no man is kept poor because opportunity has been taken away from him; because other people have monopolized the wealth, and have put a fence around it. you may be shut off from engaging in business in certain lines, but there are other channels open to you. probably it would be hard for you to get control of any of the great railroad systems; that field is pretty well monopolized. but the electric railway business is still in its infancy, and offers plenty of scope for enterprise; and it will be but a very few years until traffic and transportation through the air will become a great industry, and in all its branches will give employment to hundreds of thousands, and perhaps to millions, of people. why not turn[24] your attention to the development of aerial transportation, instead of competing with j. j. hill and others for a chance in the steam railway world?
it is quite true that if you are a workman in the employ of the steel trust you have very little chance of becoming the owner of the plant in which you work; but it is also true that if you will commence to act in a certain way, you can soon leave the employ of the steel trust; you can buy a farm of from ten to forty acres, and engage in business as a producer of foodstuffs. there is great opportunity at this time for men who will live upon small tracts of land and cultivate the same intensively; such men will certainly get rich. you may say that it is impossible for you to get the land, but i am going to prove to you that it is not impossible, and that you can certainly get a farm if you will go to work in a certain way.
at different periods the tide of opportunity sets in different directions, according[25] to the needs of the whole, and the particular stage of social evolution which has been reached. at present, in america, it is setting toward agriculture and the allied industries and professions. to-day, opportunity is open before the farmer in his line more than before the factory worker in his line. it is open before the business man who supplies the farmer more than before the one who supplies the factory worker; and before the professional man who waits upon the farmer more than before the one who serves the working class.
there is abundance of opportunity for the man who will go with the tide, instead of trying to swim against it.
so the factory workers, either as individuals or as a class, are not deprived of opportunity. the workers are not being “kept down” by their masters; they are not being “ground” by the trusts and combinations of capital. as a class, they are where they are because[26] they do not do things in a certain way. if the workers of america chose to do so, they could follow the example of their brothers in belgium and other countries, and establish great department stores and co-operative industries; they could elect men of their own class to office, and pass laws favoring the development of such co-operative industries; and in a few years they could take peaceable possession of the industrial field.
the working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in a certain way; the law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others. this they must learn; and they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do. the individual worker, however, is not held down by the ignorance or the mental slothfulness of his class; he can follow the tide of opportunity to riches, and this book will tell him how.
no one is kept in poverty by a shortness[27] in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for all. a palace as large as the capitol at washington might be built for every family on earth from the building material in the united states alone; and under intensive cultivation, this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to clothe each person in the world finer than solomon was arrayed in all his glory; together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously. the visible supply is practically inexhaustible; and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible.
everything you see on earth is made from one original substance, out of which all things proceed.
new forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving; but all are shapes assumed by one thing.
there is no limit to the supply of formless stuff, or original substance. the universe is made out of it; but it[28] was not all used in making the universe. the spaces in, through, and between the forms of the visible universe are permeated and filled with the original substance; with the formless stuff; with the raw material of all things. ten thousand times as much as has been made might still be made, and even then we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw material.
no man, therefore, is poor because nature is poor, or because there is not enough to go around.
nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short. original substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms. when the supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced; when the soil is exhausted so that foodstuffs and materials for clothing will no longer grow upon it, it will be renewed or more soil will be made. when all the gold and silver has been dug from the earth, if[29] man is still in such a stage of social development that he needs gold and silver, more will be produced from the formless. the formless stuff responds to the needs of man; it will not let him be without any good thing.
this is true of man collectively; the race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if individuals are poor, it is because they do not follow the certain way of doing things which makes the individual man rich.
the formless stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks. it is alive, and is always impelled toward more life.
it is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more; it is the nature of intelligence to enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to extend its boundaries and find fuller expression. the universe of forms has been made by formless living substance, throwing itself into form in order to express itself more fully.
the universe is a great living presence,[30] always moving inherently toward more life and fuller functioning.
nature is formed for the advancement of life; its impelling motive is the increase of life. for this cause, everything which can possibly minister to life is bountifully provided; there can be no lack unless god is to contradict himself and nullify his own works.
you are not kept poor by lack in the supply of riches; it is a fact which i shall demonstrate a little farther on that even the resources of the formless supply are at the command of the man or woman who will act and think in a certain way.
