VIII

THE MARGIN OF THE COMMUNITY

The change of ethical consciousness among church people in recent years
takes the form of a transference of interest from the individual to the
community. The literature of religious and ethical thought is full of
appeal to "serve the community." The working out of any religious or
ethical force in modern society is guided by the closely compacted and
highly organic character of present-day social life.

In the old times in America, which have so recently gone, men were of
one class; the community was homogeneous; universal acquaintance
prevailed.

The unit of value in American life until recent years was the successful
man, because we faced a continent unexplored. Unpossessed commercial
resources were before the people. The standard of the time of Horace
Greeley was the standard of individual success, of initial utility. The
town boasted of the man it had "turned out." The church measured its
value by the rich and benevolent farmer or merchant, and by the
individuals whose piety or literary success seemed to express the life
of the church. There was an opportunity for all, because crude
resources, numberless openings offered themselves to every one who had
character, industry and brains.

Within a decade the American people have become conscious that their
resources are numbered. The free lands of the West are assigned. The
tons of coal under the ground are estimated. The amount of timber, of
copper and of iron still unexploited is known, and public discussion is
centered upon the limits to the growth of the American population, and
the possibilities of more economical organization of life. We can no
longer waste as once we could. The problem is now a problem of economy.
Instead of the standards of a time of plenty we are confronted with
problems of bare subsistence.

In times of plenty, when resources are not yet exhausted, men's lives
diverge and the individual is the unit of thought and feeling. The
natural result of a time of plenty is the development and the endowment
of personality. But in times when a bare subsistence is the condition
with which many are confronted, men are drawn together and the community
becomes the unit of thought and feeling. Industry as it matures brings
men together. It becomes evident that they depend upon one another.

Men who in a time of plenty would seek an independent fortune, under
conditions of bare subsistence are contented to secure em