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Thus Socialism tends to unite those discontented with religion, with family organization, with property conditions and institutions, with government, into one army. This complex constitution of the movement explains the varied nature of opposition to it. Economists oppose it for one reason; the labor movement, for another; Catholics, for another; Christians generally, for another; property owners and those in power, for another. Looking at the situation practically one may say that the issue raised by Socialism is mainly one of income. The present social order permits and imposes conditions of income. which, both through excess and defect, harm men and seriously Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE affect life in the larger sense. It is too true that life depends on income and income is fixed by circumstances, processes, and habits of self-seeking, which are beyond control by millions. Socialism appears as the champion of life against income; it proposes a new principle, new conditions, sure guarantees that life shall be allowed to expand to the fullest. It will be noticed then that the relations of income to life are vital and constant, though nothing in the nature of things identifies the two. I. Man is a developing being. He is dependent, incomplete; as such, he has wants. Nature craves satisfaction for them; life is in satisfying them. The physical history of a life is an account of the physical wants in it, their relations, the manner of filling them; likewise the mental, social, spiritual history of an individual. Want, desire, satisfaction describe the circle of life. When these concern physical existence, unrelated to mental and spiritual, or mental life, unrelated to physical and spiritual, or spiritual life, unrelated to physical and mental, life is partial, incomplete, false. Ideal life places spiritual want, desire, satisfaction supreme, but co-ordinates physical, mental, social, and spiritual in a way to bring man to rounded development, wisdom, and happiness. Food is a want, but mind and soul should not be sacrificed; learning is sought, but not wisely if bodily health or soul suffer. Our wants are real and imaginary. Many men are relatively ignorant of their real wants, and few of us can successfully distinguish what is imaginary among them. Our wants are indefinitely expansive, because of our faculty of imagining and confusing them. Even among our real wants, we have no true perspective of values, imagination again misleading us and social influences disturbing judgment continually. Ruskin says: "Three-fourths of the demands existing in the world are romantic, founded on visions, idealisms, hopes, and affections, and the regulation of the purse is, in its essence, regulation of the imagination and the heart." The circle of wants that one deliberately fosters, real and imaginary, personal and social, gradually becomes identical with one's existence. Hence men are proverbially unwilling to reduce their wants; diminished wants is a form of annihilation. And nature prevents the race from going back by fixing the individual sternly against diminution. The defeated politician suffers as keenly as a starving laborer, possibly more keenly; yet the former has only an imaginary basis for grief. Ambition is intensified desire to realize a larger self, less than which the ambitious man feels incomplete, defeated. aims at, the The savage, Thus the great power which upbuilds society, institutions, traces ideals, and insures progress is desire. Hunger, thirst, desire for comfort, were the architects which built the institutions of civilization; visions of nobler self, and desire to realize it made all of the ideals which have inspired life. The notion of social progress implies, in fact multiplying, varying, and refining of human wants. with few wants, crude desires, apathy for the ideal, is transformed, in the course of history, into the citizen with a thousand wants, refined and disciplined desires, keen appreciation of the ideal. The wonders of human achievement, the increased capacity for life in the civilized man, the widened mental, moral, and social horizon that we enjoy may in last analysis be reduced to terms of human desire. Thus the majestic picture of unfolding human life, drawn by the history of the race, shows the search for happiness to be the restless power behind all. When we speak of maintaining or defending the standard of life, nothing is meant except that the people should be encouraged to want the things to which they are accustomed, and that their opportunity to have them should be protected. When the labor movement attempts to organize the laborers, when it demands higher wages and shorter hours, it appeals to the laborers' right to an improved standard of life. When laborers oppose immigration, notably that of the Chinese, it is because the latter have a lower standard of life; that is, fewer and simpler wants, and our laborers know, that in competitive industry, a higher standard of life cannot compete with a lower A cabinet officer recently justified the protective tariff by stating that it increased imports. This is due, he claimed, to higher wages, which increase the power of consumption of the masses; in other words, the final element is the multiplied wants of individuals. one. Education, now all but universal, gives to the millions a knowledge of self, of rights, of nature, which increases the number and variety of wants indefinitely; yesterday's luxury is to-day's necessity; the occasional pleasure of yesterday is necessary to daily comfort now. The slave, with dull sense, no outlook, no ambition, may be transformed by education into the quick, alert, wide-seeing citizen whose wants engender ambition and promote industry. Thus the individual is affected by the idea of progress, by natural inclination, by popular movements, and by education; he is influenced to enlarge the circle of his wants; to reach a constantly widening conception of life and to fix his definition of life at the highest point that he can reach. Man is responsive to such influences, and he constantly increases his demands on society. These agents are powerfully aided in forcing the individual to enlarge his circle of wants by the spirit, organization and methods of business. The whole aim of industry, as now conducted, is profit. This is secured by constantly increasing sales, or by reducing cost of production; normally no one produces and sells where no prospect of profit entices. The great inspiration of industry and commerce is to hold society securely to the volume of consumption already reached, and then in a thousand ways to stimulate new desires, to vary the objects which satisfy them, to expand markets, found colonies, and control them, for the single ultimate motive of profit. New styles, new foods, new forms, are in process of formation, because industry must stimulate social wants to keep its wheels busy. Nothing in modern organization is more perfect than the organization of business. Advertising, show windows, display counters, drummers, are perfect in their way in awakening wants, calling attention to this or that commodity, and in persuading people to buy. The pressure is so great on us from every side that, like atmospheric pressure, we scarcely realize it. A customer enters a modern store. The wealth of Ormus and of Ind is displayed before his eager eyes. Color, form, convenience, many tongued, speak to him and urge purchase. While under that spell, an eloquent clerk, whose commissions on sales determine his tenure and his salary, offers services in expanding the wants of the customer to a maximum. We are so accustomed to this process that we are unconscious of it. If one wish to realize the role played, one need but imagine an immense dark warehouse in place of the modern store, without |