earned in any degree how to use to the best advantage the
pittance earned, there would be less need of these chapters; yet as I
read the assurances of our political economists, that a wage of four
dollars per week is sufficient, if intelligently used, to supply all the
actual necessities of the worker, the question pushes itself between the
lines: "Why should they be forced to know only necessities; and is this
statement made of any save those too ignorant to define their wants and
needs, too helpless to dare any protestation, even if more knowledge had
come?"

The professional political economist of the old school, the school to
which all but a handful belong, takes refuge in the census returns as
the one reply to any arraignment of the present. Blind as a bat to any
figures save his own, he answers all complaint with the formula: "In
1860 the property of this country, equally divided, would have given
every man, woman, and child $514 each. In 1870 the share would have been
$624; in 1880, $814. In 1886 returns are not in, but $900 and more would
be the division per capita. What madness to talk of suffering when this
flood of wealth pours through the land. Admitting that the lowest class
suffer, it is chiefly crime, drunkenness, etc., that bring suffering.
The majority are perfectly comfortable."

Having read this statement in many letters and heard it in interviews as
well, it seems plain that the conviction embodied in both has fastened
itself upon that portion of the public whose thinking is done for them,
and who range themselves by choice with that order who would not be
convinced "even though one rose from the dead." "The majority are
perfectly comfortable." Let us see how comfortable.

I turn first to the pair, a mother and daughter, a portion of whose
experience found place in the chapter on "More Methods of Prosperous
Firms." Here, as in so many cases, there had been better days, and when
these suddenly ended a period of bewildered helplessness, in which the
widow felt that respectability like hers must know no compromise, and
that any step that would involve her "being talked about" was a step
toward destruction. She must live on a decent street, in a house where
she need not be ashamed to have the relations come, and she did till
brought face to face with the fact that there were no more dollars to
spend upon respectability, and that her quarters must hereafter conform
to her earnings. She had been a dwelle