They blame our
industrial system for all the faults which we behold in mankind
generally. And you will find other men who say that man creates his own
conditions; that if the economic, industrial, or social system is bad,
it is but a reflection of what man himself is. What is wrong in our
industrial system is a reflection of what is wrong in man himself.
Manufacturers hesitate to admit that the mistakes of the present
industrial methods are, in part at least, their own mistakes,
systematized and extended. But take the question outside of a man's
immediate concerns, and he sees the point readily enough.
No doubt, with a less faulty human nature a less faulty social system
would have grown up. Or, if human nature were worse than it is, a worse
system would have grown up--though probably a worse system would not
have lasted as long as the present one has. But few will claim that
mankind deliberately set out to create a faulty social system. Granting
without reserve that all faults of the social system are in man himself,
it does not follow that he deliberately organized his imperfections and
established them.
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