320
PARTISAN REVIEW
think
that
in
a commercial civilization the acquisition of money can
be anything but a prime goal, but I do think that acquisition as a
way of life has become conscious of the effective competition of
other ways of life.
And one of the chief competitors is intellect. We cannot, to
be
sure, put money and mind in perfect opposition to each other.
Indeed,
in
a certain sense, the intellect of a society may be thought of
as a function of the money of a society (specifically of the money, not
merdy of the wealth in general). But this symbiosis may be at–
tenuated or suspended, or the two parties may not be aware of it,
and the appearance or even the reality of opposition may develop
between them. In such an opposition as formerly obtained
in
this country, money was the stronger of the parties. But now the needs
of our society have brought close to the top of the social hierarchy a
large class of people of considerable force and complexity of mind.
This is to be observed in most of the agencies of our society, in,
for example, journalism, finance, industry, government. Intellect
has associated itself with power as perhaps never before in history,
and is now conceded to be itself a kind of power. The American
populist feeling against mind, against the expert and the
brain~
truster, is no doubt still strong. But it has not prevented the entry into
our political and social life of an ever-growing class which we have
to call intellectual, although it is not necessarily a class of "intel–
lectuals."
This new intellectual class is to be accounted for not only by the
growing complexity of the administering of our society but also by the
necessity of providing a new means of social mobility, of social ascent.
Our many bureaus and authorities were created not only as a
response to the social needs which they serve, but also as a response
to the social desires of their personnel. They have the function of
making jobs and careers for a large class of people whose minds
are their only property. The social principle here at work may be
observed in the policy of the powerful labor unions, which are
consciously attracting and carefully training college graduates to
carry out their increasingly complex undertakings. It may also be
observed in the increased prestige of the universities. The university
teacher now occupies a place in our hierarchy which is considerably
higher than he could have claimed three decades ago, and the aca-
