INDEPENDENCE VERSUS DEPENDENCE 147 



right, was a farmer. The story of what happened to 

 Esau, as the Bible tells it, runs as follows: 



And Jacob had pottage. 



And Esau came from the hunt, and he was faint. 



And Esau said to Jacob: "Feed me, I pray thee, with 

 that same pottage for I am faint." 



And Jacob said, "Sell me this day thy birthright." 



And Esau said, "Behold I am at the point to die, and 

 what profit shall this birthright do me?" 



And Jacob said, "Swear me this day." 



And Esau swore to him and sold his birthright unto 

 Jacob. 



Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and 

 he did eat and drink and rose up, and went his way. 



Thus Esau lost his birthright. 



Surely it is unnecessary to draw a moral. Surely it 

 is plain that no man can afford to be dependent upon 

 some other man for the bare necessities of life with- 

 out running the risk of losing all that is most precious 

 to him. Yet that is precisely and exactly what most 

 of us are doing today. Everybody seems to be depend- 

 ent upon some one else for the opportunity to acquire 

 the essentials of life. The factory-worker is dependent 

 upon the man who employs him; both of them are 

 dependent upon the salesmen and the retailers who 

 sell the goods they make, and all of them are depend- 

 ent upon the consuming public, which may not want, 

 or may not be able, to buy what they may have made. 



What the depression has done has been immensely 

 to increase the evil effects of this interdependence. 



