ability or desert. Thus we have a leisure class emerging as the result
of inborn differences between men, supplemented by the accumulation of
wealth and its transmission by inheritance.

102. THE QUESTION OF INDUSTRIAL REFORM.--It goes without saying that
great inequalities in the distribution of wealth are undesirable. If
any improvement is humanly possible, we ought not to rest content so
long as millions of our citizens have too few of the good things of
life, while others have much more than is necessary for comfort and
happiness. The test of an economic system is whether or not it
provides a good world to live in, and so long as large numbers of
individuals have fewer necessities and comforts than it is possible to
give them, our economic system must be considered defective. The
people as a group are both the means and the end of progress.
Democracy cannot rest upon any other basis than the greatest good to
the greatest number.

103. APPROACHING THE PROBLEM.--In approaching the problem of
industrial reform it is necessary to cultivate a fair and sane
attitude. We must attack all of the problems of American democracy,
certainly. But in so far as some of these problems involve the
integrity of the capitalistic system, we should distinguish between
ills which are clearly traceable to that system, and defects which
obviously would exist under any industrial system. Capitalism cannot
be discredited, for example, by pointing out that crime exists in all
capitalistic countries. Though capitalism may accentuate some types of
crime, our knowledge of human nature leads us to suspect that a
considerable amount of crime would exist under any known system of
industry. Again, criticism should be constructive; it is easy to point
out the defects of an institution, but it is quite another thing to