736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Of the effect of his remedy upon the material, social, and moral 

 welfare of society Mr. George is very hopef vil. Under its action he 

 sees production bounding forward with giant strides ; the great agen- 

 cies, which man has called into being to help him subdue the earth, 

 no longer of doubtful good. By the power of these " slaves of the 

 lamp of knowledge " he sees wealth increased on every hand, and dis- 

 tributed to each according to his labor. He sees these great forces 

 elevating society from its very foundations. Each would have enough 

 and to spare. Men would no longer seek vainly for the opportunities 

 to labor. Competition would no longer be one-sided. " Into the labor 

 market would have entered the greatest of all competitors for the em- 

 l^loyment of labor, a competitor whose demand can not be satisfied 

 until want is satisfied — the demand of labor itself." All raised above 

 want and the fear of want, human life would expand in new direc- 

 tions and under the impulse of new ideals. The worship of wealth is 

 but the expression of the fear of want. All men struggle to place 

 themselves above want and the possibility of it. What men struggle 

 for they admire, and to win the admiration and approbation of their 

 fellows, if not the strongest, is at least one of the strongest, passions 

 of human nature. With the passing away of this fear of want, how- 

 ever, will come a declining admiration of wealth, self-seeking diminish, 

 seeking the good of others increase. And there need be no fear that, 

 with declining need to devote his powers to getting subsistence, man 

 will stagnate. " Man is the unsatisfied animal." For him are all the 

 powers of the heavens and the earth. Beyond material needs there 

 are spiritual needs. 



That love of knowledge which has given us our sciences, of the 

 beautiful Avhich has given us our art and literature, will in the future 

 as in the past appeal to and excite our highest powers. Whatever 

 may have been the need of the stimulus given by the fear of want, it 

 no longer exists. Humanity now needs but to be assured of the fruits 

 of its labor to go upon the heights. It needs but this to realize the 

 dream born of material progress — to make for itself the golden age : 



*' Youth no longer stunted and starved ; age no longer harried by 

 avarice ; the child at play with the tiger ; the man with the muck-rake 

 drinking in the glory of the stars ! Foul things fled, fierce things 

 tame, discord turned to harmony ! For how could there be greed 

 where all had enough ? How could the vice, the crime, the ignorance, 

 the brutality, that spring from poverty and the fear of poverty, exist 

 where poverty had vanished ? Who should crouch where all were 

 freemen ; who oppress where all were peers ? " 



Such the promise Mr. George holds out to society if it but con- 

 sent to " render unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's " — to give to 

 labor and capital their reward. If it consent not, he raises his voice 

 to warn it that it must crush the worm that is gnawing at its vitals, if 

 it be not destroyed. If labor get not its reward, the gulf between the 



