He was much interested in your ideas over the solution of
the economic problem in the West -- a question that must have meant a good deal
of thought to many enlightened people -- and he is delighted to see in your
thoughts much that runs along the same general lines as the principles laid out
by the Movement. Of course conditions in the East differ; where the countries
are rarely industrial and mostly agricultural, we should have to apply
different laws from the West, and that is why the principles of the Movement
strike at the root which is common to them both. 'Abdu'l-Bahá has developed in
various of His talks, which you will find in different compilations, the
principles upon which the Bahá'í economic system would be based. A system that
prevents, among others, the gradual control of wealth in the hands of a few and
the resulting state of both extremes, wealth and poverty. (From a letter dated
28 October 1927 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer;
The Compilation of Compilations, vol. III, Economics, Agriculture, and Related
Subjects)
