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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Manuscript, Page 319
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Title The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Page 330
Chapter --
Text Easton made no reply: he knew that all this was true, but he was not without a large share of the false pride which prompts us to hide our poverty and to pretend that we are much better off than we really are. He was at that moment wearing the pair of second-hand boots that Ruth had bought for him, but he had told Harlow - who had passed some remark about them - that he had had them for years, wearing them only for best. He felt very resentful as he listened to the other's talk, and Owen perceived it, but nevertheless he continued:

`Unless the present system is altered, that is all we have to look forward to; and yet you're one of the upholders of the present system - you help to perpetuate it!'

`'Ow do I help to perpetuate it?' demanded Easton.

`By not trying to find out how to end it - by not helping those who are trying to bring a better state of things into existence. Even if you are indifferent to your own fate - as you seem to be - you have no right to be indifferent to that of the child for whose existence in this world you are responsible. Every man
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