[11] In a simpler state master and man, neighbor and neighbor, know each
other, and there is that touch of the elbow which, in times of danger, enables
society to rally. But present tendencies are to the loss of this. In London,
dwellers in one house do not know those in the next; the tenants of adjoining
rooms are utter strangers to each other. Let civil conflict break or paralyze
the authority that preserves order and the vast population would become a
terror-stricken mob, without point of rally or principle of cohesion, and
your London would be sacked and burned by an army of thieves. London is only
the greatest of great cities. What is true of London is true of New York,
and in the same measure true of the many cities whose hundreds of thousands
are steadily growing toward millions. These vast aggregations of humanity,
where he who seeks isolation may find it more truly than in the desert; where
wealth and poverty touch and jostle; where one revels and another starves
within a few feet of each other, yet separated by as great a gulf as that
fixed between Dives in Hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom — they are
centers and types of our civilization. Let jar or shock dislocate the complex
and delicate organization, let the policeman's club be thrown down or wrested
from him, and the fountains of the great deep are opened, and quicker than
ever before chaos comes again. Strong as it may seem, our civilization is
evolving destructive forces. Not desert and forest, but city slums and country
roadsides are nursing the barbarians who may be to the new what Hun and Vandal
were to the old.
[14] And that the rapid changes now going on are bringing up problems that
demand most earnest attention may be seen on every hand. Symptoms of danger,
premonitions of violence, are appearing all over the civilized world. Creeds
are dying, beliefs are changing; the old forces of conservatism are melting
away. Political institutions are failing, as clearly in democratic America
as in monarchical Europe. There is growing unrest and bitterness among the
masses, whatever be the form of government, a blind groping for escape from
conditions becoming intolerable. To attribute all this to the teachings of
demagogues is like attributing the fever to the quickened pulse. It is the
new wine beginning to ferment in old bottles. To put into a sailing-ship
the powerful engines of a first-class ocean steamer would be to tear her
to pieces with their play. So the new powers rapidly changing all the relations
of society must shatter social and political organizations not adapted to
meet their strain.
[15] To adjust our institutions to growing needs and changing conditions
is the task which devolves upon us. Prudence, patriotism, human sympathy,
and religious sentiment, alike call upon us to undertake it. There is danger
in reckless change; but greater danger in blind conservatism. The problems
beginning to confront us are grave — so grave that there is fear they
may not be solved in time to prevent great catastrophes. But their gravity
comes from indisposition to recognize frankly and grapple boldly with them.
[16] These dangers, which menace not one country alone, but modern civilization
itself, do but show that a higher civilization is struggling to be born — that
the needs and the aspirations of men have outgrown conditions and institutions
that before sufficed.
[17] A civilization which tends to concentrate wealth and
power in the hands of a fortunate few, and to make of
others mere
human machines,
must inevitably
evolve anarchy and bring destruction. But
a civilization is possible in which the poorest could have
all the comforts
and conveniences
now
enjoyed by the
rich; in which prisons and almshouses would
be needless, and charitable societies unthought of. Such
a civilization
waits only for
the social
intelligence that will adapt means to ends.
Powers that
might give plenty to all are
already
in our hands. Though there is poverty and
want, there is, yet, seeming embarrassment from the very
excess of
wealth-producing
forces. "Give us but a market," say
manufacturers, "and we will supply goods without end!" "Give
us but work!" cry idle men.
[19] The progress of civilization requires that more and more intelligence
be devoted to social affairs, and this not the intelligence of the few, but
that of the many. We cannot safely leave politics to politicians, or political
economy to college professors. The people themselves must think, because
the people alone can act. ...
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