Reforms in our banking and currency laws, an extension of banking facilities to the working classes, the more careful regulation of railroad rates, reforms in methods of taxation, and a reduction in the tariff—all are called for by the development and readjustment of industry. On the other hand, much remains to be done in the education of the mass of the people to habits of rational living and enjoyment. In the great cities housing conditions should be effectively regulated, sweatshops suppressed, intemperance discouraged, and where possible a love of art and outdoor life promoted. A more rational use of income would increase the material well-being of the people considerably. Problems of distribution are still more insistent. No one who has the welfare of the laboring classes or of our democratic society at heart can view with approval the existence of widely separated classes, with disproportionate political and economic power. Greater equality in fortunes—a leveling up of incomes—must certainly be regarded as a sound social ideal. On the other hand, we have seen reason to reject the drastic remedies of socialism as a cure for the injustices of present methods of distribution or production. Improvement must come by conservative
reform along the lines of our past development. In the last analysis all attempts to improve conditions permanently depend upon the character and capacity of the individual. Because of this fact education assumes great importance—education not merely in the art of production but also in that supreme art, the art of living.
[1] Tarr, Economic Geology of the U. S., pp. 7, 119.
[2] In Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XIX, p. 3.
[3] McVey, Modern Industrialism, p. 145.
[4] The Truth About the Trusts, p. 469.
[5] Tetter, Principles of Economics, p. 321.
[6] Bogart, Economic History of the U. S., p. 412.
[7] XIX, 645.
[8] Seager, Introduction to Economics, 176.