render free action, free speaking, or free thinking out of the question." СНАР. XXXVII Forces of From this old matrix individuals are being released by various New new forces. The pressure of feudal laws was removed half a Liberation century ago, leaving custom as chief agent of restraint. In the agricultural districts the yoke of local custom is heavy; but those who remove to the growing cities, who emigrate, or who wander about from province to province enjoy greater freedom of action. The economic self-sufficiency of the locality or district has disappeared. Custom no longer governs price. The extending competition of man with man, of place with place, of Japanese with tion foreigners, causes hampering restrictions to go by the board. As never before men are thrown on their own choices. With participation in government the Japanese are learning gradually to group themselves according to political opinions rather than by clans. Economic Competi Political Participa tion ity Christianity detaches its converts from the group matrix, teach- Christianing that one saves his soul, not by sharing in the ancestral or communal cult, but by an individual experience (conversion) or act (confession of faith). Says Gulick: "There is a marked increase in vivacity in those Japanese who become Christians. The repressive social restraints of the old social order are somewhat removed. A freedom is allowed to individuals of the Christian community, in social life, in conversation between men and women, in the holding of public opinions, which the non-Christian order of society did not present. Sociability between the sexes was not allowed. The new freedom naturally results in greater vivacity and a far freer play of facial expression than the older order could produce." Thought Western thought also encourages the Japanese to restrain less Western and to trust more to the free development of the individual. From observing us they learn that freedom does not inevitably breed confusion, that a disciplined conscience may hold the individual in his proper orbit after custom has ceased to bind him. In the dramas and novels of the West they are thrilled by sublime portrayals of the human soul-its temptations, struggles, renunciations and victories — which are strange to a literature arising under a communal social order. The enthusiasm with which • Ibid., pp. 275, 277. 7" Social Evolution of the Japanese," p. 168. CHAP. XXXVII Is Socialism Indif ferent to Individual young Japanese greet the message of Carlyle, Emerson, Thoreau and Nietzsche, testifies that the idealizing of individual self-determination and initiative is balm to their souls. The antithesis socialism individualism leads many to imagine that socialists propose to reverse the beneficent process of liberaFreedom? tion and bring in state ownership of the individual. The earlier pictures of the "coming" collectivist state certainly gave ground for such suspicion. Of late, however, it has become plain that the real issue is, Private capitalism or public capitalism? No doubt, socialists would take away much of the initiative and decision now enjoyed by the captain of industry. They are foes of commercial individualism. But they confidently expect that under public capitalism the hand workers will have more freedom than they are allowed under the existing régime. Whether or not their anticipations are justified, the constant shadowing of the collectivist movement by a current of anarchism, the trend away from state socialism toward guild socialism, and the self-assertive temper of every aroused working class forbids us to believe that the proletariat will ever consent to barter their hard won freedom for ease and plenty. If private capitalism is to be abandoned for public capitalism, it will be because the masses. expect at least as much liberty as they now have and much more opportunity. CO CHAPTER XXXVIII COMMERCIALIZATION СНАР. XXXVI Rôle of the Motive OMMERCIALIZATION is the increasing subjection of any calling or function to the profits motive. Normally this motive has a large and legitimate part to play in society. To it Profits we appeal in order to call into being the myriad forms of industry and commerce necessary to provide for the wants of the public. Even here, however, it may govern only in a general way. In each particular transaction it should find counterpoise in the desire to keep faith with the patron by supplying only honest goods and loyal services. In a bearer of responsibility, however, such as clergyman, teacher, judge, official, artist or journalist, it is expected that lust of gain will be quite subordinated to the obligation to render a vital service or discharge an essential function. Into the production of a good or a service may enter various motives which hold the profits motive in check, viz., 1. Pleasure in creative activity. 2. Pride in the perfection of one's product. 3. Accepted standards of technical excellence which forbid the putting forth of a ware or a service which falls below a certain degree of merit. 4. Abhorrence of sham or humbug in one's work. Desire to Motives of render loyal service, to market genuine goods. 