onse to the clamorous demands of the crowd, Barrington, who in the
meantime had yielded to Owen's entreaties that he would avail himself
of this opportunity of proclaiming the glad tidings of the good time
that is to be, got up on the steps in his turn.

Harlow, desiring that everything should be done decently and in order,
had meantime arranged in front of the pulpit a carpenter's sawing
stool, and an empty pail with a small piece of board laid across it, to
serve as a seat and a table for the chairman. Over the table he draped
a large red handkerchief. At the right he placed a plumber's large
hammer; at the left, a battered and much-chipped jam-jar, full of tea.
Philpot having taken his seat on the pail at this table and announced
his intention of bashing out with the hammer the brains of any
individual who ventured to disturb the meeting, Barrington commenced:

'Mr Chairman and Gentlemen. For the sake of clearness, and in order to
avoid confusing one subject with another, I have decided to divide the
oration into two parts. First, I will try to explain as well as I am
able what Socialism is. I will try to describe to you the plan or
system upon which the Co-operative Commonwealth of the future will be
organized; and, secondly, I will try to tell you how it can be brought
about. But before proceeding with the first part of the subject, I
would like to refer very slightly to the widespread delusion that
Socialism is impossible because it means a complete change from an
order of things which has always existed. We constantly hear it said
that because there have always been rich and poor in the world, there
always must be. I want to point out to you first of all, that it is
not true that even in its essential features, the present system has
existed from all time; it is not true that there have always been rich
and poor in the world, in the sense that we understand riches and
poverty today.

'These statements are lies that have been invented for the purpose of
creating in us a feeling of resignation to the evils of our condition.
They are lies which have been fostered by those who imagine that it is
to their interest that we should be content to see our children
condemned to the same poverty and degradation that we have endured
ourselves.

I do not propose--because there is not time, although it is really part
of my subject--to go back to the beginnings of history, and describe in
detail the different systems