8
UNIVERSITY COURIER.
The Bible, the word of God, to any people is the number af God's words they have been able to make out.
Some men of every age have seen their times as the hour before day. Because they felt the dark was it possible for the light to come. And it will come to us, brighter than ever before. Some men happily shall still feel the gloom that will remain, thus will yet more sunshine come.
By the daylight of to-morrow I see written abolition of dogma and cant, merited rewards to every man, devotion to all the time we can find, the most sacred worship of the most divine God to whom the voice of of a people ever murmered thanksgivings.
It must all come about in Socrates' way. Some men must theorize and find the faults; then, instead of turning cynic, kindly tell us where we are wrong; tell us kindly but so plainly that we will consent to take time to become broader men.
Thus shall we approach the day Jean Paul Richter saw when he said, "There will come another era when it shall be light and man will awake from his lofty dreams to find his dreams still there and that nothing is gone save his sleep. Thus shall man learn to live that mighty syllogism, the premises of which are energy and integrity, the conclusion victory."
THE RELATION OF ETHICS TO ECONOMICS.
BY W. C. SPANGLER, SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT.
I suppose it is still a debatable question whether the world grows better as it grows older—whether in our desire for material success we have not lost sight to a large degree, of honor, truth, manhood—the very qualities upon which every true life is based. Energetic men and peoples have labored earnestly for centuries yet it has all resulted in dissatisfaction and disappointment. The scholar is pained because the tendency of effort is not toward making men nobler and better and those engaged in the different industries are dissatisfied, because they are hampered and checked, and are denied the best conditions under which to exert their energy and employ their genious.
The study of economics is every year taking a more important place in college curriculums and is gradually attracting the serious thought of all classes of men. A proper understanding of this science—for it is commonly called a science—would do much toward curing many of the evils which have grown up under the sanction of individuals and governments; might and would lift some of the burdens from the poor and eradicate much of the prejudice against the rich, but I fear it would not of itself accomplish all that is generally expected or demanded of it. "A just remuneration for labor" is an entirely different phrase in the mouth of the communist and the capitalist, yet there is a certain degree of truth in the construction put upon it by each.
That the capitalist should have fair and even large returns on his investments seems no more than just, since in his wealth is the record of many years of patient toil and self denial and this should not go unrewarded. But on the other hand, the laborer demands a comfortable home, food, rest and leisure. Economics, no matter how carefully studied or conscientiously applied will never lead to a just or equitable solution of this problem. Will it help? Certainly. A multitude of sanctioned evils and as many misapprehended terms, perplexing entanglements, and vitiated methods must be cleared away and this is the work of pure economics.
But I must confess that I have some doubts as to the ultimate sufficiency of this cold, rigid mind-education. The intellect is the faculty which distinguishes man above all creatures, but there is another part which deserves attention. As in the physical organism, so in the moral, the heart, always urging man on toward what is higher and better, sends warm currents throughout every part, invigorating, strengthening and purifying. And as its influence becomes stronger, and begins to direct the action of the intellect the greater and more permanent will be the results; for although it may blindly grope and run to many excesses, its aim is fixed on eternal right, which it is always approaching. Justice is a great boon and rightly venerated but, there are times when its rigorous judgments seem too severe and we think they should be tempered.
Thoughts like these have led me to believe that the domains of etheics and economics, which now are kept entirely distinct from each other or are only conceded to touch at long intervals, should be made to merge gradually the one into the other; that what is right as judged from a moral standpoint should have at least equal weight with the right from an economic point of view.
The moral idea lies at the basis of all sure and true progress in any direction. Man is not an isolated being but a member of society and since his own happiness and success depends largely upon that of others, he should be led to the conclusion that right acting in regard to his neighbors is the best thing for himself. "It is impossible to banish moral law from public economy" says a learned Frenchman and history seems to substantiate the statement.
Men are inclined to think that in matters of so great importance as the public economy, all feeling should be banished and only the cold laws of the science and the critical judgments of the intellect should be followed. There is danger in that sentimentalism, which seeks to express itself in the act termed "legislating morals" but sentimentalism is not feeling, at least in any true sense of the term.
A standard economist claims that "as a science, economics has nothing to do with questions of moral right" and that "the domains of ethics and economies are independent and incommensurable."
According to this school it appeals to enlightened selfishness and exchanges are only made because they are profitable. There is a higher and nobler sphere than this, it seems to me for economics and those who study closely will find that all its successes have been won along the higher grounds, and all its failures have come from following the teachings of the low, materialistic school. There is but little to encourage a thorough