ALTRUISM 257 



whether it be the rights of the laborer taken from 

 the capitalist, in all cases success or failure is de- 

 pendent upon the principle of love and sympathy. 

 Such a statement may at first appear wholly false. 

 Nothing seems more manifest than that the demands 

 made by labor upon capital result in constant war- 

 fare, and that when labor wins it does so because it 

 has been able to obtain its ends loj force. The cap- 

 italist is not commonly supposed to grant the de- 

 mands of labor from love, but, rather, because he is 

 forced to do it. When we analyze such victories and 

 defeats we soon learn that, after all, it is the prin- 

 ciple of altruism rather than force that determines 

 the final victor. When labor contends against cap- 

 ital it is powerless to stand alone. Nothing is more 

 clearly understood by both the labor agitator and the 

 capitalist than the fact that the victor in these con- 

 tests is ultimately that side holding the widest sym- 

 pathies. As soon as labor interests commit excesses 

 that alienate the sympathies of the people their cause 

 is lost ; and if they can show the mass of the people 

 that they are unjustly dealt with, their cause is gen- 

 erally gained. Whatever be the immediate result, 

 the final victory is determined, not by the force which 

 the two sides appear to possess, but by the verdict 

 which the general mass of mankind gives as to the 

 point at issue. 



Permanent Advance from Altruism Alone. — In holding 

 this position we have reference to the permanent 

 advance of the race and not of the individual. The 

 results of many of the contests are clearly deter- 

 mined by force and greed rather than by love and 

 generosity, and are settled by might rather than by 

 right. But it is a clear teaching of history that all 



