Baird.] i4:U [March Ifi, 



to be, to the world of humanitj', what the law of gravitation is to the world 

 or universe of matter. It is the philosopher's stone which transmutes, 

 clears up the temporal mystery of man. This law dogs the outcast and 

 the beggar, whose conditions preclude the possibility of active association ; 

 it places the offensive weapon in the hands of the modern boycotter ; it 

 says to the man who is tempted to go wrong, Go not, for society will cast 

 you out ; it induces the laborer to toil, it spurs the mechanic and the 

 artisan to become masters of their respective trades ; it causes the student 

 to burn the midnight oil, and the doctor, the lawyer, the professor to 

 spend years in acquiring and imparting knowledge. Tlie business man 

 who struggles night and day to avoid bankruptcy does so that he may 

 retain that financial credit which enables him to swing a power of asso- 

 ciation far in excess of that which his capital would give. This law has 

 its most beautiful manifestation in the family, with its tender, loving and 

 self-sacrificing ties of father, mother, and children. 



Men build railroads, steamships, steamboats, and hotels, and other men 

 work them because of this law of association ; the banker organizes his 

 bank that he may control association and profit by it ; governments im- 

 pose taxes that they may call civilians, soldiers and sailors into associa- 

 tion with themselves. An army is an armed association under officers 

 who hurl it, regardless of life or death, against other armies, in order that 

 another association called the state, may live and flourish, and that its 

 citizens or subjects may associate, exchange services, commodities and 

 ideas among their several selves. The post-office, with its machinery for 

 the transmission of letters and printed matter and its postage stamps and 

 money orders and the express in all its details, including C. O. D., are all 

 outgrowths of the supreme law of association. 



COKCLUSION. 



Social Science concerning itself with the relations of man to his fellow- 

 men and to the earth which he inhabits, and Association being the Dom- 

 inating Need of Man in these relations, it follows that Association must 

 be the Keynote of Social Science. Therefore the touchstone for every 

 economic problem is its relation to Association. There is and can be no 

 other test for it ; and if it cannot pass this ordeal it must be rejected as 

 false and pernicious. 



When once the believers in the necessity for the fullest diversification 

 of our industries, and those others who believe in a volume of mone}', 

 whether of gold, silver or paper, or of all of them equal to the needs of 

 trade and commerce, place themselves firmly on the basis of the law of 

 association for their justification they will instantly and for all time direct 

 the industrial and financial policy of this people. 



And now, once more, we come back to the words of the Master : 



"Man, the molecule of society, is the subject of social science. In common 

 with all other animals he requires to eat, drink and sleep, but his greatest 

 need is that 0/ association with his fellow-men." 



