128 Social Environment 



idealism lies in its application, and the applica- 

 tion requires scientific vision Men live in a 

 haze of ignorance because they think in terms 

 of self-interest, and sanctify shrewdness as 

 service. Those German writers who have in 

 the last generation declaimed with such crusad- 

 ing zeal against the baseness of Anglo-Saxon 

 commercialism are right, though they may in- 

 cidentally have overlooked a beam or two in 

 their own eyes. The money-making ideal which 

 flourishes so luxuriantly in England and Amer- 

 ica is a hypocritical fraud, a half-truth more 

 dangerous than an open lie, an enemy that 

 Christianity has fought and must again fight 

 if it vi^ould not itself be a fraud. Not that 

 religion means asceticism; abundance of life in 

 a material sense is a worthy ideal. The con- 

 demnation of wealth lies in its nature as the 

 privilege of ownership divorced from use — a 

 privilege on which leisure-class aristocracy is 

 based and which is morally unjustifiable. Be- 

 cause their spirit is greedy, men will not see 

 that coiled about the legitimate stewardship, 

 which is an unquestioned phase of business 

 activity, is the vicious seeking for property be- 

 cause of its revenues, which we cover with the 

 euphonious phrase of "supplying the capital." 



