Many of the young men from Oxford and Cambridge and the Public Schools manage, however, to do very well by themselves, in some cases by means of debating clubs and classes. There they gain knowledge and experience of the Trade Union movement, which knowledge is later on used to secure for them first-class positions as Government or municipal servants. Many of us have watched with interest the careers of these young men, who, having come to East London with what I am sure was a genuine and generous interest in the working class, and with a real desire to improve conditions, have gradually discovered that the one royal road out is a complete social revolution; but (seeing the difficulties, like the rich young man in the parable) have turned back and found their way into Government Departments and into the House of Commons, and even on to the Treasury Bench, where they have been engaged in the business of making the present conditions more tolerable, with no sort of idea of destroying evil conditions by attacking root causes. It is the spirit which is all wrong; and to make this plain I cannot do better than describe an incident which happened at a meeting in Oxford which Lord Hugh Cecil and myself addressed. The meeting was organised for the purpose of enlisting young men as residents for Oxford House, Bethnal Green. There was a fine attendance of healthy, vigorous young men, full of enthusiasm and quite keen to hear us both. Lord Hugh was the first speaker, and based his appeal on the fact that those young men would be the future law-makers and administrators of Britain; he urged that it was their bounden duty to make themselves acquainted with the people whom they would be called upon to govern and whose public affairs they would be called upon to administer. In saying this, he was summarising what is to him the very highest conception of public life and duty, so far as the great landed class to which he belongs is concerned. He believes in a governing class whose duty it is to govern wisely for the good of the nation and to equip itself efficiently for the discharge of its duties. This is the alleged justification for the existence of the landed gentry; and all who know anything of the public life of the Cecils know how well they try to live up to their conception of public duty. But I was not convinced then, and am not convinced now, that governing classes are a necessity; and so, when it came to my turn, I said something like this: “You young men have great opportunities given you to educate yourselves, to acquire knowledge; and it is your bounden duty to give back all and more than you receive to the service of the nation. Your education, your culture, is all given at the expense of the workers, who day and night toil that you and your class may understand something of the joy of living. I want you to come down to Bethnal Green to teach the people all you know, teach them to hate poverty and dirt and unwholesome conditions, and