“Human art creating species, giant species,—is that a mere trifle? Are we not on the way to becoming gods, when we conquer the mysterious power from which flows new life in new forms?
“But wait! We are still far distant from that. Our moral will still stands much below our physical power. Our colleague, Chlodwig Helmer, has attached this reproach to the conquest of the air, and with equal justice this same reproach can be made to our conquest of the hidden creative forces of the earth. We master the technical, the mechanical, the physical—but where remains the uplift and the depth? Where remains the exultant comprehension of the miracle, where the ecstasy?
“Certainly, those inventions are not passing without any notice. Professionals have busied themselves with them. Capitalists have made use of them; first in small concerns, then gradually in great corporations—but always for the advantage of the exploiters. There are already stretches of the Sahara given over to culture of the Opuntia cactus; there are California vegetable-gardens, raising the giant cabbage, and a lively export trade is carried on with it, made very difficult, however, by the customs restrictions hastily imposed: the poor lands must still be forefended against overabundance—they must never be swamped with cheap foreign products. Divitiae ante portas.... An agrarian ‘Marseillaise’ will soon be sung with a fiscal rattle of drums: ‘Aux tarifs, citoyens!’”
“Oh, dear!” whispered Malhof, who was a warm advocate of protectionism; “the man comes out for free trade. Is that also to be a part of High Thinking?”
Helmer nodded: “Certainly. Freedom belongs to the highest concepts.”
“I also prize freedom, especially in love!” said Malhof; “but in the domain of political economy—”
Franka uttered a warning: “Sh!” She wanted to hear the address.
The speaker went on to say:—
“A strange error has been holding and still largely holds men in its toils: The belief that the good things of this world are to be had in a constant and limited quantity; he who would have anything must take it from some one else; every man can get more only at the expense of some one else who gets less. And thus, all practical self-seeking, all ethical altruism, all political-economical wisdom is confined to the rearrangement, the redivision, the stealing, and the giving away of the whole existent mass. This error in its most primitive form engendered the battle for the fertile soil: every consumer left dead was a gain for the hungry survivors. At the first beginnings, the belief that the good things were limited in quantity was by no means a heresy ... nothing at all was produced. In later times, however, such an increase in the general store of wealth has come about that no one any longer would have needed to starve had not limited exchange, unjust division, and senseless waste assured the continuance of poverty! The worse waste consists in the nations’ spending two thirds of their wealth in making preparations to annihilate the other third.
“O Stupidity, mighty sovereign, thy empire is abysmally deep! We know well that the common possession has greatly increased, but still we say to ourselves: ‘Not enough, not enough!’ And still we think that property is a thing which may be looted and must be defended. And still we believe that any one can win only in proportion as another loses!