But while these compelling motives will be potent in their action
on man as he now is, there are others, already acting on some men,
which will one day act on all men. Human beings are not the simple
and onesided organisms they appear to the superficial glance of the
Individualist--moved only by a single motive, the desire for pecuniary
gain--by one longing, the longing for wealth. Under our present social
system, the struggle for riches assumes an abnormal and artificial
development: riches mean nearly all that makes life worth having,
security against starvation, gratification of taste, enjoyment of
pleasant and cultured society, superiority to many temptations,
self-respect, consideration, comfort, knowledge, freedom, as far as
these things are attainable under existing conditions. In a society
where poverty means social discredit, where misfortune is treated as a
crime, where the prison of the workhouse is a guerdon of failure, and
the bitter carking harassment of daily wants unmet by daily supply is
ever hanging over the head of each worker, what wonder that money seems
the one thing needful, and that every other thought is lost in the
frensied rush to escape all that is summed up in the one word Poverty?
But this abnormal development of the gold-hunger would disappear upon
the certainty for each of the means of subsistence. Let each individual
feel absolutely secure of subsistence, let every anxiety as to the
material wants of his future be swept away; and the longing for wealth
will lose its leverage. The daily bread being certain, the tyranny of
pecuniary gain will be broken; and life will begin to be used in living
and not in struggling for the chance to live. Then will come to the
front all those multifarious motives which are at work in the complex
human organism even now, and which will assume their proper importance
when the basis of physical life is assured. The desire to excel, the
joy in creative work, the longing to improve, the eagerness to win
social approval, the instinct of benevolence; all these will start
into full life, and will serve at once as the stimulus to labor and
the reward of excellence. It is instructive to notice that these very
forces may already be seen at work in every case in which subsistence
is secured, and they alone supply the stimulus to action. The soldier’s
subsistence is certain, and does not depend on his exertions. At once
he becomes susceptible to appeals to his patriotism, to his _esprit
de corps_, to the honor of his flag; he will dare anything for glory,
and value a bit of bronze, which is the “reward of valor,” far more
than a hundred times its weight in gold. Yet many of the private
soldiers come from the worst of the population; and military glory
and success in murder are but poor objects to aim at. If so much can
be done under circumstances so unpromising, what may we not hope from
nobler aspirations? Or take the eagerness, self-denial, and strenuous
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