ly in
accordance with the individual contribution? Even if we admit that
many persons fail to get a fair share, that there is gross inequality
here and there, still after all, a student of mankind's activities in
production, distribution, and consumption must marvel at the extent to
which the rewards approximate the value of contribution. Now this is
made possible by money considered as a measure of relative values, by
the standard or test of fitness embodied in the thought, Will it pay,
and to what extent will it pay? If I have in mind some new invention
that will perhaps confer benefits on mankind, the best test of its
practicability and utility will be, Will it pay, will people buy it,
pay money for it? If an improvement in process is proposed, the
question is, Will it pay? If the young man starts out in life with
high ideals and a reasonably good opinion of his own abilities, an
opinion fostered perhaps by fond parents and admiring friends, the
question is, Will these abilities fit in with the world's needs? Will
they supply a real demand, will they be serviceable? The best means of
ascertaining this, although it may be only a rough estimate and
although errors occasionally creep in is, will they pay? Can he sell
these services for real money? This criterion is practically
omnipresent in the world of affairs. It is based on economic
necessity, and although here and there it may be charged with
cruelties, with serious blunders, it is, on the whole, a remarkably
accurate standard. We see this more clearly where we attempt to
substitute some other criterion for ranking the soldiers in the battle
of life. We can note, for instance, the inferior type and character,
generally speaking, of men elected to office by the suffrages of their
fellow citizens, compared with men who reach positions of authority in
business and other enterprises through the pressure of these economic
principles. Again, consider the nation that has attempted to improve
on economic distribution of power by evolving a government which
places the power in the hands of those best fitted to govern, a ruling
class which aims directly at efficiency, a select class but
necessarily self-selected, thus supplanting an economic regime by a
military regime--successful truly in certain forms of economic
efficiency through a more rigid and compact organization, but
destructive of the initiative, the evolutionary growth, the
fundamental development, the liberties o