THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3 



consider that point as I am not trying to picture Utopia. All that this 

 image is meant to convey is the idea of craftsmanship and its fundamental 

 importance. Nor is the account yet complete ; far from it. It is not only 

 that the products of craftsmanship are a necessity if the islanders are to 

 live at all : craftsmanship has a value in itself. There is in men, more in 

 some, less in others, the natural desire to use what faculties they possess. 

 It is a fact that love of good work and delight in successful accomplishment 

 are powerful motives, and when satisfied are sources of real happiness. 

 Of all the motives that sway the world these are among the purest and best. 



The power to produce in plenty what is wanted is, of course, only one 

 of the great problems that a community has to consider. There is also 

 the endlessly difficult question of distribution, of the manner in which 

 each working individual is to receive his share of the wages. The two 

 problems cannot be separated entirely : the means directed to the 

 solution of one contribute to the solution of the other. But I must not 

 attempt too much : science is in the first instance concerned with the 

 production problem ; the distribution problem follows. 



Let us extend our image a little ; let our island be discovered and put 

 into communication with the outside world. An exchange of craft work 

 sets in : the islanders discover new wants that must be satisfied and they 

 pay for the necessary imports by exporting what they make themselves. 

 But the exports must be made to satisfy the tastes of the outside peoples 

 or there will be no trade. So the islanders now find that they must no 

 longer consider their own tastes entirely : they must accommodate them- 

 selves to a more general conception which is only in part their own. It 

 may happen that under the new conditions they become less and less 

 self-contained. Some things which are necessary to life, such as food or 

 clothing, may become imports, being no longer produced, at any rate in 

 sufl&cient quantity, within the island itself. And now the people are very 

 firmly tied to the rest of the world; they must give that they may receive, 

 and they must please in order that others may be willing to take. We 

 may say that their craftsmanship is now judged more critically ; and 

 more than ever it becomes fundamental to well-being, even to existence. 

 The conclusion I would draw from this very simple little analogy is that a 

 •people lives on what it makes or earns and that its success depends on its 

 craftsmanship. A people cannot expect to be provided for : it has no 

 rights. 



I would ask you presently to consider the difference between the 

 craftsmanship of an early civilization and that of our own more com- 



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