A SOCIAL POLICY TOWARD DEPENDENTS 819 



A social policy is not aimless and irrational, but moves toward 

 an end, seeks to realize a good. Soon or late social science, in the 

 course of its development and specialization, must encounter the 

 problem of values and standards which does not complicate the 

 studies of inorganic nature, as chemistry, physics, and astronomy, 

 and only incidentally biology. Thus, for example, we are forming 

 judgments as to the best methods of dealing with dependents. What 

 do we mean by " best "? We are really thinking of the welfare of 

 dependents and of the people of the community of which they are 

 members. Many specific ends we have in mind, as the restoration 

 of the sick and the insane to health, or the mitigation of distress when 

 cure is impossible; the improvement of the touch, hearing, sight, 

 and skill of the feeble-minded; the proper nutrition and development 

 of neglected infants; peaceful and quiet existence for aged men and 

 women in almshouses; and many more such purposes. We give 

 social honor and praise to the rich men who endow hospitals, and to 

 the physicians and nurses who faithfully give their lives to the sick. 

 It is evident that modern societies act as if they knew that such ends 

 are rational and worthy. 



But there is both theoretical and practical interest in the wider 

 scientific problem: What is the general social end? For we neither 

 know the full extent of social obligation nor the relative value of a 

 particular object or institution until we see the specific action in its 

 place in a comprehensive system of ends. Our theory is incomplete 

 and our system of agencies falls short, and our devices are either 

 superfluous and exaggerated, or halting and inadequate, until our 

 definition of the ultimate purpose of social action and conduct is 

 clear and rationally justified. 1 



Since we cannot, here at least, critically follow this argument 

 to a satisfactory conclusion, we may assume what society actually 

 takes for granted, and what we find implied in all social institutions, 

 laws, societies, movements, governments, that health, sanity, 

 intelligence, morality, beauty, etc., are desirable for every human 

 being. 



The standard by which we judge a social policy must be a mul- 

 tiple standard, like the compensating pendulum of a reliable clock. 

 The standard here assumed as valid includes the following ideas: 

 (1) Welfare, well-being, analyzed into its various unanalyzable 

 elements of health, wealth, knowledge, beauty, sociability, ethical 

 Tightness, and religious faith, is the most general conception 

 involved (analysis of A. W. Small). (2) The welfare of all men, not 

 of a limited class, must be the ideal, the regulative principle. Neither 

 1 See Stammler, Wirthschaft und Recht. 



