large body of good citizens, probably about equally divided between the accumulating and non-accumulating classes.  Whatever the individual practices and tendencies of the respective members, whenever after discussion the collective opinion is expressed on any social topic the vote is invariably substantially unanimous for that policy which those present believe will make for the general good.  It is not true that the rich desire to oppress the poor.  It is not true that there is any real conflict of interest between classes.  It is true that there is a general desire for the general welfare.  And it is also true that the general welfare will be surest and soonest attained by cooperation, and not conflict between classes, under the direction of those proved to be strongest and wisest.

I have said, and I am sure you must agree, that man economically differs from other animals mainly in his greater ability to evade the operation of Nature’s own laws and to make use of the material resources and forces of Nature to assist him in so doing.  And he does it mainly by collective action which is displayed most effectively and beneficently in those great economic organizations which we hate and stigmatize as “trusts” and which every one of us longs to get into as our best assurance of economic stability.

The problem is how to so regulate these economic regulators of Nature, that each shall get from their beneficent operation, not that which is his ethical due, for that we can never determine, nor would it be for the general welfare that each should receive his due, but that which each can receive without injury to Society.

It is certain that each will get less as the ages go by unless by our human ingenuity we can make production keep pace with population.  At present, production greatly varies in different parts of the world, and the condition in each country is indicated by the amount of leisure possible to the average man.  As population increases, leisure must decrease.  If we work in a crowded community but eight hours per day, some will die among the weaker who would have lived if all had worked nine hours.  The best index of the economic condition of any country is the amount of leisure which can be enjoyed by the average man without noticeable increase of mortality among the least efficient.  The mortality tables have not yet been studied in their relations to this subject, but in time they will be.  In Australia, mostly unsettled, the eight hour day is easy.  If enforced in China the mortality would be awful.  But then China has great but untouched natural resources to be developed by machinery devised elsewhere, and whose development will decrease mortality, while at the same time, at least for a long period, permitting more leisure.  These conditions tend to equalize themselves throughout the world and in time the contest between humanitarian instincts and economic pressure will reach a world-wide equilibrium through the operation of natural law.  What will happen then I do not know.  Neither can any of us know.