164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



from duties, endowed with claims. This is the inevitable result of com- 

 bining democratic political theories with humanitarian social theories. 

 Chapter III. " That it is not wicked to be eich ; nay, even 



THAT IT IS NOT WICKED TO BE RICHER THAN ONE'S NEIGHBOR." 



" We all agree that he is a good member of society who works his 

 way up from poverty to wealth, but, as soon as he has worked his 

 way up, we begin to regard him with suspicion as a dangerous mem- 

 ber of society. A newspaper starts the silly fallacy that * the rich are 

 rich because the poor are industrious, , and it is copied from one end 

 of the country to the other, as if it were a brilliant apothegm. * Capi- 

 tal ' is denounced by writers and speakers who have never taken the 

 trouble to find out what capital is. . . . The great gains of a great 

 capitalist in a modern state must be put under the head of wages of 

 superintendence. Any one who believes that any great enterprise of 

 an industrial character can be started without labor must have little 

 experience of life. . . . Especially in a new country, where many tasks 

 are waiting, where resources are strained to the utmost all the time, 

 the judgment, courage, and perseverance required to organize new 

 enterprises and carry them to success are sometimes heroic. Persons 

 who possess the necessary qualifications obtain great reward. They 

 ought to do so ; . . . the ability to organize and conduct industrial, 

 commercial, or financial enterprises is rare ; the great captains of 

 industry are as rare as great generals. . . . The aggregation of large 

 fortunes is not at all a thing to be regretted. On the contrary, it is a 

 necessary condition of many forms of social advance. If we should 

 set a limit to the accumulation of wealth, we should say to our most 

 valuable producers, ' We do not want you to do us the services which 

 you best understand how to perform, beyond a certain point.' It 

 would be like killing off our generals in w T ar. . . . Human society 

 lives at a constant strain forward and upward, and those who have 

 most interest that this strain be successfully kept up, that the social 

 organization be perfected, and that capital be increased, are those at 

 the bottom. . . . Those who to-day enjoy the most complete emanci- 

 pation from the hardships of human life, and the greatest command 

 over the conditions of existence, simply show us the best that man 

 has yet been able to do. Can we all reach that standard by wishing 

 for it ? Can we all vote it to each other ? If we pull down those who 

 are most fortunate and successful, shall we not by that very act defeat 

 our own object ? Those who are trying to reason out any issue from 

 this tangle of false notions of society and of history are only involv- 

 ing themselves in hopeless absurdities and contradictions. If any 

 man is not in the first rank who might get there, let him put forth 

 new energy and take his place. If any man is not in the front rank, 

 although he has done his best, how can he be advanced at all ? Cer- 

 tainly in no way save by pushing down any one else who is forced to 

 contribute to his advancement." 



