G.— ENGINEERING 137 



This is a very unsatisfactory result in view of the enormous natural 

 resources available and the huge possibilities of manufacture and distribu- 

 tion of wealth with modern systems of transport. If there had been a 

 central organisation looking after the world's welfare for the last fifty 

 years, and if it had made as bad a mess of things as we find to-day, it 

 would have been condemned as hopelessly inefficient. As a fact, we 

 have had no central organisation, but only governments looking after 

 the welfare of individual states — an easier task, one might suppose. Yet 

 these governments have made this mess of things within their states. 



In spiritual matters the failure has been as complete as with material 

 things, but I will leave the consideration of this until later. 



This failure of civilisation to attain its purpose is not surprising when 

 we remember that the chief principle in operation has been ' Every man 

 for himself and the devil take the hindmost.' This is supposed by some 

 economists to be the only principle which will work satisfactorily and 

 automatically. It certainly does automatically give the hindmost to the 

 devil. There has not been any logical plan in the old states in Europe 

 or in America to enable all citizens to create their own wealth and 

 enjoy it. The word ' wealth ' is here used in its proper sense to denote 

 the material things that contribute to man's well-being. And there 

 being no plan, it is not surprising that things have come to their present 

 pass. 



The main business of the world, to-day, is buying and selling. Things 

 are manufactured to be sold at a profit. When prices are low, business is 

 said to be bad. This shows how inverted is the position under our 

 ridiculous system. It ought to be just the other way. Buying and 

 selling should be a mere unavoidable incident in the distribution of wealth. 

 When prices are low, it should be evidence of economical manufacture 

 and distribution, and the standard of life should accordingly be higher. 

 The main business of the world should not be to buy and to sell, but to 

 make the things that men want and distribute them in the simplest way 

 without adding any more to the cost than is absolutely necessary. At 

 times when trade is supposed to be good, things are sold at three or four 

 times the price paid to the people who make them, and as a consequence 

 the people who make them cannot buy them, so there is a slump on the 

 market.^ If things were sold at a price which represented the exact cost 

 of manufacture and distribution, then all the people concerned in the 

 manufacture and distribution would have money enough to buy all the 

 things that they have made. They would go on making more and more 

 and getting more and more wealthy. Instead of this many are out of work 

 because the shopkeepers cannot sell the things that they have in stock. 

 They cannot sell them because the people who make them and want 

 them have not received enough money to buy them. Many attempts 

 are made to justify the prices at which things are sold, but the real reason 

 for high prices is that in a so-called civilised country there are only about 

 15 per cent, of the inhabitants making a real contribution to wealth : the 

 remainder are hangers-on such as landlords, merchants, retailers, servants 



* In my first draft I gave several examples, but they are well known to 

 everyone. 



F 2 



