that emphasis should be transferred from the opportunities which it
offers individuals to the social functions which it performs; that they
should be clear as to its end and should judge it by reference to that
end, not by incidental consequences which are foreign to it, however
brilliant or alluring those consequences may be. What gives its
meaning to any activity which is not purely automatic is its purpose.
It is because the purpose of industry, which is the conquest of nature
for the service of man, is neither adequately expressed in its
organization nor present to the minds of those engaged in it, because
it is not regarded as a function but as an opportunity for personal
gain or advancement or display, that the economic life of modern
societies is in a perpetual state of morbid irritation. If the
conditions which produce that unnatural tension are to be removed, it
can only be effected by the growth of a habit of mind which will
approach questions of economic organization from the standpoint of the
purpose which it exists to serve, and which will apply to it something
of the spirit expressed by Bacon when he said that the work of man
ought to be carried on "for the glory of God and the relief of men's
estate."

{182}

Viewed from that angle issues which are insoluble when treated on the
basis of rights may be found more susceptible of reasonable treatment.
For a purpose, is, in the first place a principle of limitation. It
determines the end for which, and therefore the limits within which, an
activity is to be carried on. It divided what is worth doing from what
is not, and settles the scale upon which what is worth doing ought to
be done. It is in the second place, a principle of unity, because it
supplies a common end to which efforts can be directed, and submits
interests, which would otherwise conflict, to the judgment of an
over-ruling object. It is, in the third place, a principle of
apportionment or distribution. It assigns to the different parties of
groups engaged in a common undertaking the place which they are to
occupy in carrying it out. Thus it establishes order, not upon chance
or power, but upon a principle, and bases remuneration not upon what
men can with good fortune snatch for themselves nor upon what, if
unlucky, they can be induced to accept, but upon what is appropriate to
their function, no more and no less, so that those who perform no
function receive no payment, and those wh