DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS BY JANE ADDAMS HULL-HOUSE, CHICAGO _New York_ THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1902 Set up and electrotyped March, 1902. Reprinted June, September, 1902. Norwood Press J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. To: M.R.S. PREFATORY NOTE The following pages present the substance of a course of twelve lectures on "Democracy and Social Ethics" which have been delivered at various colleges and university extension centres. In putting them into the form of a book, no attempt has been made to change the somewhat informal style used in speaking. The "we" and "us" which originally referred to the speaker and her audience are merely extended to possible readers. Acknowledgment for permission to reprint is extended to _The Atlantic Monthly_, _The International Journal of Ethics_, _The American Journal of Sociology_, and to _The Commons_. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II CHARITABLE EFFORT 13 CHAPTER III FILIAL RELATIONS 71 CHAPTER IV HOUSEHOLD ADJUSTMENT 102 CHAPTER V INDUSTRIAL AMELIORATION 137 CHAPTER VI EDUCATIONAL METHODS 178 CHAPTER VII POLITICAL REFORM 221 INDEX 279 DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It is well to remind ourselves, from time to time, that "Ethics" is but another word for "righteousness," that for which many men and women of every generation have hungered and thirsted, and without which life becomes meaningless. Certain forms of personal righteousness have become to a majority of the community almost automatic. It is as easy for most of us to keep from stealing our dinners as it is to digest them, and there is quite as much voluntary morality involved in one process as in the other. To steal would be for us to fall sadly below the standard of habit and expectation which makes virtue easy. In the same way we have been carefully reared to a sense of family obligation, to be kindly and considerate to the members of our own households, and to feel responsible for their well-being. As the rules of conduct have become established in regard to our self-development and our families, so they have been in regard to limited circles of friends. If the fulfilment of these claims were all that a righteous life required, the hunger and thirst would be stilled for many good men and women, and the clew of right living would lie easily in their hands.