490 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



York. The conditions which some would have us believe due to com- 

 mercialism are but manifestations of man's fundamental belief that 

 might makes right. 



In this twentieth century, when the peoples of this world are no 

 longer isolated communities, when bonds of steel bind all together, 

 when through causes determined in long past geological ages some 

 nations are agricultural, others manufacturing and others still confined 

 to mining, so that all are mutually dependent, modes of thought and 

 expression, proper enough in medieval times, are no longer wise, are 

 truly anachronisms. One exhibits no evidence of knowledge or of good 

 judgment who asserts that a professional life is of necessity purer, 

 truer or loftier in aim than a life devoted to commercial pursuits. It 

 is not long, in human history, since the only honorable profession was 

 that of arms — thence to theology, law and medicine was a far reach 

 and that to commerce still further. Then each caste, like Sophomores 

 in college, avenged its injuries on that below. But that day has 

 passed, never to return, and thoughtful men everywhere recognize that, 

 in all callings alike, success depends on intellectual power of much 

 the same type, and that the old-time distinction between professional 

 and non-professional men exists in name rather than in fact. 



Ours is an age of commerce, an age of devotion to material things ; 

 but that devotion has none of grossness nor is it in any sense incon- 

 sistent with a just devotion to higher things. Thus far, the argument 

 has been largely negative, an effort to show that this age is not worse, 

 but possibly better than its predecessors. The positive argument 

 remains, to show that, because of commercialism, this age on the whole 

 is vastly better than its predecessors. 



The twentieth century opens with the establishment of a Permanent 

 Court of International Arbitration, for which the world is indebted 

 to the great commercial nations. The Hague conference was called 

 by the Emperor of Russia, a nation not usually regarded as commercial, 

 but that conference was due primarily to the course of Great Britain 

 and the United States, which had tested arbitration and, by submitting 

 to awards, not always just, had set the example for other nations. Peace 

 between nations depends no longer merely upon armies and navies. 

 War is no longer a matter affecting only the internal affairs of the 

 nations directly involved; it concerns all, for commercial bonds unite 

 all. Divine right of kingly authority is becoming an abstraction; the 

 king bows to his subject and restrains his greed for conquest when 

 bankers refuse to finance his loans. The exigencies of commerce have 

 aroused a public opinion which curbs rapacity and demands arbitration 

 of international disputes. War between Great Britain and the United 

 States is well-nigh impossible — it would lead to financial ruin in both 

 countries. The terrible conflict between Slav and Teuton, for which 



