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Article THE GENERAL ASSURANCE ADVOCATE. ← Page 4 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The General Assurance Advocate.
tiling whicli is rather than is to be , they are as helpless for their own good as infants . They must be not only able to make but they must have wealth , either in possession or assured to them at a certain ancl settled period ; something beyond the domain of uncertainty , something which mere chance cannot affect , before they can peacefully and morally work out
their own salvation , or even set about it in real earnest . How is that to be attained ? The answer seems so plain and easy , appears to he so full ancl fair in every man ' s path , that the wonder is that it is necessary to point it out . But so it ever is : men look far abroad for beauties which are close at hand : wander wide for remedies which they have only to stoop and pick up . How has all our present wealth been
created ? What has produced the vast capital against which mere labour struggles , like an infant striving with a giant ? By COMBINATION 1 Men have given themselves up , body and soul , to Competition , as though that was the only principle at the foundation of society . They have cast themselves headlong into the bubbling , foaming , roaring vortex . They have well nigh wrecked the good ship Civilization in the
whirlpool , and there they are , instead of sailing smoothly and peacefully over fair safe waters , struggling for bare existence . The many are poor , it is true , but they are many . Their mites would
be small we grant , but they would be millions ; and from their myriadmolehiils they might raise a mountain of wealth and power , the equal of which the world has never seen . This does not , it is true , apply to the utterly destitute and pauperized , but every artizan in work , every labourer having employment , might add something , and their united contributions , well managed ancl constantly accumulating , would give
them a power for good to which they have ever been strangers . We sincerely believe that all political changes are secondary , both in importance and power , to social ones ; and that the man who has secured an annuity for himself at a given age , and feels sure that he will then be independent either of labour or charity ; the man who has secured a certain provision for his family at his death ; the man who has obtained
a stake in the real property , and an interest in the prosperity of the country , will have a higher and juster sense of independence , will acquire more real influence , will have a greater solicitude for the preservation of order , will acquire an immunity from anxiety and despondence , greater than the mere possession of political power could ever give him . The machinery for all this is already in existence . Combinative
institutions in the shape of Assurance Companies and Societies , founded upon the surest bases which science and knowledge can supply , have been created by the upper and middle classes , and are as open to the worker with his shilling a week , as to the capitalist with his thousands
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The General Assurance Advocate.
tiling whicli is rather than is to be , they are as helpless for their own good as infants . They must be not only able to make but they must have wealth , either in possession or assured to them at a certain ancl settled period ; something beyond the domain of uncertainty , something which mere chance cannot affect , before they can peacefully and morally work out
their own salvation , or even set about it in real earnest . How is that to be attained ? The answer seems so plain and easy , appears to he so full ancl fair in every man ' s path , that the wonder is that it is necessary to point it out . But so it ever is : men look far abroad for beauties which are close at hand : wander wide for remedies which they have only to stoop and pick up . How has all our present wealth been
created ? What has produced the vast capital against which mere labour struggles , like an infant striving with a giant ? By COMBINATION 1 Men have given themselves up , body and soul , to Competition , as though that was the only principle at the foundation of society . They have cast themselves headlong into the bubbling , foaming , roaring vortex . They have well nigh wrecked the good ship Civilization in the
whirlpool , and there they are , instead of sailing smoothly and peacefully over fair safe waters , struggling for bare existence . The many are poor , it is true , but they are many . Their mites would
be small we grant , but they would be millions ; and from their myriadmolehiils they might raise a mountain of wealth and power , the equal of which the world has never seen . This does not , it is true , apply to the utterly destitute and pauperized , but every artizan in work , every labourer having employment , might add something , and their united contributions , well managed ancl constantly accumulating , would give
them a power for good to which they have ever been strangers . We sincerely believe that all political changes are secondary , both in importance and power , to social ones ; and that the man who has secured an annuity for himself at a given age , and feels sure that he will then be independent either of labour or charity ; the man who has secured a certain provision for his family at his death ; the man who has obtained
a stake in the real property , and an interest in the prosperity of the country , will have a higher and juster sense of independence , will acquire more real influence , will have a greater solicitude for the preservation of order , will acquire an immunity from anxiety and despondence , greater than the mere possession of political power could ever give him . The machinery for all this is already in existence . Combinative
institutions in the shape of Assurance Companies and Societies , founded upon the surest bases which science and knowledge can supply , have been created by the upper and middle classes , and are as open to the worker with his shilling a week , as to the capitalist with his thousands