e to have two distinct races! those below and those
above? Is Wells' prophecy to come true; will the one race become
uncanny, loathsome abortions with clammy touch and eyes that cannot face
the light? Will the other become pretty human butterflies? I hope not,
nay, I am sure that Wells is wrong! For there is too much real goodness
in the upper world and too much heroism and endurance in the underworld
to permit such an evolution to come about.

But it is high time that such a possibility was seriously considered.
It is high time, too, that the lives and necessities, the wrongs and the
rights of even the gross poor in the underworld were considered.

For the whole social and industrial system is against them. Though many
of them are parasites, preying upon society or upon each other, yet
even they become themselves the prey of other parasites, who drain their
blood night and day.

So I ask in all seriousness, is it not high time that the exploitation
of the poor, because they are poor, should cease. See how it operates:
a decent married woman loses her husband; his death leaves her dependent
upon her own labour. She has children who hitherto have been provided
with home life, food and clothing; in fact the family had lived a little
above the poverty line, though not far removed from it.

She had lived in the upper world, but because her husband dies, she
is precipitated into the lower world, to seek a new home and some
occupation whereby she and her children may live.

Because she is a widow, and poor and helpless, she becomes the prey
of the sweater. Henceforth she must work interminable hours for a
starvation wage. Because she is a mother, poor and helpless, she becomes
the prey of the house farmer. Henceforward half her earnings must go in
rent, though her house and its concomitants are detestable beyond words.

But though she is poor, her children must be fed, and though she is a
widowed mother, she, even she, must eat sometimes. Henceforward she must
buy food of a poor quality, in minute quantities, of doubtful weight, at
the highest price. She is afraid that death may enter her home and find
her unprepared for a funeral, so she pays one penny weekly for each of
her children and twopence for herself to some collection society.

All through this procedure her very extremities provide opportunities
to others for spoliation, and so her continued life in the underworld is
assured. But her children are ill-nourishe