306 MODERN ECONOMICS 



stress of modern conditions. Amusements satisfy 

 an impulse for change which gives joy to life and 

 lightens the weight of advancing years. We owe 

 to domestic servants the comfort and orderliness 

 of our houses. 



No shiftings of wealth that are confined to the 

 members of a community can lessen the com- 

 munity's total wealth, however disadvantageous 

 they may be from the moral or philanthropic 

 standpoint. The extravagance of the rich in the 

 end provides honest folk with food and lodging, 

 however unworthy be the hands to which the 

 money is first scattered. Expenditure upon 

 armaments is frequently deplored as a waste of 

 national resources ; but it passes on the wealth 

 current and provides subsistence for thousands 

 of men as effectively as expenditure upon school- 

 houses or motor-cars. The enormous cost of the 

 Panama Canal is no net loss to the United States : 

 the outlay has in the main passed through Ameri- 

 can hands, and is, so far, merely a transfer of 

 wealth from the body of tax-payers to some of its 

 members. 







The wealth-stream flows past everyone's door. 

 Some receive profuse supplies from it : others 

 may scarcely enjoy a few drops. Industry may 

 help itself from the stream, but only by pannikins : 

 the plodding workman, the careful seamstress, 

 seldom earn more than a bare subsistence. If we 

 desire a more liberal measure we must obtain it 

 by influencing others by inducing them, so to 

 speak, to lower a bucket and draw for us if we, 

 in return, will satisfy an impulse which they 

 cannot conveniently satisfy themselves. So we 

 draw for shop-keepers in return for comforts and 



