mployment was frightening Capital out of the
country. Those who had money were afraid to invest it in industries,
or to have any work done for fear they would be robbed. When Owen
quoted statistics to prove that as far as commerce and the quantity
produced of commodities of all kinds was concerned, the last year had
been a record one, they became more infuriated than ever, and talked
threateningly of what they would like to do to those bloody Socialists
who were upsetting everything.

One day Crass, who was one of these upholders of the existing system,
scored off Owen finely. A little group of them were standing talking
in the Wage Slave Market near the Fountain. In the course of the
argument, Owen made the remark that under existing conditions life was
not worth living, and Crass said that if he really thought so, there
was no compulsion about it; if he wasn't satisfied--if he didn't want
to live--he could go and die. Why the hell didn't he go and make a
hole in the water, or cut his bloody throat?

On this particular occasion the subject of the argument was--at
first--the recent increase of the Borough Engineer's salary to
seventeen pounds per week. Owen had said it was robbery, but the
majority of the others expressed their approval of the increase. They
asked Owen if he expected a man like that to work for nothing! It was
not as if he were one of the likes of themselves. They said that, as
for it being robbery, Owen would be very glad to have the chance of
getting it himself. Most of them seemed to think the fact that anyone
would be glad to have seventeen pounds a week, proved that it was right
for them to pay that amount to the Borough Engineer!

Usually whenever Owen reflected upon the gross injustices, and
inhumanity of the existing social disorder, he became convinced that it
could not possibly last; it was bound to fall to pieces because of its
own rottenness. It was not just, it was not common sense, and
therefore it could not endure. But always after one of these
arguments--or, rather, disputes--with his fellow workmen, he almost
relapsed into hopelessness and despondency, for then he realized how
vast and how strong are the fortifications that surround the present
system; the great barriers and ramparts of invincible ignorance, apathy
and self-contempt, which will have to be broken down before the system
of society of which they are the defences, can be swept away.

At other times as he tho