[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.
[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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