Section 4.— SOME OBJECTIONS MET.
Objections must be expected. They are a necessity with regard to any Scheme that has not yet been reduced to practice, and simply signify foreseen difficulties in the working of it. We freely admit that there are abundance of difficulties in the way of working out the plan smoothly and successfully that has been laid down. But many of these we imagine will vanish when we come to close quarters, and the remainder will be surmounted by courage and patience. Should, however, this plan prove the success we predict, it must eventually revolutionise the condition of the starving sections of Society, not only in this great metropolis, but throughout the whole range of civilisation. It must therefore be worthy not only of a careful consideration but of persevering trial.
Some of these difficulties at first sight appear rather serious. Let us look at them.
Objection I. — It is suggested that the class of people for whose benefit the Scheme is designed would not avail themselves of it.
When the feast was prepared and the invitation had gone forth, it is said that the starving multitudes would not come ; that though labour was offered them in the City, or prepared for them on the Farm, they would prefer to rot in their present miseries rather than avail themselves of the benefit provided.
In order to gather the opinions of those most concerned, we consulted one evening, by a Census in our London Shelters, two hundred and fifty men out of work, and all suffering severely in consequence. We furnished a set of questions, and obtained answers from the whole. Now, it must be borne in mind that these men were under no obligation whatever to make any reply to our enquiries, much less to answer them favourably to our plan, of which they knew next to nothing.