wastes of intemperance and ignorance,
of idleness and class wars, the losses of society are enormous. But
man's prodigality with his material treasures does but interpret his
wastefulness of the greater riches of mind and heart. Life's chief
destructions are in the city of man's soul. Many persons seem to be
trying to solve this problem: "Given a soul stored with great
treasure, and three score and ten years for happiness and usefulness,
how shall one kill the time and waste the treasure?" Man's pride over
his casket stored with gems must be modified by the reflection that
daily his pearls are cast before swine, that should have been woven
into coronets.

Man's evident failure to make the most out of his material life
suggests a study of the elements in each citizen that make him of
value to his age and community. What are the measurements of mankind,
and why is it that daily some add new treasures to the storehouse of
civilization, while others take from and waste the store already
accumulated? These are questions of vital import. Many and varied
estimates of man's value have been made. Statisticians reckon the
average man's value at $600 a year. Each worker in wood, iron or brass
stands for an engine or industrial plant worth $10,000, producing at 6
per cent. an income of $600. The death of the average workman,
therefore, is equivalent to the destruction of a $10,000 mill or
engine. The economic loss through the non-productivity of 20,000
drunkards is equal to one Chicago fire involving two hundred millions.
Of course, some men produce less and others more than $600 a year; and
some there are who have no industrial value--non-producers, according
to Adam Smith; paupers, according to John Stuart Mill; thieves,
according to Paul, who says, "Let him that stole steal no more, but
rather work." In this group let us include the tramps, who hold that
the world owes them a living; these are they who fail to realize that
society has given them support through infancy and childhood; has
given them language, literature, liberty. Wise men know that the
noblest and strongest have received from society a thousandfold more
than they can ever repay, though they vex all the days and nights with
ceaseless toil. In this number of non-sufficing persons are to be
included the paupers--paupers plebeian, supported in the poorhouse by
many citizens; paupers patrician, supported in palace by one citizen,
generally father or ancestor; the tw