"Paternalism," and that if it ever had its way the world
would stop progressing. It was enough to make a mule
laugh, to hear arguments like that; and yet it was no
laughing matter, as you found out -- for how many mil~
lions of such poor deluded wretches there were, whose lives
had been so stunted by Capitalism that they no longer
knew what freedom was! And they really thought that it
was "Individualism" for tens of thousands of them to herd
together and obey the orders of a steel magnate, and pro~
duce hundreds of millions of dollars of wealth for him, and
then let him give them libraries; while for them to take
the industry, and run it to suit themselves, and build their
own libraries -- that would have been "Paternalism"!

Sometimes the agony of such things as this was almost more
than Jurgis could bear; yet there was no way of escape from
it, there was nothing to do but to dig away at the base of
this mountain of ignorance and prejudice. You must keep
at the poor fellow; you must hold your temper, and argue
with him, and watch for your chance to stick an idea or two
into his head. And the rest of the time you must sharpen
up your weapons, -- you must think out new replies to
his objections, and provide yourself with new facts to
prove to him the folly of his ways.

So Jurgis acquired the reading habit. He would carry
in his pocket a tract or a pamphlet which someone had
loaned him, and whenever he had an idle moment dur~
ing the day he would plod through a paragraph, and
then think about it while he worked. Also he read
the newspapers, and asked questions about them. One of
the other porters at Hinds's was a sharp little Irish man, who
knew everything that Jurgis wanted to know; and while
they were busy he would explain to him the geography of
America, and its history, its constitution and its laws; also
he gave him an idea of the business system of the country,
the great railroads and corporations, and who owned them,
and the labor unions, and the big strikes, and the men who
had led them. Then at night, when he could get off, Jur~
gis would attend the Socialist meetings. During the cam~
paign one was not dependent upon the street-corner affairs,

[[388]]

p387 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p388w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p389

v?