254 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



produce habits of utility, self-control and economy, individu- 

 ality, self-reliance and integrity. This can only be achieved 

 by protecting equally the right of all nations, and the rich 

 as well as the poor of all classes of a community alike, regard- 

 less of class or nationality. We must not lose sight of the 

 fact that rich and poor is only a social distinction, not a class 

 difference, just as are good and bad, weak and strong, sane 

 and insane. Poverty is one of the greatest blessings and must 

 continue to be a blessing. 



Statistics show that we can set down between 100 

 and 200 a year as the average limits of varia- 

 tion in the distribution of wealth and must dismiss all above 

 and below these limits as exceptions. But within these 

 limits we must as far as possible enable one and all to bear 

 and share an equal burden of labour, either mental or physical, 

 according to their ability and capability. It must not be for- 

 gotten that large incomes and fortunes are not the possession 

 of those who hold them, but of the community, and that all 

 that is not spent on the actual maintenance of the holder and 

 his family is passed on to the wages account of the community 

 by the process of circulation. The holder is only the manager 

 for the community. It is one of the evolutions of modern 

 civilisation that we cannot move, live, or act without being 

 dependant to some extent on our fellow-men. Even if we 

 strike a match, we are dependant on the labour of two or three 

 other professions for the production of the match. 



Every advance of evolution is pointing towards the 

 necessity for more local regulation of industrial interests and 

 local Governments of trade regulations, and the fallacy of the 

 aim of unionism in trying to fix a universal standard for 

 commercial interests, rights of distribution, and conditions of 

 employment, etc. But at present the Government of every 

 nation is torn to pieces by its inability to decide the bounda- 

 ries of local and general industry and where the limits of com- 

 merce, public and private rights of ownership and general or 

 individual competition and co-operation and liberties begin 

 and end. As we decide these limits, we will gradually learn 

 how to use not abuse our newly-acquired powers of mechanical 

 invention. This must be a work started at both ends of 

 society and finished in the middle. For it must and can only 

 be evolved by a better knowledge of the value of unity of 



