262 The Ideal State 



possessed of the altruistic spirit to such a degree that 

 they will vie with each other in their endeavours to 

 secure the universal happiness of the race and of the 

 generations to follow hereafter. It is evident that 

 this is a necessary consequence of the spiritual evolu- 

 tion we have demonstrated to be in process in human 

 society. 



Mr. Hobart proceeds to expatiate on the difficulties 

 experienced by the working-man in his endeavour to 

 keep home and family up to the minimum of existence 

 on a pound a week or less. He points out that philan- 

 thropists have divided and subdivided the workers into 

 sections according to the different degrees of poverty, 

 and this is his comment thereupon : " But they are 

 merely cold, lifeless figures. They do not convey to 

 the reader the slightest indication of the mental tor- 

 ture endured by loving parents, when they see their 

 children gradually but surely becoming weak and 

 emaciated for want of wholesome food and home com- 

 forts. . . . We hear of neurasthenia and business 

 breakdown among the business men of to-day, as 

 being due to the rush and scramble of commercialism 

 and the anxieties of city life. But not a word is said 

 about the nerve strain and tension of the industrial 

 population, to keep pace with the speeding-up methods 

 in vogue everywhere. . . . Look at this position. 

 With a minimum wage of thirty shillings weekly — con- 

 sidered too high by our comfortable legislators — and 

 any number of hours per week from fifty upwards, a 

 man is expected to turn out healthy and responsible 

 citizens of a future generation. His weekly outlay is : 

 rent, 7s. ; travelling expenses, 2S. ; clubs and in- 

 surances, 3s. (for a man must be thrifty and careful, 

 no matter what his income, or he will be dubbed a 

 ' waster ') ; his church or mission, 6d. ; . . . occa- 

 sional gratuities to charitable institutions, averaging 



