ing story, a faithful picture of working-class life--more
especially of those engaged in the Building trades--in a small town in
the south of England.

I wished to 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,