SOCIAL ALLEVIATION

WHEN the security of peace and an efficient government are attained,
the way lies open for the amelioration of social evils. Freedom from
war and from political corruption are but the pre-conditions of social
advance, which must consist in three things: the healing of existing
ills, the reorganization of society to prevent the recurrence of
similar ills, and the bringing of new opportunities and joys to the
people. Our first step, then, is to consider social therapeutics-the
palliation of present suffering, the redressing of existing wrongs;
however we may seek, by radical readjustments, to strike at the roots
of these evils, we must not fail to mitigate, as best we can, the lot
of those who are the unfortunate victims of our still crude social
organization. The detailed study of social ills and their remedies
has come to be a science by itself, and a science that calls for close
attention; for there is more good will than insight a field, and
nothing demands more wisdom and experience than the permanent curing
of social sores. But it falls to ethics to note the general duties
and opportunities, to point out the responsibility of the individual
citizen for wrongs which he is not helping to right, and to direct
him to the great moral causes in one or more of which an increasing
number of our educated men and women are enrolling themselves. A
questionnaire recently sent out by the author of this book discloses
the fact that over half the college graduates of this country have
given time and money to one or more of the campaigns which are being
waged for social betterment. [Footnote: Some of the results of this
questionnaire were published in the Independent for August 5, 1913,
vol. 75, p. 348.] These evils which it is the duty of the State to
try to remedy we shall now consider.