01. THE ROOTS OF TRUTH
Among the delusions which at different periods have
afflicted mankind,
perhaps the greatest—certainly the least creditable—is
modern economics
based on the idea that an advantageous code of action may be
determined
irrespectively of the influence of social affection.
Of course, as in the case of other delusions, political
economy has a plausible
idea at the root of it. 'The social affections,' says the
economist, 'are accidental
and disturbing elements in human nature; but avarice and the
desire for
progress are constant elements. Let us eliminate the
inconstant, and
considering man merely as a money-making machine, examine by
what laws of
labour, purchase and sale, the greatest amount of wealth can
be accumulated.
Those laws once determined, it will be for each individual
afterwards to
introduce as much of the disturbing affectionate element as
he chooses.'
This would be a logical method of analysis if the
accidentals afterwards to be
introduced were of the same nature as the powers first
examined. Supposing a
body in motion to be influenced by constant and inconstant
forces, it is the
simplest way of examining its course to trace it first under
the persistent
conditions and afterwards introduce the causes of variation.
But the disturbing
elements in the social problem are not of the same nature as
the constant
ones; they alter the essence of the creature under
examination the moment
they are added. They operate not mathematically but
chemically, introducing
conditions which render ail our previous knowledge
unavailable.
I do not doubt the conclusions of the science if its terms
are accepted. I am
simply uninterested in them, as I should be in those of a
science of gymnastics
which assumed that men had no skeletons. It might be shown
on that
supposition that it would be advantageous to roll the
students up into pellets,
flatten them into cakes, or stretch them into cables; and
that when these
results were effected, the reinsertion of the skeleton would
be attended with
various inconveniences to their constitution. The reasoning
might be admirable, Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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the conclusions true, and the science deficient only in
applicability. Modern
political economy stands on a precisely similar basis. It
imagines that man has a
body but no soul to be taken into account and frames its
laws accordingly. How
can such laws possibly apply to man in whom the soul is the
predominant
element?
Political economy is no science at all. We see how helpless
it is when labourers
go on a strike. The masters take one view of the matter, the
operatives
another; and no
-
political economy can
set them at one. Disputant after
disputant vainly strives to show that the interests of the
masters are not
antagonistic to those of the men. In fact it does not always
follow that the
persons must be antagonistic because their interests are. If
there is only a crust
of bread in the house, and mother and children are starving,
their interests are
not the same. If the mother eats it, the children want it;
if the children eat it,
the mother must go hungry to her work. Yet it does not
follow that there is
antagonism between them, that they will fight for the crust,
and the mother,
being strongest, will get it and eat it. Similarly it cannot
be assumed that
because their interests are diverse, persons must regard one
another with
hostility and use violence or cunning to obtain the
advantage.
Even if we consider men as actuated by no other moral
influences than those
which affect rats or swine, it can never be shown generally
either that the
interest of master and labourer are alike or that they are
opposed; for
according to circumstances they may be either. It is indeed
the interest of both
that the work should be rightly done and a just price
obtained for it but in the
division of profits, the gain of the one may or may not be
the loss of the other.
It is not the master's interest to pay wages so low as to
leave the men sickly
and depressed, nor the workman's interest to be paid high
wages if the
smallness of the master's profit hinders him from conducting
it in a safe and
liberal way. A stoker ought not to desire high pay if the
company is too poor to
keep the engine-wheels in repair.
All endeavour, therefore, to deduce rules of action from
balance of expediency
is in vain. And it is meant to be in vain. For no human
actions ever were Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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intended by the Maker of men to be guided by balances of
expediency but by
balances of justice. He has therefore rendered all
endeavours to determine
expediency futile •for evermore. No man can know what will
be the ultimate
result to himself or others of any given line of conduct.
But every man may
know and most of us do know what is a just and an unjust
act. And all of us
may know also that the consequences of justice will be
ultimately the best
possible, both to others and ourselves, though we can
neither say what is best,
or how it is likely to come about.
