| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 99 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
As Owen thought of his child's future there sprung up within him a feeling of hatred and fury against the majority of his fellow workmen. THEY WERE THE ENEMY. Those [unconscious philanthropists] who not only quietly submitted like so many cattle to the [miserable slavery] existing state of things, but defended it, and opposed and ridiculed any suggestion to alter it. THEY WERE THE REAL OPPRESSORS - the men who spoke of themselves as `The likes of us,' who, having lived in poverty and degradation all their lives considered that what had been good enough for them was good enough for the children they had been the [means] cause of bringing into existence. He hated and despised them because the calmly saw their children condemned to hard labour and poverty for life, and deliberately refused to make any effort to secure [for them] better conditions [for them]than those they had themselves. |
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