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Show " PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM ' I Confronted by Grave Problems Which HaJ 'ot Been So Serious Had Wc a Scciil Conscience. i i (Kev. v. J. i'ii.n.. in cat;...:;- v.- i ;.) , ;.- i .V!ii intte'L 1. A soci.sl p:'o!i"( 1:1 h preo1: -' ;; :!: tl'.o.r :i eoinltion. A -ocia! ronitti-ui i in eit-.-ci e : i i r'-'ts-':. ! anini:! por-on.-, wii'.-!i '( ! iti n- -!.' r:t :. I teres:, of H-M.-i.ii life a- --w T--- -.- re:;:n-n iu: v. ! beet i produce y defmic -i,-.;i! - .-. wMci aloli'' explain- them. '! Iiat :;-,. m - ; i i ! t i ; is not vital ! s-n-i.-ty a.- a wl-i.!--, ?' i: could p;: away will: i!.e individual-, in it. r. a '.i : tlie condition i- vital, for tin- prece.-s v.iiii !i pi -petuatcs flic condition i part of life, and it fur-ni-dios new victims as rapidiv. ;;s old one di , pear. lanv. in liud'M'takii;- rt form work, thin.; only of the conditio:! of .( jdu iiidividunU or interest in-terest s which aoe couccrneil. and they miiofc tin-process tin-process which is the real pi'oldein. V o urn;. take a city council hy way of illustration. A dozen men arc elected to the honorah!" no.-t of alderman, and the financial, morai. political, interests in-terests of a hundred thousand p r:-oi are t-fim-mittcd to their care. A majority of them hoi ray puhlie interests, commit trross orfenses a'zains social so-cial decency, and demoralize puhlie .-ervii-e. Thi we may take as the condition. Tt is not. howeer, ' the real proldem. Hence to throw out the eiiiht or ten corrupt mop and elect others, does not, solve the problem. Airiveii social n'roeess undo the corntpt men venal; another social process Tiromrhf them into office; another social process deprived puhlie . c service of prestige ami honor and emoiumetit. in , such n way that the stronpr. brave, nohh- men of the community do not and will not enter it. If -then, processes are at work hy which the moral and intellectual strength of the 'community ar diverted di-verted from public service and the inferior members mem-bers are attracted to it, it is quite evident that the individuals who are concerned at a given time are incidental. We may banish the corrupt men. but we do not. thereby terminate the corrupting process. The brib taken supposes the bribe civer. A definite complex process in society produces men who are will-in frto bribe. If a strong social process pro-cess were sending noble, high-minded men regularly into city councils, the bribe giver would be checked. TJut there is harmony everywhere in the processes, each one complementing the other in a way to make fhe path clear for corruption and theft. Thus, in most cases, tho individuals are incidents, the process is the problem. The CU'ie Federation of Chicago, in a report, to , . the public .some years ago concerning th aldermen alder-men of thaf city, contained such views as the?er j One was "regarded as a joke;" of another it said' I "The ward must search diligently to find a worse. j representative;' of another. "A nuisance;-" of an- . . j other. "Xo possible excuse for his retention in of fice;" of another, ''Out of place in a reputable j. council." Appalling as such u condition was, it f . merely gave evidence of a dangerous process at , work, and' the process was the real problem. The I indifforeree of the voter, the degradation of public service, the unethical affectation of the masse for f a friendly man. be he good or bad. the systematic j avoidance of public service by the best men, ar j factors in such a condition, to ignore which hin- ders any successful reform. , j We find illustrations in tho police problem. To- I lioemen are the custodians of peace: and order. Safety of property against theft, of life against I violence, of decency against bad morale, gambling f and drink is largely in the hands of the police. ' :, ' Hence the forces of darkness, the burglar and the thug, the gambler, the dive keeper and the law breaker, are willing and eager to bribe the police- f man in order to secure immunity from arrest. Tho ' , i duties of the police are noble, exacting to the high- est moral degree and of vital importance. Yet we f give to the profession no prestige, to the members ; j little recognition, poor pay, frequently long hours j and severe penalties for neglect. Hence men of ,- ' i strong character and real ambition,-who are need- . ' j ed in such' a position, seek elsewhere for. employ- j. . merit, and the service is robbed of the very strength ,'. ' on which its usefulness depends. There are in- I volvcd here many social processes which constitute . ,' j the real problem. I We might in the same -way analyze gambling, i' drinking, sweat shops, unsanitary, liousing, the ; M work of children, divorce, betrayal of confidence in " ; f public and private'service. into a series of complex . ' social processes until we discover, as is really the : ?. case, that the condition is rarely the problem. It ' . is the complex process, and consequently reform r-' 1 must, reach it. or failure awaits the reformer. j $r One may not overlook the importance of a so- ; cial condition nor deny that it may be at times an j important factor in a process. The tendency in o- cial conditions to perpetuate themselves is of vital i - importance, but in fact it is due mainly to the sta- i. bility of the social process from which it results. A I . reform should always take cognizance of a condi- tion. test it. modify it if possible, and rest content j if that alone brings order. T5ut to rest there in . ; j everv case, to be content with a change of social 5 condition, or with substitution of a new dozen for an old dozen of individuals, would doom reform to temporary results and cheat progress of most val- : uable service. Our growth in social knowledge de- . ; - . ponds on our realization of this dynamic character , of our problems, and the development of social : conscience, one may say. depends absolutely on this : growth in social knowledge. If the individual rea- ; lizes that he is nearly always a factor in social pro- r0SSe5 behind our problems, when not a factor in y the actual condition, he may bo stimulated to a sense of social responsibility, which can in no ether way be developed. Hence the accurate knowledge and sense of social responsibility needed for reform work dpend larecly on the belief that our problems .are processes and eticlt of us is a factor in thern. o 2. A social reform should inaugurate a social' (Continued oa Page .). . PRINCIPIES Of SOCIAL REf0R.11. (Continual from Tao 1.) process rather than a mere change of conditio;;. This is implied in the foregoing. Social pr ', lems vary. Sometimes miy ,.jie of several fact,, j might hinder it. Often a supply of social evil i- . response to a demand for it: if we suppn-s- the d. . mand, the supply censes. Mmy evils are in-pir . by the hope of profit; that ce.