I found that my objections to the Settlement Idea were vanishing rapidly before this young man’s sense of humour.
“It really doesn’t do the people down here a great deal of harm,” he was saying, “and it does us a great deal of good.”
“Is your interest in the practical or in the theoretical side of the work?” I asked.
“In the latter. I am a student of economics, and have just taken my Ph.D. degree. Lately,” he added, flushing, “I have become a Socialist.”
The Altruist looked pleased.
“The state of things down here has convinced me that an entire reconstruction of our whole industrial system is the only thing that can help the poor.”
I asked him if the misery of the poor had not been much exaggerated in the sensational reform journals.
“It could not be exaggerated,” he said vehemently. “No, the half has not been told.”
As he recounted tale after tale of the sin and suffering caused by unrighteous laws of trade, I sat numb with that sense of personal hurt that one feels on first knowing that these things are true.
But the Resident stopped, for the bell rang, and a “neighbour” entered.