Financial problems require changes

Charles' and Claire's investments run out and Charles is forced to seek employment. He seeks work as an unskilled labourer so that his mind can be clear to focus on his Semantography. He continues to work on Semantography outside of his hours at his job.

I had leaflets printed and brochures made, hoping that this will attract the attention of the universities of the world. More and more I see my financial situation deteriorate. Mortgages and overdrafts are used up in a desperate spendthrift action. I have now started with pleas to foundations, with applications for fellowships, etc. ... My wife is my true companion. She believed in my work from the very first moment and since then has stood valiantly with me in all the ups and downs of our work and hope. Now, we both work very late, turn the duplicating machine, send out letters and letters - something must turn up. So much work and study cannot be wasted - or perhaps it can. More and more it becomes clear to me that men who pioneer new ideas are destined to go down the grave in desperation. And we are both over 50 years of age. ^{SS 58-4}

Of course, Claire and I hoped fervently that something tangible would come out of all my working on this idea. The idea of a writing which could be understood in all languages was so novel and so fascinating that we both were sure it will create a sensation. Soon, the university of Sydney or the Director General of Education would offer me a post with a very modest salary (I would settle for the basic wage of an unskilled labourer) and would give me a desk somewhere in the university where I could elaborate on my work, write the first primers for primary schools, then textbooks for high schools and the university, the dictionaries, the field was almost unlimited, and we both were sure that something good will come out of it, now that I have proved in three large books that my symbols can be used with profit in all fields of human endeavour, even in science. Claire therefore supported my idea to go out and seek employment. Of course, we could have sold a house, but we realized that I had only to write a few months more in order to finish the third book, and then I had to make my approaches to the educational authorities in Australia, elsewhere and notably Unesco. This I could well do with the help of a typist and in the evenings. Or even better, I would take on a job in a factory for the afternoon shift which would keep my mind free and rested in the morning for my writing, At the same time, I realized that I must look for a job which is only manual, and which would not give me any problems to solve and thus keep my mind free for my Semantography. And so I set to work to find such a job. ^{SS 210-77}

... the Europeans living in China and the Chinese who know that even the complicated Chinese ideography works, were convinced of the value of my work, whereas the people in the Western world find the idea strange, although they have already installed an ideographic writing on the highways of the world. My hopes that the universities will put me to work solely on this idea, especially for a science abstract, those hopes have not been fulfilled. And so, two and a half years ago, I was forced to take up employment again. In order to keep my my mind free of managerial responsibilities and worries (because my mind is filled with Semantography only) I have taken manual work at General Motors in Sydney. The factory is very conveniently situated - opposite my house. After a day of work I come home, take a shower and a nap and then work till well past midnight on my work. I had given some lectures at the University, but most of my work consists of letters to important scholars in the world. Alas, most of my letters are now letters of plea. ^{SS 58-3/4}

I found it in a ceramic factory which worked three shifts. I would come at 3 p.m. in the factory and stay until 11 p.m. Then I would pedal on my bike home. Claire would sit outside the house on a bench in the cool night air and would wait for me. Then she would warm up a good meal and then under the hot shower and into bed. The three years of completely being together day and night were gone, and we were a bit sorry for this, but we knew that it cannot last, and we were happy as it was. On Saturdays and Sundays we would make small tours in the woods of Sydney, just as we did in Vienna, and, as said before, we would lead a wonderful and harmonious life together. Surely these years in Australia were the best years of our life. In the good old days in Vienna there was always the fear of losing my job in the depression years and later there was the fear of losing my job because of the coming Nazis. During those years in Vienna my anxiety developed in mad coughing, a kind of asthmatic condition which no doctor could cure, despite all they did, even operating on my nose. But now in Australia with no such worries, with savings behind me and good properties to withstand inflation my mad coughing of Vienna (and sometimes in Shanghai) vanished completely. Sometimes during a hot night I would have a nightmare and would dream I am back in the concentration camp. This nightmare grew rare as the years went on. But another nightmare which sometimes assails me even today 25 years after I had stopped working as an employee in Vienna is the fear of losing my job at my firm. I wake up in cold perspiration and it takes me minutes until I realize with tremendous relief that I am not more in Vienna, that I am in Australia, that I am not in employment, and that I have savings which would sustain me in time of need. ^{(SS 210-77)} .

But now for the first time since I quit the factory in London I had to go into employment again. But we thought it will only be a temporary measure until the fruits of my labour on Semantography will be realized in a post at the university or elsewhere. So with no worry at all I scanned the positions vacant columns of the Sydney Morning Herald. There was one ad which caught my eye, the post of a chemistry and physics teacher at a private high school, the Scots College in Sydney. If I had to lecture only a few hours each day, this would enable me to go on writing on my book and later on my letters to the educational authorities in the world. But the headmaster told me that it is a full-time job, and that the pay is low, indeed as much or as little as an unskilled worker. At that I got mad, left him and went into a ceramic factory where I got better pay as an unskilled labourer. Australia is the paradise of the unskilled labourer. Tradesmen with 4 years apprenticeship earn only a few pounds more than unskilled labourers. Even engineers earn not double the income of an unskilled labourer. In Vienna I earned 6 times the amount of a skilled mechanic, and he earned more than twice the amount of an unskilled labourer. So I went into the ceramic factory where I worked on presses for making ceramic tiles. It was an easy job, and the physical work did me good because Claire can cook so well that I would never leave a crumb of my plate and would eat it all, and more than often, Claire would dump another load on my plate and it would go too with the greatest of appetite and pleasure. As a result I was almost fat, weighing almost 13 stones and surely too much. The physical work in the factory did me good indeed. And in the meantime, that is in the morning hours, I would finish my third book. ^{(SS 210-77)} .