The last hundred years will be memorable as an era of almost miraculous advance in all that concerns material progress. And yet we have to admit, as the Report of the Poor Law Commission shows, that so far as pauperism and destitution are concerned our attempts at cure and prevention have completely failed. Here again we find the same _fons et origo malorum_. Every step forward in methods of production, in new inventions and improved machinery, is a tangible material gain for some one. But in the case of the pauper, be he veteran, invalid, incompetent, or child, there is nothing that can be transformed into immediate profit. There is no _money_ in it. Therefore it has been impossible to rouse the public sympathy and interest. Fortunately many are now beginning to see that the prevention of neglect and waste in human life means wealth to the nation that cannot be estimated in sums of money. The problem of social reorganisation is one of the greatest complexity. Drink and slum dwellings doubtless aggravate the evil and make bad worse. The land and our system of industrial organisation are the regulating forces that drive our population into these hideous social conditions. But it is time we traced back these forces to their source and examined their origin. What is it that induces a great people to arrange their society on this uneconomic, wasteful, and life-destroying model? What common impulses inspire the class that is in authority and command to support and maintain such a system? Put on one side tyranny, rapacity, greed, and covetousness, which are vices that no one wants to defend. What is at the back of this thirst for huge profits and high dividends, this capture of the land, this amassing of great possessions, this passion for pleasure, this love of power and patronage, this respect for wealth, this subservience to riches? Lurking in the spring head, far away from the broad river, we shall find the poison that is polluting the waters--our devouring, indestructible, overpowering belief in money. Chapter II Money as a supreme concern--Intensity of belief in money--Definition of Contention--The impulses which act as the motive power of money-making--The limitation of human capacities--Money and happiness--Money as responsibility--The national wealth and welfare.