Philip Dru: Administrator | Page 4

that is at fault. His struggle and his
environment from childhood have blinded him to the truth. To those with whom he has
come in contact, it has been the dollar and not the man that counted. He has been
schooled to think that capital can buy labor as it would machinery, the human equation
not entering into it. He believes that it would be equivalent to confiscation for the State to
say 'in regard to a corporation, labor, the State and capital are important in the order
named.' Good man that he means to be, he does not know, perhaps he can never know,
that it is labor, labor of the mind and of the body, that creates, and not capital."
"You would have a hard time making Father see that," put in Gloria, with a smile.
"Yes!" continued Philip, "from the dawn of the world until now, it has been the strong
against the weak. At the first, in the Stone Age, it was brute strength that counted and
controlled. Then those that ruled had leisure to grow intellectually, and it gradually came
about that the many, by long centuries of oppression, thought that the intellectual few had
God-given powers to rule, and to exact tribute from them to the extent of commanding
every ounce of exertion of which their bodies were capable. It was here, Gloria, that
society began to form itself wrongly, and the result is the miserable travesty of to-day.
Selfishness became the keynote, and to physical and mental strength was conceded
everything that is desirable in life. Later, this mockery of justice, was partly recognized,
and it was acknowledged to be wrong for the physically strong to despoil and destroy the

physically weak. Even so, the time is now measurably near when it will be just as
reprehensible for the mentally strong to hold in subjection the mentally weak, and to
force them to bear the grievous burdens which a misconceived civilization has imposed
upon them."
Gloria was now thoroughly interested, but smilingly belied it by saying, "A history
professor I had once lost his position for talking like that."
The young man barely recognized the interruption.
"The first gleam of hope came with the advent of Christ," he continued. "So warped and
tangled had become the minds of men that the meaning of Christ's teaching failed utterly
to reach human comprehension. They accepted him as a religious teacher only so far as
their selfish desires led them. They were willing to deny other gods and admit one
Creator of all things, but they split into fragments regarding the creeds and forms
necessary to salvation. In the name of Christ they committed atrocities that would put to
blush the most benighted savages. Their very excesses in cruelty finally caused a
revolution in feeling, and there was evolved the Christian religion of to-day, a religion
almost wholly selfish and concerned almost entirely in the betterment of life after death."
The girl regarded Philip for a second in silence, and then quietly asked, "For the
betterment of whose life after death?"
"I was speaking of those who have carried on only the forms of religion. Wrapped in the
sanctity of their own small circle, they feel that their tiny souls are safe, and that they are
following the example and precepts of Christ.
"The full splendor of Christ's love, the grandeur of His life and doctrine is to them a thing
unknown. The infinite love, the sweet humility, the gentle charity, the subordination of
self that the Master came to give a cruel, selfish and ignorant world, mean but little more
to us to-day than it did to those to whom He gave it."
"And you who have chosen a military career say this," said the girl as her brother joined
the pair.
To Philip her comment came as something of a shock, for he was unprepared for these
words spoken with such a depth of feeling.
Gloria and Philip Dru spent most of graduation day together. He did not want to intrude
amongst the relatives and friends of his classmates, and he was eager to continue his
acquaintance with Gloria. To the girl, this serious-minded youth who seemed so strangely
out of tune with the blatant military fanfare, was a distinct novelty. At the final ball she
almost ignored the gallantries of the young officers, in order that she might have
opportunity to lead Dru on to further self-revelation.
The next day in the hurry of packing and departure he saw her only for an instant, but
from her brother he learned that she planned a visit to the new Post on the Rio Grande
near Eagle Pass where Jack Strawn and Philip were to be stationed after their vacation.

Philip spent his leave, before he went