Individualism: Conwell vs. Lloyd
...n it is no ones fault but your own which derives from his harsh statement. “While we should sympathize with God‘s poor-- that is, those who cannot help themselves -- let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings, of by the shortcomings of someone else. (472) Conwell’s views are effectively refuted by Lloyd, proclaiming that individualism is a wrong. Lloyd states that, “Institutions stand or fall by their philosophy, and the main doctrine of industry since Adam Smith has been the fallacy that the self-interest of the individual was a sufficient guide to the welfare of the individual and society”, which he believes is the historic mistake of society. He sees big corporations as having too much power and that the individuals that run these corporation with only self-interest in mind build big industries to monopolize the economy only to take advantage of the very people who help him build it.(501-511) Conwell blindly states that “the men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community”. He goes on to say that people who object to this reasoning is the main reason why they are have no wealth and that their foundation of faith is untrue. He tries to imply that the reason why rich have such prosperous companies and can find plenty of people to work for them is because they are so honest.(471) Lloyd comes to the logical assumption that the poor are the honest ones because worker were entrusted to run their big corporations and turn over great profits for the owners while making barley enough to live off of shows that the poor must be the honest ones. He supports his point adequately by stating, “ the spectacle of the million and more employees of the railroads of this country dispatching trains, maintaining track, collecting fares and freights and turning over hundreds of millions of net profits to the owners, not one in a thousand of whom would know how to do the simplest of these things for himself, is possible only where civilization has reached a high average of morals and culture”. (505) Throughout both essays there are several reference to religion to sway the reader. One can easily compare Conwell to a sales man trying to sell a dream to promote his own self-interest. In Conwell’s sermon he rarely quotes directly form the Bible, but uses his own religious opinions to promote the church, his university, and of course himself. To support this opinion he argues, “Money printed your Bible, money builds your churches, money sends your missionaries, and money pays your preachers, and you would not have many of them, either, if you didn’t pay them. I am always willing that my church raise my salary,….”. (471) Lloyd’s ess...