Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

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enough or sympathetic enough to feel that you would never forgive yourself if you were to get in the way of my ambitions, & my career. Now, I find the position almost reversed - I do not want to get in the way of your art - & nor do I feel so ambitious about the Assn as I did. And there are two main reasons for this change; one, that I have more feeling & sympathy & consideration for your wants - & two - that I am now a Socialist, which I was not before the war. And the main reason for this change is that I have had time for reflection & thought, whereas before, I was so busy & so immersed in trying to run Norths at a profit, that all my spare time was yours & Lisa's. And I have not been converted or influenced to any extent - & I am quite convinced that the change which has come over me is mainly the result of thinking things out for myself.

I don't mean to say that I am no longer ambitious because I am, & more so than ever before. But my ambitions now lie in other directions, & I feel a very strong urge to play a part, & to fight, to change England to real Socialism. I am not interested any more in making big profits at Norths, & getting on the board, & one day being chairman - in fact, my interests are to fight to prevent such things being possible for anyone. In other words, I no longer agree with Capitalism & working for 'profits'. I didn't actually agree before - I just did not thinkg about it. You used to say

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you would be happy to live in London on L5 a week but you thought about my ambition too - & so did I. Now, I would be quite willing to live in London or anywhere else within reason, on L5 a week, provided I could also work for Socialism, & work hard & usefully & well, & get on, both financially & actively. I feel very much less concerned about money now than I did before - I want a home very badly, & the things which go with & in a home, & then enough money for some clothes, & some pretty ones for you, & some records & books, & some beer & sometimes some gin, & the cinema & theatre, & one or two holidays a year. We must be prepared for some sacrifice in order to achieve the Socialist state - but once achieved, all the above things will be within everybody's reach - & special work & ability, which I hope we have, will be rewarded by extra comforts & privileges. But that is all another story - & which I am sure to come to sooner or later in one of my letters.

I think that our interests & ambitions are very identical except on one point. You want London - & I must admit that I am not anxious to leave the north & the work & the people with whom I have worked since 1925.

Which brings me to a question. Don't you think it is wrong that the real artistic life of the

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country should be concentrated in London? Let London remain the centre, by all means - but art should flourish all over the country. And surely it is our Capitalist, industrialist system, which prevents it doing so. Consider all the millions in Lancashire & Yorkshire - what time have they for art or music or beauty at all. They are too busy making money, or else labouring to support themselves. They live ugly lives in ugly houses in ugly places, & all they have time to think of is whether they will get in 5 days or 3 days this week, & how will they pay the rent & the instalment on the radio. They have no security & it is one long struggle. From the age of 14 until they die, or go on the old age pension, it is one long struggle - & for bloody little at the end of it. Think of my 200 people at North - if they work a full week, a man earned 47/- - & if not, he had to sign on & draw dole. He could not even rely soly on the miserable 47/-. What a bloody life & what a bloody prospect. And what did we do? We dyed cotton in a works - there is a surplus of cotton in the world - & of dyestuffs - & of iron & steel & bricks to keep up the works. But all the goods we sell have to be sold at a price in order to make profits - & the people who

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might like to buy them cannot afford to do so because their wages are depressed in order that still other people can make profits. And so that is their past & their present - but God forbit their future. Searching along on 3 or 5 days a week - so unable to buy all those things of which the world is full to overflowing, because they are controlled by these few people who control price & output & distribution to grow fat themselves. What a God damned insufferable not to be tolerated system. And are you & I going to settle down for the remainder of our lives, to see how much commission I can make? Pygmalion - & not bloody likely.

But what a difference surely, if the workpeople have security of income & a better in come - & the manager's main concern is managing & not making profits - & if every girl & boy receives an equal education & a good education. Then managers will cease to be immersed in profit making, & men & women will cease to be entirely preoccupied with how to pay the rent - & everybody will relax & be freed from the everlasting strain - & people will begin to breathe & look around & become aware of beauty, & art will become a matter for everybody & not for just a select few in London. The provinces have their art galleries, I know, but the main reason behind them is "civic pride" & nothing much more. In Manchester & Bradford, I am sure it is. That one we saw in Wakefield seemed to be more sincere.

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Friday, May 1st. Darling one, I have told you before that I enjoy writing to you & I do, & it is the one thing that makes me feel in touch with you. But, oh Barbara, what would I not give to be with you & to be able to talk to you. It talkes a whole evening, or 3-4 hours to write about what I could tell you in 10 minutes - & then we have to wait 4-5 months for a reply from eachother, instead of being able to discuss together. But I love your letters, & I believe you like mine - & so it is very fortunate for both of us that we spend so much time in writing to satisfy our hunger from hearing from theher. When I write as I did on Wednesday & as I have done quite a lot recently, do you understand me darling? - & do I make sense to you? - & do you agree with me? I hope that the answer is yes, to all those questions. I think that we were both wrong before this war - but that I was further off the mark than you. I thought before, but I am certain now, that you are one of the least snobbish & swanky, & most genuine people I have ever met. I did pay too much attention & lip service to position & money - though, at the same time, I concede to myself that I was decent & pleasant & on good terms with my, so called, inferiors. But there is a very big change in me, & I think, though I do not really know, that I have gone much further than you. But I think I will resist the temptation to launch out again, because you might think I have said enough for one letter - & it is 10.30, & I have some things to telll you about - & I must post this tomorrow.