Page:Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.djvu/133

 Ow's it goin' to be altered?' said Newman.

'Wot the bloody 'ell sort of a system do you think we ought to 'ave?' shouted the man behind the moat.

'It can't never be altered,' said Philpot; 'human nature's human nature and you can't get away from it.'

'Never mind about human nature,' shouted Crass; 'stick to the point. Wot's the cause of poverty?'

'Oh, damn the cause of poverty!' said one of the new hands. 'I've 'ad enough of this bloody row,' and he stood up and prepared to go out of the room.

This individual had two patches on the seat of his trousers and the bottoms of the legs of that garment were frayed and ragged. He had been out of work for about six weeks previous to this job, and during most of that time he and his family had been existing in a condition of semi-starvation on the earnings of his wife as a charwoman and on the scraps of food she brought home from the houses where she worked. But all the same, the question of what is the cause of poverty had no interest for him.

'There are many causes,' answered Owen, 'but they are all part of and inseparable from the system. In order to do away with poverty we must destroy the causes. To do away with the causes we must destroy the whole system.'

'What are the causes, then?'

'Well, money for one thing.'

This extraordinary assertion was greeted with a roar of merriment, in the midst of which Philpot was heard to say that to listen to Owen was as good as going to a circus. Money the cause of poverty!

'I always thought it was the want of it!' said the man with the patches on the seat of his trousers, as he passed out of the door.

'Other things,' continued Owen, 'are private ownership of land; private ownership of railways, tramways, gasworks, waterworks, factories, and of the other methods of producing the necessaries and comforts of life; competition in business'

'But 'ow do you make it out?' demanded Crass impatiently.

Owen hesitated. To his mind the thing appeared very clear and simple. The causes of poverty were so glaringly evident that he marvelled that any rational being should fail to perceive them; but at the same time he found it very difficult to 121