78 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 



we see human forms, members of the same great social 

 family, clad in silks and rags — dwelling in hovels and 



f palaces ! l^ow, this is all wrong ! There is no absolute 

 necessity for these social disfigurements. They are a disgrace, 

 to Christianity. Th ey show ^that our presentc omm erc ial 

 systena is n^t_a_wiselyj<)xdered_ one. Starveling shoots ! 

 the Social Tree is full of them. Are there not thousands 

 of hum'an beings who toil from earliest morn to latest 

 night, and never make any headway ? Do they not con- 

 tinue in the same fix for life, subservient to the interest of 

 a branch which is more developed than themselves ; and 

 this branch holds the same relation to some other branch 

 for which it has to work? And what is society but a tree, 

 an association of branches, where_all_C02opcrateJn build- 

 ingug_its_staictm'e and in^advan_dng_its_arts, its_sciences, 

 and civilization ? You cannot deny the analogy. Yes, 

 and there ar^ monopolizing branches which get too much 

 rsap, and require pruning. For this thing has its foundation~[ 

 [^ in Nature, and we must look to Nature for a remedy. Are J 



t there not men in every community with a superabundance 

 of life-energy, whose progress in wpalth and in the exten- 

 sion of their business relations has been rapid and unex- 

 ampled ? The^fiJs no end to their reckless and insatiable 

 I purs uit after weal th ! Combined together, they ex ercise a 

 feanul commercial power. It is these merchant princes 

 in combination who are our masters on the battle-ground 

 >^f commerce. They are the men who control the markets, 

 pvho grind down the faces of the poor, who exact at will 

 from the consumer ! How beautifully is all this illu^rated 

 by the branches of a tree ! How faithfully are the laws of 

 society there represented even in all their minutise. 



But this is not all ; for there is a social policy plainly 

 suggested by the leading branches of the tree, and the con- 

 dition of its branchlets and different varieties of shoots, 

 / which all who occupy an inferior and subordinate position 

 in society would do well to study, ffhere is clearly compe- 

 tition among the branches of a tree for sap and sunlight, 

 and in proportion as the leading branches get ahead, in the 

 same proportion is the development of their side-branches 



