close to the railings of the park was by custom reserved for the speechifying of religious or political propaganda bodies, stools or chairs being used as platforms.
Morris was greatly taken with the scene. His heart seemed to warm at the sight of the crowded groups of disputants, as if it recalled to him something of the early folkmoot and market-place assemblies of which he always wrote so affectionately. But our time was nearly spent, and I took him towards the group against the railings where the League meeting was in full swing. Pete Curran, afterwards Labour M.P. for Jarrow, was speaking, and recognising Morris he cut short his speech announcing that the author of 'The Earthly Paradise' would now address the meeting—an announcement that at once caused the crowd to gather in.
Morris mounted the stool and spoke for about twenty minutes. He referred to the recent Free Speech troubles in London, and congratulated the working men of Glasgow on having preserved the right of Free Speech on so large a scale in the heart of the city. He explained in quite simple terms the aims of Socialism, avoiding the usual jargon phrases of the movement. Referring to what he had just seen of the way in which the children of the poor were pent up dismally in the slums, he contrasted the ugly and sordid conditions of the lives of the people generally with what might be and ought to be in a civilised and wealthy nation—his allusions alike to the rich and the poor being wholly untinged with cynicism or insult.
Several questions were put to him, one of which was: 'In one of the evening papers last night you are described as a rich man. Are you willing to submit to a general divide of riches?'
'I am not quite a rich man, as rich men go nowadays,' replied Morris; 'but I am richer than I ought to be compared with the mass of my fellows; or rather, perhaps, I shall say they are poorer than they ought to be. I am more than willing that my riches, such as they are, should be put into the common stock of the nation; and I shall rejoice to
