246 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



to ameliorating the condition of the poorer population 

 of our great cities are able to tell many a heartrending 

 tale of the sufferings of families whose wage-earners 

 are unable to find employment. The perturbations of 

 the labour market have their exciting causes in the 

 inalienable imperfections of human nature. The 

 greed of money leading to hazardous speculation 

 joined to the incalculable combinations of circum- 

 stances, brings down in sudden ruin private firms and 

 old established commercial institutions. In the inter- 

 lockings of commercial and industrial affairs, the 

 catastrophe that plunges in ruin a bank or a great 

 firm may involve in its engulfing whirlpool thousands of 

 private fortunes, and disturb, to the ruin of multitudes, 

 the credit system over a vast area. 



Bold speculation often leads to great success and 

 to the acquisition of large fortunes ; but, as in the 

 case of the roulette-table, the success of a few 

 winners proves an irresistible temptation to many 

 whose ventures end disastrously. The safe paths of 

 commerce and industry are forsaken for bold strokes 

 and high play, with fatal result to the majority of 

 those who yield to the speculative mania. But 

 disaster does not always end with the immediate 

 victims. Frequently a multitude of employees, and of 

 firms associated in business with a great firm that has 

 failed, are involved in the shipwreck of the latter. 

 The numbers rendered destitute by such eventualities 

 and the consequent misery it would be folly to connect 

 with an assumed tendency on the part of population 



