Principles of western civilisation

XI TOWARDS THE FUTURE 407

in business, to adopt the methods of the tenth man, whose immoral character we condemn. Thus the moral tone of business is brought down to the level of the worst man who can sustain himself in it.” * When we examine the fact which is here briefly stated in the light of the principle discussed in a previous chapter, the remarkable feature already referred to becomes visible. What we see is that in such a state of unregulated competition the ultimate governing principle by which the struggle must be regulated is of necessity that of a past era of the evolutionary drama. We are simply in the presence of the principle of the ascendency of the present represented in all its strength in the social process. It is the ability to survive in a free and irresponsible struggle for gain, all the meaning of which is in the present, that is here the sole determining factor of development. Only the largeness of the stage upon which the economic process is being enacted prevents us, for a time, from perceiving that in sucha phase of the competitive era there is really no principle at work which differentiates us from that phase _of the evolutionary process beyond which it is the inherent and characteristic meaning of our civilisation to carry the world. There is absolutely no cause present which can prevent that condition from ultimately arising which has been the peculiar and distinctive feature of all the barbarisms of the past ; namely, that condition at which the strongest competitive forces in a free-fight in the present tend to become absolute, and to extinguish altogether the

1 An Interpretation of the Social Movements of Our Time. To perceive the full reach of Mr. Adams’ principle, compare this statement of it with Ricardo’s well-known law of rent as set forth in his Prenctples of Poltical Economy, c. ii.