The Two Americas 197 



his duty ; in addition it is imperatively necessary also 

 to establish a strong and intelligent public opinion 

 which will require each to do his duty. If any man 

 here falls short he should not only feel ashamed of 

 himself, but in some way he ought also to be made 

 conscious of the condemnation of his fellows, and 

 this no matter what form his shortcoming takes. 

 Doing our duty is, of course, incumbent on every one 

 of us alike; yet the heaviest blame for dereliction 

 should fall on the man who sins against the light, the 

 man to whom much has heen given, and from whom, 

 therefore, we have a right to expect much in return. 

 We should hold to a peculiarly rigid accountability 

 those men who in public life, or as editors of great 

 papers, or as owners of vast fortunes, or as leaders 

 and molders of opinion in the pulpit, or on the plat 

 form, or at the bar, are guilty of wrongdoing, no 

 matter what form that wrongdoing may take. 



In addition, however, to the problems which, under 

 protean shapes, are yet fundamentally the same for 

 all nations and for all times, there are others which 

 especially need our attention, because they are the es 

 pecial productions of our present industrial civiliza 

 tion. The tremendous industrial development of the 

 nineteenth century has not only conferred great bene 

 fits upon us of the twentieth, but it has also exposed 

 us to grave dangers. This highly complex move 

 ment has had many sides, some good and some bad, 



