302 BPvITAIN FOR THE BUTTON 



A Clever Appeal to Human Cupidity 



The reason that it has hxsted for the last half-century is 

 because it appealed to one of the commonest and worst sides of 

 human nature — cupidity. 



" You have a splendid thing in your inexhaustible coal 

 supply," said the economists of years ago ; " link it up with steam, 

 and run it for all it is worth. Spend your money in getting 

 together more and more machinery ; push your manufacturing 

 industries ; build ships as quickly as you can, and capture tlie 

 trade of the world. Manufactures will pay you far better than 

 agriculture, because, with your superior trading facilities in 

 comparison with other nations, with your mercantile marine and 

 the rapid application of steam to sea-going vessels, you will be 

 able to bring your corn from foreign countries where they can 

 grow it cheaper than you can here. Don't waste your time 

 and money over agriculture, but devote both one and the other 

 to manufactures and trade, and you will find there is more 

 money in it than there is in any land industry. And, above 

 all, do not forget that in all this you have the start of all 

 foreign nations, so — make the most of it while you have the 

 chance." 



Such were the stock arguments of the manufacturer-econo- 

 mists of the first half of the last century, and such are they 

 to-day as we have just seen from Mr. Armitage Smith's book, 

 the second edition of which was published as recently as 1907. 



Perhaps the strongest physical impulse to which human 

 nature is subject is — self-preservation. It enters so largely 

 into the composition of human life in such a multitude of forms 

 that it may be said to constitute the summum bonum of our 

 existence. 



The body is our chief regard, and to keep it well and strong, 

 generously fed, comfortably clothed and well housed, and then 

 to give it the hcsi ijossible time all round, is the individual and 

 collective aim of the human race. 



We work early and late, we think, devise, plot, plan, and 

 scheme — sin even — so that the body may be well cared for, 

 and that our worldly state may be as good or better than that 

 of our neighbours. We run and push and struggle one with 

 another, and if, in that race for wealth and position, or for mere 

 existence, as the case may be, for which every human being is 

 bound to enter in this busy world, we push a brother here 

 and there off the stage — well, it's a pity, poor devil, but it 

 can't be helped. 



Our own particular physical entity is what concerns us ; we 



