The cities had still to devour them. I have heard the
stories out of the old books--there was nobility! Common men led lives of
love and faithfulness then--they did a thousand things. And you--you come
from that time."
"It was not--. But never mind. How is it now--?"
"Gain and the Pleasure Cities! Or slavery--unthanked, unhonoured,
slavery."
"Slavery!" he said.
"Slavery."
"You don't mean to say that human beings are chattels."
"Worse. That is what I want you to know, what I want you to see. I know
you do not know. They will keep things from you, they will take you
presently to a Pleasure City. But you have noticed men and women and
children in pale blue canvas, with thin yellow faces and dull eyes?"
"Everywhere."
"Speaking a horrible dialect, coarse and weak."
"I have heard it."
"They are the slaves--your slaves. They are the slaves of the Labour
Department you own."
"The Labour Department! In some way--that is familiar. Ah! now I
remember. I saw it when I was wandering about the city, after the
lights returned, great fronts of buildings coloured pale blue. Do you
really mean--?"
"Yes. How can I explain it to you? Of course the blue uniform struck you.
Nearly a third of our people wear it--more assume it now every day. This
Labour Department has grown imperceptibly."
"What _is_ this Labour Department?" asked Graham.
"In the old times, how did you manage with starving people?"
"There was the workhouse--which the parishes maintained.
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