Driving their steam train, Rupert and Will must stand exposed to the elements because:
"'A wooden cab would too likely catch fire from stray sparks.'
"'An' an ieron one'd cost. 'Tis cheaper to replaece men as tha' get cough an' fever. Though o' coua'se your Puritan measter will tell you 'a leaves 'em out in the oapen for to strengthen their moaral fiber.'" (p. 81)
Indeed. Economic realities:
capital expenditure;
cheap, replaceable labor;
ideas to sanctify exploitative relationships - most extremely, that a population can be enslaved because it is inferior.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But that kind of attitude did not last long! In our timeline locomotives soon did have shelters (iron ones too!) built on them to protect the engineer/driver and coal man from the elements.
Even Stirling's monstrous Draka took care of their serfs better than how these Puritans treated the men they hired.
Ad astra! Sean
The Roman attitude was that anyone who -could- be enslaved deserved it; it was summed up in their saying that to avoid slavery all you had to know was how to die. Like WWII Japanese, but for a far longer period, Roman citizens usually fought to the death or killed themselves rather than surrender, so you could say they practiced what they preached.
BTW, the Romans were Really Not Nice People.
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