Amelioration

“ Give them that, the one thing needful alike for social happiness and moral improvement, and you make a mighty step in social amelioration and elevation; because you lay the foundation on which it all rests, and on which it must, in a general point of view, all depend—without it, all the rest will be found to be as much thrown away as the seed cast on the arid desert. ”

“ If there is any remedy for so great an evil, if any solution of so difficult a problem is possible—here, almost more than on any other subject, is there room for the whole energy of the philanthropist—here is one of the most direct roads that can offer, to the elevation of those who greatly need raising, and to the amelioration of our whole social system. ”

“ The process of things upon this earth has been one of amelioration. It is a long way from the Iguanodon and his contemporaries to the president and members of the British Association. And whether we regard the improvement from the scientific or from the theological point of view as the result of progressive development, or as the result of successive exhibitions of creative energy, neither view entitles us to assume that man’s present faculties end the series—that the process of amelioration stops at him. ”

“ They affirm that the amelioration of human life is effected not by the efforts of individual men, to recognize and propagate the truth, but by the gradual modification of the general conditions of life, and that therefore the efforts of individuals should be directed to the gradual modification of external conditions for the better. ”

“ And the men who are in the same condition with him believe him, praise him, and with him solemnly discuss the questions as to what measures should be used for the amelioration of the condition of the working masses, on the spoliation of whom their life is based, inventing for the purpose all kinds of means, except the one without which no amelioration of the people's condition is possible, of ceasing to take away from these people the land, which is necessary for their maintenance. ”

“ Where, it may be asked, if not among the most educated classes, is any process of amelioration to be initiated? We cannot make the world topsy-turvy to suit the convenience of topsy-turvy minds. All social movements tend to begin at the top and to permeate downwards. ”

“ And so the chief activity of a man wishing to serve society and ameliorate the condition of humanity must according to this doctrine be directed, not to the elucidation of the truth and its profession, but to the amelioration of the external political, social, and, above all else, economic conditions. ”

“ In both cases these experiments must be indefinitely continued, their lessons candidly learned, and the succeeding experiments based upon past failures and achievements. Throughout the whole task of experimental educational advance the different processes of individual and social amelioration will be partly opposed, partly supplementary, and partly parallel; but in so far as any genuine advance is made, the opposition should be less costly, and coöperation, if not easier, at least more remunerative. ”

“ Looking back at what has been achieved, we can gain fresh courage for the perplexities of the moment, in the sure and certain hope that with energy and goodwill the task of social amelioration will be safely accomplished, if never finished. ”

“ But all movements for the amelioration of society have small beginnings; and it seems to me that the soundest of beginnings is example, example set by the classes who are supposed to have paid for and obtained a superior education. ”

“ But the ingenious machinery contrived by the Gods for reducing human possibilities of amelioration to a minimum—which arranges that wisdom to do shall come pari passu with the departure of zest for doing—stood in the way of all that. ”

“ We cannot but see that certain physical ameliorations, such as the improved climate of the country, the development of certain moral virtues, the progress of knowledge pushed to the extent of enabling each individual to take care of his own health, the discovery of certain simple remedies easily applied, would be so many fatal blows to our profession. ”

“ The degree of success attained by any such attempt at Science and reconstruction readjustment on a large scale to changed standards and conditions, must to a very considerable extent depend upon the advance that is achieved by, and the application that is made of, the various branches of science dealing with the phenomena of human life in all its aspects. Biology, physiology, medicine, hygiene, economics, politics, law and education must all contribute their share to the solution of the great problem of reconstituting human society upon a satisfactory peace footing. ”

“ Improvement must here be understood in a wide sense, including not only new industrial inventions, or an extended use of those already known, but improvements in institutions, education, opinions, and human affairs generally, provided they tend, as almost all improvements do, to give new motives or new facilities to production. ”

“ To free an entire half of humanity from an artificial position; to release vast natural forces from a strained and clumsy combination, and set them free to work smoothly and easily as they were intended to work; to introduce conditions that will change humanity from within, making for better motherhood and fatherhood, better babyhood and childhood, better food, better homes, better society,—this is to work for human improvement along natural lines. ”

“ To produce permanent advantage, the temporary cause operating upon them must be sufficient to make a great change in their condition—a change such as will be felt for many years, notwithstanding any stimulus which it may give during one generation to the increase of people. When, indeed, the improvement is of this signal character, and a generation grows up which has always been used to an improved scale of comfort, the habits of this new generation in respect to population become formed upon a higher minimum, and the improvement in their condition becomes permanent. ”

“ Let the real state of matters in this respect, however, be as it may, the question comes to be one merely as to the distribution of the produce of nature and of art, and instead of opposing improvements because they tend to encrease that produce, the object of those who have really the good of their fellow-creatures at heart, ought to be, to encourage such improvements as much as possible, but at the same time to obtain a correction of any partiality or injustice which may have crept into the distribution of their beneficial consequences. ”

“ The interest of the State in the conservation and enhancement of the forces, social and economic, which repair continuously the wear and tear of the fabric of society, is now vivid and direct. More and more are we devoting our energy to the task of organising and preserving the raw material of the future. ”

“ We seem to have decided that things are not, or, if they are, ought not to be—and what is the good of thinking of things like that? In fact, our national ideal has become the Will to Health, to Material Efficiency, and to it we have sacrificed the Will to Sensibility. ”

