ABSTRACT
Class society in Britain, at its zenith between 1880 and 1914, already contained the seeds of its own decay. These took the form of the values and beliefs of the professional social ideal, which were beginning to infiltrate and change from within the moral outlook of the three major classes. Those classes, too, possessed their own powerful ideals of what society should be and how it should be organized to recognize and reward their own unique contribution to the welfare of the community. Each class believed that its contribution was the most vital one, and should be rewarded accordingly. The landowners and the capitalists saw themselves as, providing the resources and the organizing ability which drove the economic system to provide the goods necessary both for survival and for a civilized life for the whole community. Those in the working class who thought about it saw themselves as providing the labour, the sole source of value, without which the resources and their management would be in vain. The increasing class conflict of the late Victorian and Edwardian period was the struggle for income, status and power arising out of this clash of incompatible ideals. Into this tripartite conflict came a maverick fourth class, which contributed both to the struggle and to the means of resolving it.