5. Solicitude for the welfare of the customer or patron, prompting one to refuse to supply him with that which will disappoint, defraud, or harm him. 6. Doing one's work as a service to society.1 1 I.e., acting on the principle of Comte: 'Every person who lives by any useful work should be habituated to regard himself not as an individual working for his own private benefit, but as a public functionary working for the benefit of society; and to regard his wages of whatever sort as the provision made by society to enable him to carry on his labor." Economic CHAP. XXXVIII We Are Not Morally Decadent Relations and Con- Direct upper hand of these nobler motives. In case the relations between producer and consumer, or between server and served, continue in the same intimacy, the profits motive will not play a greater rôle unless the motives which limit it are weakened. In such a case commercialization would be the result and proof of moral decay. Now, in contemporary society there is no general moral decay. Using the ancient test relations as a dial face, the onward movement in humanity, sympathy and charity is most cheering. In the treatment of children, of women, of the aged, of dependents, of convicts, of aliens, of underlings, of the weaker race or class by the stronger race or class, the improvement in our times is beyond all question. Nor are we in doubt as to the causes of this rapid humanization. With the vanishing of personal encounter, the passing of judicial torture, branding, stocks, pillory, whipping post and cart's tail, the renouncing of flogging and keelhauling in the navy, the vanishing of public executions, the abandonment of cock-fighting and bear-baiting, the outlawry of prize fighting, the restraining of brutal teamsters, the substitution of electricity for the horse, the removal of the diseased, maimed and misshapen from the streets to public institutions, the feelings are no longer calloused as of yore, and human good will is able to assert itself with its original native force. The encroachment of the profits motive in our time is, therefore, not chargeable to moral decay. It is a consequence of certain transformations which have occurred in our economic relations. 66 The greater social distance between producer and consumer. Less and less often nowadays is the user of one's ware a concrete known person to whom one feels a sense of responsibility. One's product passes out into that vague mass, the "public," and there is lost to view. Hence, the baker who kneads chalk and alum and plaster" into his loaf may be no miscreant, after all, for he cannot know just who will eat that loaf or what gripe it will give him. Only a villain would fit out an unsuspecting customer with a life preserver filled with sawdust instead of cork; but the manufacturers who a few years ago were found to be equipping excursion steamers with these spurious "life preservers may have been far from moral monsters. They were supplying their treacherous wares not to men and women, but to "the market." CHAP. XXXVIII The Cor poration alizes The corporate form of business organization thrusts apart producers and consumers. The stockholders on whose behalf in- De-personiquity is done do not consciously will it. It is not their wish Business that children should be worn out for them, or workmen maimed Relations, in avoidable industrial accidents, or consumers defrauded, or the public taste corrupted. They instigate such wickedness only because they know not what they do when they clamor for dividends. Their avarice is reflected in the conduct of the business, but not their good will. Not only does incorporation take personal responsibility out of business relations, but every year sees more savings banks, trust companies and insurance companies come between industrial concerns and those who provide the money. This makes it still more difficult for the conscience of the latter to influence the management. Nevertheless, when a corporation becomes so large that it fills a place in the public eye, it develops a sense of responsibility of its own. Its volume of output is so great that its products must be well spoken of everywhere. Hence, it strives for excellence and sincerity in its goods and acts on the maxim, "the satisfied customer is the best advertisement." Owing to its conspicuousness it is sensitive to public opinion. It feels obliged to maintain a reputation so good that it can draw into its service. men of the highest character. Its treatment of labor is so wellknown among workingmen that, if it acquires a bad name, it will be unable to attract labor of the best quality. Therefore, the great corporations take the lead not only in square-dealing with the customer, but in looking after the safety, health, and welfare of their employees. But the poration Behaves Like a Person Custommade The growing differentiation between principals and subordinates. In large concerns the men at the top may adopt with Crime impunity greedy policies which they well know cannot be carried out without deceit or corruption. They would not do such dirty work themselves, but they require others to do it. Upon their subordinates they impose the obligation to get "results," but are very careful not to learn of the crooked means by which alone the "results" they insist on may be obtained. The veins of business like the veins of the body have valves, their purposes be |