But Benham did come to realize this broader conflict between worker
and director, between poor man and possessor, between resentful
humanity and enterprise, between unwilling toil and unearned
opportunity. It is a far profounder and subtler conflict than any
other in human affairs. "I can foresee a time," he wrote, "when the
greater national and racial hatreds may all be so weakened as to be
no longer a considerable source of human limitation and misery, when
the suspicions of complexion and language and social habit are
allayed, and when the element of hatred and aggression may be clean
washed out of most religious cults, but I do not begin to imagine a
time, because I cannot imagine a method, when there will not be
great friction between those who employ, those who direct collective
action, and those whose part it is to be the rank and file in
industrialism. This, I know, is a limitation upon my confidence due
very largely to the restricted nature of my knowledge of this sort
of organization. Very probably resentment and suspicion in the mass
and self-seeking and dishonesty in the fortunate few are not so
deeply seated, so necessary as they seem to be, and if men can be
cheerfully obedient and modestly directive in war time, there is no
reason why ultimately they should not be so in the business of
peace.
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