[01] THERE come moments in our lives that summon all our powers — when
we feel that, casting away illusions, we must decide and act with our utmost
intelligence and energy. So in the lives of peoples come periods specially
calling for earnestness and intelligence.
[02] We seem to have entered one of these periods. Over and again have nations
and civilizations been confronted with problems which, like the riddle of
the Sphinx, not to answer was to be destroyed; but never before have problems
so vast and intricate been presented. This is not strange. That the closing
years of this century must bring up momentous social questions follows from
the material and intellectual progress that has marked its course. ...
[06] But with man the ascending line stops. Animal life assumes no higher
form; nor can we affirm that, in all his generations, man, as an animal,
has a whit improved. But progression in another line begins. Where the development
of species ends, social development commences, and that advance of society
that we call civilization so increases human powers, that between savage
and civilized man there is a gulf so vast as to suggest the gulf between
the highly organized animal and the oyster glued to the rocks. And with every
advance upon this line new vistas open. When we try to think what knowledge
and power progressive civilization may give to the men of the future, imagination
fails.
[07] In this progression which begins with man, as in that which leads up
to him, the same law holds. Each advance makes a demand for higher and higher
intelligence. With the beginnings of society arises the need for social intelligence — for
that consensus of individual intelligence which forms a public opinion, a
public conscience, a public will, and is manifested in law, institutions
and administration. As society develops, a higher and higher degree of this
social intelligence is required, for the relation of individuals to each
other becomes more intimate and important, and the increasing complexity
of the social organization brings liability to new dangers.
[13] There is in all the past nothing to compare with the rapid changes
now going on in the civilized world. It seems as though in the European race,
and in the nineteenth century, man was just beginning to live — just
grasping his tools and becoming conscious of his powers. The snail's pace
of crawling ages has suddenly become the headlong rush of the locomotive,
speeding faster and faster. This rapid progress is primarily in industrial
methods and material powers. But industrial changes imply social changes
and necessitate political changes. Progressive societies outgrow institutions
as children outgrow clothes. Social progress always requires greater intelligence
in the management of public affairs; but this the more as progress is rapid
and change quicker.
[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.
[18] The evils that begin to appear spring from the fact that the application
of intelligence to social affairs has not kept pace with the application
of intelligence to individual needs and material ends. Natural science strides
forward, but political science lags. With all our progress in the arts which
produce wealth, we have made no progress in securing its equitable distribution.
Knowledge has vastly increased; industry and commerce have been revolutionized;
but whether free trade or protection is best for a nation we are not yet
agreed. We have brought machinery to a pitch of perfection that, fifty years
ago, could not have been imagined; but, in the presence of political corruption,
we seem as helpless as idiots. The East River bridge is a crowning triumph
of mechanical skill; but to get it built a leading citizen of Brooklyn had
to carry to New York sixty thousand dollars in a carpet bag to bribe New
York aldermen. The human soul that thought out the great bridge is prisoned
in a crazed and broken body that lies bedfast, and could watch it grow only
by peering through a telescope. Nevertheless, the weight of the immense mass
is estimated and adjusted for every inch. But the skill of the engineer could
not prevent condemned wire being smuggled into the cable.
[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.
[20] In a "journal of civilization" a professed teacher declares
the saving word for society to be that each shall mind his own business.
This is the gospel of selfishness, soothing as soft flutes to those who,
having fared well themselves, think everybody should be satisfied. But the
salvation of society, the hope for the free, full development of humanity,
is in the gospel of brotherhood — the gospel of Christ.
Social progress makes the well-being of all more and more
the business of
each; it binds
all closer and closer together in bonds from which none
can escape. He who observes the law and the proprieties,
and
cares for his
family, yet
takes
no interest in the general weal, and gives no thought to
those who are trodden under foot, save now and then to
bestow aims,
is not
a true Christian.
Nor
is he a good citizen. The duty of the citizen is more and
harder than this.
[21] The intelligence required for the solving of social problems is not
a thing of the mere intellect. It must be animated with the religious sentiment
and warm with sympathy for human suffering. It must stretch out beyond self-interest,
whether it be the self-interest of the few or of the many. It must seek justice.
For at the bottom of every social problem we will find a social wrong. ...
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