Excerpt: THERE is no idea that seems so much misunderstood as this idea of "Money." On the one hand we find many people engaged in a mad chase after "money for moneys sake," and on the other hand, many others who are decrying money as the root of all evil, and severely criticizing the tendency of the age to seek money actively. Both of these classes of people are wrong-they are occupying the opposite sides of the road of reason, whereas truth is found here, as always, "in the middle of the road." The man who seeks money at a thing of value in itself-the man who worships money as a very god- such a man is a fool, for he is mistaking the symbol for the reality. And, likewise, the man who decries the pursuit and desire for money as a foul, evil thing-he who would make of money a devil-this man is likewise a fool. The wise man is he who sees money as a symbol of something else behind, and who is not deluded by mistaking the shadow for the substance, either for good or evil. The wise man makes neither a god nor a devil of money-he sees it as a symbol of almost everything that man may obtain from the outside world, and he respects it as such. He sees, while it is true that avarice and greed are detestable and hurtful qualities of mind, still the lack of the proper desire for, and striving after money, makes of man a creature devoid of all that makes life worth the living. When the sane man desires money, he really desires the many things that money will purchase. Money is the symbol of nearly everything that is necessary for man's wellbeing and happiness. With it he opens the door to all sorts of opportunities, and without it he can accomplish practically nothing, Money is the tool with which man may carve many beautiful things, and without the aid of which he is helpless. Money is but the concentrated essence of things desired, created and established by society in its present stage of development. There have been times in which there was no money-there may be times coming in which the race will have passed beyond the need of money as the symbol of exchange and possession-but, be this as it may, the fact remains that now, right here in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, there in nothing that is so necessary for man's well-being and content as this much-abused money. Remember this, first, last and all the tune, that when I say, "man needs money," I mean that he needs the many things that money will purchase for him. And for one to decry the desire for money is for him to decry the desire for nearly all the good and desirable things of life. As a recent writer has said: "Unless a man acquires money, then shall he not eat; nor be clothed; nor have shelter; nor books; nor music; nor anything else that makes life worth living for one who thinks and feels." I hold that in the present stage of evolution of man, money is to mankind what air, water, sunshine and mother-earth are to the plant-it is nourishment. And, as in the plant, the desire for nourishment is a natural and worthy instinct, so is the desire for this financial nourishment in man a perfectly natural and worthy instinct-it is the working of the same natural law. And, mark you this, that as the desire of the plant is a natural indication of the existence of the nourishment-need, so is this desire in the breast of man a certain indication of the possibility of its satisfaction and attainment, if natural laws are but followed. Nature is no mocker-it causes no desire to spring up in a living thing, unless it also endows that living thing with the faculties and powers to attain that which it craves. A realization of this great natural law will do many of my readers much good just now.