We cannot let people suffer, for that would
be cruel; and we cannot relieve their need without pauperizing them."
"I see," he answered. "It is a terrible quandary."
"I wish," said Mrs. Makely, "that you would tell us just how you manage
with the poor in Altruria."
"We have none," he replied.
"But the comparatively poor--you have some people who are richer than
others?"
"No. We should regard that as the worst incivism."
"What is incivism?"
I interpreted, "Bad citizenship."
"Well, then, if you will excuse me, Mr. Homos," she said, "I think that is
simply impossible. There _must_ be rich and there _must_ be poor. There
always have been, and there always will be. That woman said it as well as
anybody. Didn't Christ Himself say, 'The poor ye have always with you'?"
VII
The Altrurian looked at Mrs. Makely with an amazement visibly heightened
by the air of complacency she put on after delivering this poser: "Do you
really think Christ meant that you _ought_ always to have the poor with
you?" he asked.
"Why, of course!" she answered, triumphantly. "How else are the sympathies
of the rich to be cultivated? The poverty of some and the wealth of
others, isn't that what forms the great tie of human brotherhood? If we
were all comfortable, or all shared alike, there could not be anything
like charity, and Paul said, 'The greatest of these is charity.
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