THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 63 



bills, etc., is said to be possessed of wealth. But in Political Econ- 

 omy these are not wealth. They might all be burned up, or 

 cancelled, or repudiated, and the world would be none the poorer. 

 It is one thing to possess the power of exacting wealth, it is quite 

 another thing to possess it. Wealth consists of such things (product 

 of labor), the existence of which is for the benefit of the race, and 

 therefore the lessening or the increase of which constitutes general 

 loss or gain. 



The material welfare of the race depends : First, on the pro- 

 duction ; and second, on the proper distribution of wealth. 



Is mankind satiated with wealth ? 



No ; man is insatiable for wealth. Therefore, as land is the 

 raw material of wealth, and as labor is the inexorable condition of 

 its creation, scarcity of employment must be due to some impedi- 

 ment to the free exertion of labor on land. Geographically, land is 

 abundant ; legally, there is perpetual famine of it, and this famine 

 ever increases in intensity as we approach great centres of population. 

 This famine is due to the inconsistent action of Society. 



Society having implicated itself, through its imperative demand 

 that no man shall either beg or steal, it should give to all an equal 

 opportunity to obey its mandate to produce. In this opportunity it 

 must insist that no one shall occupy a position inferior to another. 

 To demand that a horse shall compete in a race, then hitch him 

 securely to the starting post and punish him because he does put 

 forth his speed, would be unreasonable and cruel. To demand that 

 men shall not beg or steal, but work, and then permit others to bar 

 them from their only opportunity, is equally unreasonable, equally 

 cruel, but far more dangerous. You can keep from a horse's heels ; 

 you cannot so easily escape from an intelligent being made desperate 

 from a sense of injustice. Dynamite bombs reach farther than a 

 horse's hoofs. 



But is society now actually perpetrating this unreasonable, cruel 

 and dangerous thing ? 



By its authority land is not reserved for the equal use of all. 

 Some are favored^ others are necessarily deprived. If society recog- 

 nizes the right of an industrious man to remain in civilization within 

 reach of its benefits, if it insists that he shall not beg or steal for a 

 living, it is also in duty bound to give that man an opportunity to 



