Henderson (pushing his trolley and cheerily crying,"By your leave."),and then another less known gentleman who had "corresponded"with the Board of Trade,and had thus gained some strange claim to represent the very poor.
Now people like this might quite possibly produce a rational enough report,and in this or that respect even improve things.Men of that kind are tolerably kind,tolerably patriotic,and tolerably business-like.
But if any one supposes that men of that kind can conceivably quiet any real 'quarrel with the Man of the Other Kind,the man whom I first described,it is frantic.The common worker is angry exactly because he has found out that all these boards consist of the same well-dressed Kind of Man,whether they are called Governmental or Capitalist.If any one hopes that he will reconcile the poor,I say,as I said at the beginning,that such a one has not looked on the light of day or dwelt in the land of the living.
But I do not criticise such a Commission except for one most practical and urgent purpose.It will be answered to me that the first Kind of Man of whom I spoke could not really be on boards and committees,as modern England is managed.His dirt,though necessary and honourable,would be offensive:his speech,though rich and figurative,would be almost incomprehensible.Let us grant,for the moment,that this is so.This Kind of Man,with his sooty hair or sanguinary adjectives,cannot be represented at our committees of arbitration.Therefore,the other Kind of Man,fairly prosperous,fairly plausible,at home at least with the middle class,capable at least of reaching and touching the upper class,he must remain the only Kind of Man for such councils.
Very well.If then,you give at any future time any kind of compulsory powers to such councils to prevent strikes,you will be driving the first Kind of Man to work for a particular master as much as if you drove him with a whip.