28. WEALTH AND HUMAN WELFARE 187

other field (the economic) we see social movements taking on a religious guise, making their appeal to the religious feelings of mankind, and seeking the support of religious sanctions.

Whatever be the real relation of wealth to human welfare, there can be no doubt that men generally regard the former as the real source of the latter, and the latter as wholly dependent upon the former. Society, as now existing, is organized and operates upon the principle that the possession of wealth is the highest good, and is the means to every attainable end that is worth an effort. If this principle were destroyed, society as now organized would fall to pieces, and the "titanic industrial energies," which specially characterize it, would subside into relative quiescence. Manufacture and commerce are not organized and carried on for the purpose of supplying the actual needs of human beings. If that were their object they must be regarded as colossal failures, since the needs of the great masses of people, no matter how hard they may labour, are not by any means fully met. Moreover, there is not the smallest likelihood that, under the present social system, they ever will be fully met. Business is, on the contrary, organized and carried on for the sake of profits. This is the motive which has led to the development of those gigantic business organizations which are among the conspicuous features of this era of commercialism. Without that motive they never would have been brought into existence. The ardent pursuit of profits is the outward expression of the profound and implicit faith of the modern man in the power of wealth to procure welfare and happiness. This faith is obviously a religious faith; and it is a live faith, if judged by its works, and upon the principle that faith without works is dead.

Here, then, we have the real religious faith of the modern man; and this faith in the power of wealth to bless mankind with all blessings which the heart of man can crave, must of necessity be the core of the ultimate religious system which man shall evolve for himself. Business is but man's service of his god; and business zeal is but the worshipper's effort to procure the largest possible share of the favours which his god has to dispense, and to gain the highest possible place in his service. Although it may not be usually so regarded, yet we think it to be obvious upon reflection, that the fervid devotion of the modern man to his business is really a religious fervour; and this characteristic of the man of this day is an important factor in bringing about that great combination of religion and business which the voice of prophecy foretells.

All men of the day are not ready to avow that business is really their religion, or to acknowledge that money is their god. Yet the lives and actions of some who are prominent in the affairs of the day plainly declare their unbounded faith in the power of

A UNIFYING PRINCIPLE wealth, and their firm conviction that the struggle for its blessings and favours is the only enterprise worthy of supreme human effort. It is the real, if not always the formulated, belief of the modern man, that the elevation of humanity is to be effected through the development of the resources of nature, and the mastery of the forces of nature, and through the application of these resources and forces to the production of wealth.

Such is the potency of this article of faith, and so profoundly has it entered into the heart of man, that it has inspired the most consuming zeal, and called forth the most tremendous energies, that have been thus far displayed in the entire history of the human race.

Here, then, at last has been discovered a unifying principle, capable of drawing together into a common enterprise "all them that dwell upon the earth," and of inspiring in them the most sustained and strenuous religious zeal.

All this is plain enough, and (except for the religious character of the struggle for wealth, which is generally overlooked) is the subject of frequent comment. But our concern is with the tendencies of the industrial activities of our day. To what will these new conditions, with the great social changes that accompany them, eventually lead?

In order to follow this inquiry properly, a little more detailed attention must be given to certain of the prominent characteristics of Industrialism, which we have briefly noted above.

THE UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

Attention is frequently and loudly called by a certain class of social reformers to the undeniable fact that, while the bulk of the wealth of mankind is growing at an unprecedented rate, the number of the owners of wealth is rapidly diminishing. It is stated without denial that one per cent. of the population of the United States,—the richest and most “progressive” country in the world,—owns more wealth than the other ninety-nine per cent. of the population. This condition is a fact of much importance, since it is one which, in a country that is democratic at least in form, is sure to lead eventually to radical social and political changes.

THE INCREASE OF WEALTH GOES TO THE NON-PRODUCERS

Attention is also called to the fact that all accretions of wealth are due to human labour, which is the only factor that adds anything to the value of what existed before. The quantity of raw material in the world being rigidly fixed, it follows that the only additional value which can be imparted to materials is that which human labour supplies.

It is therefore becoming more and more a question in the minds of the labouring classes, why they,