Just before the prorogation the Earl of Wemyss and March got up in his place in the House of Lords and flourished a sort of revolutionary symbol in the faces of his meager but distinguished audience. The symbol, or let me call it paper banner, was Justice, not the French journal of that name but the lively organ of the English Socialists. “Look at this and tremble,” was the meaning conveyed by his lordship’s attitude and brief speech. Some people define English Socialism to be, among other things, “an attempt to make grand dukes and people of that sort” live on three hundred a year—and work eight hours a day even for that! But on looking at the program of the Socialists, what I find is a proposal for &ldq... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “The Ten Commandments” Commonweal, Vol 2, No. 46, 27 November 1886, p.276; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. Among the articles in the ‘Mall Pall Gazette’ occur some that express sad trouble about the ten commandments. These are always of a peculiar character, so that it is safe to assume that they are written by one person; and that person’s function seems to be to repress the excesses of those contributors to the journal who are Socialistic in tendency. It is not the business of the Commonweal to criticize literature, so we may leave the style of the above-said contributor alone; but his anxiety as to the fate of the ten commandments in a future state of society, which is shared, doubtless, by many well-t... (From: Marxists.org.) Mr. WILLIAM MORRIS, called in; and Examined. Mr. Dick Peddie.
2095. Do you attend here at the request of the Society for the Protection of
Ancient Buildings? - Yes.
2096. And you are therefore able to state generally the views of that society with
regard to the proposed building. Would you kindly state shortly the objections
which you entertain to what is proposed to be done according to Mr. Pearson's plan?
- Our views are very simple. It simply comes to this, that from our point of view
the taking down of the old Law Courts has exposed the actual side or flank of the
Hall, which seems to us to be a very valuable piece of architecture, that is
looking at... (From: Marxists.org.) My eye just now caught the word `restoration' in the morning paper, and, on looking
closer, I saw that this time it is nothing less than the Minster of Tewkesbury that
is to be destroyed by Sir Gilbert Scott. Is it altogether too late to do something
to save it - it and whatever else beautiful or historical is still left us on the
sites of the ancient buildings we were once so famous for? Would it not be of some
use once for all, and with the least delay possible, to set on foot an association
for the purpose of watching over and protecting these relics, which, scanty as they
are now become, are still wonderful treasures, all the more priceless in this age
of the world, when the newly-... (From: Marxists.org.) The subject I have to speak on is a sufficiently wide one, and I can do little more
than hint at points of interest in it for your further thought and consideration;
all the more as I think I shall be right in supposing that, except for anyone
actually engaged in the manufacture of textiles who may be present, you, in common
with most educated people at the present day, have very little idea as to how a
piece of cloth is made, and not much as to the characteristic differences between
the manufactures of diverse periods. However, one limitation to my subject I will
at once state: I am going to treat it as an artist and archaeologist, not as a
manufacturer, as we call it; that is, I shal... (From: Marxists.org.) There are several ways of ornamenting a woven cloth: (1) real tapestry, (2)
carpet-weaving, (3) mechanical weaving, (4) printing or painting, and (5)
embroidery. There has been no improvement (indeed, as to the main processes, no
change) in the manufacture of the wares in all these branches since the fourteenth
century, as far as the wares themselves are concerned; whatever improvements have
been introduced have been purely commercial, and have had to do merely with
reducing the cost of production; nay, more, the commercial improvements have on the
whole been decidedly injurious to the quality of the wares themselves.
