Economics

Economics is the science which treats of the production and distribution of wealth, and of the means and methods of living well. The ancients felt that every piece of sculpture was the embodiment of an idea or sentiment, and was produced on the principle that there is a perfect correspondence between mental states and physical expression.

We of the present day recognize that there is a direct correspondence between mental states and the condition of the human body, and that knowledge has been so formulated that we now know that every condition is an effect, and this effect is a result of a cause which had its origin in an idea.

Modern science is now directing attention to the fact that ideas are also responsible for every form of wealth and its distribution. The science of economics is therefore seen to be the science which treats of the laws governing ideas and their expression on a material plane.

It takes the sun about two thousand years to pass from one sign of the Zodiac to another. In oriental literature these are called sub-race periods, for it is during such a period that a nation is born, matures, grows old and dies. Most of the European nations are now ending their two thousand year cycle, and the necessary readjustments are taking place. It remains then for us, a new nation, in a new world, to assist in the readjustment.

In this readjustment it might be well to remember that intelligence rules; that constructive thought, intelligently directed, automatically causes its object to materialize on the objective plane; that cause and effect are supreme in a universe governed by immutable law; that it is the mind alone which can furnish the knowledge with which to ameliorate the conditions of life. It is the mind which builds every house, writes every book, paints every picture; it is the mind which suffers and enjoys; it follows that a knowledge of the functions of the mind rank first in importance to the human race.

Senator Wadsworth recently said: “I pray that the time will come when American public opinion will come to an appreciation of what organic chemistry means, of what research means, in the way of progress. We have been interested as a people in the development of material resources—the digging of iron and coal from the ground, the raising of crops upon the surface, and the engaging in transportation and other forms of commercial effort. As a people we have paid little attention and given little encouragement to scientific research, but Mr. President and Senators, the progress of the future depends upon scientific research. It is the man working in the chemical laboratory who is to blaze the way for human progress.”

He went on to say: “I believe that in organic chemistry lies the solution of the secrets of the past and of the future. I believe that its establishment and maintenance in this country, even under an embargo, means the happiness, the progress, and the security of 100,000,000 people.”

Senator Frelinghuysen added: “When we realize that it was due to the genius of the German chemists, and the advance in the science by the German industries, that enabled Germany to get almost to the channel ports; when we realize that the next war will be fought with chemicals, I think it is our patriotic duty to give this industry the highest protection that can be imposed.”

It is true that many of the more important discoveries in science are due to the genius of German chemists; it is also true that the next war, if there be one, will be fought with chemicals, but the next and all future wars will be won by an understanding of mental chemistry.

Try to realize the situation, think for a moment, see an army of men pass in review, four abreast, all men in the prime of life, see them march on and on, men from Germany, men from France, from England, from Belgium, from Austria, from Russia, from Poland, from Rumania, from Bulgaria, from Servia, from Turkey, yes and from China and Japan, India, New Zealand, Australia, Egypt and America, on they go, marching all day long, all the next day and the day after, all the week they keep coming and the next week, and the next week, and the next month, for it would take months for this army of ten million men to pass any given point. All dead, and dead only because a few men in high places were more concerned about organic chemistry than they were about mental chemistry. They did not know that force can always be met with equal or superior force; they did not know that a higher law always controls a lower law, and because intelligent men and women allowed a few men in high places to control their thinking processes, the entire world must sit in sack-cloth and ashes, for the living will find it necessary to work the rest of their lives in order to even pay the interest on the obligations assumed and their children will find these obligations an inheritance, and they in turn will pass them on to their children and their children’s children.

A celebrated European statesman visions the present situation as follows:

“Unfortunately, the ills of a war like that of 1914-1918 are repaired but with difficulty. Given even the entire good faith of the conquered, if the latter by conscientious labor genuinely desired to help the world out of its sanguinary nightmare and back to normal life, that world would none the less remain for a long time hopelessly adrift and at sea. We are assisting today at the prolongation of a war which is not even likely to approach a conclusion unless there is a new orientation of a peace-time energy. Finances upside down, budgets artificially met, rates of exchange giving 65 francs to the pound and 14 to the dollar, a terribly distorted fiduciary circulation, an ever-increasing cost of living, strikes, rapid changes in the stock markets, making commerce and industry impossible; accumulation of stocks—such is the ransom of these four years of war. It was materially impossible that either for conqueror or conquered aught else should result from this world catastrophe than complete chaos for all. Millions of men are not consecrated for 52 months to a work of death and destruction for the world to be re-established on the morrow of peace. Such rapidity of reacquired equilibrium is beyond the bounds of human practicability.”

It will be remembered that the Master Metaphysician said the same thing in somewhat different language many years ago:

“Then shall be great tribulation such as never was since the beginning of the world, nor never shall be afterwards, and if that period would not be shortened no flesh at all would be saved, but for the elect’s sake that period will be shortened.”—Matt.