“ All definite and dogmatic schemes of social reform prove upon challenge to need adjustment and modification, to fit the actual workings of a society already infinitely complex. It is as the sentiment which for want of a better word we call socialistic works along with that broad and candid study of fact which we call scientific, and toward an ideal in which the material is but an instrument of the spiritual,—that there is solid promise of advance. ”

“ Now that we are definitely in the process of recovery, lines have been rightly drawn between those to whom this recovery means a return to old methods--and the number of these people is small--and those for whom recovery means a reform of many old methods, a permanent readjustment of many of our ways of thinking and therefore of many of our social and economic arrangements. ”

“ I use this word in no narrow or conventional sense, but meaning the development of the whole being in the line of the highest strength and efficiency of the various parts. Every effort of the philanthropist, the social reformer, and the Government must be invoked to prevent degradation and degeneration in the poorer classes, and raise them to a better status. The laws of healthy development must be taught, and the consequences of their neglect in the habits of life be shown. ”

“ Some of its purposes would commend themselves to many good citizens, such as the demands for "profit-sharing in the great industries," "generous development of provision for old age," "creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class," "a land reform suitable to our national requirements," and "raising the standard of health." ”

“ In this field the change is towards a higher transformation, introducing a finer economy into life, diminishing death, disease, and misery, making possible the finer ends of living, and at the same time indirectly and even directly improving the quality of the future race. ”

“ It is their interest, because a temperate reform is permanent, and because it has a principle of growth. Whenever we improve, it is right to leave room for a further improvement. It is right to consider, to look about us, to examine the effect of what we have done. ”

“ But the chances of obtaining means to make such improvement or enlargement depends upon the capabilities the individual has developed, in the management of that already committed to his care; hence his advancement, his growth and standing in the community, together with the comfort, convenience and beauty of his surroundings depend primarily upon his individual exertion. ”

“ It may be pointed out that this movement of practical social reform has been accompanied, stimulated, and guided by a corresponding movement in the sciences which in their application are indispensable to the progress of civilized social reform. There has been a process of mutual action and reaction between science and practice. ”

“ It gives a very insufficient idea of the importance of the strivings which take place to improve and elevate human nature and life to suppose that their chief value consists in the amount of actual improvement realized by their means, and that the consequence of their cessation would merely be that we should remain as we are. ”

“ The methods which have brought about this splendid progress, and which will continue it, if we have the intelligence and the determination to stick to them, are:—First, the great improvements in food supply, housing, ventilation, drainage, and conditions of life in general, due to the progress of modern civilization and science, combined with a marked increase in wages in the great working two-thirds of the community. ”

“ Even if it be possible to gradually improve the poorer strains themselves (which we have said above is not probably) , the sure and far more rapid method of improvement is the elimination of these weaker strains, and the multiplication of the better. ”

“ In other respects, the progress of improvement appears slow, and fettered by obstacles almost insurmountable, whose baneful influence will continue, until a more enlightened system of policy shall be adopted. ”

“ It is this uncontrollable desire to work on and fashion the rough materials that lie under our hands that gives the first impulse to civilization, and impels us onward in the progress of improvement. And wherever we discern the faintest indication that such a principle is at work, there we may securely hope that development will ultimately take place. ”

“ It is our avowed task in the program to translate objec­tives into specific improvements in the overall level of eco­nomic welfare and its distribution. Improvement in this sense means that our production capacity must grow more rapidly than the growth of our population. ”

“ How this progress may be quickened, is a question which this Society should keep constantly in view.—To devise the means of acceleration, should be their study.—To the first great step towards general improvement, the organization of societies in every part of the state, we have one what was in our power, by petitioning the legislature to take the subject into consideration, and aid the undertaking with necessary funds. ”

“ If improvement is possible, if it is in our power to render ourselves valuable to a community or neighborhood, it should be the work of the earnest and able men and women among us, the moral physicians and reformers, to devise and apply a remedy. ”

“ In my last annual report I stated frankly, and I have to repeat now, that, in pursuing a policy ever so wise and with a machinery ever so efficient, gradual improvement can be effected only by patient, energetic, and well-directed work in detail. ”

“ I am not aware of any reform, amongst the many which I have promoted during the past forty years, that has had, and will have, better results towards the improvement of the country socially, morally, and politically. ”

“ Fortunately, as we begin our third century, we have developed important tools to balance the needs of a growing population, our desire for an ever-improving standard of living, and concern for environmental quality. ”

“ The few in both sections who have tried to stand in the way of human betterment and adaptation to the conditions of the world's advancement have had to suffer the consequences of their rashness and be dropped from the rolls of the promoters of the nation's welfare. ”

“ But these measures can bear their true fruits only in the distant millenniums of the future, although much social improvement will immediately result from the intelligent, wise, and patient manipulation of these acceleration factors of cultural progress. ”

“ Any plan of world reform which leaves out the Human Equation is equivalent to an engineering plan which leaves out of consideration details like the Law of the Dead Centre or the Law of Expansion and contraction of metals. ”

“ This constant increase of people beyond the means of subsistence [527] causes, then, a never-ceasing requirement for skill, intelligence, and self-control—involves, therefore, a constant exercise of these and gradual growth of them. Every industrial improvement is at once the product of a higher form of humanity, and demands that higher form of humanity to carry it into practice. ”