th of the burdened ones, it will nevertheless come
with unerring certainty, and not unfrequently through the very excesses
of those who have hardened their hearts against the cry of justice.

Such is the interdependence of the units in national life that a wrong
committed against one injures the whole people; and when that wrong is
inflicted upon a large number of the units, and is of long duration, its
fatal effects become very apparent. You cannot crush a finger or a toe
without causing your whole body to suffer in consequence. You may
disregard the hurt, you may ignore the wound until mortification sets
in, but the result means death or the loss of one of the most valuable
members of your body. It is precisely so with national life; for such is
the divine economy, such the inevitable law of progress, that only by
conscious recognition of human brotherhood, and of the rights and
obligations which it implies, can any nation or civilization move onward
and upward without those great periods of depression and decline which
too frequently end in total eclipse.

Shortsighted, indeed, is that policy which places gold above manhood.
When lust for gain stifles the voice of conscience, and the cry of the
disinherited is heard throughout a land of marvellous wealth, a nation
is confronted by a deadly peril which calls for a supreme effort on the
part of every man and woman of conviction.

It is useless to close our eyes to the fact that the rising tide of
bitterness is turning into hate, and that hate darkens the eye of
judgment, obscures reason, and deadens conscience. A few years ago, when
I wrote a brief paper on the menace of the unemployed, I was assured
that the deplorable condition then present was temporary, that in a few
months at most it would be a thing of the past, and that therefore it
was not a problem calling for the intervention of the government; but
to-day there are far more unemployed than there were then. The problem
is assuming gigantic proportions, and the instincts of self-preservation
second the demand of humanity in calling for immediate measures for the
relief and the maintenance of self-respecting manhood. Whenever a
workingman becomes a tramp or sinks into the social cellar, as tens of
thousands are now doing, the nation suffers a real injury. Present
conditions call for prompt action. The unemployed must receive that
succor which will in no conventional sense be charity, but which will
elevate ins