Keeping Up with William

'Keeping Up with William' is a first-person novel written by Irving Bacheller. We are introduced to the narrator at the beginning of the book, who went up to Connecticut to see the Honorable Socrates Potter. Later on he met with a man named William, who as he filled and lighted his pipe, settled down in an easy chair and began again, with his gun resting across his knees, shared the following opinion, amongst many others, that sets the tone for the rest of the novel: «The superiors try to square themselves by giving to the poor. It doesn't work. Often we do more harm than good by giving to the poor. Kindness, sympathy, loving counsel and a brotherly hand can accomplish much. But the charily of cold cash is a questionable thing. The girl who knits a pair of socks accomplishes a larger net result to the good than the one that gives ten pairs to charity. The girl who did the knitting really produced something. She had made the world better off by one pair of socks. There is no doubt about that. The girl who has bought and given away ten pairs has produced nothing. She has made the world in general no better off. She is a slacker. She is trying to make her money to do her work for her.»