In contrast with these plans for a return to earlier conditions, the two
most conspicuous tendencies in the thought of the past century have
claimed to be advancing toward freedom and justice along the lines which
we have just traced. The one, which we may call "individualistic"
reform, has sought justice by giving free play to individual action.
The other, socialism, has aimed to use the power of the State to secure
more adequate justice and, as it believes, a more genuine freedom. The
great reform movement in Great Britain during the nineteenth century
emphasized free trade and free contracts. It sought the causes of
injustice in the survival of some privilege or vested interest which
prevents the full working of the principles of free contract and
competition. Let every man "count as one"; make laws for "the greatest
good of the greatest number." The trouble is not that there is too much
individualism, but that there is too little. Tax reformers like Henry
George have urged the same principle. If land is monopolized by a few
who can levy a toll upon all the rest of society, how can justice
obtain? The remedy for injustice is to be found in promoting greater
freedom of industry and trade. Socialism on the other hand claims that
individualism defeats itself; it results in tyranny, not freedom. The
only way to secure freedom is through united action. The merits of some
of these programs for social justice will be examined in Part III. They
signify that the age is finding its moral problem set anew by the
collision between material interests and social good. Greek civilization
used the industry of the many to set free the higher life--art,
government, science--of a few. The mediæval ideal recognized the moral
value of industry in relation to character. The modern conscience,
resting back upon a higher appreciation of human dignity and worth, is
seeking to work out a social and economic order that shall combine both
the Greek and the mediæval ideas. It will require work and secure
freedom. These are necessary for the individual person. But it is
beginning to be seen that these values cannot be divided so that one
social class shall perform the labor and the other enjoy the freedom.
The growth of democracy means that all members of society should share
in the value and the service of work. It means that all should share
according to capacity in the values of free life, of intelligence and
culture. Can material goods be so produced and distributed as to promote
this democratic ideal?
§ 6. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLIGENCE
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