But it is clear that
it would involve us in all sorts of complicated and delicate problems
of detail which would require generations for satisfactory solution
and which might never be satisfactorily solved. And it might, of course,
lead to other difficulties now unforeseen, graver and more difficult
to meet than we now realize. Surely, then, it is not to be lightly
undertaken, and not to be undertaken as a mere revolt of the lower
classes against their industrial masters. It must be worked out in
great detail, and contrasted with every possible alternative, before
cautious statesmen will consent to its adoption. For it would mean
a revolutionary change of enormous proportions; and it would not be
easy to revert to the earlier order. Our political machinery, under
which the vast industrial system would come, must first be reconstructed
and made efficient. Religion and public education must be strengthened
to meet the new demands upon character and intelligence. It is earnestly
to be hoped that if socialism comes, it will come not by revolution,
as the result of a class struggle, but by evolution and a general
consent, the result of long and careful public discussion. In the
writer's opinion, present steps must be along the line of government
regulation, with socialism as the possible, but as yet by no means
certain, eventual outcome. In any case, there is no simple and sweeping
panacea for our industrial ills; the patient thought and experimentation
and effort of generations will be required before a satisfactory and
stable equilibrium is attained.
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