-ing. th".v vani-h. Much evil thrives becaiif it enjoys secseev; if be exposed, it is destroyed. Whenever auv i t -u : 1 1-stance 1-stance is vital, reform will a'-comp!isI,n 1 1 . -1 !,j modifying if alone, but generally a thorouehroii.y reform will extend to tin-processes which producer the circumstance itself. Thus in city government; the process that divert our best citizenship fro;, public service should be neutralized; the pn.ce that sends weak, venal men into offices i-f tnM should be destroyed, and the interest of tin- pubii.-should pubii.-should be awakened and sustained iu anv adjoint.; reform of municipal corruption. Whether o,- n .t ' all of this is possible or impossible does not ah; r its relation to the )roblrm. though it may affect, very directly our hopes of reform and the mannei of it. In other problems we see the ame need of pro cess to effect reform. A sanitary house is not necessarily ne-cessarily a sanitary home unless sanitary mind make it so. A social process gives us unsanitary minds, another social process gives us unsfmitarv houses. The sanitary house ', realk not, min-h more than an opportunity, the-reform i- in tin mental appreciation of it. One can easily find un sanitary conditions iu sanitary houses. k A .Ww England employer once built good houses for hi men and installed bath tubs which the tenants re J used to utilize. lhey preferred the space lot storage purposes. Whatever the problem then, it is well to se k out the processes involved, and to organize reform effort in a way to master them, and introduce such normal and desirable processes as may insure relatively rela-tively permanent results. This necessity nriy tend to discourage those who realize it, but on tho ot'nen hand it may stimulate greater efforts than we ic. v behold. Were we to investigate the whole series nf social problems with a view to verify this statf- ment, we would probably discover that an age can j rarely solve problems inherited from an unwi 3 past, and that it cannot radically solve its own. Wisdom is in foresight. The .-afe wav is to work through education, preparing today in the young the elements of character, social conscience, social knowledge and faith, which will give to the oncoming oncom-ing generation the insight and power needed to di-popular di-popular institutions wisely in advance of failure. We might discover, too, that reform is dependent on co-ordination and co-operation. Where public opinion, law. the wisdom of strong men. and tim service of true men are needed to accomplish a certain result it is useless to attempt it when ono or two of these factors arc lacking. Much of tho failure of reform is due to the fact that we ignore this need of co-operation, or knowing, we fail to command it. 3. The problem to be met should be carefully classified. When we classify a problem we locate it; when we loca'te, we discover its relations to life and institutions. in-stitutions. We then discover the processes involved, in-volved, the factors .and the responsibility for them, and we thus fix properly the duty of action and reform. re-form. There are many centers of social consciousness; conscious-ness; to each of these should, be referred all problems prob-lems which concern it directly. Possibly all social problems are one problem, and any one problem i potentially all problems. Some problems are primarily pri-marily political, others primarily industrial; sum , fall within the domain of the law, and some are beyond be-yond it; some problems seen in a city are, in fact, state or national in cause and relation; some problems prob-lems concern principles, others are merely institutional, institu-tional, while many are purely personal. There is little value in appeal to religion, where law is needed; need-ed; or to law, where conscience is needed; or to conscience, where enlightenment is needed; or to enlightenment, where stern measures are needed. It is useless to attack principles, where only insti- tutions are "at fault; or institutions, where merely their relation of co-ordination is at fault; or thU co-ordination when individuals alone are to blame. The advantage in careful classification is that our knowledge is accurate and our direction of reform effort is wiser. Above all. we secure more detailed knowledge of social prfcesses. and we realize how manv of them, each in itself a problem, may be concerned iu a complex fact. The concrete situation of a laborer's la-borer's family may .epitomize a whole epoch of history. his-tory. The home may be an unsanitary tenement, restricted, offering no privacy or proction; low wages and high rent make better impossible. Tin-father Tin-father may have work irregularly, because times are dull and immigration has increased tho suppk of labor far behond the demand. The wife may be ignorant of cooking, sewing and housekeeping. because be-cause she spent her time learning useless things at school, or because she had to work and did not go to school. Mrs. Florence Kelly quoted recently the superintendent of schools in Xew York as stating that 40.0UO school children iu the city are hungrv, "not from poverty, but bees use the mothers do not know-how to prepare food to give proper nutri ment." The morals, of the children in the imaginary imagin-ary family described, may bo ruined because of association as-sociation and example to which the circumstances of life expose them, from which they neither hope nor expect to escape. In this concrete condition of a family, there appear many far-reaching social processes, each of which is a vast problem! There is need consequently, of careful classification and V analysts, so that judgment of facts may be accurate accu-rate and knowledge of social processes complete. Once we know and realize how we are factors in these processes, which mean life or death, virtu or degradation to so many, there is hope for the development de-velopment of judgment and conscience to bring speedy reform. The three suggestions presented refer to the point of departure in reform activity. We should look to social processes to discover Veal problems, we should aim to modify these processes in our reforming, re-forming, and we should know the nature and relations rela-tions of the problem accurately before undertaking .to reform them. The limitations and difficulties ! of reform work will be referred to in-a subsequent ! article, . . . . . |