That people are beginning to think is evident; formerly when men were discontented or dissatisfied they met in a near-by saloon, had a few drinks and promptly forgot their discontent and dissatisfaction. The situation is very different under existing conditions, men spend their time reading, studying and thinking, and the more they think the less satisfied they become.

Leaders of men all know this, for this reason England has her ale, Scotland her whisky, France her absinthe, Germany her beer and we of America who are recruited from all of these have had all forms of alcohol, it is by far the easiest way of keeping the people “happy and contented.” A man who has access to a fair percentage of alcohol, will not ask too many questions, if he does give him another drink.

This method of reducing the citizens of a country to a kind of idiotic servility has the additional advantage in that it produces enormous revenues which may be used for reducing them to economic slavery as well as spiritual slavery, for the man who cannot think has but small prospect of ever coming into any understanding of spiritual truth.

But because the opium traffic furnishes millions of revenue for Englishmen, millions of Chinese must be sacrificed, and because the sale and distribution of alcohol furnishes million dollar accounts for large banks and trust companies, $100,000.00 fees for corporation attorneys, because it makes it possible to lead large masses of men to the polls for the purpose of voting for political parties which are both morally and politically bankrupt, there are those who would again inflict this deadly curse upon the citizens of our country.

Dr. Woods Hutchinson tells us that the death rate for the United States has fallen in the last three years from 14.2 to 12.3 a thousand, which represents a saving of over 200,000 lives a year since the brewers’ business was closed down. “Almost unanimous reports from public school teachers, school and district nurses, welfare workers among the poor, intelligent police chiefs and heads of charitable organizations, show that never, in all their experience, has there been so striking an improvement in the feeding, the clothing, the general comfort and welfare of school children as within the last two years.”

And yet there are those who favor the modification of the Volstead act. There is probably not a single individual in existence whose thinking processes are in such an infantile stage of development that he does not know that when a door has been partly opened it requires but the pressure of the little finger to push it wide open, so that modification is but another word for annullment with all of its physical, mental, moral and spiritual degradation and disaster, and all of the sorrow, suffering, infamy, shame and horror which this most monstrous curse has inflicted upon suffering humanity.

Happiness, prosperity and contentment are the result of clear thinking and right action, for the thought precedes and predetermines the nature of the action. A little artificial stimulation in the form of intoxicating liquor may temporarily still the senses and thus serve to confuse the issue, but as in economics and mechanics every action is followed by a reaction, so in human relations every action is followed by an equal reaction, and so we have come to know that the value of things depends upon the recognition of the value of persons. Whenever a creed becomes current that things are of more importance than people programs become fixed which set the interest of wealth above the interests of people, this action must necessarily be followed by a reaction.

Experience has decided that any stimulus applied statedly to the stomach, which raises its muscular tone above the point at which it can be sustained by food and sleep, produces, when it has passed away, debility—a relaxation of the overworked organ, proportioned to its preternatural excitement. The life-giving power of the stomach falls of course as much below the tone of cheerfulness and health, as it was injudiciously raised above it. If the experiment be repeated often, it produces an artificial tone of stomach, essential to cheerfulness and muscular vigor, entirely above the power of the regular sustenance of nature to sustain, and creates a vacuum which nothing can fill but the destructive power which made it; and when protracted use has made the difference great between the natural and this artificial tone, and habit has made it a second nature, the man is a drunkard, and in ninety-nine instances in a hundred is irretrievably undone.

Beer has been recommended as a substitute, and a means of leading back the captive to health and liberty. But though it may not create intemperate habits as soon, it has no power to allay them. It will even finish what alcohol has begun, and with this difference only, that it does not rasp the vital organs with quite so keen a file, and enables the victim to come down to his grave by a course somewhat more dilatory, and with more of the goodnatured stupidity of the idiot and less of the demoniac frenzy of the madman.

Wine has been prescribed as a means of decoying the intemperate from the ways of death. But habit cannot be thus cheated out of its dominion, nor ravening appetite be amused down to a sober and temperate demand. It is not true that wine will restore the intemperate, or stay the progress of the disease. Enough must be taken to screw up nature to the tone of cheerfulness, or she will cry, “Give,” with an importunity not to be resisted; and long before the work of death is done, wine will fail to minister a stimulus of sufficient activity to rouse the flagging spirits, or will become acid on the enfeebled stomach, and whisky and brandy will be called in to hasten to its consummation the dilatory work of self-destruction.

The history of the world confirms this conclusion. Egypt, once at the head of nations, has, under the weight of her own effeminacy, gone down to the dust. The victories of Greece let in upon her the luxuries of the East, and covered her glory with a night of ages. And Rome, whose iron foot trod down the nations and shook the earth, witnessed in her latter days faintness of heart and the shield of the mighty vilely cast away.

