While the New Gateway doesn't launch officially until December 14th, this was too good an opportunity to pass up, so we thought we'd give you a taster of what's to come. . The question posed is: What does black Friday mean to you? The following article was published in Gateway, 1921. The Lesson of Black Friday This is the title of a brochure of 39 pages by Gerald Gould (Labour Publishing Co, 1s0 to which adventitious interest will have been given by the libel action by Mr Thomas, M.P. It is not easy to summarise Mr Gould’s highly technical and detailed argument, and he does not summarise it himself. His conclusion is that ‘all that is needed for a living wage is the redistribution of admittedly existing wealth.’ In view of the conditions of the coal industry, with the world-market largely lost, and the impossibility of paying ‘a living wage’ according to British standards, he would have the coal barons disgorge the profits made in previous years! Mr Cole appears to think that because of the inability of Commercialism to pay a living wage, the capitalist system is doomed. But it never did pay a living wage, and it has lasted, none the less, for many generations. The fact that a system is illogical and unworkable does not mean that it will end, so long as it suits the influential minority. Chattel slavery lasted during thousands of years, and the worker of today has many of the characteristics of the slave and the serf. It is true that he has political power and that he is slowly learning to use it. But Mr Cole looks to revolution. That is to say, the workers will not use the easy and ready way, and therefore he asks them to use the difficult and unpromising way of putting society into the melting-pot. It is a counsel of despair for which there is no justification, and only the excuse that Mr cole has the impatience of youth. The difficulty about a successful catastrophic revolution is that the great mass of the people could not earn their living in a sane system. They have no productive skill. We do need a revolution, but it will be the slow, steady revolution involved in a gradual extension of Collectivism. This country has passed through worse periods than it is now experiencing. In the hungry forties, and earlier, it was not merely the unemployed man who was in want; the man in employment was hungry also. But there was no particular revolution, not even a revolt. And there would have been an excuse for a revolt then that does not exist now. the masses did not then possess political power. Now they do. And they return Mr Bottomley and Sir Walter de Freece and Lady Asttor, and reject the Collectivist candidates. There will probably be turmoil. But it will be suppressed. And one can’t profess to be sorry when for fifty years there has been the open, constitutional, neglected and misued alternative afforded by Household Suffrage. You can read the original pamphlet referred to in this article online at this link https://archive.org/details/lessonofblackfri00goul from where you can also download it. If you liked this you're going to Love THE NEW GATEWAY. And if you don't love it, you're probably out shopping for a bargain anyway! Comments are closed.
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