ult of a world tendency towards hustle ... to get the
thing done as quickly as possible without regard to the quality of it.
I suppose a modern contractor would break his heart if he were asked to
spend his lifetime on _one_ cathedral ... but people were proud to do
that in the Middle Ages. We'd build half a dozen cathedrals while a
Middle Ages man was decorating a gargoyle!"

"Well, we have this comfort," said Ninian, "the modern builder's stuff
won't last as long as Westminster Abbey!"

"I hate all this bleat about the Middle Ages," Gilbert exclaimed. "I'm
surprised to hear you, Roger, talking like that fat papist, Belloc. One
'ud think to hear you talking that no one ever did shoddy work until the
nineteenth century, but Christopher Wren let a lot of shoddy stuff into
St. Paul's Cathedral. There were fraudulent contractors then, and
jerry-builders, just as there are now, and there probably always will be
people who give a bad return for their wages!..."

"That's why I want to see the Tory Party resuscitated," said Roger. "I
want to limit the number of such people and to make every man feel that
it's a gentlemanly thing to do your best, whatever your job is, and that
payment has nothing whatever to do with the way you do your work!"

The whole industrial system would need re-shaping, the whole social
system would need re-shaping, the Empire would need re-shaping.

"This craving for cheapness has cheapened nothing but life," said Roger,
"and it brings incalculable trouble with it. I mean, a ha'penny saved
now means pounds lost later. Oh, that's a platitude, I know, but we pay
no heed to it. I've never been to America, but we know quite well that
one of the most serious problems for the Americans is the negro problem.
I heard a Rhodes scholar talking about it once. He simply foamed at the
mouth. He hadn't any plan for it ... didn't seem to realise that a plan
could be made ... and you know they've only got that problem through the
greediness of their ancestors. Negroes aren't native to America. The
planters wanted cheap labour and so they imported them ... and the end
of that business is the Negro Problem!"

"And lynchings and a Civil War in between," Henry murmured. "That's the
most hateful part of it ... the killing and the bitterness."

"Great Scott!" said Ninian, "think of all those Yankees killing each
other so that niggers might wear spats and top hats and sing coon songs
in the music halls!... Damn silly, I