nd indulge in the same
meaningless antics as the Prussians did in their worship of militarism.
For what the military tradition and spirit have done for Prussia, {45}
with the result of creating militarism, the commercial tradition and
spirit have done for England, with the result of creating
industrialism. Industrialism is no more a necessary characteristic of
an economically developed society than militarism is a necessary
characteristic of a nation which maintains military forces. It is no
more the result of applying science to industry than militarism is the
result of the application of science to war, and the idea that it is
something inevitable in a community which uses coal and iron and
machinery, so far from being the truth, is itself a product of the
perversion of mind which industrialism produces. Men may use what
mechanical instruments they please and be none the worse for their use.
What kills their souls is when they allow their instruments to use
_them_. The essence of industrialism, in short, is not any particular
method of industry, but a particular estimate of the importance of
industry, which results in it being thought the only thing that is
important at all, so that it is elevated from the subordinate place
which it should occupy among human interests and activities into being
the standard by which all other interests and activities are judged.

When a Cabinet Minister declares that the greatness of this country
depends upon the volume of its exports, so that France, with exports
comparatively little, and Elizabethan England, which exported next to
nothing, are presumably to be pitied as altogether inferior
civilizations, that is Industrialism. It is the confusion of one minor
department of life with the {46} whole of life. When manufacturers cry
and cut themselves with knives, because it is proposed that boys and
girls of fourteen shall attend school for eight hours a week, and the
President of the Board of Education is so gravely impressed by their
apprehensions, that he at once allows the hours to be reduced to seven,
that is Industrialism. It is fetich worship. When the Government
obtains money for a war, which costs $28,000,000 a day, by closing the
Museums, which cost $80,000 a year, that is Industrialism. It is a
contempt for all interests which do not contribute obviously to
economic activity. When the Press clamors that the one thing needed to
make this island an Arcadia is producti