Our Economic Life

The struggle raging in the world today is an economic struggle, and the nations defend their economies — men and women alike — with a fierceness akin to rabid frenzy. We do not know, then, why woman among us remains apart from what goes on around her, and why one half of the nation stands alone in this struggle while the other half looks on as a spectator, though it is able to render great aid to that half which battles alone in a crisis that breaks backs and chokes off breath.

I say this looking at the material side of this question, which has a moral side that must not be overlooked.

For the man alone to have access to useful knowledge, and to keep it to himself, is a sweeping injustice to the child.

And here my pen pauses, that I may contemplate the thousands upon thousands of the sons of my homeland scattered over every corner of the earth, running after the loaf.

And the loaf is here, in the heart of this country.

The wealth is here, and there is no one to stretch out his hands and take it. The emigrant objects that the country is poor and cannot sustain its people! But there is no poverty save in our hearts and in our souls. Poor souls refuse the struggle; rich souls struggle on, until they live a life — or die!

And freedom, O people of the homeland, is that every human being obtain what suffices him, without loading his burdens upon others.