172 LAND AND LABOR. 



three millions of men and women, except a small por- 

 tion, and that for a very limited time, have found but 

 partial employment, and that only by the displace- 

 ment of others. 



In no sense was the war the cause of our present 

 industrial distress, as I have clearly shown by the 

 facts and operations presented. On the contrary, it 

 broke the tendency to idleness and distress which be- 

 gan with us more than fifty years ago. It gave em- 

 ployment to the idle, food to the hungry, clothing to 

 the naked, shelter to the roofless, and prosperity to 

 all. When the war closed we simply went back again 

 to the idleness and distress of four and five years be- 

 fore we began again where we left off at its com- 

 mencement and are surely reaping the legitimate 

 results of our wilful refusal to profit by the industrial 

 lessons of the war, which are so little understood and 

 so constantly perverted by our modern economists. 



By the barbarism of war we are clearly taught the 

 lesson that whenever the masses are brought into ac- 

 tive employment whenever they are placed in the 

 condition that will enable them to make their con- 

 sumption the greatest that that condition is imme- 

 diately followed by the greatest prosperity of all classes 

 and individuals, and especially is it the harvest season 

 of the capitalist and the manufacturer. But that, on 

 the other hand, whenever the masses are least em- 

 ployed, whenever their ability to obtain for consump- 

 tion is reduced to the lowest point, there closely fol- 

 lows the greatest distress in society, from which the 

 capitalists and manufacturers are by no means ex- 

 empted. The destruction of human life is in no way 



