part of some kind in the life of the
nation? Is it not time that the nation should place _first of all_ on
its programme the creation of capable and healthy citizens? Can a nation
be really effective, really strong, really secure, without this? I do
not seem to doubt a large _willingness_ among our people to-day for
mutual service and helpfulness--I believe a vast number of our young
women of the well-to-do type are at this moment deeply regretting their
inability to do anything except knit superfluous mufflers--but was there
ever in the history of the world such huge, such wide-flooding
_incompetence_? The willingness of the well-to-do classes may be judged
from their readiness to come forward with subscriptions, their
incompetence from the fact that they have _nothing else to offer_: that
is, that all they can offer is to set _some one else_ (by means of their
money) to do useful work in their place. They cannot themselves nurse
wounded soldiers, or make boots for them, or build huts or weave
blankets; they cannot help in housing or building schemes, or in schemes
for the reclaiming and cultivation of waste lands; they cannot grow corn
or bake bread or cook simple meals for the assistance of the indigent or
the aged or the feeble, because they understand none of these things;
but they can _pay some one else_ to do them--that is, they can divert
some of the money, which they have already taken from the workers, to
setting the latter toiling again! But what use would that be on the day
when our monetary system broke down--as it nearly did at the
commencement of this war? What use would it be on some critical day when
a hostile invasion called every competent man and woman to do the work
of defence absolutely necessary at the moment? What use would it be in
the hour when complete commercial dislocation caused downright famine?
Who would look at offers of money then? Could the nation Carry this vast
mass of incompetents and idlers on its back then; and can it reasonably
be expected to do so now?

A terrible and serious crisis, as I have already said, awaits us--even
when the War is over--a crisis probably worse than that which we are
passing through now. We have to remember the debts that are being piled
up. If the nations are staggering along now under the enormous load of
idlers and parasites living on interest, how will it be then? Unless we
can reorganize our Western societies on a real foundation of actual
life, of p