I propose to divide this book into several parts. I shall write, not as an economist (for that is the last thing I would want to claim to be), certainly not as any sort of philanthropist (because that, too, is rather a weariness of the flesh), but just as an ordinary person who sees a good deal of what is evil in the world, not in others only, but in himself, and who is conscious that to many people money and money’s-worth is the alpha and omega of life; as one aware that for those who have children to feed and clothe, and wives to maintain, either on low wages or by an interminable struggle in small businesses, life is one miserably mean, sordid grind against poverty, in a world in which men and women, boys and girls, are but pawns in the struggle of mankind to heap up riches. I write as one who knows that nothing divides friends and relations so easily as love of money; that nothing causes so much hatred and contempt, so much bitterness between families and friends, between good people as well as what are called bad people, as the loss of money. The poor, we must all realise, so far as material wealth is concerned, are always poor. Multitudes live in debt, through no fault of their own, from one year’s end to another till they die. The West-End money-lender is well known for his grasping demands of usurious interest, but the poor are also victims of the same kind of men and women of their own class, and in many poor districts big incomes are received from the business of money-lending. This condition of things comes about mainly because of low wages, times of sickness and periods of unemployment, and often, too, because people long for a fuller life than their ordinary means will allow--that is, they long for recreation and pleasure, good clothes and food, all beyond the reach of their scanty earnings. Even gambling and betting are often due to the fact that by these means men and women hope to secure more of the good things of life. Yet if I know these things, and understand these aspects of life, I am nevertheless convinced there is much more good-will than evil in the world. But evil is organised, evil is strong, and the good in many gets crushed beneath the heavy load of unnecessary care which accompanies them through life. My object in life is to strive by God’s help to beat down selfishness and greed and evil-doing in myself; and by every means in my power to seek to remove from other people the weights that hold them down--from the poor the burden of need, from the rich the burden of those riches which make the poverty of the poor. The first step towards this fuller life for the nation is to cast out fear and have faith in our fellow-men. We often deceive each other because we are afraid of the truth.