Ragged Trousered Philanthropists | Page 4

describe the relations existing between the workmen and
their employers, the attitude and feelings of these two classes towards
each other; their circumstances when at work and when out of
employment; their pleasures, their intellectual outlook, their religious
and political opinions and ideals.
The action of the story covers a period of only a little over twelve
months, but in order that the picture might be complete it was
necessary to describe how the workers are circumstanced at all periods
of their lives, from the cradle to the grave. Therefore the characters
include women and children, a young boy - the apprentice - some
improvers, journeymen in the prime of life, and worn-out old men.
I designed to show the conditions relating from poverty and
unemployment: to expose the futility of the measures taken to deal with
them and to indicate what I believe to be the only real remedy, namely -
Socialism. I intended to explain what Socialists understand by the word
`poverty': to define the Socialist theory of the causes of poverty, and to
explain how Socialists propose to abolish poverty.

It may be objected that, considering the number of books dealing with
these subjects already existing, such a work as this was uncalled for.
The answer is that not only are the majority of people opposed to
Socialism, but a very brief conversation with an average anti-socialist
is sufficient to show that he does not know what Socialism means. The
same is true of all the anti-socialist writers and the `great statesmen'
who make anti-socialist speeches: unless we believe that they are
deliberate liars and imposters, who to serve their own interests labour
to mislead other people, we must conclude that they do not understand
Socialism. There is no other possible explanation of the extraordinary
things they write and say. The thing they cry out against is not
Socialism but a phantom of their own imagining.
Another answer is that `The Philanthropists' is not a treatise or essay,
but a novel. My main object was to write a readable story full of human
interest and based on the happenings of everyday life, the subject of
Socialism being treated incidentally.
This was the task I set myself. To what extent I have succeeded is for
others to say; but whatever their verdict, the work possesses at least one
merit - that of being true. I have invented nothing. There are no scenes
or incidents in the story that I have not either witnessed myself or had
conclusive evidence of. As far as I dared I let the characters express
themselves in their own sort of language and consequently some
passages may be considered objectionable. At the same time I believe
that - because it is true - the book is not without its humorous side.
The scenes and characters are typical of every town in the South of
England and they will be readily recognized by those concerned. If the
book is published I think it will appeal to a very large number of
readers. Because it is true it will probably be denounced as a libel on
the working classes and their employers, and upon the
religious-professing section of the community. But I believe it will be
acknowledged as true by most of those who are compelled to spend
their lives amid the surroundings it describes, and it will be evident that
no attack is made upon sincere religion.

Chapter 1
:
An Imperial Banquet. A Philosophical Discussion. The Mysterious
Stranger. Britons Never shall be Slaves
The house was named `The Cave'. It was a large old-fashioned
three-storied building standing in about an acre of ground, and situated
about a mile outside the town of Mugsborough. It stood back nearly
two hundred yards from the main road and was reached by means of a
by-road or lane, on each side of which was a hedge formed of hawthorn
trees and blackberry bushes. This house had been unoccupied for many
years and it was now being altered and renovated for its new owner by
the firm of Rushton & Co., Builders and Decorators.
There were, altogether, about twenty-five men working there,
carpenters, plumbers, plasterers, bricklayers and painters, besides
several unskilled labourers. New floors were being put in where the old
ones were decayed, and upstairs two of the rooms were being made into
one by demolishing the parting wall and substituting an iron girder.
Some of the window frames and sashes were so rotten that they were
being replaced. Some of the ceilings and walls were so cracked and
broken that they had to be replastered. Openings were cut through walls
and doors were being put where no doors had been before. Old broken
chimney pots were being taken down and new ones were being taken
up and fixed in