The noblest of the weaving arts is Tapestry, in which th... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Thoughts on Education under Capitalism” Commonweal, Vol 4, No. 129, 30 June 1888, p.204-205; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The other day I heard Mr Charles Leland (better known as Hans Breitman) speak on the teaching of the ‘minor arts’ (we wont trouble for the present as to what they are) and he told us he was engaged in carrying out a plan (in America) by which all children should be taught these arts and so gain an interest in handicrafts which he thought, and I heartily agree with him, would be a great gain to the art and consequently to the happiness of people generally. Mr Leland said that he had been engaged in this work of educating children’s hands for many years, and he expected success to fo... (From: Marxists.org.) Mr. William Morris, at the New Islington Hall, Manchester, on Sunday, in
connection with the Ancoats Recreation Committee, delivered an address on "Town
and Country." Mr. Charles Rowley presided. Mr. Morris, after a reference to the
differences of town and country life under the Romans, dealt with the gradual
development of differences with regard to similar life in England. About the
middle of the 18th century, London, he said, became more decidedly than before
the center of England, and there was not, as hitherto, a mere distinction
between the town and the country side, but between London and the rest of the
country, town and all. Then began what real difference there was in town and
country life. Beyond that there was a further... (From: Marxists.org.) Town and country are generally put in a kind of contrast, but we will see what kind
of a contrast there has been, is, and may be between them; how far that contrast is
desirable or necessary, or whether it may not be possible in the long run to make
the town a part of the country and the country a part of the towns. I think I may
assume that, on the one hand, there is nobody here so abnormally made as not to
take a pleasure in green fields, and trees, and rivers, and mountains, the beings,
human and otherwise, that inhabit those scenes, and in a word, the general beauty
and incident of nature: and that, on the other, we all of us find human intercourse
necessary to us, and even the exc... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Trial by Judge v. Trial by Jury” Commonweal, Vol 5, No. 188, 17 August 1889, p.257; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The Maybrick case, of which we have been hearing so much, does not differ in essence from most other trials for murder. A man is killed; there is a certain amount of presumptive evidence against such and such a person; a coroner’s jury find that this person is guilty of the murder. The presumptive evidence is after long delay brought before the Criminal Court; which delay, be it remarked, tends very much to increase the difficulty in getting at the truth, as lies and falsities have time to grow round the original kernel of fact, and make a regular problem for the solution of the professional dealers wi... (From: Marxists.org.) Allow me to add my thanks also to you for your straightforward attack on the cant
which assumes that a public body having the administration of charities has but one
mandate, to wit, the increase of its money at the expense of every other
consideration.
As to the Trinity Almshouses, looking at the beauty and charm of the buildings and
their immediate surroundings, and the reproach they throw on us for the
squalor of the outside world of East London; and looking also at the pleasure and
decency of life which they confer on the present inmates, I can think of
nothing which (mutatis mutandis) fits the case better than the lines of
Omar Khayyam.-
... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “A Triple Alliance” Commonweal, Vol 4, No. 112, 3 March 1888, p.68; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The struggle for the elementary right of freedom of speech, of which the events of Bloody Sunday formed such a dramatic episode, is taking a new development. The police onslaught of November 13th, and the subsequent reactionary tyranny of the Government, came as a surprise on the genuine Radicals who took part in the proceedings of that disastrous and shameful day: and it can hardly be doubted that the orthodox Liberals were also surprised at it; but their surprise took the form of striking them dumb as well as deedless. Comment has been made in these columns on the dastardliness of their behavior, which, all things consider... (From: Marxists.org.) I have been asked to give you the Socialist view of the Labor Question. Now in
some ways that is a difficult matter to deal with - far beyond my individual
capacities - and would also be a long business; yet in another way, as a matter of
principle, it is not difficult to understand or long to tell of, and does not need
previous study or acquaintance with the works of specialists or philosophers.
Indeed, if it did, it would not be a political subject, and I hope to show you that
it is preeminently political in the sense in which I should use the word; that is
to say, it is a matter which concerns everyone, and had to do with the practical
everyday relations of his life, and that not on... (From: Marxists.org.) Ouida's article on the ugliness of London does, as you suggest, call for remarks
from those who care at all for the real pleasure of life for themselves and others.
But the subject is so wide that to begin with I had better limit it; for, as has
been often said, London is not a town, but a country covered with houses. Now, the
London which presents itself to Ouida is not the London of the matchmakers and
dock-laborers in the East, or of the brickmakers and gas-workers of the west; she
is not thinking of the slums beyond Bethnal-green, or those of Fulham and
Latimer-road, but of the shops and dwellings of the bourgeoisie, middle and upper
(for England has no aristocracy). Of this well-t... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Commonweal, Vol I, No. 4, May 1885, pp. 37 (Supplement); Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. For our purpose of considering the relations of labor to industrial art, the wares made at the present day, the articles made for the market that is, may be divided into two classes — those that have some pretensions to be considered ornamental, and those that have not. The latter, I suppose, is much the larger class; but at any rate the important thing to remember is that there is this difference. Now it seems to me necessary to understand that everything made by man must be either ugly or beautiful. Neutrality is impossible in man’s handiwork. But in times past, before the commercial age, it did not follow that a piece of handiwork w... (From: Marxists.org.) Most people who profess Liberal opinions doubtless please themselves by thinking that the reign of absolutism is at an end in this country, that for us kings are done with, since the live image or puppet of a so-called constitutional Monarchy is capable of performing no more dreadful function than that of boring itself and all those with whom it comes into contact, and of providing a constant center of hypocrisy and corruption for the rich classes, if indeed any thing could make that corruption worse which seems now rapidly approaching its climax, and carrying us on toward revolution.
