o, No! In this Republic, such things could never
happen! Besides, how preposterous! Don't you know, that the general
prosperity of the country was never greater than now! Why the wealth of
the nation is growing at a marvelous rate! Never before, were fortunes
made so easily! The way is open for every industrious man; no matter how
poor he may be at the start. If people come to want in the midst of such
golden opportunities, they have only themselves to blame.

"By way of an answer to these optimistic assertions, let us apply the
figures collected by Prof. A. G. Warner, published in his 'American
Charities.' In this book he has tabulated the results of fifteen
investigations, both in this country and abroad, into the actual causes
of poverty. These investigations embrace over one hundred thousand
individual cases, found in the cities of Baltimore, New York, Boston,
Cincinnati, London, England, and seventy-six cities in Germany. In the
causes of poverty stated, eleven per cent are due to intemperance, ten
and three-tenths per cent to other kinds of misconduct; while
seventy-four and four-tenths per cent are due to misfortune, such as
poorly-paid work, lack of work, sickness, etc. Here, we have actual
proof that seventy-five thousand in the ranks of this vast army of
poverty-stricken people, were reduced to such straits, by causes which
they could not control. How dreadful the significance of these terrible
figures! What a blot they become, on the fair page of progress achieved
by the nineteenth century! What a warning to the people of the
twentieth! What an indictment against existing, social, and industrial
conditions! What argument could be more convincing, or demand more
imperatively, the immediate adoption of co-operative methods, which
offer absolute insurance against the recurrence of such calamities?

"As relating to the insurance question, and by the way of a contrast
between competitive and co-operative methods, let us consider the
following statement.

"We learn from statistics, that for the family of a skilled workman of
the better class--a family of five persons--the average annual cost of
living is $420. This includes food, shelter, raiment, fuel, laundry,
light, water, medical attendance, medicine, education and recreation.

"Under the competitive system, to earn this sum required, on the part of
the adults and such of the children as were able to work, the continuous
toil of three hundred days, twelve ho