The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-08-08
OUR MATERIALlSM SPIRITUAL

r. is the fashion in this country. especially among
people who are better educated than the average, to speak
~slishtingly Of America as a "materialistic nation
BY this, Of course, it is meant that We think 100 much
about making money and not enough about living liner
freer and more satisfying lives. Our scale OF values is
material rather than spiritual. The cash ledger Is. II not
our Bible, at least our prayer book.
All Of this sounds quite discouraging. Yet there Is q
side to it that is often overlooked. One OF the approaches
to q fine spiritual civilization may lie straight through
the region Of Grass naterialities.
Take this little story as an illustration.
Not long ago q California farmer loaded a refrigerator
ship with q cargo Of green vegetables and ripe fruits
from his farm and sailed for the Orient, determined to
zee II lands like Chinese, the Philippines and the Malay
Islands could not provide q good market Tor such
produce. The home market was glutted. Prices were
low. An industrious farmer with a fertile piece OF
ground could not always count on finishing the year with
more money than he had when he began It.
So this enterprising farmer sailed to the Orient. He
visited q dozen ports-Shanghai. Manila, Sourabaya.
Bankok, Saigon, Batavia; and he found a ready and eager
market for his wares. He sold all he had. at . nice
profit, and returned home to tell his fellow farmers that
the Orient. properly cultivated. could make them all
prosperous.
Now that man was strictly ! materialist. He wanted
only one thing-a chance to get more dollars. Yet the
thing he did may eventually open the way to a broader,
finer life for many. many men and women.
This is a simple example of what American material
Ism means. There are more conspicuous examples when
one considers John D. Rockefeller, or the late Andrew
Carnegie. Both were Midas-like strivers for money.
They built up vast businesses seemingly merely to amass
wealth. to pile up the dollars by the millions. However.
when they had their millions, they turned partly aside
from the game of dollar chasing and began to transmute
the accumulation Of riches into beneficences. The
Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations arose. Vast ap-
preparations were made to causes having to do with
education and health. The material aspirations of the
money grubbers became as conspicuously spiritual. They
have had many imitators among rich men since then
and the world has been made better and human senti-
ment is loftier for what they did.
Despite all Of our talk about the crassness Of the quest
for money, the fact remains that it is a lot easier to get
spiritual values into your life II you have money than
II you have not. Nothing shuts q man out from a free
and satisfying existence like poverty.
Consider it, now; on q farm where there is a constant
struggle to make both ends meet. how are men. women
and children going to lead lives that are anything but
sordid, uninspiring fights for more money? How can
they enjoy the fruits Of . rich civilization-music, litera-
ture, leisure, quiet study, and reflection? They simply
can't. The job Of making a living takes all their time.
But suppose . "materialistc" exporter finds them .
new market and enables them to make more money?
They are freed from the grip Of poverty. They have
the time and the money to 60 after the things that are
really worth having. They can think about something
besides their bread and butter.
The "materianst" has been given too bad a name.
There are times when he is by way Of being cur
salvation.