?'
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.'

This extraordinary assertion was greeted with a roar of merriment, in
the midst of which Philpot was heard to say that to listen to Owen was
as good as going to a circus. Money was the cause of poverty!

'I always thought it was the want of it!' said the man with the patches
on the seat of his trousers as he passed out of the door.

'Other things,' continued Owen, 'are private ownership of land, private
ownership of railways, tramways, gasworks, waterworks, private
ownership of factories, and the other means of producing the
necessaries and comforts of life. Competition in business--'

'But 'ow do you make it out?' demanded Crass, impatiently.

Owen hesitated. To his mind the thing appeared very clear and simple.
The causes of poverty were so glaringly evident that he marvelled that
any rational being should fail to perceive them; but at the same time
he found it very difficult to define them himself. He could not think
of words that would convey his thoughts clearly to these others who
seemed so hostile and unwilling to understand, and who appeared to have
made up their minds to oppose and reject whatever he said. They did
not know what were the causes of poverty and apparently they did not
WANT to know.

'We