“What the ’ell’s the matter with the present system?” demanded Sawkins.
“’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, b—r 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 having been taken on by Rushton & Co. 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.”