1. ‘Say, pa, I heard a couple of men talking stocks the other day. What’s stocks?’ ‘Stocks, my son, are shares. You see, when a number of men form a company each subscribes so much money, and then he is given so much stock in the company. Sometimes it’s a bank, sometimes a mercantile or manufacturing concern. Do you understand?’ ‘Well, no; I don’t think I hardly do, Have you got any stocks, pa? ‘ ‘Yes; I have got some shares in a coal company.’ ‘Oh, I’ve heard folks talking about a coal ring! Is that it?’ ‘Not exactly. Our company is a member of the coal section of the board of trade; that’s what some rascally fellows have been calling the coal ring.’ ‘The men I heard talking about it said the coal ring were a gang of thieves, who ought to be in jail. Did they mean you, pa?’ ‘No, they couldn’t mean me, my son, for I am only a stockholder in my company, and my company is in the section, or ring as they call it; so even if the ring did wrong, and were extortioners, my company is only one part of it, and I am only one in twenty in the company; so you see, I can’t be personally responsible.’ I don’t hardly see that, pa; but if you say so, then it must be so. The men said that the ring kept up the price of coal unfairly, and one man said that, as they took advantage of the people’s necessities to force them to pay more than was right, they were all the same as highway robbers.’ ‘Oh, he was some crank. Why, all business is done that way! Anybody who didn’t take all the chances that offered would get left. He’d be a fool.’ ‘If you got a chance to get hold of a man’s pocket-book when he wasn’t looking, would you take it, pa?’ ‘No, certainly not; that would be stealing.’ ‘But it would be a chance, pa, wouldn’t it?’ ‘That is not what I mean by a chance. I mean a fair chance in the way of business.’ ‘Well, if the man was so cold that he was just going to die, and you made him give you his pocket-book before you would let him into the house to get warm, would that be a fair chance?’ ‘No, my son; that would be most uncharitable, most un-Christian,’ ‘Would it be stealing, pa?’ ‘Morally it would; in the sight of God it would be.’ ‘Well, if you knew that ever so many people were almost dying of cold, and you had all the coal there was, and you said you wouldn’t let them have any till they gave you ever so much more than it was worth, would that be a fair chance, pa?’ ‘It wouldn’t be right for me, my son, to charge more than the market price, I suppose,’ ‘Well, but if you had all the coal, whatever you said would be the market price, wouldn’t it?’ ‘I suppose it would; but one man can’t own all the coal.’ ‘But the men, anyway the one you said was a crank, said that the ring had all the coal. So they could make the market price, couldn’t they, pa?’ ‘Yes, I suppose they could.’ ‘Well, didn’t they, pa?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ ‘Are the ring fools?’ ‘Well, hardly; they’re about the sharpest that’s going.’ ‘Then of course they took all the chances in the way of business, wouldn’t they, pa?’ ‘Oh, well, it’s pretty generally admitted that the rings do things which would not do for private individuals to do,’ ‘I guess if anyone did, they’d think he wasn’t much of a Christian, wouldn’t they, pa?’ ‘Yes, I suppose so.’ ‘But if your company is in the ring, then it is as bad as the rest, isn’t it?’ ‘Well, maybe it is,’ ‘Then if you are one of your company, you are just as bad as the ring, too. You are not much of a Christian, are you, pa?’ ‘Oh, nonsense, boy! A man can’t be blamed for what a company does because he happens to hold stock in it.’ ‘Well, your company gets a share of what the ring squeezes out of the people, doesn’t it, pa?’ ‘Yes, I suppose it does.’ ‘And you get your share of what your company gets, don’t you?’ ‘I’m not supposed to know how every shilling of my dividends is made.’ ‘Say, pa, my Sunday-school teacher says Moses was the greatest law-giver; I reckon he wasn’t very smart, was he?’ ‘Yes, my son, Moses was the greatest law-giver that ever lived.’ ‘Well, I reckon he didn’t know everything, for all that, did he, pa?’ ‘What do you mean? Don’t you know it’s wicked to talk that way?’ ‘Well, pa, it wasn’t very smart to tell us we mustn’t steal, when all we have to do is for a lot of us to get together in a company, and then the company can steal all it likes and nobody to blame?’ ‘Oh, you are talking nonsense, boy.’ ‘Why is it nonsense? Isn’t getting a man in a fix and then making him pay more for his coal than it’s worth, stealing? You said it was. Then if the company can do this without the members being thieves, doesn’t that get round Moses’ laws. I reckon Moses didn’t know much about companies, did he, pa?’ ‘Oh, bother; don’t talk so much!’ ‘Say, pa, I read in the paper the other day about a band of thieves away out in the country, and the people got guns and went after them and killed them all. Was that true?’ ‘Very likely it was.’ ‘Well, it wasn’t right, was it, pa? ‘ ‘Oh, out there where the courts are not regularly established, the people have to take the law into their own hands sometimes.’ ‘But the members of the thieves’ company were not responsible for what the company did, were they, pa?’ ‘Why, of course they were.’ ‘But you said that even though the coal ring were extortioners that didn’t make you an extortioner. If a member of a ring isn’t to blame for what a ring does, how is a member of a thieves’ company to blame for what the company does, pa? ‘ ‘Oh, bother! you chatter too much, boy.’ ‘Say, pa, you told me once that the majority of people can make any laws they like. Can they?’ ‘Yes, to be sure they can.’ ‘Well, suppose the people who think that members of rings are just the same as thieves and highway robbers, get to be the majority, would they get their guns and go for you and the other members of the ring, like the folks out west did for the thieves, pa?’ ‘Oh, drop it! I’m tired of your senseless jabber.’ 2. ‘Say, pa, what is that big place over there?’ asked the inquisitive boy, as he was taking a walk out on Sunday afternoon. ‘That is the central prison, my son.’ ‘What is it for, pa?’ ‘Oh, for putting bad people in; thieves and such.’ ‘Oh, yes, I know now. When Bill Fisher went into Mr, Shortweight’s grocery store and bought some things, and then, when Mr. Shortweight wasn’t looking, put a whole lot of other things in his basket, they said he was a thief. He was sent to prison, wasn’t he, pa?’ ‘Yes, my son. Everybody said it served him right, too.’ ‘No, not everybody, pa. I heard one man say that the judge should have considered that Bill’s wife was sick, and he hadn’t any money except what he had just paid the grocer, and had no work, and that the things he stole were just what his wife and his little baby needed. He said the jury should be strung up. You was on the jury, wasn’t you, pa?’ ‘That man was a Socialist, or something. It would not do to allow sentiment to interfere with justice.’ ‘I heard a man say, pa, that Bill’s wife had died of a broken heart, and two of the girls had turned out bad, and it was more than likely all the others would, as no one would hire them because their father was a thief. He said, too, that Bill would come out of prison a regular criminal.’ ‘You see, my son, the way of the transgressor is hard; and the sins of the parents are visited on the children.’ ‘If ma was sick, and me and the rest were starving, and you had no money, and couldn’t get work, and had the chance to steal a loaf of bread, and couldn’t get it in any other way, what would you do, pa?’ ‘I’d — Why do you ask such foolish questions?’ ‘Because I think you’d be too mean to live if you didn’t steal it, pa. And if I had been on the jury, Bill wouldn’t be in jail and his girls wouldn’t be gone bad.’ ‘But stealing must be put down, my son.’ ‘Then it’s really and truly stealing if a man takes two dollars’ worth of goods and only pays for one of them, is it, pa? Even if he does it to keep his family from starving?’ ‘To be sure.’ ‘Say, pa, is Sam Jones working in your brickyard now? ‘Yes, and he’s a pretty good man; about as good as I’ve got.’ ‘How much do you pay him, pa?’ ‘A dollar a-day.’ ‘Well, I heard you tell ma that Sam did more work than three men; does he, pa?’ ‘Yes, my son, he is a first-class man.’ ‘Why does he work for the same as the men who don’t do as much work? Why don’t he leave, pa?’ ‘He’s hired by the year, my son, and his time is up in the slack time, when he couldn’t get another job. Then he has a lot of children, and his wife is mostly sick, so he can’t risk losing his job.’ ‘My! you got him in a fix, didn’t you, pa?’ ‘Oh, well, you see, business men have to make the most of their opportunities.’ ‘I guess Bill Fisher thought he was making the most of his opportunities when he took his chances when the grocer wasn’t looking, don’t you, pa?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Oh, nothing; only I was thinking whether there was much difference between you and Bill Fisher. He took more things from the grocer than he paid for; and you take more work from Sam Jones than you pay for. Is taking more work than you pay for stealing, pa?’ ‘No, stupid! What I make off Sam is profit; it is perfectly legitimate!’ ‘What’s legitimate, pa?’ ‘Legitimate is legal; sanctioned by law. Anything the law allows is legitimate, you must know!’ ‘Oh, I see. Taking a man’s work without paying for it is profit, because it’s legitimate; taking a man’s groceries without paying for them is stealing because it isn’t. That’s the way, is it, pa?’ ‘Oh, don’t bother; you make me tired, boy!’ ‘Say, pa, what’s law? What makes anything law?’ ‘Why, the voters; that is, those who have votes elect men to Parliament, and then Parliament says what is to be law. Do you understand, my son?’ ‘Have you a vote, pa?’ ‘Yes, I vote for four members.’ ‘Has Sam a vote, too, pa?’ ‘Yes, he has one.’ ‘Does he vote for the same men as you do?’ ‘Well, I expect him to. If I found he didn’t I might discharge him.’ ‘I reckon men who work like Sam haven’t much to say in making the laws, have they, pa?’ ‘Well, they have their votes, but intelligence counts. We generally fix things so they can’t do much harm. Last election our side nominated Mr. Straddle and the other side put up Mr. Jumper, and so, whichever was elected, we knew that the laws would be all right anyhow.’ ‘I guess if Sam and his set had the making of the laws, pa, they would send men to prison for the legitimate stealing just the same as the other kind. How would you like to be sent to jail, and have ma die and your children go bad, like Bill Fisher, and when you couldn’t say that you stole Sam Jones’s work to keep your sick wife and children from starving, either?’ ‘Tut, tut, boy, don’t be silly.’ ‘Say, pa, I heard the minister telling you that Sam and his wife are real Christians: are they?’ ‘I believe they are.’ ‘He said though they were very poor, and had no carpets and pictures, and no furniture to speak of, and hardly enough to eat, they were content and piously thankful to God. Do you believe that, pa?’ ‘Why, of course, my son.’ ‘Are you piously thankful, too, pa? ‘ ‘I hope so.’ ‘Well, you ought to be, pa. If Sam is thankful for one dollar when he works for three, you ought to be pretty thankful for two when you don’t work for any.’ ‘Run away now, and play. Here’s sixpence to go to the Zoo and see the monkeys.’ ‘I don’t want to see the monkeys; I’d rather stay and ask you questions, pa. The minister said it was the devil that tempted Bill Fisher to take the things from the grocer; was it he that put you up to making that bargain with Sam, pa?’ ‘Oh, don’t bother me; you’re talking nonsense now, boy.’ ‘Say, pa, will Sam Jones go to heaven?’ ‘Likely; he’s a good Christian.’ ‘Will you go, too, pa?’ ‘I hope so, my son.’ ‘What will you say if he asks you about that eight shillings a-day, and begins to talk about doing unto others as you would like them to do to you?’ ‘Oh, don’t chatter so; you make my head ache.’ ‘And suppose they ask you about being on that jury, pa, and about Bill Fisher and his girls?’ ‘Stop talking, I say, you young monkey!’ ‘Say, pa, have they got dictionaries in heaven?’ ‘What a question! What would they do with dictionaries?’ ‘Oh, I just thought it would be lucky for you if they had, or they mightn’t know the difference between legitimate stealing and the other kind, pa.’ ‘Be silent now! Not another word, or I’ll send you right home.’ 3. ‘What place is this, pa? ‘ ‘This, my child, is a brickyard.’ ‘Whose brickyard is it, pa?’ ‘Oh, it belongs to me, my child.’ ‘Do those big piles of bricks belong to you, pa?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do those dirty men belong to you too, pa?’ ‘No, there is no slavery in this country; those are free men.’ ‘What makes them work so hard, pa?’ ‘They are working for a living.’ ‘Why do they work for a living?’ ‘Because they are poor and are obliged to work.’ ‘Why is it that they are so poor when they work so hard, pa?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Don’t somebody steal from them what they earn, pa?’ ‘No, my child. What makes you ask such ridiculous questions?’ ‘I thought perhaps some of that dirty clay got in their eyes and blinded them. But, pa, don’t the bricks belong to them after they have made them?’ ‘No, they belong to me, my son.’ ‘What are bricks made of, pa?’ ‘Clay, my son.’ ‘What! That dirt I see down there, pa?’ ‘Yes, nothing else.’ ‘Who does the dirt belong to, pa?’ ‘It belongs to me.’ ‘Did you make the dirt, pa?’ ‘No, my child. God made it.’ ‘Did he make it for you specially?’ ‘No, I bought it.’ ‘Bought it of God, pa?’ ‘No, I bought it like I buy anything else.’ ‘Did the man you bought it of buy it of God?’ ‘I don’t know, my son; ask me something easy.’ ‘Anyway it’s a good thing you’ve got the land, isn’t it, pa?’ ‘Why, my son?’ ‘Because you’d have to make bricks for a living like those horrid men. Shall I have to work for a living when I’m a man, pa?’ ‘No, my boy. I’ll leave the land to you when I die.’ ‘Don’t people turn into clay when they’re dead, pa?’ ‘I don’t know. Why do you ask?’ ‘Nothing. Only I was thinking what a hard old brick your clay would make.’ Comments are closed.
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