Jack London

c. 1902–1903

happiness

Their wordsFor the English, so far as manhood and womanhood and health and happiness go, I see a broad and smiling future. But for a great deal of the political machinery, which at present mismanages for them, I see nothing else than the scrap heap.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsAnd that they should be well fed, well clothed, and well armed, and have ships to hurl them to the ends of the earth, the East End of London, and the “East End” of all England, toils and rots and dies.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIn a civilisation frankly materialistic and based upon property, not soul, it is inevitable that property shall be exalted over soul, that crimes against property shall be considered far more serious than crimes against the person.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsOn the part of the authorities it is sheer robbery. They give the men far less for their labour than do the capitalistic employers.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIt must be understood that efficiency is not determined by the workers themselves, but is determined by the demand for labour.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsWhen 514,000 workers oppose a resolution prohibiting child-labour under fifteen, it is evident that a less-than-living wage is being paid to an immense number of the adult workers of the country.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsPolitical economy and the survival of the fittest can go hang if they say otherwise. What is not good enough for you is not good enough for other men, and there’s no more to be said.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsThe children of the Ghetto possess all the qualities which make for noble manhood and womanhood; but the Ghetto itself, like an infuriated tigress turning on its young, turns upon and destroys all these qualities, blots out the light and laughter, and moulds those it does not kill into sodden and forlorn creatures, uncouth, degraded, and wretched below the beasts of the field.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIf this is the best that civilisation can do for the human, then give us howling and naked savagery. Far better to be a people of the wilderness and desert, of the cave and the squatting-place, than to be a people of the machine and the Abyss.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsNow such a room as I have described is not home but horror; and the men and women who flee away from it to the public-house are to be pitied, not blamed.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIt is of no avail to preach temperance and teetotalism to these people. The drink habit may be the cause of many miseries; but it is, in turn, the effect of other and prior miseries.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsTheir college settlements, missions, charities, and what not, are failures. In the nature of things they cannot but be failures.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIn short, thrift negates thrift. If every worker in England should heed the preachers of thrift and cut expenditure in half, the condition of there being more men to work than there is work to do would swiftly cut wages in half.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsThen arises the third and inexorable question: If Civilisation has increased the producing power of the average man, why has it not bettered the lot of the average man? There can be one answer only—MISMANAGEMENT.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIf it is a loss, it must be done away with. If it is a profit, it must be managed so that the average man comes in for a share of the profit.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIn short, society must be reorganised, and a capable management put at the head. That the present management is incapable, there can be no discussion.

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c. 1902–1903

Their wordsIt is inevitable that this management, which has grossly and criminally mismanaged, shall be swept away. Not only has it been wasteful and inefficient, but it has misappropriated the funds.

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