the vested interests and the common man-第7章
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equally nefarious use of the national establishment for
safe…guarding and augmenting the profits of traders；
concessionaires； investors and creditors in foreign parts at the
cost of the home community。 That method of taxing the common man
for the benefit of the vested interests has also grown to more
formidable proportions since his time。 The constituent principles
of the modern point of view； as accepted advisedly or by
oversight by Adam Smith and his generation； supply all the
legitimation required for this larcenous use of the national
establishment； but the means of communication were still too
scant； and the larger use of credit was too nearly untried； as
contrasted with what has at a later date gone to make the
commercial ground and incentive of imperialist politics。
Therefore the imperialist policies of public enterprise for
private gain also do not come greatly within the range of Adam
Smith's vision of the future； nor does the 〃obvious and simple
system〃 on which he and his generation of thoughtful men take
their stand comprise anything like explicit declarations for or
against this later…matured chicane of the gentlemen…investors who
have been managing the affairs of the civilised nations。
Adam Smith's work and life…time falls in with the high tide
of eighteenth…century insight and understanding； and it marks an
epoch of spiritual achievement and stabilisation in civil
institutions； as well as in those principles of conduct that have
governed economic rights and relations since that date。 But it
marks also the beginning of a new order in the state of the
industrial arts as well as in those material sciences which come
directly in touch with the industrial arts and which take their
logical bent from the same range of tangible experience。 So it
happens that this modern point of view reached a stable and
symmetrical finality about the same date when the New Order of
experience and insight was beginning to bend men's habits of
thought into lines that run at cross purposes with this same
stabilised point of view。 It is in the ways and means of industry
and in the material sciences that the new order of knowledge and
belief first comes into evidence； because it is in this domain of
workday facts that men's experience began about that time to take
a decisive turn at variance with the received canons。 A
mechanistic conception of things began to displace those
essentially romantic notions of untrammeled initiative and
rationality that governed the intellectual life of the era of
enlightenment which was then drawing to a close。
It is logically due to follow that the same general
principles of knowledge and validity will presently undergo a
revision of the same character where they have to do with those
imponderable facts of human conduct and those conventions of law
and custom that govern the duties and obligations of men in
society。 Here and now as elsewhere and in other times the
stubborn teaching that comes of men's experience with the
tangible facts of industry should confidently be counted on to
make the outcome； so as to bring on a corresponding revision of
what is right and good in that world of make…believe that always
underlies any established system of law and custom。 The material
exigencies of the state of industry are unavoidable； and in great
part unbending； and the economic conditions which follow
immediately from these exigencies imposed by the ways and means
of industry are only less uncompromising than the mechanical
facts of industry itself。 And the men who live under the rule of
these economic exigencies are constrained to make their peace
with them； to enter into such working arrangements with one
another as these unbending conditions of the state of the
industrial arts will tolerate； and to cast their system of
imponderables on lines which can be understood by the same men
who understand the industrial arts and the system of material
science which underlies the industrial arts。 So that； in due
course； the accredited schedule of legal and moral rights；
perquisites and obligations will also presently be brought into
passable consistency with the ways and means whereby the
community gets its living。
But it is also logically to be expected that any revision of
the established rights； obligations； perquisites and vested
interests will trail along behind the change which has taken
effect in the material circumstances of the community and in the
community's knowledge and belief with regard to these material
circumstances； since any such revision of ancient rights and
perquisites will necessarily be consequent upon and conditioned
by that change； and since the axioms of law and custom that
underlie any established schedule of rights and perquisites are
always of the nature of make…believe； and the make…believe is
necessarily built up out of conceptions derived from the
accustomed range of knowledge and belief。
Out…worn axioms of this make…believe order become
superstitions when the scope and method of workday knowledge has
outgrown that particular range of preconceptions out of which
these make…believe axioms are constructed； which comes to saying
that the underlying principles of the system of law and morals
are therewith caught in a process of obsolescence；
〃depreciation by supersession and disuse。〃 By a figure of speech
it might be said that the community's intangible assets embodied
in this particular range of imponderables have shrunk by that
much； through the decay of these imponderables that are no longer
seasonable； and through their displacement by other figments of
the human brain； a consensus of brains trained into closer
consonance with the latter…day material conditions of life。
Something of this kind； something in the way of depreciation by
displacement； appears now to be overtaking that system of
imponderables that has been handed down into current law and
custom out of that range of ideas and ideals that had the vogue
before the coming of the machine industry and the material
sciences。
Since the underlying principles of the established order are
of this make…believe character； that is to say； since they are
built up out of the range of conceptions that have habitually
been doing duty as the substance of knowledge and belief in the
past； it follows in the nature of the case that any
reconstruction of institutions will be made only tardily；
reluctantly； and sparingly； inasmuch as settled habits of thought
are given up tardily； reluctantly and sparingly。 And this will
particularly be true when the reconstruction of unseasonable
institutions runs counter to a settled and honorable code of
ancient principles and a stubborn array of vested interests； as
in this instance。 Such is the promise of the present situation；
and such is also the record of the shift that was once before
made from medieval to modern times。 It should be a case of break
or bend。
Chapter 3
The State of the Industrial Arts
The modern point of view； with its constituent principles of
equal opportunity； self…help； and free bargaining； was given its
definitive formulation in the eighteenth century； as a balanced
system of Natural Rights； and it has stood over intact since that
time； and has served as the unquestioned and immutable ground of
public morals and expediency； on which the advocates of
enlightened and liberal policies have always been content to rest
in their case。 The truths which it holds to be self…evident and
indefeasible are conceived to be intrinsically bound up in an
over…ruling Order of Nature； in which thoughtful men habitually
believed at that time and in which less thoughtful men have
continued to believe since then。 This eighteenth…century order of
nature； in the magic name of which Adam Smith was in the habit of
speaking； was conceived on lines of personal initiative and
activity。 It is an order of things in which men were conceived to
be effectually equal in all those respects that are of any
decided consequence； in intelli
