at me for saying that; but I ask him what would he do if the police
or the soldiers came this evening and told him to turn out of his
comfortable house into the Thames? Tell 'em he wouldn't vote for
their employers at the next election, perhaps? Or, if that didn't
stop them, tell 'em that he'd ask his friends to do the same? That's
a pretty executive power! No, gentlemen. Don't let yourself be
deceived by people that have staked their money against you. The
first thing to learn is how to fight. There's no use in buying books
and pictures unless you know how to keep them and your own head as
well. If that gentleman that laughed know how to fight, and his
neighbors all knew how to fight too, he wouldn't need to fear
police, nor soldiers, nor Russians, nor Prussians, nor any of the
millions of men that may be let loose on him any day of the week,
safe though he thinks himself. But, says you, let's have a division
of labor. Let's not fight for ourselves, but pay other men to fight
for us. That shows how some people, when they get hold of an idea,
will work it to that foolish length that it's wearisome to listen to
them. Fighting is the power of self-preservation; another man can't
do it for you. You might as well divide the labor of eating your
dinner, and pay one fellow to take the beef, another the beer, and a
third the potatoes. But let us put it for the sake of argument that
you do pay others to fight for you. Suppose some one else pays them
higher, and they fight a cross, or turn openly against you! You'd
have only yourself to blame for giving the executive power to money.
And so long as the executive power is money the poor will be kept
out of their corner and fouled against the ropes; whereas, by what I
understand, the German professor wants them to have their rights.
Therefore I say that a man's first duty is to learn to fight. If he
can't do that he can't set an example; he can't stand up for his own
rights or his neighbors'; he can't keep himself in bodily health;