nounced his right to a legacy of about a million dollars left him by his father. "I refuse to accept the money," the young man declared, "because it is not mine. A system which starves thousands, while hundreds are stuffed, condemns itself. A system which leaves a sick woman helpless and offers its services to a healthy man condemns itself. It is such a system that offers me a million dollars." Other, equally conscientious, young men and young women, instead of refusing to handle wealth bequeathed to them, or accruing to them in the form of rent, interest, or profits from industry, are maintaining a simple manner of life and spending their surplus money for social or philanthropic purposes. Others are returning the greater part of their profits to the workers on some profit-sharing plan. Others are investing their surplus in the expansion of industry, while keeping the ownership of the wealth in their name. It is a gravely puzzling question, which is the best way, the most socially desirable way, of disposing of the surplus wealth of the nation. It is clear, however, that its use for luxurious and extravagant living is not its best possible use. Surplus wealth should be used, for the most part, in ways that are socially efficient and just. The ideal of Americ: must be, not unlimited enjoyments for those who are fortunate or clever enough to command them, but a widely diffused welfare. Our existing industrial system could easily produce enough to provide plenty of food and clothing and the other necessities of life for everybody. If it does not, it is partly because too much of its energy is consumed in producing superfluities for the well-to-do, partly because production is often purposely kept below its maximum by the owners of industry, in order to keep prices high, and partly because the workers often fail to give their wholehearted energy to the work. The War showed that with most of the able-bodied young men drafted from industry more goods than ever could be produced. And although that feverish energy could not be permanently maintained, there is no doubt that we can all live in comfort if we utilize to the full the resources and inventions and human abilities now at our disposal. It is possible that some people are incorrigibly lazy; but a proper system of vocational guidance and training would certainly discover for almost all men and women some work to which they would be willing to give a reasonable amount of energy. Some people, of course, are stupid; but appropriate education can make all of these useful producers except the extremely sub-normal; and these the State must look after-if for no other reason, to prevent their having children. Some people will be improvident, and fail to provide for illness and old age; a proper system of health and old-age insurance will remove this gambler's risk and protect people against misfortune. Differences in productive ability will remain, but not such as to deny to anyone a decent livelihood. There is no need of anything more than sporadic poverty and want, overwork, undernourishment, or indecent housing. It is our fault, our national crime, that these evils exist on a large scale. The fact is, we have not yet realized our national unity. We are, in reality, one big family; the misfortune of one class is the misfortune of the nation. As Professor Leacock well says, "Every child of the nation has the right to be clothed and fed and trained irrespective of its parents' lot. . . . The ancient grudging selfishness that would not feed other peo ples' children must be cast out. In the war time the wealthy bachelor and the spinster of advancing years took it for granted that other peoples' children should fight for them. The obligation must apply both ways. No society is properly organized until every child that is born into it shall have an opportunity in life." The lot of the children is most important, for a man's whole life is commonly made or marred by his opportunities during a few years of childhood. But the lot of the adult wage-earner should also be a matter of national concern. And we should be content with nothing short of a reasonable amount of comfort at least food enough, enough warm clothing, and a decent home, for every citizen of America. SUGGESTED READINGS E. T. Devine, Misery and its Causes. Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House. Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives. W. I. King, The Wealth and Income of the People of the United States. Scott Nearing, Wages in the United States; Poverty and Riches. C. B. Spahr, The Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States. P. L. Haworth, America in Ferment, Chapter IX. W. Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, Chapters VII. H. R. Seager, Introduction to Economics, Chapter IV, secs. 43-45. E. J. Urwick, Luxury and Waste of Life. Durant Drake, Problems of Conduct, pp. 236-242. H. G. Wells, The Future in America, Chapter VI. T. W. Higginson, in Atlantic Monthly, vol. 107, p. 301. CHAPTER XIV THE SQUARE DEAL IT IS perhaps hopeless to expect any great proportion of the well-to-do to give the bulk of their surplus wealth to raise the level of life for the less prosperous. Neither patriotic nor religious appeals can counteract, for most people, the lure of the personal enjoyments, of one sort or other, made possible by money. "The money has been fairly won," they will say; "it is ours; let these others earn their own money; the race is open to all on equal terms." Nor is it to be expected that any socialistic or communistic plan of equalizing wealth will commend itself to our people. We are confirmed individualists in our attitude toward the problem of distribution. Is there then no hope for a more diffused prosperity, for a completer access for all to the good things of life? Yes, the hope lies in our American ideal of the Square Deal. Individualism in the acquisition of wealth can be retained if the race is really kept open to all on equal terms, if every citizen is given a really fair chance to acquire a competence. The threat to our American system lies in the growing sense in the hearts of many people that they have not really had a fair chance. They had to go to work young, and could not afford an adequate education; they have not been able to live under such conditions as would safeguard their health; they have no capital with which to draw themselves up out of the status of the day-laborer, and their wages as laborers are low. On the other hand, healthful living conditions, inherited means, acquaintance with the right people, pull, leisure for proper training of the faculties, together with a measure of acquisitive ability, give their possessors a tremendous start. The race is not to all on equal terms, it is to the rich, the clever, the fortunate, those "on the inside," or those to whom some combination of lucky circumstances and mental qualities gives the necessary start. We may waive discussion of the relative importance of these various factors. Men who have made fortunes usually attribute their success to their superior ability; while if they lose out, they attribute their failure to bad luck or to the unscrupulousness or more advantageous situation of their rivals. All these factors, and many others, enter in, so that it is difficult in any given case to know in what degree success results from superior ability; and still more obviously impossible to generalize with respect to the class of earners as a whole. But even where it is clearly ability that wins the prize, it is apt to be an acquisitive ability rather than a productive ability. It is business strategy quite as much as productive efficiency that brings returns. The inventor who perfects some new process, the manager who evolves an efficient organization, the artisan who develops uncommon skill at his craft, are far less likely to grow rich than the owner of a plant who knows how to use the brains and industry of others for the creation of profits for himself. In fact, skill at making money seems to be in considerable degree a specialized skill, with little relation to public service or intrinsic desert. But far more embittering than the realization of |