78 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 



we see human forms, members of the same great social 

 family, clad in silks and rags dwelling in hovels and 

 palaces ! ISTow, this is all wrong ! There is no absolute 

 necessity for these social disfigurements. They are a disgrace 

 to Christianity. They show that our present commercial 

 system is not a wisely-ordered one. Starveling shoots ! 

 the Social Tree is full of them. Are there not thousands 

 of human beings who toil from earliest morn to latest 

 night, and never make any headway ? Do they not con- 

 tinue in the same fix for life, subservient to the interest of 

 a branch which is more developed than themselves ; and 

 this branch holds the same relation to some other branch 

 for which it has to work? And what is society but a tree,, 

 an association of branches, where all co-operate in build- 

 ing up its structure and in advancing its arts, its sciences, 

 and civilization ? You cannot deny the analogy. Yes, 

 and there are monopolizing branches which get too much 

 sap, and require pruning. For this thing has its foundation 

 in Nature, and we must look to Nature for a remedy. Are 

 there not men in every community with a superabundance 

 of life-energy, whose progress in wealth and in the exten- 

 sion of their business relations has been rapid and unex- 

 ampled ? There is no end to their reckless and insatiable 

 pursuit after wealth ! Combined together, they exercise a 

 fearful commercial power. It is these merchant princes 

 in combination who are our masters on the battle-ground 

 of commerce. They are the men who control the markets, 

 who grind down the faces of the poor, who exact at will 

 from the consumer ! How beautifully is all this illustrated 

 by the branches of a tree ! How faithfully are the laws of 

 society there represented even in all their minutiae. 



But this is not all ; for there is a social policy plainly 

 suggested by the leading branches of the tree, and the con- 

 dition of its branchlets and different varieties of shoots, 

 which all who occupy an inferior and subordinate position 

 in society would do well to study. There is clearly compe- 

 tition among the branches of a tree for sap and sunlight, 

 and in proportion as the leading branches get ahead, in the 

 same proportion is the development of their side-branches 



