" We may
now note a danger that arises from the use of the concept "end"; it
finds expression in the familiar proverb, "The end justifies the means."
Conduct is to be judged by the end it subserves; therefore, if the
end is good any means may be used to attain it. This has been the defense
of much wrongdoing. The Jesuits who lied, slandered, cheated, and
murdered, to promote the interests of the Church, the McNamara
brothers, who dynamited buildings and bridges as a means toward the
final end of attaining for laborers a just share of the fruits of their
labor, the suffragettes who have been burning private houses, sticking
up mail-boxes, and breaking windows, have justified their crimes by
reference to the great ends they expected thereby to attain. What shall
we say to this plea?
(1) The motto means: Conduct in itself undesirable may be justified
IF the end attained is important enough to warrant it. In every case,
then, the question must arise: Is the end to be attained worth the
cost? To justify means that are intrinsically bad, it must be shown
that the end attained is so good as to overbalance this evil. WAS the
advancement of the Church worth the cost in human suffering,
estrangement, and bitterness that the Jesuits exacted? IS the
advancement of labor interests worth the destruction of property and
life, the fostering of class-enmity and of moral anarchism that the
criminal wing of the I.
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