But we may
point out that it is "nothing venture nothing have"; we cannot work
out our social salvation without experimenting; and, after all, ways
that do not work well can readily be discontinued. What is vital is
to keep alive an intolerance of apathy and contentment, to realize
that we are hardly more than on the threshold of a rational civilization,
to recognize evils, cherish ideals, and maintain our determination
in some way to actualize them.
(3) A further steady damper upon our altruistic zeal is the dread of
raising the taxes. Humanitarian movements are well enough, but they
cost so much! What is needful is to point out that poverty,
unemployment, disease, and the other social ills are also costly;
indeed, they cost the public in the long run far more than the
expenditure necessary for their abolition or alleviation. It pays in
dollars and cents, within a generation or two at least, to make and
keep the social organism sound. A wise altruism is not merely a matter
of philanthropy; it is also a matter of economy; a means of saving
individuals from suffering, but at the same time a means of
safeguarding the public treasury. If the community does not pay for
the curing of these evils it will have to pay for their results. "It
seems to me essentially fallacious to look upon such expenditures as
indulgences to be allowed rather sparingly to such communities as are
rich enough to afford them.
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