MR. BARLOW. One panders to the system--one panders to the system.
And so, you see, the problem is too much. One man cannot alter or
affect the system; he can only sacrifice himself to it. Which is
the worst thing probably that he can do.
OLIVER. Quite. But why feel guilty for the system?--everybody
supports it, the poor as much as the rich. If every rich man
withdrew from the system, the working class and socialists would
keep it going, every man in the hope of getting rich himself at
last. It's the people that are wrong. They want the system much
more than the rich do--because they are much more anxious to be
rich--never having been rich, poor devils.
MR. BARLOW. Just the system. So I decided at last that the best way
was to give every private help that lay in my power. I would help my
men individually and personally, wherever I could. Not one of them
came to me and went away unheard; and there was no distress which
could be alleviated that I did not try to alleviate. Yet I am afraid
that the greatest distress I never heard of , the most distressed
never came to me. They hid their trouble.
ANABEL. Yes, the decent ones.
MR. BARLOW. But I wished to help--it was my duty. Still, I think
that, on the whole, we were a comfortable and happy community.
Barlow & Walsall's men were not unhappy in those days, I believe.
We were liberal; the men lived.
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