p> - -<div class='c007'><span class='sc'>H. G. Wells</span></div> - -<hr class='c008' /> - -<p class='c006'>[Here is just a bit of hard fact to carry -out what I say. It is a quotation from a -letter from a workman to my friend Mr. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>Chiozza Money, one of the best informed -writers upon labour questions in England:</p> -<p class='c009'>“I am a railway man, in constant work at 30s. -per week. I am the happy, or otherwise, father -of six healthy children. Last year I bought -twenty pairs of boots. This year, up to date, I -have bought ten pairs, costing £2; and yet, at -the present time, my wife and five of the children -have only one pair each. I have two pairs, both -of which let in the water; but I see no prospect -at present of getting new ones. I ought to say, -of course, that my wife is a thoroughly domesticated -woman, and I am one of the most temperate -of men. So much so, that if all I spend in -luxuries was saved it would not buy a pair of -boots once a year. But this is the point I want -to mention. During 1903 my wages were 25s. -6d. per week; and I then had the six children. -My next-door neighbour was a boot-maker and -repairer. He fell out of work, and was out for -months. During that time, of course, my children’s -boots needed repairing as at other times. -I had not the money to pay for them being repaired, -so had to do what repairing I could myself. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>One day I found out that I was repairing -boots on one side of the wall, and my neighbour -on the other side out of work, and longing to do -the work I was compelled to do myself....”</p> -<p class='c010'>The wall was a commercial organisation -of society based on private property -in land and natural productions. These -two men must work for the owners or -not at all; they cannot work for one another. -Food first, then rent; and boots, -if you can, when all the owners are paid.]</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of This Misery of Boots, by -H. G. 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