The Union Makes Us Strong. TUC | History Online logo TUC banner photo
Go
Advanced Search
Home Timeline General Strike Match Workers The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists TUC Reports Feedback Email Us
Search the text
 
  Go
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - click image to enlarge
   
underline
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Manuscript, Page 1018
First PreviousPage 1038 of 1706 Next Last
Go to page:   Go


Title The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Page 1038
Chapter --
Text During this time Owen did his best to convert the other men to his views. He had accumulated a little library of Socialist books and pamphlets which he lent to those he hoped to influence. Some of them took these books and promised, with the air of men who were conferring a great favour, that they would read them. As a rule, when they returned them it was with vague expressions of approval, but they usually evinced a disinclination to discuss the contents in detail because, in nine instances out of ten, they had not attempted to read them. As for those who did make a half-hearted effort to do so, in
the majority of cases their minds were so rusty and stultified by long years of disuse, that, although the pamphlets were generally written in such simple language that a child might have understood, the argument was generally too obscure to be grasped by men whose minds were addled by the stories told them by their Liberal and Tory masters. Some, when Owen offered to lend them some books or pamphlets
© London Metropolitan University | Terms & Conditions