This Money Business!

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 44, 4 August 1933, Page 8

This Money Business!

New Social Order Forecast with Moral Values Supreme Money Will Then be Viewed as a Symbol and Not as Commodity A new social order in which moral values will be paramount and money “will be looked upon and treated as the symbol which it is, and not as a commodity with a value and a purpose of its own,” is envisaged by Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, U.S.A., as a possible outcome of efforts to solve the world’s pressing problems.

In an address at the 179th commencement of Columbia University, Dr. Butler .scored modern theories which hold that the social order rests entirely upon an economic foundation, and declared that men need urgently to “shake themselves free from the shackles of what they have so long described as the ‘money power.’ ” “It may well be that as a result of what has been and is now going on in the world, money may be dethroned and expelled from the high place which it has been occupying for some 400 years,” Dr. Butler declared. “Money has in itself no reality and but little value. There is a vast difference between money as a symbol and evidence of value and money as a commodity.

“What has given money its vast influence and its great attractiveness is its possible use to buy power over men. It is this power which the control of money makes possible, and not money, which is putting mankind on guard. “Control of money and constant as-

sociation with money is perhaps the most demoralizing of human occupations. Small wonder that in the ancient world it was thought to be a fit occupation for slaves. “There is something about this contact and control which obscures moral principles and human values and tends to develop a stiffly legalistic attitude toward every human relationship. This contact and control are uniformly accompanied by secretiveness, and secretiveness without any actual falsehood whatever is one of the most effective instruments of deceit.

“Until a condition can be brought about in which money is looked upon and treated as the symbol which it is, and not as a commodity with a value and a purpose of its own, men can never shake themselves free from the shakles of what they have so long described as the ‘Money Power.’ Declaring that the economic recession was the logical result of the acceptance of a theory of the social order and its meaning which rested solely upon the gain-seeking motive and its operation, Dr. Butler continued :

“Put bluntly, this thesis means that the gain-seeking motive is dominant and all-controlling in the life of man. “Once again it is shown that the oldest lesson which mankind has had to learn, and which mankind does not even now fully comprehend, is that the social order rests upon a foundation which is not economic at all, but moral; that the gain-seeking motive, unless it is to become a pathologic phenomenon, must always and everywhere be subordinated to the ideal of human service.

“If the gain-seeking motive is to be exalted to the highest place, then morals disappear and life becomes a struggle for the survival of the most unfit. Whereas, if morals be exalted to the highest place, the gain-seeking motive will be given the subordinate, even if important, place which it can be permitted to occupy, while sound and well-tested ethical ideals will rule the conduct of men and the public policies of nations.”