What Social Classes Owe to Each Other   By: William Graham Sumner (1840-1910)

Transcriber's Note: The original from which this text is transcribed uses an unusual capitalization style which has been faithfully reproduced. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of this document. With no copyright notice, the 1951 intro falls under Rule 5, and is therefore public domain.

WHAT SOCIAL CLASSES OWE TO EACH OTHER

By WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER

First published by Harper & Brothers, 1883

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE FOREWORD 5

INTRODUCTION 7

I. ON A NEW PHILOSOPHY: THAT POVERTY IS THE BEST POLICY 13

II. THAT A FREE MAN IS A SOVEREIGN, BUT THAT A SOVEREIGN CANNOT TAKE "TIPS" 25

III. THAT IT IS NOT WICKED TO BE RICH: NAY, EVEN, THAT IT IS NOT WICKED TO BE RICHER THAN ONE'S NEIGHBOR 38

IV. ON THE REASONS WHY MAN IS NOT ALTOGETHER A BRUTE 51

V. THAT WE MUST HAVE FEW MEN, IF WE WANT STRONG MEN 63

VI. THAT HE WHO WOULD BE WELL TAKEN CARE OF MUST TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF 71

VII. CONCERNING SOME OLD FOES UNDER NEW FACES 88

VIII. ON THE VALUE, AS A SOCIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE, OF THE RULE TO MIND ONE'S OWN BUSINESS 97

IX. ON THE CASE OF A CERTAIN MAN WHO IS NEVER THOUGHT OF 107

X. THE CASE OF THE FORGOTTEN MAN FARTHER CONSIDERED 116

XI. WHEREFORE WE SHOULD LOVE ONE ANOTHER 132

FOREWORD

Written more than fifty years ago in 1883 WHAT SOCIAL CLASSES OWE TO EACH OTHER is even more pertinent today than at the time of its first publication. Then the arguments and "movements" for penalizing the thrifty, energetic, and competent by placing upon them more and more of the burdens of the thriftless, lazy and incompetent, were just beginning to make headway in our country, wherein these "social reforms" now all but dominate political and so called "social" thinking.

Among the great nations of the world today, only the United States of America champions the rights of the individual as against the state and organized pressure groups, and our faith has been dangerously weakened watered down by a blind and essentially false and cruel sentimentalism.

In "Social Classes" Sumner defined and emphasized the basically important role in our social and economic development played by "The Forgotten Man." The misappropriation of this title and its application to a character the exact opposite of the one for whom Sumner invented the phrase is, unfortunately, but typical of the perversion of words and phrases indulged in by our present day "liberals" in their attempt to further their revolution by diverting the loyalties of individualists to collectivist theories and beliefs.