people, and they often entirely disbelieve them. What is
said by great employers of labor against agitators is unquestionably
true. Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down
to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of
discontent amongst them."[235] It is the "very poor" who disbelieve the
agitators. They must be embraced in every plan of social reconstruction,
but they cannot be of much aid. The _least_ skilled must rather be
helped and those who can and do help them best are not any of their
"superiors," but their blood brothers and sisters of the economic class
just above them--the great mass of the unskilled workers.

The class of casual workers and the able-bodied but chronically
under-employed play a very serious role in Socialist politics. It is the
class from which, as Socialists point out, professional soldiers,
professional strike breakers, and, to some extent, the police are drawn.
Among German Socialists it is called the "lumpen proletariat," and both
for the present and future is looked at with the greatest anxiety. It is
not thought possible that any considerable portion of it will be brought
into the Socialist camp in the near future, though some progress has
been made, as with every other element of the working class. It is
acknowledged that it tends to become more numerous, constantly recruited
as it is from the increasing class of servants and other dependents of
the rich and well-to-do.

But Socialists understand that the mercenary hirelings drawn from this
class, and directly employed to keep them "in order," are less dangerous
than the capitalists' camp followers. Bernard Shaw calls this second
army of dependents "the parasitic proletariat." But he explains that he
means not that they do not _earn_ their living, but that their labor is
unproductive. They are parasitic only in the sense that their work is
done either for parasites or for the parasitical consumption of active
capitalists. Nor is there any sharp line between proletarian and middle
class in this element, since parts of both classes are equally conscious
of their dependence. Shaw makes these points clear. His only error is to
suppose that Socialists and believers in the class war theory, have
failed to recognize them.

"Thus we find," says Shaw, "that what the idle man of property does
is to plunge into mortal sin against society. He not only withdraws
himself from th