we have still the root of the matter
in us, for when any one utters out of profound conviction his faith,
there are always multitudes ready to respond. What really prevents an
organic unity in Ireland is the economic individualism of our lives. The
science of economics deals with the efforts of men to mine out of nature
the food, minerals, and materials necessary to preserve life. There is
nothing more certain than that where men work alone or only with the
aid of their families they are little higher than the animals. When they
tend to unite civilization begins. Then arise the towers, the temples,
the cities, the achievements of the architect and engineer. The earth is
tapped of its arcane energies, the very air yields to us its mysterious
powers. We control the etheric waves and send the message of our deeds
across the ocean. Yet in the midst of these vast external manifestations
of power, multitudes of men and women live in squalor, isolated in their
labors, living in the slums of cities; and this, if we examine it, comes
about because the organization of human energies into a harmonious unity
is not complete. There is really no lack of food, clothing, building
material, land. Nature has provided bountifully for more myriads than we
are likely to see peopling the earth. But people compete with each other
and undersell each other, and those who labor are mulcted of their
due, and instead of turning to the earth--the inexhaustible mother--and
working unitedly for the common weal, they continue that fierce
competition and stultify each other's efforts and reduce each other to
wretchedness. Humanity is a house divided against itself. Those who feel
this to be true must gather round any movement which gives a hope for
the future, which indicates a policy by which the organic unity of
society in Ireland might be attained, and our people work harmoniously
to make beauty and health prevail in our civilization. What each
gives up to society in the making of a civilization he gets back a
thousandfold. Now, the co-operative movement alone of all movements in
Ireland has aspired to make an economic solidarity in Ireland. Whatever
the aims of other movements may be--and many of them have high ideals
and are necessary for the spiritual and intellectual development of our
people--there is none of them which has for aim the unity of economic
life. They all leave untouched this problem--how are we to organize
society so that people wi