Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/104

100 than I; it is to them and not to me that you should attribute the evils of which you speak.

To that I reply: We must not measure wealth by figures, but by the number of peasants who surround the rich man; for, in the country, those who have each five thousand roubles are richer than the millionaire of Moscow.

If you readers of the city could see the miseries that are inflicted on the poor by the rich in the country, you would take my arguments into consideration. Else you could never believe me.

106. The poor man, the laborer, studies day and night, during all his life, for better ways to prepare the earth for wheat, or for duly caring for his implements and his cattle. He brings up his sons from infancy to the same labors. His efforts are crowned with success. And on the other side the rich man ponders day and night how to buy from the poor man at half price and to sell to him again at double rates, and he accustoms his sons from infancy to these speculations.

The first and last of God's laws concern labor, and the principal one is that of labor for bread; but educated and intelligent people evade this labor, and live like pomestchiks, with their hands in their pockets. They have imposed all labor upon the poor and weak, but these, in retaliation, do not sleep or lose their presence of mind; they steal, kill, burn, and defraud each other.