Marion Leroy Burton, President of the University of Michigan, says: “Perhaps the most solemn question that can be put to a person today is, ‘Can you think?’ The test of individual efficiency and usefulness to society centers in a man’s ability to use his mind. Emerson never erected a more arresting danger signal than when he exclaimed: ‘Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on the planet.’ If we could only harness the mental power of America today we could solve the gigantic problems of the world. Not by appeals to prejudice and class interest, not by the hurling of epithets, not by the ready acceptance of half truths, not by superficial, but by careful, painstaking, scientific, scholarly thought combined with wise and timely action, will civilization be rescued and human freedom made secure. Upon Education depends the future of Democracy. Therefore, every loyal citizen, every self-respecting person, must utilize his opportunities to strengthen his grip on knowledge and to stimulate his mind. The truth has always made men free, and truth is available only for him who thinks.”

Roger W. Babson says: “If statistics have taught us any one thing during the past twenty years, it is that the spiritual factor is the greatest factor in the growth of communities and nations. It is well enough to talk about land, labor and capital. They all have their uses and functions, but of themselves they are helpless in bringing about prosperity. Land, labor and capital existed long before there was even civilization. Many great nations, such as Babylon, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and even Spain, have possessed land, labor and capital in abundance, but fell for want of this far more important quality—the spiritual factor.

“I’m looking out of my window at the highway where a man is at work with a pick. The highway is the land; the man is the labor; and the pick is the capital. This is a perfect illustration of land, labor and capital; but it also illustrates that such a combination can be used either to destroy or to construct,—to break up the road, or to repair the road. The man can use the pick to make the ruts and holes deeper, or to fill them up. It all depends upon the purpose, the motive and the desire of the man. Purpose, motive and desire are spiritual factors and are all important. Land, labor and capital, and even education, are mere tools which can be used either for good or for evil. Two men graduate from the same law school and get the same degree;—one uses his education to uphold the law, and the other uses his education to help men evade the law. Two chemists graduate from the same technical school in the same class;—one uses his training to make foods pure; and the other uses the same training to adulterate foods.”

Thinking is a creative process and combination is the key. Nature combines electrons, atoms, molecules, cells and the final result is the Universe. In the field of human endeavor all progression, development and achievement is the result of following the lesson learned from nature, and man has risen step by step from the primitive brute state to his present position of mastership by combining, uniting and relating thoughts, things and forces.

In the domain of science and invention, in the realm of art, literature, and business, in every department of human activity, by combining the common, the usual, the known, man has unveiled and discovered the uncommon, the unusual, the unknown. Man has progressed rapidly in spite of the fact that the method pursued in finding out new combinations was used unconsciously and unsystematically. In order to eliminate accident and chance, there must be employed a scientific method, applied consciously and systematically, exhaustively, earnestly, honestly, continuously, resulting in greater success, more wonderful discoveries, more numerous and astounding inventions.

Mental Chemistry is a scientific method of creating new ideas, of mastering any subject, of mastering and increasing any business, of mastering any profession, or of solving any problem. This method will be worth nothing unless it is applied. If the application is made honestly, earnestly and systematically it will bring great results.

The method stated in a nutshell is the systematic combining of concepts. Conception is the mental act of grasping the common qualities of many objects and uniting them into a single notion. This single notion is a concept.

Make an inventory of all the concepts in your particular business or in any departments of nature, or in any sphere of human activity.

Study the inter-relation of each one in the list with every other one in it.

Your table of concepts must be an exhaustive list of every known fact, item, implement, law and method connected with your department of thought and labor.

If you have any special problem to solve select those concepts in your list which more directly apply to the thing you seek, and see how you can combine those you have thus selected out of the entire list.

To illustrate: Combine concept one with concept two, that will give you an idea. Combine concept one with concept three, that will give you an idea. Combine concept one with concept four, that will give you an idea. And so run concept one down the entire list of selected concepts or until such point when the idea you seek is forthcoming, but if you finish concept one without result then take up concept two and combine it with one, with three and four and so on to the end. This process will give you another set of new ideas.

Then take concept three down the line to the end, then concept four and so on until you find the idea you are searching for, or in case you wish to make a veritable thesaurus of new ideas, until you have treated every concept in the list to a relation with every other concept in it, then combine your concepts in pairs, then in threes and fours. Your list of concepts and such use of it as given above is almost an exhaustless fountain of new ideas which by this process multiply in rapid geometrical ratio.

The use of this method will solve any problem that may confront you. It will bring you success no matter what your goal may be. It will be more easily and quickly reached in Science, in Art, in Literature it will crown you with achievement in business, it will reflect in increased profits, in your environment by happiness and contentment. It will place you always on the right path provided that you use it earnestly, honestly and continuously.

Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise / From outward things, whate’er you may believe, / There is an inmost center in us all, / Where Truth abides in fullness; and around, / Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, / This perfect clear conception—which is Truth. / A baffling and perverting carnal mesh / Blinds it, and makes all error; and, to know / Rather consists in opening out a way / Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, / Than in effecting entry for a light / Supposed to be without. —Robert Browning.