We live in an age of industrialism and every one of us is convinced that industrialization is the only way to get out of our economic difficulties. At the same time there is unanimity of opinion that industrialism is the parent of many ills and as such in something not absolutely desirable.
It is said that industrialism makes a country material in its our look; people tend to forget that man does not live by bread alone they come to believe that the accumulation of wealth and living in luxury are the be-all and the end all of life. The result is that a highly industrialized country may ultimately place on exaggerated importance on the material things of life rather than to the after neglect of the spiritual.
If capital is not given this unlimited scope and freedom to accumulate in the hands of a few and if man is denied the right to exploit his fellow men for his personal benefit all these evils of industrialization may be greatly diminished. Wealth will then be a going to the community as a whole and large scale industrial production will bring about equal improvement in the conditions of all and no one community will thrive at the expense of other.
Hence the cure for the evils of industrialism lies, not in forswearing it, but in doing away with the system to which they are chiefly due. A machine is only an instrument of production. If the product of machines belong to the whole nation, then wealth will be more evenly distributed. And in course of time we might hope for a society in which there will be sufficiency for all and not superfluity for a few. That will bring into existence a higher level of cultural life, large leisure to be spent the pursuit of mental culture, greater economic freedom for all to pursue their own individual states and a wider diffusion of the co-operative spirit so that men will find it most natural to act and think not for himself only but for all.
