he has been guilty of, the rich ill-doer finds, on leaving church, that his neighbors cap to him; does not this tacit approval go far to neutralize the effect of all he has heard? The truth is, that with the great majority of men, the visible expression of social opinion is far the most efficient of incentives and restraints. Let any one who wishes to estimate the strength of this control propose to himself to walk through the streets in the dress of a dustman, or hawk vegetables from door to door. Let him feel, as he probably will, that he had rather do something morally wrong than commit such a breach of usage, and suffer the resulting derision. And he will then better estimate how powerful a curb to men is the open disapproval of their fellows; and how, conversely, the outward applause of their fellows is a stimulus surpassing all others in intensity. Fully realizing which facts, he will see that the immoralities of trade are in great part traceable to an immoral public opinion.

18 Let none infer, from what has been said, that the payment of respect to wealth rightly acquired and rightly used, is deprecated. In its original meaning, and in due degree, the feeling which prompts such respect is good. Primarily, wealth is the sign of mental power; and this is always respectable. To have honestly-acquired property implies intelligence, energy, selfcontrol; and these are worthy of the homage that is indirectly paid to them by admiring their results. Moreover, the good administration and increase of inherited property also requires its virtues; and therefore demands its share of approbation. And besides being applauded for their display of faculty, men who gain and increase wealth are to be applauded as public benefactors. For he who as manufacturer or merchant, has, without injustice to others, realized a fortune, is thereby proved to have discharged his functions better than those who have been less successful. By greater skill, better judgment, or more economy than his competitors, he has afforded the public greater advantages. His extra profits are but a share of the extra produce obtained by the same expenditure: the other share going to the consumers. And similarly, the landowner who, by judicious outlay, has increased the value (that is, the

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productiveness) of his estate, has thereby added to the stock of national capital. By all means, then, let the right acquisition and proper use of wealth have their due share of admiration.

But that which we condemn as the chief cause of commercial dishonesty is the indiscriminate admiration of wealth-an admiration that has little or no reference to the character of the possessor. When, as very generally happens, the external signs are reverenced, where they signify no internal worthiness -nay, even where they cover internal unworthiness; then does the feeling become vicious. It is this idolatry which worships the symbol apart from the thing symbolized, that is the root of all these evils we have been exposing. So long as men pay homage to those social benefactors who have grown rich honestly, they give a wholesome stimulus to industry; but when they accord a share of their homage to those social malefactors who have grown rich dishonestly, then do they foster corruptionthen do they become accomplices in all these frauds of commerce. As for remedy, it manifestly follows that there is none save a purified public opinion. When that abhorrence which society now shows to direct theft is shown to theft of all degrees of indirectness, then will these mercantile vices disappear. When not only the trader who adulterates or gives short measure, but also the merchant who overtrades, the bank-director who countenances an exaggerated report, and the railway-director who repudiates his guarantee, come to be regarded as of the same genus as the pickpocket, and are treated with like disdain; then will the morals of trade become what they should be. We have little hope, however, that any such higher tone of public opinion will shortly be reached. The present condition of things appears to be, in great measure, a necessary accompaniment of our present phase of progress. Throughout the civilized world, especially in England, and above all in America, social activity is almost wholly expended in material development. To subjugate Nature, and bring the powers of production and distribution to their highest perfection is the task of our age; and probably of many future ages. And as in times when national defense and conquest were the chief desiderata, mili

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tary achievement was honored above all other things; so now, when the chief desideratum is industrial growth, honor is most conspicuously given to that which generally indicates the aiding of industrial growth. The English nation at present displays what we may call the commercial diathesis; and the undue admiration for wealth appears to be its concomitant -a relation still more conspicuous in the worship of "the almighty dollar" by the Americans. And while the commercial diathesis, with its accompanying standard of distinction, continues, we fear the evils we have been delineating can be but partially cured. It seems hopeless to expect that men will distinguish between that wealth which represents personal superiority and benefits done to society, from that which does not. The symbols, the externals, have all the world through swayed the masses; and must long continue to do so. Even the cultivated, who are on their guard against the bias of associated ideas, and try to separate the real from the seeming, cannot escape the influence of current opinion. We must, therefore, content ourselves with looking for a slow amelioration.

Something, however, may even now be done by vigorous protest against adoration of mere success. And it is importhat that it should be done, considering how this vicious sentiment is being fostered. When we have one of our leading moralists preaching, with increasing vehemence, the doctrine of sanctification by force-when we are told that while a selfishness troubled with qualms of conscience is contemptible, a selfishness intense enough to trample down everything in the unscrupulous pursuit of its ends, is worthy of all admiration -when we find that if it be sufficiently great, power, no matter of what kind or how directed, is held up for our reverence; we may fear lest the prevalent applause of mere success, together with the commercial vices which it stimulates, should be increased rather than diminished. Not at all by this heroworship grown into brute-worship, is society to be made better; but by exactly the opposite-by a stern criticism of the means through which success has been achieved; and by according honor to the higher and less selfish modes of activity.

23 And happily the signs of this more moral public opinion are already showing themselves. It is becoming a tacitly-received doctrine that the rich should not, as in by-gone times, spend their lives in personal gratification; but should devote them to the general welfare. Year by year is the improvement of the people occupying a larger share of the attention of the upper classes. Year by year are they voluntarily devoting more and more energy to furthering the material and mental progress of the masses. And those among them who do not join in the discharge of these high functions are beginning to be looked upon with more or less contempt by their own order. This latest and most hopeful fact in human history-this new and better chivalry-promises to evolve a higher standard of honor; and so to ameliorate many evils: among others those which we have detailed. When wealth obtained by illegitimate means inevitably brings nothing but disgrace-when to wealth rightly acquired is accorded only its due share of homage, while the greatest homage is given to those who consecrate their energies and their means to the noblest ends; then may we be sure that along with other accompanying benefits, the morals of trade will be greatly purified.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND PRACTICE IN WRITING

1. What is present day opinion of the morals of trade in comparison with that expressed in this article which was published in 1864? Do your observations justify this current opinion? 2. What does Spencer allege as the causes of the low morals of trade? Which of these are the most powerful now? 3. "The real question that confronts us when we seek to attain an understanding of the present attitude of the American people is not whether success is here taken to mean material prosperity, but whether material prosperity is not received by us as the final test of success and as the sole touchstone of a finished career." Give your opinion on this matter. 4. Contrast the ideals of trade as described by Spencer with those described by Wilson in When a Man Finds Himself. 5. Define business integrity. How is it related to veracity? 6. From your experience in your home community, find instances of success based upon integrity. Find also instances of failure due to lack of integrity. 7. Many people, especially at the

present time, argue as follows: "He is rich, therefore he must be dishonest." What fallacy is involved in this inference? 8. To what extent should an employee carry out the will of an employer who is swindling the public?

THE ROOTS OF HONOR 1

JOHN RUSKIN

[John Ruskin (1819-1900), art critic and social reformer, was one of the great quickening and invigorating forces of the nineteenth century. The selection here given shows him as social reformer and is from his book entitled Unto this Last, in regard to which Ruskin said in his preface, "I believe them to be the best—that is to say, the truest, rightest-worded, and most serviceable things I have ever written." In this book he advocated the application of Christian principles to the organization of labor, and condemned the accepted political economy of the day as self-seeking and unsound. His idea of political economy was that it was not an abstract science, but a "system of conduct founded on the sciences, and impossible, except under certain conditions of moral culture." He accordingly devoted his main energies in the latter part of his life to arousing the upper classes to a sense of their duties toward the poor, and helping the lower classes to realize their opportunities. To this end he wrote, gave his money and labored with his hands. While there have been wide differences of opinion about his theories of art and his views of political economy and social reform, his entire singleness of aim and his preeminence as a writer of English prose are beyond dispute.]

Among the delusions which at different periods have possessed themselves of the minds of large masses of the human race, perhaps the most curious-certainly the least creditable-is the modern soi-disant science of political economy, based on the idea that an advantageous code of social action may be determined irrespectively of the influence of social affection.

Of course, as in the instances of alchemy, astrology, witchcraft, and other such popular creeds, political economy has a plausible idea at the root of it. "The social affections," says the economist, "are accidental and disturbing elements in human nature; but avarice and the desire of progress are constant 1 Reprinted from Unto this Last.