Wherever we can read human history, the answer is always the same. Where
commerce has flourished there civilization has increased. It has not
sufficed that men should tend their flocks, and maintain themselves in
comfort on their industry alone, however great. It is only when the
exchange of products begins that development follows. This was the case
in ancient Babylon, whose records of trade and banking we are just
beginning to read. Their merchandise went by canal and caravan to the
ends of the earth. It was not the war galleys, but the merchant vessel
of Phoenicia, of Tyre, and Carthage that brought them civilization and
power. To-day it is not the battle fleet, but the mercantile marine
which in the end will determine the destiny of nations. The advance of
our own land has been due to our trade, and the comfort and happiness of
our people are dependent on our general business conditions. It is only
a figure of poetry that "wealth accumulates and men decay." Where wealth
has accumulated, there the arts and sciences have flourished, there
education has been diffused, and of contemplation liberty has been born.
The progress of man has been measured by his commercial prosperity. I
believe that these considerations are sufficient to justify our business
enterprise and activity, but there are still deeper reasons. I have
intended to indicate not only that commerce is an instrument of great
power, but that commercial development is necessary to all human
progress. What, then, of the prevalent criticism? Men have mistaken the
means for the end. It is not enough for the individual or the nation to
acquire riches. Money will not purchase character or good government. We
are under the injunction to "replenish the earth and subdue it," not so
much because of the help a new earth will be to us, as because by that
process man is to find himself and thereby realize his highest destiny.
Men must work for more than wages, factories must turn out more than
merchandise, or there is naught but black despair ahead.