ith two pounds eight shillings!

It is true that some of the members of the committee would have been
very glad if they had been able to put the means of earning a living
within the reach of every man who was willing to work; but they simply
did not know what to do, or how to do it. They were not ignorant of
the reality of the evil they were supposed to be 'dealing
with'--appalling evidences of it faced them on every side, and as,
after all, these committee men were human beings and not devils, they
would have been glad to mitigate it if they could have done so without
hurting themselves: but the truth was that they did not know what to do!

These are the 'practical' men; the monopolists of intelligence, the
wise individuals who control the affairs of the world: it is in
accordance with the ideas of such men as these that the conditions of
human life are regulated.

This is the position:

It is admitted that never before in the history of mankind was it
possible to produce the necessaries of life in such abundance as at
present.

The management of the affairs of the world--the business of arranging
the conditions under which we live--is at present in the hands of
Practical, Level-headed, Sensible Business-men.

The result of their management is, that the majority of the people find
it a hard struggle to live. Large numbers exist in perpetual poverty:
a great many more periodically starve: many actually die of want:
hundreds destroy themselves rather than continue to live and suffer.

When the Practical, Level-headed, Sensible Business-men are asked why
they do not remedy this state of things, they reply that they do not
know what to do! or, that it is impossible to remedy it!

And yet it is admitted that it is now possible to produce the
necessaries of life, in greater abundance than ever before!

With lavish kindness, the Supreme Being had provided all things
necessary for the existence and happiness of his creatures. To suggest
that it is not so is a blasphemous lie: it is to suggest that the
Supreme Being is not good or even just. On every side there is an
overflowing superfluity of the materials requisite for the production
of all the necessaries of life: from these materials everything we need
may be produced in abundance--by Work. Here was an army of people
lacking the things that may be made by work, standing idle. Willing to
work; clamouring to be allowed to work, and the Practical,
Level-headed,