THE WAR AND WEALTH. 173 



involved in the industrial problem ; that is the bar- 

 baric feature that may well be eliminated ; it is not 

 necessarily connected with the case. The whole mat- 

 ter rests upon the two points of the actual and con- 

 stant employment of the masses and their compensa- 

 tion. The time of their daily employment is not a 

 factor in the case, except so far as it shall determine 

 whether sufficient is or is not produced to meet the 

 consumption of society when in its most prosperous 

 condition. With these simple factors, it does not 

 seem difficult to discover a way out of our distress, 

 and an economic law that may be as well understood, 

 and as easily applied, as the law that governs in any 

 other matter. 



If the operations of the war of the rebellion shall 

 have the effect of discovering to us the way out of our 

 present distress, and an economic law that shall lift 

 society out of its ruts of slavery to fallacies and false 

 economies, to renewed and permanent prosperity and 

 development, it will have conferred upon the world a 

 much greater blessing than can be found in lifting the 

 negro alone out of bondage, and make one almost 

 tempted to apologize for the barbarism of that war. 



