If material rewards be the only measure of success, there is no hope of
a peaceful solution of our social questions, for they will never be
large enough to satisfy. But such is not the case. Men struggle for
material success because that is the path, the process, to the
development of character. We ought to demand economic justice, but most
of all because it is justice. We must forever realize that material
rewards are limited and in a sense they are only incidental, but the
development of character is unlimited and is the only essential. The
measure of success is not the quantity of merchandise, but the quality
of manhood which is produced.

These, then, are the justifying conceptions of the spirit of our age;
that commerce is the foundation of human progress and prosperity and the
great artisan of human character. Let us dismiss the general indictment
that has all too long hung over business enterprise. While we continue
to condemn, unsparingly, selfishness and greed and all trafficking in
the natural rights of man, let us not forget to respect thrift and
industry and enterprise. Let us look to the service rather than to the
reward. Then shall we see in our industrial army, from the most exalted
captain to the humblest soldier in the ranks, a purpose worthy to
minister to the highest needs of man and to fulfil the hope of a fairer
day.




IV

AT THE HOME OF DANIEL WEBSTER, MARSHFIELD