Either 19 Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it: Have no doubt it is fear in the land. For what can men do when so many have grown lawless? Who can enjoy the lovely land, who can enjoy the seventy years, and the sun that pours down on the earth, when there is fear in the heart? Who can walk quietly in the shadow of the jacarandas, when their beauty is grown to danger? Who can lie peacefully abed, while the darkness holds some secret? What lovers can lie sweetly under the stars, when menace grows with the measure of their seclusion? There are voices crying what must be done, a hundred, a thousand voices. But what do they help if one seeks for counsel, for one cries this, and one cries that, and another cries something that is neither this nor that. * It's a crying scandal, ladies and gentlemen, that we get so few police. This suburb pays more in taxes than most of the suburbs of Johannesburg, and what do we get for it? A third-class police station, with one man on the beat, and one at the telephone. This is the second outrage of this kind in six months, and we must demand more protection. (Applause.) Mr McLaren, will you read us your resolution? * I say we shall always have native crime to fear until the native people of this country have worthy purposes to inspire them and worthy goals to work for. For it is only because they see neither purpose nor goal that they turn to drink and crime and prostitution. Which do we prefer, a law- abiding, industrious, and purposeful native people, or a lawless, idle, and purposeless people? The truth is that we do not know, for we fear them both. And so long as we vacillate, so long will we pay dearly for the dubious pleasure of not having to make up our minds. And the answer does not lie, except temporarily, in more police and more protection. (Applause.) * And you think, Mr de Villiers, that increased schooling facilities would cause a decrease in juvenile delinquency amongst native children? - I am sure of it, Mr Chairman. Have you the figures for the percentage of children at school, Mr de Villiers? - In Johannesburg, Mr Chairman, not more than four out of ten are at school. But of those four not even one will reach his sixth standard. Six are being educated in the streets. May I ask Mr de Villiers a question, Mr Chairman? - By all means, Mr Scott. Who do you think should pay for this schooling, Mr de Villiers? We should pay for it. If we wait till native parents can pay for it, we will pay more heavily in other ways. Don't you think, Mr de Villiers, that more schooling simply means cleverer criminals? - I am sure that is not true. - Let me give you a case. I had a boy working for me who had passed Standard Six. Perfect gentleman, bow-tie, hat to the side, and the latest socks. I treated him well and paid him well. Now do you know, Mr de Villiers, that this self-same scoundrel * - They should enforce the pass-laws, Jackson. But I tell you the pass-laws don't work. They'd work if they were enforced. But I tell you they're unenforceable. Do you know that we send one hundred thousand natives every year to prison, where they mix with real criminals? - That's not quite true, Jackson. I know they're trying road-camps and farm-labour and several other things. Well, perhaps you know. But it doesn't alter my argument at all, that the pass-laws are unenforceable. You can send 'em to road-camps or farms or anywhere else you damn well please, but you can't tell me it's a healthy thing even to convict one hundred thousand people. What would you do then? Well now you're asking. I don't know what I'd do. But I just know the pass-laws don't work. [from Book 1 Chapter 12] Explore the ways in which Paton vividly conveys different viewpoints at this moment in the novel.