Career
Ratcliffe"s father owned a King"s Lynn flour mill, but moved to work as a railway clerk in Manchester when that business failed. Samuel was sent to be live with an aunt and attend school in London. He started working as a journalist for The Echo, edited by John Passmore Edwards, eventually rising to be leader-writer
In May 1902 Ratcliffe joined the Indian English-language newspaper The Statesman as its assistant editor under Paul Knight.
Returning to London, he worked for the Daily News under A. G. Gardiner, as well as writing for the Manchester Guardian, The Spectator, the Nation and the Contemporary Review. Ratcliffe was editor of the Sociological Review from 1910 to 1917.
Ratcliffe began lecturing for the South Place Ethical Society in 1912. In 1913 he delivered a series of lectures to the League of Political Education in New New York