I have meant in the term justice to include affection—such
affection as one
man owes to another. All right relations between master and
operative
ultimately depend on this.
As an illustration let us consider the position of domestic
servants.
We will suppose that the master of a household tries only to
get as much work
out of his servants as he can, at the rate of wages he
gives. He never allows
them to be idle; feeds them as poorly and lodges them as ill
as they will
endure. In doing this, there is no violation on his part of
what is commonly
called 'justice'. He agrees with the domestic for his whole
time and service and
takes them, the limits of hardship in treatment being fixed
by the practice of
other masters in the neighbourhood. If the servant can get a
better place, he is
free to take one.
This is the politico-economical view of the case according
to the doctors of that
science who assert that by this procedure the greatest
average of work will be
obtained from the servant, and therefore the greatest
benefit to the
community, and through the community, to the servant
himself.
That however is not so. It would be so if the servant were
an engine of which
the motive power was steam, magnetism or some such agent of
calculable
force. But on the contrary he is an engine whose motive
power is the Soul. Soul
force enters into all the economist's equations without his
knowledge and
falsifies every one of their results. The largest quantity
of work will not be
done by this curious engine for pay or under pressure. It
will be done when the Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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motive force, that is to say, the will or spirit of the
creature, is brought to its
greatest strength by its own proper fuel, namely by the
affections.
It does happen often that if the master is a man of sense
and energy, much
material work may be done under pressure; also it does
happen often that if
the master is indolent and weak, a small quantity of work,
and that bad, may
be produced by his servant. But the universal law of the
matter is that,
assuming any given quantity of energy and sense in master
and servant, the
greatest material result obtainable by them will be not
through antagonism to
each other, but through affection for each other.
Nor is this one whit less generally true because indulgence
will be frequently
abused, and kindness met with ingratitude. For the servant
who, gently
treated, is ungrateful, treated urgently, will be
revengeful; and the man who is
dishonest to a liberal master will be injurious to an unjust
man.
In any case and with any person, this unselfish treatment
will produce the most
effective return. I am here considering the affections
wholly as a motive
power; not at all as things in themselves desirable or
noble. I look at them
simply as an anomalous force, rendering every one of the
ordinary economist's
calculations nugatory. The affections only become a true
motive power when
they ignore every other motive and condition of economics.
Treat the servant
kindly with the idea of turning his gratitude to account,
and you will get, as
you deserve, no gratitude nor any value for your kindness;
but treat him kindly
without any economical purpose, and all economical purposes
will be
answered; here as elsewhere whoever will save his life shall
lose it, whoso loses
it shall find it.
The next simplest example of relation between master and
operative is that
which exists between the commander of a regiment and his
men.
Supposing the officer only desires to apply the rules of
discipline so as, with
least trouble to himself to make the regiment most
effective, he will not be
able, by any rules, on this selfish principle, to develop
the full strength of his
subordinates. But if he has the most direct personal
relations with his men, the Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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most care for their interests, and the most value for their
lives, he will develop
their effective strength, through their affection for his
own person and trust in
his character, to a degree wholly unattainable by other
means. This applies
more stringently as the numbers concerned are larger: a charge
may often be
successful though the men dislike their officers; a battle
has rarely been won,
unless they loved their general.
A body of men associated for the purposes of robbery (as a
Highland clan in
ancient times) shall be animated by perfect affection, and
every member of it
be ready to lay down his life for the life of his chief. But
a band of men
associated for purposes of legal production is usually
animated by no such
emotions, and none of them is willing to give his life for
the life of his chief.
