Swartbmore Xecture.

first condition. Where corruption prevails,laissez faire will prove the better policy.

As to the measures there is to-day even no sharpdistinction between the socialist and the non-socialist camp. There is a general distrust ofcompetition carried to its extreme, which issuspected to breed unethical exploitation, tooverexpand the productive capacity, and in manycases to tend towards reductions of wages. Onthe other hand, there is a general distrust ofgovernment regulation which is suspected ofstagnation and dilletantism, and, therefore, in thelast resort of lowering the standard of life of thepeople. There is rising a new vision of a betterway than mere competition and mere nationalisa-tion. It would mean co-operation founded on theprinciple of social service and managed by practicalmen of highest character and attainmentd

But while we are discussing these measures, adanger arises which would make this discussionsenseless. An itinerary is good as long as we knowwhere we want to travel. Whatever politics meanthey presuppose a goal for which we strive, evenif it be with the sacrifice of our personal life. Butthe goal vanishes, when the belief decays on whichit is built, just as the flowers wither when theroot dries up. Western democracy and westernsocialism are built on the belief in the immanenceof an absolute value in each human being and inhumanity as a whole —a value which our ancestorscalled God. But this faith has suffered shipwreck

1 Magnus W. Alexander, Industry's Age of Reason , NationalInd. Conf. Board, New York , 1930.