Nevertheless though the old kingship may be dead, at least in England, we may perhaps have in these latter days fashioned a new kingship, not the less dang... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Under an Elm-Tree; or, Thoughts in the Country-Side” Commonweal, Vol 5, No. 182, 6 July 1889, p.212-213; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. Midsummer in the country — here you may walk between the fields and hedges that are as it were one huge nosegay for you, redolent of bean-flowers and clover and sweet hay and elder-blossom. The cottage gardens are bright with flowers, the cottages themselves mostly models of architecture in their way. Above them towers here and there the architecture proper of days bygone, when every craftsman was an artist and brought definite intelligence to bear upon his work. Man in the past, nature in the present, seem to be bent on pleasing you and making all things delightful to your senses;... (From: Marxists.org.) William Morris
UNJUST WAR
TO THE WORKING-MEN OF ENGLAND.
Friends and fellow-citizens:–
there is danger of war; bestir yourselves
to face that danger. If you go to sleep, saying we do not understand it,
and the danger is far away you may wake and find the evil fallen upon
you, for even now it is at the door. Take heed in time and consider
it well, for a hard matter it will be for most of us to bear war taxes,
war prices, war losses of wealth and work, and friends and kindred; we
shall pay heavily, and you, friends of the working classes, will pay
the heaviest.
And what shall we buy at this heavy price? Will it be glory and wealth
and peace for those that come after us?
Alas! no; for those are the gains of a... (From: Marxists.org.) The above title may strike some of my readers as strange. It is assumed by most
people nowadays that all work is useful, and by most well-to-do people
that all work is desirable. Most people, well-to-do or not, believe that, even when
a man is doing work which appears to be useless, he is earning his livelihood by it
- he is "employed," as the phrase goes; and most of those who are well-to-do cheer
on the happy worker with congratulations and praises, if he is only "industrious"
enough and deprives himself of all pleasure and holidays in the sacred cause of
labor. In short, it has become an article of the creed of modern morality that all
labor is good in itself - a convenient belief t... (From: Marxists.org.) The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has just received a letter from
Cav. Paravicini, the distinguished Milanese antiquary, in which he gives a list of
the ancient buildings in and near Milan, which during the past year have been
destroyed or completely falsified by an ignorant system of so-called `restoration'.
The fine old medieval towers of the Porta Ticinese have been pulled down, for the
sake of rebuilding them on a fresh site. The high altar of S. Ambrogio has been
moved from its original position, slightly oblique to the axis of the church - a
position characteristic of the high altars of early Lombardic churches. It is now
proposed to destroy Bramante's noble por... (From: Marxists.org.) My attention has been called to an angry article in your current number under the
heading: `Why "Blackguards"?' There is a good deal of matter in it which is
personal to myself; but I do not think it right to trouble the public with any
private grievance, when I have in my mind a crying public one. To speak frankly, I
wish to use the opportunity afforded me by your article for calling the attention
of your readers to a great public scandal. The words of mine quoted in the
article in question were written under the influence of the grief and indignation
which I felt, and am feeling, incommon with all those who understand the beauty of
the art of the past, and its value to history, at th... (From: Marxists.org.) I have just read your too true article on the vulgarization of Oxford, and I wish
to ask if it is too late to appeal to the mercy of the `Dons' to spare the few
specimens of ancient town architecture which they have not yet had time to destroy,
such, for example, as the little plaster houses in front of Trinity College or the
beautiful houses left on the north side of Holywell Street. These are in their way
as important as themore majestic buildings to which all the world makes pilgrimage.
Oxford thirty years ago, when I first knew it, was full of these treasures; but
Oxford `culture,' cynically contemptuous of the knowledge which it does not know,
and steeped to the lips in the commer... (From: Marxists.org.) Few of the public have seen the full text of this song, written by William
Morris, author of the "Earthly Paradise". In the days of the late Empire in
France, Walter Savage Landor and Mr. A. C. Swinburne supplied one or two
political songs. The Poet Laureate also supplied two or three. As it is seldom
that any poet nowadays takes interest in public affairs, Mr. Morris's song is
worth quoting. It had the distinction of being sung by seven thousand voices at
Exeter Hall. As the music halls of London have long resounded with war doggerel
in favor of the Turks, such as "Here stands a Poet" and "We don't want to
fight",1 it is only fair that a song on
the other side–which is not doggerel–should be heard.
