50 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



cause of the difficulty of arriving at a fairly approximate 

 amount, but the total annual value would be enormous. 

 Enormity of Now in regard to these stupendous figures it will 

 Poverty surely be said by a certain section of the public, which 

 sneers at charity and scoffs at anything that is noble and 

 elevating in human life, that this plain statement is all 

 " bunkum " and " rot," and that it is put before the 

 public with some deep, hidden purpose. 



The reply to the latter part of such a contention will 

 be found in the pages of this work, as its purpose — that 

 of arousing the people of this country to a sense of the 

 enormity of our national poverty — is plainly set forth 

 herein. The answer to the first part of their contention is 

 that those who care to consult any of the statistical 

 works on the subject can speedily satisfy themselves 

 that there is no " rot ' ' in the matter at all. 



Whitaker's Almanack, for example, for the year 

 1907, shows that sixty testators alone left as much as 

 £4,486,440 in charities in 1906; while in regard to the 

 many millions of our compatriots whose ear is never 

 deaf to the voiced or mute appeal of the poor and needy, 

 where is the man who can say: " I don't believe they 

 give so much as you try to make people imagine." This 

 giving, however, is, thank God, as widespread as the 

 Heavens, and as life-giving and comforting as the 

 warmth we get from the blessed sunbeams. 



But the question has to be asked: what is this 

 stupendous charity worth? what real lasting good does 

 it do to those whom it is our desire to help on in the 

 world, when vast masses of our people remain sunk in 

 the slough of poverty? 



