It has been recently held by eminent biologists that the doctrine of heredity, so far as it in volves the transmission of acquired characteris tics from parent to offspring, must be abandoned. If this position is generally accepted, it will bring into even greater prominence the family, and such other social institutions as are instru mental in passing on from one generation to another the accumulated results of civilization and human experience. It will require greater emphasis upon the educative influences sur rounding the new-born infant, as the chief means of treasuring up and increasing the ca pacities of the race. Parental love, developed through the family, occupies the first place among these influences.
The mission of religion is to bring peace on earth, to strengthen the moral fibre, to aid man in his search for means of satisfying his spiritual needs. Religious association and activity exert an influence on man's character which affects his capacity for the highest efficiency in produc tion. Few other social institutions have proven so powerful a stimulus to undertakings which require the cooperation of a large number of persons and a long interval of time for their completion. The truest economy regularly de mands the sacrifice of temporary for permanent good, of immediate pleasure for a greater satis faction in the future. The man of primitive instincts finds such sacrifice difficult, and if he were to depend purely upon the economic judg ment of the moment the present sacrifice would too often outweigh the permanent gain. The sanctions of religion, and the vivid presentation of duty through the medium of religious instruc tion, prevail against these mistaken judgments, and train the mind to a more active realization of the value of what is permanent, as against that which produces passing sensations of pleas ure. It is precisely in this respect that there is found the greatest difference between the prim itive instinct and the economic instinct. It is a mistake, though not an uncommon one, to credit the economic instinct with the disposition to place material satisfaction above those which spring from man's higher nature. The true economic instinc guards against just that ten dency. It fixes the eye upon the future and highest want, rather than upon the lower and immediate want. Whether or not this instinct might have been developed without the religious influence, it is certain that religion and its agent, the church, have been preeminent among social agencies that have contributed to such develop ment.
Some system of general education may like wise be assumed to be an indispensable social condition of a normal economic life. The ideal of education which society cherishes determines to what extent the conditions favorable to pro duction shall be steadily developed and perma nently insured. If there a clear idea of the extent to which scientific and thorough develop ment of the powers of the future workers is essential to future enjoyment, the're will be a more ready acquiescence in the sacrifice neces sary to secure it. The tendencies favorable to a large and rational production of wealth may be consciously developed by society, and the result will be of permanent advantage to the race. The economic service of the public educational system is not even yet estimated at its true value, nor will it be until we instinctively attribute a portion of the value of all industrial products and professional services to the labors of the teachers who train the children, — including teachers of workshop, school, and home.
A society which looks upon all " legislative interference " as pernicious will have a different production, both in kind and degree, from a society in which the state is an active and sig nificant factor in the industrial organization. While the state is an outside power, imposing its will upon subjects, it is of little economic significance save as it arbitrarily decides what goods shall be made and in what manner. But when through the democratic organization of political society, action by the state has come to mean only one particular form of activity rather than another, all constraint being removed, it assumes an entirely new character. It comes to stand for collective as against isolated activity. The state, whether acting through its national organization or through any of the minor politi cal organs (such as the municipality or that larger unit called in America the state govern ment), becomes the most convenient and man ageable mechanism for accomplishing a large number of industrial objects. It takes upon itself a large proportion of the industrial func tions and becomes the medium through which society apportions the various phases of eco nomic activity to its own agents, to corporate bodies, or to private persons. In this latter capacity the state is the logical though not neces sarily the chronological antecedent of every economic activity. It is a social institution of an indispensable character.