The times., 1899-04-03

no God but capitalism, and fnauciering is
his prophet Therefore, initiate our stocks
another hundred or two per cent. Tap a
few more arteries OF those poor devils, TO
matter where, who will merely have to
sweat and groan little more to produce
the interest
Leaving all this sanctifed paras.tism
out of the present account | mean by cap
italism the underlying idea that it is a
higher right and a holier duty for a pros
porous man to get rich and for rich man
TO get richer than ii is to divert some of
his talent into finding out how his business
may make his fellow laborers securer and
happier and broader men and women.
Capitalism is the conception of life
which permits a man who controls business
to feel satisfied with himself and with the
traditions of the business when he is piling
up profits. even if the fellow laborers
whom he calls employees are standing still
or going backward in their receipts from
the business. ~
Capitalism is the spirit by which m n
justify themselves in taking all the ad-
vantage of help or competitors, or custo-
mers or suppliers that law and business
custom allow. without ever feeling an OBJ
legation to ask whether law and business
custom have gradually created for ce tain
factors in business an artificial advantage
which chivalrous man would hate TO en-
ploy.
AT the same time, capitalism is the
spirit which demoralizes everybody at the
other end of the industrial SCALE and turns
the joy of work into theory and practice
of shirk ist5
"Seventh-This capitalism-this blind
god of our present civiliZation-turns can
italists from the chief servants into the
terrors of civilization. | cannot imagine a
world in which / could be content to live
II the element of competition were thrown
out but given in the leaders of competi-
tion domineering aim TO pile up profits,
and withal a power of law and custom to
make business run to profits, with a min
imum OF regard to persons, and you have a
condition in which ruthlessness is policy
and disregard of humanity is virtue.
In campaign on such lines no single
competitor has any choice about the prac-
tice of fine sentiments. Each must defend
himself against the real or imagined ad-
vantage taken of all the rest and reduce
the human estimate in the whole affair to
the very lowest terms
Eighth--Under the dominance of
capitalism the scOurge of trusts has be-
come the most serious menace which men
OF affairs have faced since the Huns de-
sended upon Western civilization. | am
not now indulging in abstract theorizing,
nor am ! retailing the cant Of political and
professional opposition to trusts. l am
simply putting into words the symptoms
that ! discover in the minds of business
men themselves, as well as among theor-
lists.
The trust is like fire-a good servant.
but bad master. In society criss- crossed
with trusts that know no law except that
which / have called the spirit of capitalism
nobody is free, least OF all the trusts them
selves. The Sugar Trust no more relishes
dctation from a steel trust or a railroad
combine than ii does from a carpenters
union.
There is, OF course, permanent sense
in which freedom is an impossible idea.
All industry is necessarily dependent upon
and interlaced with all other industry.
The sting of the present situation is that
these natural dependencies have been COM
plieated and artificialized by invention of
arbitrary dependencies, all dicated, not by
the harmonies of industry, but by the de-
mon Of capitalism.
"Ninth-What shall we do about it?
This is another story and one that is to be
begun after all that have said. If were
psssimist l should vex my soul with these
things in quiet and silence, with all the
resignation that ! could master. l believe,
however, in the progressive triumph of
the better in this world and, consequently,
wisdom seems to me to consist in opening
our eyes to the facts just as they are, and
( in adjusting ourselves to them like men.
''if | did not believe men capable of
finding ways to remedy present evils and
of applying them so that there would be
progressive adjustment 10 changing condl-
tions / should abandon sociology and try
to befool myself with esoterlc Buddhism.
"Manful men have been solving hard
human problems all through history, how
ever, and human novelty is not exhausted
yet No man in the world is wise enough
to map out a programme for any great dis
tance ahead. II we can find out a few
things to do in our generation next gem
eration's men will doubles be able to find
out the few more things they can do, and
the march OF progress will never come TO a
complete halt.
From the social philosophist point OF
view the most rational thing in any sit
uation is frankly and fearlessly to face
the facts of that situation. II is puerile
to try to parry the facts by taunting the
man who voices them with pessimism.'
The first thing to be done is frankly
! and fearlessly TO acknowledge that we are
( in a big mixed. troublesome social tangle
| and that we want to get out of it. Men
1 are never so well off as when they have
problems. except when they have taken the
next steps-of acknowledging the prob
/ lens and of tackling them like men.
Il believe | am speaking not mercy fol
| the theorists. but for the strongest am
| bravest and most clear headed and prac'
! teal of our American business men wheI
/ ! candidly formulate the situation and pub
lish the fact that judicially minded mel
are doing their best TO adjust their condi
tion TO its demands"