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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 1068.PDF
[/TIGHT] DECEMBER 31, 1915. •nsrai 1AI REFLECTIONS By THE I 1 DREAMER. THIS work business. You know, when you come to think of it, it's a silly game, taking it all round. I work. I have worked for a good many years, but really I don't know why I have, or should. Of course the reply of most people to this question would be that I work because I have to, or, in other words, because that is the only way in which I can become possessed of money. But that does not, to my mind, satisfy the question at all. There are thousands of people who get money, and plenty of it too, without working at all, and plenty who work hard and get very little, or none. Besides, why should anybody pay me money for working, and what good does it do either them or me ? All the people who have ever paid me for working, are people who have to work themselves to get the money to pay me. They work first to get the money for them selves, and then pay it away to me to do some more work. Seems a silly business, doesn't it ? All the work I have ever done has gone to pot long ago, and all the money I have ever received for doing it has been spent, so where's the good ? After all, perhaps it isn't simply the money we get paid for working that keeps our noses to the grindstone. There may be something in the matter of working for work's sake, or because we can't help it, or because we like it. Take those scribes and comps. and minders, by way of instance, who run La Libre Belgique in spite of all the Huns' attempts to squash it, and who have just issued their 53rd number. I think they work for work's sake, and for the glory of the thing. General von Bissing, the German Governor of Belgium, or part of it, has made incessant efforts to suppress it ever since the occupation of Brussels, but the editorial staff still scribble, the comps. still deftly choose types out of small boxes, and the machines still hum merrily along. Just where this is all done is a secret known only to those engaged, any one of whom could have ^4,000 for only just telling von Bissing where he could call in and interview the editor. ^4,000 is quite a respectable sum of money, more than many of those comps. and machine-minders would earn in quite a good many weeks, yet nobody seems in a hurry to " split," which goes to show that money is not the only thing men work for, even in editorial offices. Meanwhile La Libre Belgique goes gaily to press every day, or, as we say, is " put to bed, and comfortably tucked in " on the appointed day, sometimes in Brussels, some times in Antwerp, and sometimes goodness knows where—not even for ^4,000. I do not know the list of subscribers, or even the circulation, but there is one person who is never overlooked in the mailing list. Willy nilly a copy of the issue is always delivered to General von Bissing, without fail, and he must find it interesting reading. The current number, for instance, recalls an anecdote told by the late Sir W. H. Russell, the famous war correspondent of the Times in 1870. At the burning and sacking of the Imperial Chateau of St. Cloud, at which he was present, Russell declared that one of two German officers who were particularly active in pillaging was Lieutenant von Bissing, in whom La Libre Belgique recognises the present Governor of Belgium. Bravo ! La Libre Belgiqne. More power to your presses. Blue pencil you can eschew, because you don't care a fig for your censor, and just say what you wish, even about him personally. I should like to have a peep at your printing office in a convent or a cellar, or, perhaps, in a sewer. Anyway, carry on till they find you, and then push old von into the stereotyping copper. Speaking of money, there is a friend of mine who is in terrible distress because he says that next year he will have to give up half his salary by act of Parliament. I have pointed out to him the honour and glory business of working without pay in these strenuous times, but he does not appear to be too enthusiastic, and quotes Mr. Asquith as having said " I earn my salary, and I'm going to take it." I am not in a position to say exactly how things are working out with regard to State salaries. I have tried to make head or tail of it, but frankly I have failed. There appears to be some pooling arrangement, a sort of kilty, or poshpot. Everybody, so far as I can make out, pools his salary, and then they share and share alike, which is an ingenious method of helping to reduce State expenses during war time, although I don't quite know how it works. Try and work it out for yourselves, and then write and tell me how to do it, because I want to try it on our staff. Sir A. Markham asked the Prime Minister whether he authorised the arrangement by which any reduction made in the salary of the Attorney-General would fall on his colleagues. Mr. Asquith said it was within public knowledge that, under the pooling arrangement, salaries were equalised, and that if one member suffered by reduction, they all suffered. It seems to me, that if I and Sir J. Simon pooled, he putting in ,£14,705 and me putting in—well—the huge roll of Treasury notes I have to send home by Carter Patterson every Friday, and we then shared—er—just so. Sir A. Markham wished to know whether the Prime Minister was aware of the Attorney-General's statement that the fees of his colleagues would be reduced if his salary was reduced. Since Mr. Winston Churchill left the Cabinet the fees of Ministers were larger than they were when the pooling arrangement came into effect. Mr. Asquith said that was not so. Sir A. Markham said Mr. Churchill took £300 out and left £3,000 in. And so on. As I have stated, I don't understand it, but it appears to me the co-opera tive salary business produces discussions. I don't know whether I shall ever be asked to give up half my salary to help things along, but if I am, I shall want to know whether Mr. Asquith still takes his because he earns it. And, if the worst comes to the worst, I can yet ask for a job under Government, and might even be successful—look at Mr. Masterman—and if rude questions are asked as to what good " Dreamers " are, what I am doing, and what I am being paid, my champion shall know how to stick his finger in the hole in the dyke. It's a great game. 1032
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