like
civilized human beings without being alternately worked to death or
starved?'

'I don't see how we're goin' to alter things,' answered Easton. 'At
the present time, from what I hear, work is scarce everywhere. WE
can't MAKE work, can we?'

'Do you think, then, that the affairs of the world are something like
the wind or the weather--altogether beyond our control? And that if
they're bad we can do nothing but just sit down and wait for them to
get better?'

'Well, I don't see 'ow we can odds it. If the people wot's got the
money won't spend it, the likes of me and you can't make 'em, can we?'

Owen looked curiously at Easton.

'I suppose you're about twenty-six now,' he said. 'That means that you
have about another thirty years to live. Of course, if you had proper
food and clothes and hadn't to work more than a reasonable number of
hours every day, there is no natural reason why you should not live for
another fifty or sixty years: but we'll say thirty. Do you mean to say
that you are able to contemplate with indifference the prospect of
living for another thirty years under such conditions as those we
endure at present?'

Easton made no reply.

'If you were to commit some serious breach of the law, and were
sentenced next week to ten years' penal servitude, you'd probably think
your fate a very pitiable one: yet you appear to submit quite
cheerfully to this other sentence, which is--that you shall die a
premature death after you have done another thirty years' hard labour.'

Easton continued painting the skirting.

'When there's no work,' Owen went on, taking another dip of paint as he
spoke and starting on one of the lower panels of the door, 'when
there's no work, you will either starve or get into debt. When--as at
present--there is a little work, you will live in a state of
semi-starvation. When times are what you call "good", you will work
for twelve or fourteen hours a day and--if you're VERY
lucky--occasionally all night. The extra money you then earn will go
to pay your debts so that you may be able to get credit again when
there's no work.'

Easton put some putty in a crack in the skirting.

'In consequence of living in this manner, you will die at least twenty
years sooner than is natural, or, should you have an unusually strong
constitution and live after you cease to be able to work, you will be
put into a kind of jail and treated like a criminal for the remainder
of your life