I don’t know it all. I am simply a student of this great question, and I
am serving as best I can and I know my eyes are ready for the light, and
I thank that man, no matter what he be, who can add to the flame of the
torch I bear. If there is a single thing that you can think of that
cannot be produced in abundance, name it. Bread, clothing,
fuel—everything is here.
Nature’s storehouse is full to the surface of the earth. All of the raw
materials are deposited here in abundance. We have the most marvelous
machinery the world has ever known. Man has long since become master of
the natural forces and made them work for him. Now he has but to touch a
button and the wheels begin to spin and the machinery to whirr, and
wealth is produced on every hand in increasing abundance.
Why should any man, woman or child suffer for food, clothing or shelter?
Why? The question cannot be answered. Don’t tell me that some men are
too lazy to work. Suppose they are too lazy to work, what do you think
of a social system that produces men too lazy to work? If a man is too
lazy to work don’t treat him with contempt. Don’t look down upon him
with scorn as if you were a superior being. If there is a man who is too
lazy to work there is something the matter with him. He wasn’t born
right or he was perverted in this system. You could not, if you tried,
keep a normal man inactive, and if you did he would go stark mad. Go to
any penitentiary and you will find the men there begging for the
privilege of doing work.
I know by close study of the question exactly how men become idle. I
don’t repel them when I meet them. I have never yet seen the tramp I was
not able to receive with open arms. He is a little less fortunate than I
am. He is made the same as I am made. He is a child of the same Father.
Had I been born in his environment, had I been subjected to the same
things to which he was I would have been where he is.