Now, notice: Christian business men in this brotherless, Christless scramble called business must have the scramble made “respectable.” For this purpose the minister is most serviceable. The business men need the minister—“need him in their business”—to consecrate and sanctify the ways and means, even the sword, the cannon and the vast human slaughterings called war.
“Put up thy sword,” said Christ.
“Business is business! Bless the butcher! Grind sharp the sword,” commands the business man.
But “no man can serve two masters.”
Here the minister, just like the “common working man,” is face to face with the MOST DOMINEERING FACT AND FORCE IN HUMAN LIFE; namely, ECONOMIC NECESSITY. The preacher and the plumber, the rabbi and the sweat-shop tailor, the priest and the hod-carrier—these must live; they must “get a living.” But the capitalist controls the opportunities to “get a living.” The “common working man” is embarrassed. The minister is also embarrassed—tho’ he may be—and very often is—one of the noblest men in the world, he is embarrassed. This ECONOMIC force grips them both like a vise. They must live. To live they must kneel before the king—the kings in industry.
Obey or starve.
The inevitable follows:
The plain common working man and the haughty and cultivated minister—both of them—bow their heads and submit their necks to the cruel yoke, the yoke of capitalism.
The rulers rule.
Capitalism, internationally, is—for capitalists—a struggle for a strangle hold among jealously competing, unneighborly neighbors, a struggle for business.