Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

by sect and creed; but as the fences which have separated workers in the religious world are slowly going down, so in this newer field of service, the barriers are falling, and the allied forces are working together with ever increasing intelligence for the common welfare.

And this is necessary, for it is no easy task to raise the standard of living to the ethics of the law of love and the golden rule, even with the combined effort of all who are laboring for social uplift.

This movement for the improvement of existing conditions is world-wide. It is seen in China, in its awakening from the sleep of centuries; in Persia and Turkey, in the revolt of the people from the rule of tyrants; in Russia, in the heroic struggle for liberty which grows more determined every day.

In our own land the feeling of responsibility for the solution of problems relating to the social order is increasing. Men who have simply been money-makers have had a moral awakening, and are stirred to action by the facts which reveal man's inhumanity to man, and show, too, the moral corruption of modern politics.

There are many men who are freely using their talents and their money for a cleaner Los Angeles, a cleaner San Francisco, a cleaner New York, a cleaner society-a better world. Reform is in the air. Men whose names have become household words are making a national fight in local fields. The same fight is everywhere on to restore the government of the people to the people, and to bring about reform in industrial life. These reforms must go hand in hand; for nothing has been shown more clearly than that behind bad politics there is bad business-bad business as seen in protected vice and bad business as seen too often in the bribery and debauchery practiced by the big interests.

But bad business has found something to reckon with at last. The conscience of our people is now awake. The wave of reform now sweeping over the country is a "demand welling up from the hearts of the people for higher ideals in politics, for better standards in public morals, for civic righteousness and for better government all along the line."

But social service to be effectual must be

constructive, as well as destructive. Not only must the bad be destroyed; not only must the better way be pointed out, but actual work must be undertaken and institutions organized that will crystallize in permanent form the best which has been revealed.

No better illustration of the right sort of social service can be found than that seen in our cities in the care of the child in school and playground; in the provision made for public baths; in the making of the city beautiful by definite plans, including the laying out of parks, the planting of trees, and the erecting of beautiful buildings; in the effort toward prison reform, where the making of the man is more thought of than the punishment of the criminal; in establishing, wherever possible, juvenile courts, parental schools, reformatories, the probation system, the indeterminate sentence and the parole.

Social service is also seen at its best in the efforts to safeguard life and limb in factory and on railroads, and in the conserving of the nation's health by making war upon the mosquito and thereby destroying yellow fever; by making a nation-wide campaign against

tuberculosis-the dread white plague; by guarding the sources of water supply and demanding pure milk, that typhoid may not sweep as a scourge over our cities-in fact by putting into use every remedial agency which science has to offer.

The best thinkers of today are saying that much of disease, accident, death, crime and poverty is preventable. If that is so, then in a measure each one of us is responsible if we do not work for prevention. The church as well as the social settlement is recognizing the necessity for preventive measures. Character-building will always be the chief work of the clergy; yet in every church there is an increasing number of those who are workers in the cause of civic righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

The time is not far distant when the young men of the nation will enter social service as eagerly as they now seek public office through the ordinary devious ways of politics. And surely to work for the good of the people supplies a nobler incentive than the emoluments of office or the pride of political power.

CHAPTER II

Raising The Standard

The citizen is at last coming to his own, and the word "citizen" is now written large.

A few years ago this nation had a rude awakening when the people discovered that the great mass of voters had abdicated their rights as citizens and had allowed the affairs of government to pass into the hands of selfseeking politicians. Why was it that so many good men became careless, and without protest allowed bad men to rule in city and state? It seems to have been the result of an intense individualism, combined with a desire for wealth and personal pleasure which made many money-mad, and blinded their eyes to all else of social import.

If a city is composed of one hundred thousand such self-seeking individuals, each seeking his own aggrandisement, regardless of the welfare of others, then the common good will be without a champion, and the democracy that speaks for liberty, equality and fraternity will

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »