Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/399

Rh increases, the points of contact with academic men are likely to increase.

A few typical quotations may be taken as indicating the internal mental movements of representative business men.

A very common conviction of employers is expressed clearly and bluntly in the words of an able and upright manufacturer, recently deceased. "The relation between capital and labor is one of the many questions in the comprehensive science of political economy, and as such is a purely business matter. Philanthropy has nothing to do with it, nor has religion or sentiment, any more than they have to do with astronomy or with the law of gravitation. . . . . The essays of the humanitarian and the sermons of the preacher, however soundly based on the moralities and the ought-to-be, generally only confuse and obscure the real issues. However it may be in some ideal heaven, it is the fact that in this world it is not from motives of generosity or philanthropy that the master hires labor, and the laborer seeks service. And the sooner the whole matter is taken out of the realm of sentimental philosophy and placed on the bed rock of simple, practical business common sense the better." He then proceeds to give an exposition of the determining factors in the settlement of the rate of wages; attacks all schemes of cooperation and profit-sharing as "moonshine;" asserts that strikes cannot raise the real wages of labor; that increase comes from improvements in machinery and business methods; that laborers can secure higher income only by becoming more useful; that the only function of the state is to prevent violence. "All that legislators and editors and preachers and philanthropists can do is to educate the people that they may be able finally . . . . to pass out of these turbulent obscuring mists of ignorant and selfish struggle into the clear light of universal law and justice."

In this concluding sentence the cultivated, generous, successful Christian business man opens a wider door than his opening sentences promised; and it is a pleasure to add that his life was better than his inherited economic creed.

In a speech at St. Louis before the assembled representatives