THE WAR AND WEALTH. 



by the loss of that consumption which requires con- 

 stant reproduction, is the sheerest nonsense. Pro- 

 duction and cumulation create stagnation and death, 

 whilst production and consumption give life and 

 development. 



The war gave to the people four years of full em- 

 ployment, the only time they have been fully employed 

 during the last fifty years, thus enabling them to pay 

 their debts, and conferring prosperity on all. 



There is an unerring instinct in the minds of the 

 people that if we could only have another great war, 

 we should be again prosperous. The why and the 

 how they do not consider. It is only the result that 

 they feel. Neither do they see that the same result 

 may be obtained without war, and be made perma- 

 nent. It was not the killing of our fellow men that 

 gave or added to our prosperity. 



When the war closed three and one half millions 

 of men and women in the North alone, who had been 

 employed in the armies, and in their support, were 

 thrown out of employment and into idleness. It was 

 at this point, when this great deluge of idleness came 

 upon us, that our difficulties began. During the con- 

 tinuance of the war no one in the North wanted food, 

 or clothing, or shelter, because he could not get work, 

 or because his wages would not pay for an abundance 

 of either. But when it closed at least three millions 

 of working people and their dependents were at once 

 deprived of the means of buying in the markets for 

 consumption, except upon credit, or by competing in 

 and compelling a division of employment in all our 

 normal industries. That is, stated more simply, these 



