Fundamentals of Prosperity | Page 6

does the leather come from? Just
follow that leather from the back of the steer until you buy it in the
form of shoes. Think where that steer was raised, and where the leather
was tanned. Think of all the men engaged in the industry from the
cow-punchers to the salesmen in the stores. But there is more than
leather involved in shoes. There is cotton in the shoe lacing and lining.
There is metal in the nails and eyelets. Not only must different
localities coöperate to produce a shoe; but various industries must give
and take likewise.
Civilization is ultimately dependent on the ability of men to coöperate.
The best barometer of civilization is the desire and ability of men to
coöperate. The willingness to share with others,--the desire to work
with others is the great contribution which Christianity has given to the
world. The effect of this new spirit is most thrilling when one considers
the clothes which he has on his back, the food which he has on the table,
the things which he has in the house, and thinks of the thousands of
people whose labour has directly contributed toward these things. Now
this clearly shows that the fourth great fundamental of prosperity is
coöperation, the willingness and ability of men to coöperate, to serve
one another, to help one another, to give and to take.
But the teachings of Jesus along these lines have a very much broader

application than when applied merely to raw materials, or even
manufactured products. As we can begin to prosper only when we
develop into finished products the raw materials of the fields, mines
and forests, so we can become truly prosperous only as we develop the
greatest of all resources,--the human resources. Not only does
Christianity demand that we seek to help and build up others; but our
own prosperity depends thereon as well.
* * * * *
When in Washington, during the war, I had a wonderful opportunity of
meeting the representatives of both labour and capital. I had some
preconceived ideas on the labour question when I went to Washington;
but now they are all gone. I am perfectly willing, now, to agree with the
wage worker, to agree with the employer, to agree with both or to agree
with neither. But this one thing I am sure of, and that is that the present
system doesn't work. The present system is failing in getting men to
produce.
By nature man likes to produce. Our boy, as soon as he can toddle
out-of-doors, starts instinctively to make a mud pie. When he gets a
little older he gets some boards, shingles and nails and builds a hut. Just
as soon as he gets a knife, do you have to show him how to use it? He
instinctively begins to make a boat or an arrow or perhaps something
he has never seen. Why? Because in his soul is a natural desire to
produce and an inborn joy in production. But what happens to most of
these boys after they grow up?
Our industrial system has resulted in almost stultifying men
economically and making most of them economically non-productive.
Why? I don't know. I simply say it happens and the salvation of our
industries depends on discovering something which will revive in man
that desire to produce and that joy in production which he had
instinctively when he was a small boy.
Increased wages will not do it. Shorter hours will not do it. The wage
worker must feel right and the employer must feel right. It is all a
question of feeling. Feelings rule this world,--not things. The reason

that some people are not successful with collective bargaining and
profit sharing and all these other plans is because they think that men
act according to what they say, or according to what they learn, or
according to that in which they agree. Men act according to their
feelings, and "good feeling" is synonymous with the spirit of
coöperation. One cannot exist without the other and prosperity cannot
continue without both. Hence the fourth fundamental of prosperity is
Coöperation.

V
OUR REAL RESOURCES
We have gone daffy over things like steam, electricity, water power,
buildings, railroads, and ships and we have forgotten the human soul
upon which all of these things depend and from which all of these
things originate.
Two captains of industry were standing, one day, on the bridge at
Niagara looking at the great falls. One man turned to the other and said:
"Behold the greatest source of undeveloped power in America."
"No. The greatest source of undeveloped power in America is the soul
of man," the other replied.
I was talking with a large manufacturer the other day, and he told me
that