THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMMERCIAL DEPRESSION. 163 



slavement and absorption of rival communities analogous to 

 the assimilation of food, by an animal organism ; and, in fine, 

 through, a literal devouring of all the social organisms in her 

 environment^ which lasted until, like a great parent - cell, she 

 burst into the many smaller cells that constitute the nations of 

 modern Europe. 



Turning to " industrialism," as its distinctive features are be- 

 ginning to show themselves in our modern civilization, we find 

 tendencies almost directly opposite. To begin with, the effort to 

 sustain life by productive labor requires, for its success, that the 

 best energies of each individual should be concentrated on the 

 particular work his capabilities fit him for, and taxed as little as 

 possible by the requirements of society as a whole. Every man 

 must be left to develop himself to the utmost, as the total product 

 of the labor of all can only increase with the efficiency of each. 

 This necessity is soon rendered still more imperative by that 

 early, differentiation in industrial organization which localizes 

 the production of different forms of commodities, and leads to 

 barter ; for only in the absence of the capricious meddling of 

 authority can producers of one commodity measure the perma- 

 nent value of their work in relation to the products of others. 

 Furthermore, that a strong enough motive for the greatest indi- 

 vidual exertions may ever exist, the returns of labor must be 

 proportioned to energy expended ; and this they never can be 

 when the natural working of cause and effect is set aside by the 

 artificial action of government. The outcome of these facts is 

 the assertion of freedom ; the belief, exactly opposed to that of 

 "militancy," that the state exists for the benefit of the indi- 

 vidual, and the consequent tending toward popular govern- 

 ment. 



" Militancy," then, sacrifices the individual to state-preserva- 

 tion. "Industrialism" uses the state as a means to individual 

 betterment. Growing " militancy " produces concentration and 

 increase of governmental power ; restriction of the larger human 

 sympathies involved by national enmities ; rigidity of class dis- 

 tinctions, and subordination to authority. With growing "in- 

 dustrialism " the sphere of governmental control diminishes ; its 

 hold upon individual freedom is relaxed ; the common brother- 

 hood of man grows with the intermingling of commercial life, 

 and the class distinctions built up by brute force melt away in 

 the competition of productive energy. The community lives by 

 the separate activities of its units carried on for personal ends, 

 and unimpeded by the unnecessary meddling of central author- 

 ity. That prosperity under this regime, in its completeness, dif- 

 fers from the prosperity of " militancy," above defined, as day- 

 light from darkness, a moment's contemplation of it will show. 



