ill go and view this and will calmly set down
according to the schedules, how many have died of hunger and cold.

And both these things are very bad.

All cry out upon the instability of our social organization, about the
exceptional situation, about revolutionary tendencies. Where lies the
root of all this? To what do the revolutionists point? To poverty, to
inequality in the distribution of wealth. To what do the conservatives
point? To the decline in moral principle. If the opinion of the
revolutionists is correct, what must be done? Poverty and the inequality
of wealth must be lessened. How is this to be effected? The rich must
share with the poor. If the opinion of the conservatives is correct,
that the whole evil arises from the decline in moral principle, what can
be more immoral and vicious than the consciously indifferent survey of
popular sufferings, with the sole object of cataloguing them? What must
be done? To the census we must add the work of affectionate intercourse
of the idle and cultivated rich, with the oppressed and unenlightened
poor.

Science will do its work, let us perform ours also. Let us do this. In
the first place, let all of us who are occupied with the census,
superintendents and census-takers, make it perfectly clear to ourselves
what we are to investigate and why. It is the people, and the object is
that they may be happy. Whatever may be one's view of life, every one
will agree that there is nothing more important than human life, and that
there is no more weighty task than to remove the obstacles to the
development of this life, and to assist it.

This idea, that the relations of men to poverty are at the foundation of
all popular suffering, is expressed in the Gospels with striking
harshness, but at the same time, with decision and clearness for all.

"He who has clothed the naked, fed the hungry, visited the prisoner, that
man has clothed Me, fed Me, visited Me," that is, has done the deed for
that which is the most important thing in the world.

However a man may look upon things, every one knows that this is more
important than all else on earth.

And this must not be forgotten, and we must not permit any other
consideration to veil from us the most weighty fact of our existence. Let
us inscribe, and reckon, but let us not forget that if we encounter a man
who is hungry and without clothes, it is of more moment to succor him
than to make all possible investi