Wake, London La... (From: Marxists.org.) South Salford Branch
On Sunday, March 11th we had our old comrade William Morris with us. In the
morning at Trafford Bridge he delivered an interesting and instructive address,
which was listened to by an enormous crowd. A strong wind prevailed, and thus
militated against effective out-door speaking, the the "Grand Old Man" of the
Socialist movement had previously stipulated that he should address one meeting
outside, and he was evidently determined to stick to his arrangements and defy
the elements. The highly successful meeting will doubtless afford him some
compensation for his kindly sacrifice.
In the afternoon comrade Morris addressed a public meeting in the large Free
Trade Hall, Manchaster. There was a large attendance,... (From: Marxists.org.) When it was morning they arose early and ate a morsel; and Clement gave freely to the Warden and his helpmate on behalf of the fellowship; and then they saddled their nags, and did on the loads and departed; and the way was evil otherwise, but it was down hill, and all waters ran east.
All day they rode, and at even when the sun had not quite set, they pitched their camp at the foot of a round knoll amid a valley where was water and grass; and looking down thence, they had a sight of the fruitful plain, wherein lay Cheaping Knowe all goodly blue in the distance.
This was a fair place and a lovely, and great ease would they have had there, were it not that they must keep watch and ward with more pains than theretofore; for Clement de... (From: Marxists.org.) We feel ourselves compelled to call the attention of the public to the present
condition and immediate prospects of the Church of St. Peter at Westminster: and
this seems to us to be all the more necessary, because the public have scarcely
understood the really important considerations which should be kept in mind in
dealing with this piece of national property. The idea that is current in most
people's minds seems to be that, apart from its function as a place of worship, it
is to be used in some way or other as a kind of registration office for the names
of men whom the present generation considers eminent in various capacities: the
method of so registering them being the placing of ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “What 1887 Has Done” Commonweal, Vol 4, No. 104, 7 January 1888, p.4-5; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The year 1887 is come to an end, a year in many respects eventful; what will it be chiefly known by in the future, when it has become mere history? To some it will be the jubilee year; to some the central year of the great Tory ascendancy; to some, it may be, for a little while, the last of the thoroughly bad years of the depression of trade. Yet again it may be known hereafter as the last year of the European armed truce; and to others it will be remembered as the great year of Coercion. Which will it be? Another question can be our only answer. Is our future to be that of patient slaves bearing their hard lot apathetic... (From: Marxists.org.) ... some direst share in the national talk-shop. All this they will try for, and
will get the formula thereto made into law within a certain time. Now I firmly
believe that it is an illusion to think they can have the reality of any of these
things without gaining the beginning of Socialism.
... it will be followed in due course by all the necessary administration which in
its turn will lead to the formation of the habit of Socialism, when we shall no
more talk of Socialism because it will be among us fully developed, when all
contentious politics will be abolished, that is, all clashing interests; and our
difference of opinion will be of opinion only, to be settled by the ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “What is to Happen Next?” Commonweal, Vol 2, No. 28, 24 July 1886, p.129; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The elections are over with the result of a Parliament that comprises a majority of more than a hundred against Home Rule, although the Tories are in a considerable minority as regards a possible (?)combination between the Whigs, Jingo-Liberals, Parnellites, and Gladstonians or British Home Rulers. It would be idle not to admit that this is a success of the Reactionists, and a success unexpected by most persons. Moreover, it would certainly have been a great advantage to the Socialist propaganda if the ground had been cleared of a question which very naturally excites political passions deeply, and at the same time has... (From: Marxists.org.) Socialists no more than other people believe that persons are naturally equal:
there are among men all varieties of disposition, and desires, and degrees of
capacity; nevertheless these differences are inequalities are very much increased
by the circumstances among which a man lives and by those that surrounded the
lives of his parents: and these circumstances are more or less under the control of
society, that is of the ordered arrangement of persons among which we live. So I
say first that granted that men are born with certain tendencies those tendencies
can be developed for good and evil by the conditions of our lives, and those
conditions are in our own hands to deal with, taking ... (From: Marxists.org.)