172 THE THIRD POWER 



secures justice for all. This is the true American 

 theory from which, however, we have widely de- 

 parted. 



One thing which it is desired to secure is new in 

 human governments, and that is justice. If that can 

 be gained all will have been gained. Is it beyond 

 our reach? For ages men have longed for it and 

 struggled for it, but it has always gleamed just 

 ahead of them, and they have never been able to 

 reach it. Is it now at hand? Not ideally or in its 

 fulness, perhaps, for this is an imperfect world of 

 imperfect men, and selfishness is hard to kill. But 

 substantially it can be secured. It can be secured, 

 but only in one way — by enlisting selfishness (self- 

 interest) in the struggle for it. If we can make a 

 large majority of men see that it pays to be just, 

 that they can not have justice themselves unless they 

 are prepared to concede it to others, they will be as 

 zealous fighters against injustice as are the most un- 

 selfish and idealistic of people. Men have in the past 

 tried to eliminate selfishness. Now the purpose is 

 to use it on the side of righteousness. The appeal 

 must be made to the intelligence and self-interest of 

 men as well as to their conscience. It ought not to 

 be difficult to make sensible men understand that 

 they would win more by freely yielding to every 

 other man his rights than they could ever hope to 

 win in a fierce scramble for unfair advantages in 

 which they are as likely to be hurt as they are to hurt 

 their brother. The farmer's cause will not be pro- 



