Civilization and Decay 367 



robbed by a sharp money-lender just as he can be 

 robbed by the sharp producer from whom he buys 

 or to whom he sells. There is, in certan points, a 

 very evident incompatibility of interest between the 

 farmer who wishes to sell his product at a high rate, 

 and the workingman who wishes to buy that product 

 at a low rate ; but the success of the capitalist, and es- 

 pecially of the banker, is conditioned upon the pros- 

 perity of both workingman and farmer. 



When Mr. Adams speaks of the change in the 

 relations of women and men he touches on the 

 vital weakness of our present civilization. If we 

 are, in truth, tending toward a point where the race 

 will cease to be able to perpetuate itself, our civili- 

 sation is of course a failure. No quality in a race 

 atones for the failure to produce an abundance of 

 healthy children. The problem upon which Mr. 

 Adams here touches is the most serious of all prob- 

 lems, for it lies at the root of, and indeed itself is, 

 national life. But it is hard to accept seriously Mr. 

 Adams's plea that "martial" men loved their wives 

 more than "economic" men do, and showed their 

 love by buying them. Of course the only reason 

 why a woman was bought in early times was be- 

 cause she was looked upon like any other chattel; 

 she was "loved" more than she is now only as a 

 negro was "loved" more by the negro-trader in 

 1860 than at present. The worship of women dur- 

 ing the Middle Ages was, in its practical effects, 

 worship of a very queer kind. The "economic man" 

 of the present day is beyond comparison gentler and 



