t is something extremely good. The late Edward Atkinson was fond of
saying that, if improvements are allowed to do their best, the time
will come when, as he expressed it, "it will not pay to be rich." The
workers will be so comfortable that the care of a great capital will
more than offset any additional comfort a man can get by owning it.
Grotesquely exaggerated as this claim may appear to be, it was based on
serious economic study. There are forces at work which, if they have
free play, will carry human life very far in the direction of the State
so described, with its comfort, contentment, and fraternity.

That fraternity is possible in spite of sharp contention is clear
whenever athletic teams meet and celebrate a game which has been a
victory for one and a defeat for the other; and the parties that
contend in the great industrial field may be equally brotherly if they
play fairly. Foul play always means enmity, and fair play, friendship.
The finest possible type of character grows up in the course of keen
but honorable rivalry. The noblest manhood that can anywhere be
developed would come from competing vigorously in the market and living
together as brothers when the contest closes. The beaten man may not
enjoy his defeat, but he may act rightly and feel rightly toward the
victor. Develop in these economic contests the sense of justice--let
both parties seek to follow a rule of right--and men's hearts, at
least, will not need to be embittered. You will then see a contest,
which, when it is waged with bombs and bludgeons, looks like a Sheol,
so changed that it shall open the way to a transformed world and make
the hope of a future Eden no day-dream, but a scientific deduction from
cosmic law. We may build a new earth out of the difficult material we
have to work with, and cause justice and kindness to rule in the very
place where strife now holds sway. A New Jerusalem may actually arise
out of the fierce contentions of the modern market. The wrath of men
may praise God and his Kingdom may come, not in spite of, but by means
of the contests of the economic sphere.

Socialism can have no monopoly of beatific visions. It offers much in
that direction. It draws a picture of a future State of great riches
and general equality; and the picture is glorified by a vision of
general brotherhood. To some this seems more attractive than any other
which imagination can create. I confess to a preference for a prospect
which as