For a servant or a soldier is engaged at a definite rate of
wages for a definite
period; but a workman at a rate of wages variable according
to the demand for
labour, and with the risk of being at any time thrown out of
employment by
chances of trade. Now as under these conditions no action of
the affections can
take place, but only an explosive action of disaffections, two points offer
themselves for consideration in the matter:
1. How far the rate of wages may be so regulated as not to
vary with the
demand for labour;
2. How far it is possible that bodies of workmen may be
engaged and
maintained at such fixed rate of wages (whatever the state
of trade may
be), without enlarging or diminishing their number, so as to
give them
permanent interest in the establishment with which they are
connected,
like that of the domestic servants in an old family, or an
esprit de corps,
like that of the soldiers in a crack regiment.
1. A curious fact in the history of human error is the
denial by the
economist of the possibility of so regulating wages as not
to vary with
the demand for labour.
We do not sell our prime-minister by Dutch auction. Sick, we
do not
inquire for a physician who takes less than a guinea;
litigious, we never
think of reducing six-and-eight pence to four-and-sixpence;
caught in a Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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shower we do not canvass the cabmen to find one who values
his driving
at less than sixpence a mile.
The best labour always has been, and is, as all labour ought
to be, paid
by an invariable standard.
'What!' the reader perhaps answers amazedly: 'to pay good
and bad
workmen alike?'
Certainly. You pay with equal fee, contentedly, the good and
bad
preachers (workmen upon your soul) and the good and bad
physicians
(workmen upon your body); much more may you pay,
contentedly, with
equal fees, the good and bad workmen upon your house.
'Nay, but I choose my physician, thus indicating my sense of
the quality
of their work.' By all means choose your bricklayer; that is
the proper
reward of the good workman, to be 'chosen'. The right system
respecting
all labour is, that it should be paid at a fixed rate, but
the good workman
employed, and the bad workman unemployed. The false system
is when
the bad workman is allowed to offer his work at half-price,
and either
take the place of the good or to force him by his
competition to work for
an inadequate sum.
2. This equality of wages, then, being the first object
towards which we
have to discover the road, the second is that of maintaining
constant
numbers of workmen in employment, whatever may be the
accidental
demand for the article they produce.
The wages which enable any workman to live are necessarily
higher if his work
is liable to intermission, than if it is assured and
continuous. In the latter case
he will take low wages in the form of a fixed salary. The
provision of regular
labour for the workman is good for him as well as for his
master in the long run,
although he cannot then make large profits or take big risks
or indulge in
gambling.
The soldier is ready to lay down his life for his chief and
therefore he is held in
greater honour than an ordinary workman. Really speaking,
the soldier's trade Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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is not slaying, but being slain in the defence of others.
The reason the world
honours the soldier is, because he holds his life at the
service of the State.
Not less is the respect we pay to the lawyer, physician and
clergyman, founded
ultimately on their self-sacrifice. Set in a judge's seat,
the lawyer will strive to
judge justly, come of it what may. The physician will treat
his patients with
care, no matter under what difficulties. The clergyman will
similarly instruct
his congregation and direct it to the right path.
All the efficient members of these so-called learned
professions are in public
estimate of honour preferred before the head of a commercial
firm, as the
merchant is presumed to act always selfishly. His work may
be very necessary
to the community; but the motive of it is understood to be
wholly personal.
The merchant's first object in all his dealings must be (the
public believe) to
get as much for himself and leave as little to his customer
as possible.
Enforcing this upon him, by political statute, as the
necessary principle of his
action; recommending it to him, and themselves reciprocally
adopting it,
proclaiming for law of the universe that a buyer's function
is to cheapen, and a
seller's to cheat, - the public, nevertheless, involuntarily
condemn the man of
commerce for his compliance with their own statement, and
stamp him forever
as belonging to an inferior grade of human personality.
This they must give up doing. They will have to discover a
kind of commerce
which is not exclusively selfish. Or rather they must
discover that there never
was or can be any other kind of commerce; and that this
which they have
called commerce was not commerce at all but cozening. In
true commerce, as
in true preaching or true fighting, it is necessary to admit
the idea of
occasional voluntary loss;—that sixpences have to be lost,
as well as lives,
under a sense of duty; that the market may have its
martyrdoms as well as the
pulpit; and trade its heroism as well as war.
