“I hope not,” answered the banker, dryly.  “Utopia is a dream in which those who do the rough work of the world cannot afford to indulge.  And there is one more question.  You will, no doubt, deride it as practical, but to my mind it is very much to the point.  You condemn the business practices in which I have engaged all my life as utterly unchristian.  If you are logical, you will admit that no man or woman who owns stock in a modern corporation is, according to your definition, Christian, and, to use your own phrase, can enter the Kingdom of God.  I can tell you, as one who knows, that there is no corporation in this country which, in the struggle to maintain itself, is not forced to adopt the natural law of the survival of the fittest, which you condemn.  Your own salary, while you had it, came from men who had made the money in corporations.  Business is business, and admits of no sentimental considerations.  If you can get around that fact, I will gladly bow to your genius.  Should you succeed in reestablishing St. John’s on what you call a free basis —­and in my opinion you will not—­even then the money, you would live on, and which supported the church, would be directly or indirectly derived from corporations.”

“I do not propose to enter into an economics argument with you, Mr. Parr, but if you tell me that the flagrant practices indulged in by those who organized the Consolidated Tractions Company can be excused under any code of morals, any conception of Christianity, I tell you they cannot.  What do we see today in your business world?  Boards of directors, trusted by stockholders, betraying their trust, withholding information in order to profit thereby, buying and selling stock secretly; stock watering, selling to the public diluted values,—­all kinds of iniquity and abuse of power which I need not go into.  Do you mean to tell me, on the plea that business is business and hence a department by itself, that deception, cheating, and stealing are justified and necessary?  The awakened conscience of the public is condemning you.

“The time is at hand, though neither you nor I may live to see it, when the public conscience itself is beginning to perceive thin higher justice hidden from you.  And you are attempting to mislead when you do not distinguish between the men who, for their own gain and power, mismanage such corporations as are mismanaged, and those who own stock and are misled.

“The public conscience of which I speak is the leaven of Christianity at work.  And we must be content to work with it, to await its fulfilment, to realize that no one of us can change the world, but can only do his part in making it better.  The least we can do is to refuse to indulge in practices which jeopardize our own souls, to remain poor if we cannot make wealth honestly.  Say what you will, the Christian government we are approaching will not recognize property, because it is gradually becoming clear that the holding of property delays the Kingdom at which you scoff, giving the man who owns it a power over the body of the man who does not.  Property produces slavery, since it compels those who have none to work for those who have.