Captains of Industry! that was a noble title Carlyle gave to the prosaic business man, when gazing beyond the squalid turmoil of his day with its dominant industrialism, triumphant mercantilism, doctrines of _laissez-faire_, overproduction, surplus population, he with clear vision foresaw the future freedom of the masses won through their own strength and the ability of their leaders. Until Richard Arkwright was born, the leaders of men in their progress towards human freedom had been soldiers; henceforward they were to be men of affairs. Great soldiers won their victory by the loyalty they inspired in their followers; no adventurer seeking personal glory ever won a lasting victory, but only those heroes, forgetful of themselves who consecrated their service to the cause of freedom. In such wise must Captains of Industry win their victories; the adventurer can but for a time prevail; fame is secure only to those leaders who see in wealth accumulated a treasure held in trust from which they are to feed and clothe the armies that they lead to peaceful conquests. Social reformers of sentimental temper have deemed the comparison between the modern employer of labor and the feudal lord as ill-chosen, but history seems to justify it. Yet we have, indeed, gone far since the Middle Ages. When the feudal lord demanded loyalty from his retainers the demand was alone sufficient, but the Captain of Industry, in order to obtain the loyalty of the toilers, must not only demand but deserve it; he too must be loyal to the great cause he serves—the eternal cause of human freedom. THE END The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS U · S · A Transcriber’s Notes pg 54 Added period after: three hundred years before, not soldiers, but serfs pg 72 Changed who paid their rent either in kind or in agicrultural to: agricultural Many hyphenated and non-hyphenated word combinations left as written.