SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES 



THE City and the State are the greatest of all our benefactors, 

 and they need our help. Their power for good, and the 

 extent of their functions depend on the intelligence and 

 integrity of their members. 



Ingratitude to Society is due mainly to ignorance; men 

 know not what they do in being indifferent to great causes. 

 Illustrations of this indifference ; and the immoral motto of 

 "The Trade". The error of believing that the equipoise of 

 the State can issue from the strife of class interests. 



Our own duties to Society are best learnt from our 

 criticisms of other men. The fear of " the growing power of 

 the masses". Why it is well-founded ; and what is to be done 

 to avert it ; (i) to deprive the masses of their most dangerous 

 agitator, namely their wrongs; (2) and if their wrongs are 

 fanciful, to enlighten their minds. The exceeding weakness 

 of the means at present employed to secure an "enlightened 

 public opinion ", even while it is recognized that it must rule. 



On the other hand, the advocate of methods of revolution 

 can best help Society by endeavouring to moralize its 

 institutions as they stand. The workshop must become a 

 school of virtue ; and labour once more ennoble man. 

 Masters must care for their men as for their machines ; and 

 the men themselves must become more jealous of the good 

 name of their class. Social relations are meant to be moral 

 relations, and Social rest can come only when this is 

 achieved. 



