6o3 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they ; " can we not alleviate their distress ? " They would invoke state 

 aid in behalf of these social failures, and thus increase the burdens 

 upon the employed, forgetting that " the last straw breaks the camel's 

 back." Tliey would increase the number of officials, and lose thou- 

 sands of dollars of the people's money by theft, while only tens or 

 hundreds were bestowed as charity. They forget that the poor mill- 

 ions who are the consumers are the real tax-payers. All experience 

 has shown that only abortive effort and theft can be hoped for when 

 the state interferes. It is already overloaded with such work, and its 

 officers are men subject to temptation where cash is concerned. A 

 change of these has been advocated, but this would only be a change 

 of thieves. No one class has a monopoly of morality. There are 

 moral and immoral men in all classes ; and, unfortunately, men of 

 light specific gravity are more apt to swim in the sea of politics than 

 their more solid fellows. Shall we, then, resort to an indiscriminate 

 bestowal of alms ? Statistics have again and again shown that, in 

 the direct ratio of alms-giving, there is an increase of pauiDcrism and 

 crime. The easier you make the pauper's life, the more of that re- 

 straint you remove which now hinders many from choosing pauper- 

 ism as a profession. If you have money to spend upon them, de- 

 mand an equivalent in work of some kind for every cent bestowed. 

 This leaves them with a spark of manly feeling, and satisfies your 

 desire to relieve their wants. I have seen philanthropic men and 

 women refuse to purchase a cane, toy, or newspaper, from a really 

 suffering and needy person in the street, because they either did not 

 want the article offered or would not be troubled with it ; and I have 

 tlien seen them go a few steps and drop as much money as would have 

 made the purchase into the hat of a professional beggar, who was less 

 worthy and less needy. It was hard to escape the conclusion that 

 the sympathetic feeling which could only be satisfied by giving with- 

 out requiring aught in return was here tinctured with the unhallowed 

 self-righteousness of the Pharisee. 



In these unemployed workmen we have a vast amount of energy 

 wasting itself in uselessness or crime. In the bank-vaults lie unused 

 large stores of the potential energy of society. Rich and poor are 

 suffering from the inactivity. "What is the cause of this ? The capi- 

 talists will make no new investments, as they will not pay. Business 

 is stagnant. People refuse to purchase. Such is the general cry, and 

 over-production takes the blame. Over-production of what ? How 

 can an over-pro.duction of wheat and potatoes produce an over-pro- 

 duction of everything else ? How happens it that all the industries 

 appeared to collapse together ? Was there over-production in all ? 

 Has each person in these United States got all the clothing and arti- 

 cles of comfort and luxury he can possibly desire ? How can over- 

 production be chargeable with this state of affairs, when, by a little 

 thought upon the matter, we might see that the evidence points to 



