382 
DUTTON. 
all classes have not fared alike, for some have gained a 
much greater advantage than others, and some have gained 
little and perhaps nothing. It is doubtful whether the ag¬ 
ricultural class have materially improved their condition in 
the last ten years, though, on the whole, I am inclined to 
think they have, but not in nearly the same ratio as other 
classes. This is a very serious drawback to the general im¬ 
provement of the people, and it is most deeply to be regretted. 
No great community can fully prosper or enjoy the full meas¬ 
ure of its prosperity unless it be fairly distributed. Even 
though two-thirds be greatly advanced, a terrible tension 
will be set up if there be some drag or friction which keeps 
the other third behind, and the obstruction is sure to react 
on the whole system. 
Under such circumstances history has taught us by many 
examples that among the depressed or obstructed class the 
.pressure of the discontent manifests itself. People seek for 
the real cause honestly enough, but seldom apprehend it. 
It is at such times that money fallacies spring up like mush¬ 
rooms. All of them are the progeny of the most ancient of 
all money fallacies, that money and wealth are one and the 
same thing. And this quickly leads to another fallacy in¬ 
comparably more dangerous, more destructive, more suicidal. 
Seeing that vast wealth has accumulated in the hands of 
comparatively few men, while the rest are grinding away 
their lives in the hardest toil, with a trifling reward, a sense 
of injustice is aroused. This monstrous inequality cannot be 
right. Such a distribution of the good things of this world 
must be founded in the rottenness of the system and not in 
right and justice. True, rich men may have broken no stat¬ 
ute and, with here and there an exception of some gigantic rob¬ 
ber, they may have gained their wealth either by inheritance 
or by any other method which the law sanctions and upholds. 
So much the worse, then, for statute law. Let us see if we 
cannot change it and make it conform a little more nearly 
to something like justice. Nor is this complaint confined to 
the languishing classes of the community. It is taken up 
