MORAL PROGRESS 467 



MOEAL PROGEESS 



By F. STUART CHAPIN, Ph.D. 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, SMITH COLLEGE 



MOEAL progress has two aspects: one, social and psychological; 

 the other, individual and biological. The former appears to 

 have a superficial, temporary and changeable basis, with an element of 

 compulsion; the latter appears to be fundamental, permanent and 

 spontaneous. 



Moral conduct may be secured by the compulsion of tradition. 

 Usages and customs exert a " steam-roller " effect in crushing out anti- 

 social conduct. The preparation and selection of foods is almost en- 

 tirely a matter of custom. Custom and style set the standards of 

 what sort of attire is proper under given conditions. We have police or- 

 dinances which specifically prohibit indecent exposure in public places. 

 In business relations, certain standards are recognized and some usages 

 have received quite general acceptance. We have laws which punish 

 felony and misdemeanor. To ignore this body of tradition is to invite 

 social ostracism or even more summary punishment. 



But most of us are subject to strange and inconsistent moral lapses. 

 The loving father and generous husband is too often brutally unscrupu- 

 lous and cruel in his business dealings. Unexpected disclosures fre- 

 quently show how many of our "respected citizens" are patrons of 

 houses of ill repute. Thus there is one code of morals in the family 

 and another in business and outside life. Corrupt politicians are often 

 model husbands and staunch friends, yet they feel no scruples at taking 

 the public's money. They regard "graft" as legitimate gain. In a 

 lesser degree, church members and moral leaders will not hesitate to 

 cheat the transit corporation of a rightful carfare. Wealthy men will 

 give large sums of money to charity with one hand, and with the other 

 ruin a competitor by cut-throat methods, or solemnly dispose of worth- 

 less watered stock in a market of credulous buyers. " Gentlemen farm- 

 ers " who want to liquidate a bad real estate investment will dump gar- 

 bage and turn hogs into a stream which supplies a neighboring town 

 with drinking water, in order to force the purchase of their land by the 

 fever-threatened community. A flimsy pretext precipitates the holo- 

 caust of Europe. Thus moral conduct is often but a thin veneer which 

 covers up unsuspected depths of primitive brutishness and crude impulse. 



On the other hand, we all know certain men and women of our 

 acquaintance who in nearly every situation seem to do the wise thing. 



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