ith a desperate sickness and faintness at the heart.
What hope was there for the wretched, for the world, if thoughtful men
and tender women were not moved by things like these! Then I bethought
myself that it must be because I had not spoken aright. No doubt I had
put the case badly. They were angry because they thought I was berating
them, when God knew I was merely thinking of the horror of the fact
without any attempt to assign the responsibility for it.

I restrained my passion, and tried to speak calmly and logically that I
might correct this impression. I told them that I had not meant to
accuse them, as if they, or the rich in general, were responsible for
the misery of the world. True indeed it was, that the superfluity which
they wasted would, otherwise bestowed, relieve much bitter suffering.
These costly viands, these rich wines, these gorgeous fabrics and
glistening jewels represented the ransom of many lives. They were
verily not without the guiltiness of those who waste in a land stricken
with famine. Nevertheless, all the waste of all the rich, were it
saved, would go but a little way to cure the poverty of the world.
There was so little to divide that even if the rich went share and
share with the poor, there would be but a common fare of crusts, albeit
made very sweet then by brotherly love.

The folly of men, not their hard-heartedness, was the great cause of
the world's poverty. It was not the crime of man, nor of any class of
men, that made the race so miserable, but a hideous, ghastly mistake, a
colossal world-darkening blunder. And then I showed them how four
fifths of the labor of men was utterly wasted by the mutual warfare,
the lack of organization and concert among the workers. Seeking to make
the matter very plain, I instanced the case of arid lands where the
soil yielded the means of life only by careful use of the watercourses
for irrigation. I showed how in such countries it was counted the most
important function of the government to see that the water was not
wasted by the selfishness or ignorance of individuals, since otherwise
there would be famine. To this end its use was strictly regulated and
systematized, and individuals of their mere caprice were not permitted
to dam it or divert it, or in any way to tamper with it.

The labor of men, I explained, was the fertilizing stream which alone
rendered earth habitable. It was but a scanty stream at best, and its
use required to be regul