§ 28

What is “of the people” must come “from the people.” If the people represent the roots of a nation they must be pruned, nourished, and kept clear of poisonous weeds; if not, their product will be sterile. If a fruit tree bears ill the fault is to be found in the roots and in the soil that surrounds them. The embryo of its fruit is in the roots of a tree. Labour is numerically superior, and rightly, because no country can exist without it. It is imperative, therefore, that if Labour is finally to rule it must prepare itself to do so, not by making itself a nuisance and a danger by striking work, by shirking effort, by giving the minimum of its energy to do its share of work for the community, but by strenuously following the old maxim: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” To take part in the rule of the community is a more complicated affair than to rule a household; it follows logically that the man who fails in the latter will do so in the former. Unable to rule himself, to be his own conscience guide, how can he be accepted to rule over his fellows? A man, be he who he may, rich or poor, who uses the leisure he has ill, brutally or wastefully, has not yet qualified himself for more. If the ideal of such a one is dog fighting, man fighting, gambling or any other brutalising sport, his is not likely to be an ideal of the use of leisure serviceable to himself and his family, nor is it one which justifies his voice to be heard or his deeds to influence the affairs of his country, for which he has shown neither interest or inclination. Among intelligent and instructed men as colleagues he would find himself quite out of place, and rightly. A limited outlook upon life is one of the penalties which untrained, undisciplined minds have to pay. The narrow mind is a selfish one almost always. It is egoistic, it places the social class to which it belongs in a position of importance far above its merits, for whose well being, in a material sense, it would legislate to the disadvantage of every other class.