‘Have you any references?’ and so on and so forth. ‘Have you ever done any other kinds of work than those you have mentioned? Do you think you would be fit for any other kind’ ‘Have you ever worked for a Distress Committee before?’ ‘Do you get any money from any Club or Society, or from any Charity, or from any other source?’ ‘Does your wife earn anything? How much?’ ‘Give the names of all the foremen you have worked under during the last five years?’ ‘Give the full names and addresses of all the different employers you have worked for during the last five years, and the reasons why you left them?’ ‘What have you been doing for the last five years? What kind of work, how many hours a day? What wages did you get?’ ‘Who was your last employer? What was the foreman’s name? How long did you work there? What kind of work did you do? Why did you leave?’ ‘What kind of a house do you live in? How many rooms are there?’ ‘How many children have you? How many boys? How many girls? Do they go to work? What do they earn?’ ‘Are you Married or single or a Widower or what?’ ‘What is your Trade, Calling, Employment, or Occupation?’ ‘How old are you? When was your last birthday?’ ‘How long were you living at that place?’ ‘Where did you live before you went there?’ The result of this innovation was that no more forms were issued, but the applicants for work were admitted into the office one at a time, and were there examined by a junior clerk, somewhat after the manner of a French Juge d’Instruction interrogating a criminal, the clerk filling in the form according to the replies of the culprit. At a secret meeting of the Committee Rushton proposed – amid laughter and applause, it was such a good joke – a new and better way, calculated to keep down the number of applicants. In previous years it had been the practice to issue an application form called a ‘Record Paper’ to any Brother who asked for one, and the Brother returned it after filling it in himself. If it had not been for a cunning device invented by Brother Rushton, a much larger number of the Brethren would have succeeded in registering themselves as unemployed on the books of the Committee. However, by adopting a policy of temporizing, delay, and general artful dodging, the Committee managed to create the impression that they were Dealing with the Problem. The Committee would probably have given these six hundred and seventy-two the necessary permission, but it was somewhat handicapped by the fact that the funds at its disposal were only sufficient to enable that number of Brethren to be employed for about three days. Of this number – after careful investigation – the committee had found that no fewer than six hundred and seventy-two were deserving of being allowed to work for their living. The beautiful Distress Committee was also in full operation over a thousand Brethren had registered themselves on its books. They continued to organize ‘Rummage’ and ‘Jumble’ sales and bazaars, and to distribute their rotten cast-off clothes and boots and their broken victuals and soup to such of the Brethren as were sufficiently degraded to beg for them. ‘It’s a Far, Far Better Thing that I do, than I have Ever Done’Īlthough Owen, Easton and Crass and a few others were so lucky as to have had a little work to do during the last few months, the majority of their fellow workmen had been altogether out of employment most of the time, and meanwhile the practical business-men, and the pretended disciples of Christ – the liars and hypocrites who professed to believe that all men are brothers and God their Father – had continued to enact the usual farce that they called ‘Dealing’ with the misery that surrounded them on every side. Robert Tressell The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists MIA > Library > Tressell > Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell: Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Chap.
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