CHAPTER XXXV
THE CAUSES OF THINGS
I studied Latin for five years in college, and from this
study brought away a dozen Latin verses. One of them is
from Virgil: "Happy he who has learned to know the causes
of things." The words have stayed in my mind, summing up
the purpose of my intellectual life: Not to rest content with
observing phenomena, but to know what they mean, how they
have come to be, how they may be guided and developed, or,
if evil, may be counteracted. I would not have taken the
trouble to write a book to say to the reader: I have been
persecuted for twenty years by prostitute Journalism. The
thing I am interested in saying is: The prostitution of
Journalism is due to such and such factors, and may be
remedied by such and such changes.
Here is one of the five continents of the world, perhaps the richest of the five in natural resources. As far back as history, anthropology, and even zoology can trace, these natural resources have been the object of competitive struggle. For the past four hundred years this struggle has been ordained by the laws and sanctified by the religions of man. "Each for himself," we say, and, "the devil take the hindmost." "Dog eat dog," we say. "Do others or they will do you," we say. "Business is business," we say. "Get the stuff," we say. "Money talks," we say. "The Almighty Dollar," we say. So, by a thousand native witticisms, we Americans make clear our attitude toward the natural resources of our continent.
As a result of four centuries of this attitude, ordained by law and sanctified by religion, it has come about that at this beginning of the twentieth century the massed control of the wealth of America lies in the hands of perhaps a score of powerful individuals. We in America speak of steel kings and coal barons, of lords of wheat and lumber and oil and railroads, and think perhaps that we are using metaphors; but the simple fact is that the men to whom we refer occupy in the
