Will not the great educators whom the world respects so highly, and in whom it has so much faith, try the experiment? The promised fruit is worth the trial.
DIAGNOSIS AND REMEDY
Degeneration It is believed by many, that Society and Politics, at the present time, are badly diseased. Mr. Max Nordau's diagnosis of them, which he entitled Degeneration, has met with general approval. Legislative (especially municipal) corruption, and the degradation of some of the courts, are open evidence of the fact. Statesmanship and Politics have been divorced, and are already strangers to each other. The marriage of Might and Right, has been sanctioned by popular consent. Power is no longer used as a lever with which to uplift the weak, but has been transformed into a social crushing machine. Caste, ostentation, dissipation, and insincerity, are the established idols that lure the present generation towards greedy ambition.
Ready to Break It is also believed, and is perhaps true, that the social ulcers have been so irritated by ostentatious rivalry, and the commercial ulcers are so distended with the pus of ruinous competition and corruption, that they must soon come to a head, and that convalescence and cure may be possibilities of the future.
While these symptoms of disease are visible to all, and are tolerated as necessary evils, they fortunately do not cover the whole body politic; but yet, they seriously disfigure its face, and grievously affect the healthy action of its heart.
In the political world, many agents are actively at work to effect cure of the evils which flaunt unblushing in the face of the public. The Committee of Seventy in New York, The Civic Federation in Chicago, and the National Municipal Reform League of the United States, are all doing good temporary work, but they do not reach the root causes of the evils they aim to correct; and it is doubtful if the reforms they accomplish will be any more permanent than were those of their equally zealous predecessors.
Slow Repression Futile In the moral and religious world, much the same futile methods of cure through repression are in use that obtained during the Dark Middle Ages.
In the individual, phantoms of the imagination, whose presence impose stagnation and disease, are created and clothed with the authority of masters, under the belief that they are the curses which bind fallen men to earth; and this in contradiction of every assurance and promise of Christ; in opposition to all intelligent methods of culture used in connection with animals and plants; and contrary to common sense.
These are strong statements, but they are indisputable; and if they are true, what then, is the remedy?
As previously stated, the only cure is the germ cure; and, beginning with the individual.