Five great intellectual professions exist in every civilized
nation:
The Soldier's profession is to defend it.
The Pastor's to teach it. Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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The Physician's to keep it in health.
The Lawyer's to enforce justice in it.
The Merchant's to provide for it.
And the duty of all these men is on due occasion to die for
it. For truly the man
who does not know when to die does not know how to live.
Observe, the merchant's function is to provide for the
nation. It is no more his
function to get profit for himself out of that provision
than it is a clergyman's
function to get his stipend. This stipend is a necessary
adjunct but not the
object of his life if he be a true clergyman, any more than
his fee (or
honorarium) is the object of life to a true physician.
Neither is his fee the
object of life to a true merchant. All three, if true men,
have a work to be
done irrespective of fee—to be done even at any cost, or for
quite the contrary
of fee; the pastor's function being to teach, the
physician's to heal and the
merchant's to provide. That is to say, he has to apply all
his sagacity and
energy to the producing the thing he deals in perfect state
and distributing it
at the cheapest possible price where it is most needed.
And because the production of any commodity involves the
agency of many
lives and hands, the merchant becomes in the course of his
business the master
and governor of large masses of men in a more direct way
than a military
officer or pastor, so that on him falls, in great part, the
responsibility for the
kind of life they lead; and it becomes his duty not only to
produce goods in the
purest and cheapest forms, but also to make the various
employments involved
in the production most beneficial to the men employed.
And as into these two functions, requiring for their right
exercise the highest
intelligence as well as patience, kindness and tact, the
merchant is bound to
put all his energy, so for their just discharge he is bound,
as soldier or physician
is bound, to give up, if need be, his life, in such way as
it may be demanded of
him.
Two main points he has to maintain: first his engagements;
and secondly the
perfectness and purity of the thing provided by him; so that
rather than fail in Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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any engagement or consent to any deterioration,
adulteration, or unjust or
exorbitant price of that which he provides, he is bound to
meet fearlessly any
form of distress, poverty or labour which may through
maintenance of these
points come upon him.
Again in his office as governor of the 'men employed by him,
the merchant is
invested with a paternal authority and responsibility. In
most cases a youth
entering a commercial establishment is withdrawn altogether
from home
influence; his master must become his father; else he has,
for practical and
constant help, no father at hand. So that the only means
which the master has
of doing justice to the men employed by him is to ask
himself sternly whether
he is dealing with such subordinate as he would with his own
son, if compelled
by circumstances to take such a position.
Supposing the captain of a frigate were obliged to place his
own son in the
position of a common sailor; as he would then treat his son,
he is bound always
to treat every one of the men under him. So also supposing
the master of a
factory were obliged to place his own son in the position of
an ordinary
workman; as he would then treat his son, he is bound always
to treat every one
of his men. This is the only effective, true or practical
Rule which can be given
on this point of economics.
And as the captain of a ship is bound to be the last man to
leave his ship in
case of wreck and to share his last crust with the sailors
in case of famine, so
the manufacturer, in any commercial crisis, is bound to take
the suffering of it
with his men, and even to take more of it for himself than
he allows his men to
feel; as a father would in a famine, shipwreck or battle
sacrifice himself for his
son.
All this sounds very strange; the only real strangeness in
the matter being,
nevertheless, that it should so sound. For all this is true
everlastingly and
practically; all other doctrine than this being impossible
in practice,
consistently with any progressive state of national life;
all the life which we
now possess as a nation showing itself in the denial by a
few strong minds and
faithful hearts of the economic principle taught to our
multitudes, which Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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principles, so far as accepted, lead straight to national
destruction. Respecting
the modes and forms of destruction to which they lead I hope
to reason farther
in a following paper. Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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ምንም አስተያየቶች የሉም:
አስተያየት ይለጥፉ