13 



which in recent years has accumulated in a few hands, if 

 an evil at all, is, I believe, only a temporary evil. The 

 Vanderbilts, the Goulds, the Rockefellers, are the product 

 of the sudden and vast increase of riches generally in the 

 last thirty years. Thirty, fifty or a hundred years are but 

 a little time in the history of the human race, and under 

 the free laws which we have and other nations are adopting, 

 the wealth which fortune has poured so bountifully into a 

 few hands will be scattered into the hands of the many. 

 The nation's wealth will ultimately benefit the whole 

 people. 



A study of the processes by which wealth is produced 

 and distributed must impress us with a sense of how small 

 is the influence which any individual exerts, and how great 

 is our dependence upon organized society. The whole fabric 

 of it is employed in ministering to your wants and to mine. 

 " No man liveth unto himself alone." In the process of 

 helping ourselves we help each other, and we cannot avoid 

 this result if we would. It has been said that the most 

 enlightened selfishness will dictate the most orderly, virtu- 

 ous and Christian life. In harmony with that doctrine 

 may we not say — and this is the special point I would 

 make — that the wisest and most effective method of secur- 

 ing the greatest success to our own particular industry 

 must have, as an essential part of its plan, the promotion 

 of the prosperity of every other class of workers in the 

 industrial field. 



I have stated what I believe to be the great agent in 

 increasing wealth, viz., the division of labor, and the im- 

 portant condition which will make it most generally bene- 

 ficial by being most generally distributed, which is the 

 greatest practicable diversification of industry. The econ- 



