CHAPTER XX. 



Mammon 

 Worship. 



The Power of 

 Wealth. 



HEREDITY AND COMMERCIALISM. 



In this chapter we shall study the relation of 

 commercialism to heredity, more especially the 

 prenatal influences exerted by the present mania 

 for wealth. We shall consider the abuses of 

 wealth and the misery, vice and crime resulting 

 therefrom only in so far as these conditions tend 

 to produce a morbid heredity. 



Mammon worship is the mania, the sin and 

 the crime of the age. Upon the golden altar of 

 this god of the nations we sacrifice comfort, 

 fidelity, virtue, culture, honor, liberty and charac- 

 ter. In our blindness we have failed to see the 

 far-reaching effects upon posterity of this mad 

 rush for wealth. 



Americans have been called a nation of shop- 

 keepers, money-makers, gold worshipers and com- 

 mercial sharpers. Deny this as we may, money 

 has an extraordinary power over us. Wealth 

 buys friends, favors and position; it governs 

 society, municipalities, political parties, and 

 largely controls national and international rela- 

 tions. Wealth makes an acceptable apology to 

 the public for a man's stupidity, ignorance, vice 

 and even his crime. Men of the most disreputable 

 character, if kid gloved and bolstered with bonds, 

 are frequently admitted into the best (?) society 



