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WHY DO MEN STARVE?

shall prevent too rapid an increase of their numbers, and, by thus checking the supply of labourers, they will, as capital augments, increase the rate of wages paid to the labourer. The steady object of each working man should be to impress on his fellow-worker the importance of this subject. Let each point out to his neighbour not only the frightful struggle in which a poor man must engage who brings up a large family, but also that the result is to place in the labour market more claimants for a share of the fund which has hitherto been found insufficient to keep the working classes from death by starvation.

The object of this pamphlet will be amply attained if it serve as the means of inducing some of the working classes to examine for themselves the teachings of Political Economy. All that is at present needed is that labouring men and women should be accustomed, both publicly and at home, to the consideration and discussion of the views and principles first openly propounded by Mr. Malthus, and since elaborated by Mr. Mill and other writers. The mere investigation of the subject will of itself serve to bring to the notice of the masses many facts hitherto entirely ignored by them. All must acknowledge the terrible ills resulting from poverty, and all therefore are bound to use their faculties to discover if possible its cause and cure. It is more than folly for the working man to permit himself to be turned away from the subject by the cry that the Political Economists have no sympathy with the poor. If the allegation were true, which it is not, it would only afford an additional reason why this important science should find students amongst those who most need aid from its teachings.




London: Austin & Co., Printers and Publishers, 17, Johnson's Court Fleet Street, E.C.