Chesterton was not a socialist. He was not favorable to
big business either. He saw both of them as robbers of freedom.
The War on Holidays
The general proposition, not always easy to define
exhaustively, that the reign of the capitalist will be the reign of the
cad--that is, of the unlicked type that is neither the citizen nor the
gentleman—can be excellently studied in its attitude towards holidays. The
special emblematic Employer of to-day, especially the Model Employer (who is the
worst sort) has in his starved and evil heart a sincere hatred of holidays. I
do not mean that he necessarily wants all his workmen to work until they drop;
that only occurs when he happens to be stupid as well as wicked. I do not mean
to say that he is necessarily unwilling to grant what he would call
"decent hours of labour." He may treat men like dirt; but if you want
to make money, even out of dirt, you must let it lie fallow by some rotation of
rest. He may treat men as dogs, but unless he is a lunatic he will for certain
periods let sleeping dogs lie.
But humane and reasonable hours for labour have nothing
whatever to do with the idea of holidays. It is not even a question of ten
hours day and eight-hours day; it is not a question of cutting down leisure to the
space necessary for food, sleep and exercise. If the modern employer came to
the conclusion, for some reason or other, that he could get most out of his men
by working them hard for only two hours a day, his whole mental attitude would
still be foreign and hostile to holidays. For his whole mental attitude is that
the passive time and the active time are alike useful for him and his business.
All is, indeed, grist that comes to his mill, including the millers. His slaves
still serve him in unconsciousness, as dogs still hunt in slumber. His grist is
ground not only by the sounding wheels of iron, but by the soundless wheel of
blood and brain. His sacks are still filling silently when the when the doors
are shut on the streets and the sound of the grinding is low.
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