202 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



sighted, as the higher intelligence of the people who have 

 land increases production and gives enlarged opportunities 

 for the profitable employment of money. However, if capi- 

 talists persist in this narrow view, the money of the people, 

 when they learn and think, can be applied to this purpose, 

 instead of being deposited in savings banks, where much of 

 it is used in increasing the wealth of those who already have 

 abundance. 



The idea of "helping others to help themselves" finds a 

 responsive chord in the hearts of many wealthy people. 

 But the question is, how can all be helped? No business 

 method by which this can be accomplished has, as yet, been 

 practically demonstrated. 



In no field does corporate operation promise more for the 

 betterment of human conditions, for a higher standard of 

 morals and of education, or great certainty of profit for capi- 

 tal, than by systematically aiding men to obtain farms. 



Progress proceeds on the line of returns for expenditure. 

 When a man's economic condition permits, his first thought 

 is to give his children an education and a better chance in 

 life than he had. Those who extol the simple life as the ideal 

 condition of happiness do not mean that want and depriva- 

 tion of necessities is the ideal condition. If they did, they 

 would put then* children in that condition to make them 

 happy. Both extremes of wealth and of poverty are burdens 

 and retard mental and moral progress. The ideal condition 

 is to be found on a farm where the land is paid for and ample 

 means are at hand to supply the necessities for physical 

 demands, with leisure to learn and enjoy those pleasures of 

 the mind which come with knowledge of Nature's laws, and 

 wisdom to live in harmony with them, and in a measure 

 comprehend the purposes of creation. 



