Our Industrial and Financial Situation [pp. 517-529]

528 OUR INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL SITUATION. [July,
they were cheaply produced, they would be cheaply procured
in return for such labor. In place of scarcity and starvation
would come that sufficiency which makes the sleep of the laboring man sweet. Let all be prudent, live within, rather than
beyond, their means, and lay up something "in store against
the time to come."
One way of escape from their difficulties, not to be overlooked, is for the laboring class to become capitalists to some
extent, even if at first in a very small way, by their savings.
Is it said this is impossible, for they must consume all they
can earn in subsisting themselves and their fam~ilies? The decisive answer to this is that, I. Many do save, and acquire
homes and other property. 2. The saving of what is a thousand times worse than squandered on alcoholic drinks, to say
nothing of tobacco, would make a tremendous addition to the
national wealth, which would be shared by the laborers who
practice such abstinence. A leading economist, Professor
Cairnes, estimatesthat ~90,000,000, or $500,ooo,ooo of our currency, are spent annually by the laboring classes of Great
Britain in such drinks, worse than nothing in themselves, and
inducing incalculable loss and waste in other respects. Suppose all this loss and waste were saved and invested, then the
laboring poor of that country would become property holders
and small capitalists. The same is true, on a no less gigantic
scale, of the laboring classes of this country. Universal abstinence from hurtful indulgence would of itself nearly solve the
drawn battle between labor and capital, which is one of the
portents of the time.
Let all invest their earnings safely and surely; for sure, even
if small returns, rather than risk them in wild adventure. Let
all, whatever their sphere or occupation, whether intellectual
or material, do their best, and put to the most effective use
the faculties and opportunities which God has given them.
Let those who are born to wealth, train themselves, not for a
life of idleness, but for the noblest use of their means; in bringing a revenue not merely of comfort and improvement to
themselves, but of blessing to man and glory to God. Let all
who have done their best, be thankful and content with such
things as they have, and be above that frailty which comes of an
abuse of our political liberty and equality, which is all-pervading