Could I take public action which might bring me into collision with the dearest of my friends, which might strain the strong and tender tie so long existing between us?
My affection, my gratitude, all warred against the idea of working with those who wronged him so bitterly.

But the cry of starving children was ever in my ears; the sobs of women poisoned in lead works, exhausted in nail works, driven to prostitution by starvation, made old and haggard by ceaseless work.
I saw their misery was the result of an evil system, was inseparable from private ownership of the instruments of wealth production; that while the worker was himself but an instrument, selling his labour under the law of supply and demand, he must remain helpless in the grip of the employing classes, and that trade combinations could only mean increased warfare--necessary, indeed, for the time as weapons of defence--but meaning war, not brotherly co-operation of all for the good of all.

A conflict which was stripped of all covering, a conflict between a personal tie and a call of duty could not last long, and with a heavy heart I made up my mind to profess Socialism openly and work for it with all my energy.

Happily, Mr.Bradlaugh was as tolerant as he was strong, and our private friendship remained unbroken; but he never again felt the same confidence in my judgment as he felt before, nor did he any more consult me on his own policy, as he had done ever since we first clasped hands.
A series of articles in _Our Corner_ on the "Redistribution of Political Power," on the "Evolution of Society," on "Modern Socialism," made my position clear.

"Over against those who laud the present state of Society, with its unjustly rich and its unjustly poor, with its palaces and its slums, its millionaires and its paupers, be it ours to proclaim that there is a higher ideal in life than that of being first in the race for wealth, most successful in the scramble for gold.