The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-10-20
MATERIALISM IN
AM EklCAN LIFE,

AdA AANS1uASu vi lit koluuOW OH Amer
lean Life i'll recent number of the
Outlook. They seem to think it in order
to remind him that he made good money
here by occurring and is not III Il position
to point out to us our mercenary spirit, if
1t exists. Moreover, they are quite GER
tain that it exists here no more than any
where else. In witness they cite the
great gifts of rich men to charity and
education, our vast expenditure for pen
slons, our ready response to the call of
distress from any land. or course the
personal filings at DR.. Watson are with
out justification, and resentment at what
ne said, whether his Judgment be we'll or
Ill founded, Is untimely and discreditable
TO American common sense and mature
seif-contidence. 1t is only young persons
and young civilizations that are 50 thin
skinned and SO ready to answer Il criti-
clsll1 with first Il denial and then an cpl
~thet. Whatever money DR.. Watson OBJ
tanned here he obtained because he had
something we, wanted; nc gave us hon
est value, and Our people were quite as
Delighted to spend their money as he
could possibly have been to receive it.
Inc ad captandum argument has no ap-
pllcatiOn. Neither has anybody lcgiti-
mate reason to feel affronted by the sub
stance. Of his article. 1t is certainly gen
erous In praislng those features of Amer
lean life of which we ourselves are most
proud-our patriotism, our intelligence,
our lnventiveness, our unfailing righteous
sense in national crisis. His criticisms
are given in the kindlest spirit, and only
echo what many thoughtful Americans
see and regret in their own life.
DR.. Watson thinks our character is in
juriously affected by the prevalence OF
the secular spirit and the tendency to
give an undue place to the value and in
huence of wealth. 1t is easy to say that
the Englishman and Frenchman worship
gold as fervently as Americans. In.
deed, we cannot agree with DR.. Watson
that we arc so much worse than the av~
erage foreigner in keeping an eye on
money and talking about it. An Ameri-
can in Europe feels as if everybody in
range of him were looking for shilling
or franc. But VIC think Dr. Watson.
after ALL Is right in saying that mo
where is it taken so absolutely for grant
cd that the object Of a mans work is
to obtain money! In Europe the typi-
cal man is poorer than here; he needs
grabbing for the pennies more hungrily
than do our most humble workmen But
there men with a competence less often
struggle for more. Money is less valued
for itself. but is sought as a means of
living. Here a remarkable number of
men find money the object of ambition.
and when they have won it find them.
selves unable to live except by making
more. That type, though of course not
entirely, is comparatively unknown else
where.
1t is perfectly true that our work is
done too much for the pay and too little
for the works sake. That is perhaps a
tendency in all modern life, but it is prob
| ably exaggerated here simply because
America is more radically modern than
the rest of the world. How comparative
ly infrequent here is the old craftsman's
spirit of pride in his work! Perhaps
machinery and the factory system and
the leyeling process of union wage scales
are to blame. But the fact remains that
an alarming proportion of our labor is
half-heartedly performed or dishonesty
skimped. In Europe with all it's needy
and mercenary workmen, it is easier to
from mere pride or perhaps from the
habit of doing work well. Nobody who
has to deal with young men entering
business or profession can fail to no.
tice the large proportion Of them who
are working less because they like this
business or have longing for giving
the service due their fellows from that
profession than because it seems to them
the most convenient way to get rich.
III advance, or they get discouraged and
think the world does not appreciate them
or else it would give them the reward
without cXacting the service. Our easy
prosperity, our quickl de fortunes, the
lack Of discipline and consequently Of
patience in our youth, make this almost
inevitable. There doubtless are compen-
sations in our modern life, but the con-
sentative order Of the old times certain
ly made faithful service more necessary
to comfortable existence and wealth less
the object of every mans struggle, SIM
ply because it was SO difficult to obtain.
All the millions given to hospitals and
colleges will not save a nation from ma
terialism if its people are prone to meas
ure things by the material standard. In
deed, many religious teachers have ar
gued that the new humanitarianism, far
from proving absence of materialsm, was
giving a material impulse to Christianity
itself. They have said that the church
was being made too much the purveyor
of physical comfort instead of spiritual
strength. A people may spend millions
on churches and schools. but if their con-
ception of good in life is merely general
physical well-being and a good time for
everybody, with four hours work and
be said to have advanced beyond mate
rialism. No people in the world have so
high an average standard of physical
| comfort as the Americans. 1t is some
thing to rejoice in and be proud of, but
nevertheless the blessing has it's danger,
| and danger that no thoughtful observ-
er will be too confident we have not fall
en- into. ''Three acres and COW" was
happy promise to struggling millions, but
| if the millions, or their leaders and teach
ers, think that the acres and the COW
| for every man are the goal of civiliza-
they f are wth 70 ana tha
socialistic ideal, is peculiarly likely to
worship the materialistic gods of ease
and comfort, forgetting the higher things
which in other times men sought, if for
nothing else, in simple refuge from the
hard conditions of their lives.-New York
Tribune.
Harper's, Twenty-Five Gents.
| McClure's influence is already felt in
| Il. 4 - -