We have seen the conflict of ideas in the War:  the German philosophy that man exists for the state, the contrasting idea of democracy that the state exists for man.  We may well ask why any institution should be regarded as sacred, except as it has the adventitious sacredness, coming from time, convention and hoary tradition.  It was said long ago that “the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,” and the statement may be universalized.  Every institution on earth—­marriage, the family, education, the church, the state—­was made for man and not man for the institution.  Humanity must always be the end.  Why should we perpetuate any institution that does not serve life?  Kant voiced the principle in his second imperative of duty:  “Always treat humanity, whether in thine own person or that of any other, as an end withal, and never as a means only.”  Kant was a Prussian philosopher:  one wonders what he would have thought of the “Kanonen-Futter” theory of manhood!

An organization or institution is only a machine, an instrument for a purpose.  Thus always it is a means, never an end:  its value lies in serving its purpose—­the end of human life.  So the whole existing order must justify itself.  Where it rests on forms of injustice, it must be broken or destroyed, and there is no reason to fear the breaking.

Thus there is no “divine right” of kings.  They represent a vested interest, surviving from the past.  They must justify themselves by the service of those under them, or pass.

Similarly, there is no divine right of a class or caste, enjoying supremacy or special privilege.  It also is a surviving vested interest, that must justify itself, or be swept aside as an incubus.

The same test applies to an empire.  It, too, is a vested interest, developed out of conditions prevailing in the past.  If it does not justify itself by the largest service of all within it, then it, too, is an anachronistic survival, no longer to be tolerated.

The principle is universal:  the institution of private property, the controlling power of captains of industry, the capitalistic system, finally, the state itself, in every form:  all are vested interests that may be permitted to continue in the exercise of power only as they prove their superiority to any other form of organization in serving the good of all.

This does not mean that, under democracy, the individual shall fail of sacrifice and the dedication to something higher than himself.  That is the glory of life, transfiguring human nature, and without it, life sinks to sordid selfishness.  Your life is worth, not what you have, but what you are, and what you are is determined by that to which you dedicate yourself.  Is it creature comforts, pleasure, selfish privilege, or the largest life and the fullest service of humanity?  What you have is merely the condition, the important question is, what do you do with it?  Is it wealth, prosperity:  do you sit down comfortably on the fact of it, to secure all the selfish pleasures possible; or do you regard your fortunate circumstances as so much more opportunity and obligation of leadership and service?  Is it poverty, even starvation:  do you whine and grovel, or stand erect, with shut teeth, andwring heroic manhood from the breast of suffering?