But how should this zeal be carried out into practice? That is the important question. …
In the first place, associations should be formed. In these days we cannot dispense with them.
Society must be taken up in detail, ameliorated part by part, and then formed into a compact structure; for a good community can only be composed of good elements. These objects may be attained through the medium of associations. There should be such for all ages: associations of children, of apprentices, of operatives, of Saint Vincent de Paul, of the Sainte Famille, [Footnote 21] etc. They benefit all, the members and the directors also.
[Footnote 21: See the Manuel de Charité, and the Livre des Classes Ouvrières for the details and manner of establishing and conducting these associations.]
How comes it that there are not associations of young apprentices in all the towns of France? How comes it that any town dares to be without one? What strange beings we are sometimes! We surround children with the most tender and assiduous care up to the time of confirmation, and then, at the most critical age, when their passions begin to cross them, we launch them forth, without support and without counterpoise, into that pestilential atmosphere called the workshop; and then we wonder, and say naively that they do not persevere in the right path.
… Pray, can they be expected to persevere when thus left to their own resources? … You, with all your religious knowledge, with all your acquired virtues, with all your experience and age, would you do so in their place? I defy you to persevere under such circumstances.
An affiliated society of Saint Vincent de Paul should exist everywhere, even in the most retired corner of France. It already comprises five hundred conferences. They have been founded in the country, where they do a vast amount of good. No town or village, at least, should be without its conference. It is sometimes urged that the elements are wanting. That must be a wretched town or hamlet which can not muster three God-fearing and charitably disposed individuals.
Moreover, no town should be without its association of operatives. There can no longer be any excuse on this head. They exist elsewhere, are in active operation, and effect much good in many places. The way to form and direct them is well known. We have our associations of girls and grown-up women; but the men, the poor men, are overlooked, neglected, and cast aside. …