Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 60.djvu/496

488 of the furnaces whose ruins have been described as picturesque additions to Pennsylvania's scenery. The sewing-machine caused untold misery, as did the power-loom, the shoe-machine and other inventions, which the world now regards as unmixed blessings.

Progress in manufactures, combined with increasing ease of communication and transportation, made the business world more compact and intensified competition. The struggle for existence led to frequent changes in method, at once destructive and constructive. In iron manufacture, small furnaces soon brought only loss to their owners; in trade, the small shopkeeper, who idled for half the day waiting for chance customers, found himself neglected. The story was alike for all. The owner of the petty furnace, like the keeper of the petty shop, was displaced by his more energetic rival, who recognized the coming change and so arranged that by smaller percentage profits on greater sales he might secure increased profit on his business capital. Men may groan in bitterness of spirit as they please, they may denounce the avarice of a manufacturer who sees fit to make the iron and to convert it into the finished product, all within one plant; or that of the merchant, who chooses to sell dry goods, shoes, groceries and hardware on a great scale under one roof; they may denounce, if they will, the man who, having gained the advantage over his less energetic neighbors, strives to prevent another from depriving him of it—the denouncing amounts to nothing. The condition is normal to the advance of the race, for, while bringing disaster to the few, it brings increasing comfort to the many. The energetic man, other things being equal, wins in the race for money, fame, usefulness; in this world every man receives practically full pay for the net average of his abilities. This is nature's law; no legislation avails for its repeal.

This is not the place to discuss the propriety of placing limitations upon combinations of manufacturing interests; the wisdom of permitting the accumulation of vast fortunes; the justice of permitting such fortunes to be inherited so as to support descendants in idleness or dissipation. Such questions are irrelevant in this connection, for we have merely to ascertain whether or not the commercial development of the last half-century has led to a lowering of the moral tone and to the injury of mankind.

Just here one may halt. The term 'commercialism,' like 'culture,' is so vague, so comprehensive as to be elusive. It certainly is serviceable. If a man fail to secure funds for some object dear to him, the failure is not due to any deficiency on his part or even to the nature of the project, but only to 'commercialism.' In such cases, the term is usually synonymous with common sense.

But in a broader way, the term refers to a supposed general deterioration of personal honor, due to the commercial life of our