Our prisons are impure because they are lacking in good-will; we have regarded power instead of love as the solution of the crime problem; and we have been contented to apply an impatient, unintelligent, and soul-destroying remedy to the crimes of others, which we would not wish to see applied in like case to those of our own family. Of course, I know that our prisons have been greatly improved; because, as I said before, we are in a state of transition, and a new school of thought, whose basis is Love and Service, is fighting an old school of thought whose basis is Power, and gradually--only very gradually--getting the better of it. It is the same with Education; the old idea of education was largely based on dominance and power--the power of the teacher to punish. The new idea is largely based upon the power of the teacher to interest, and upon trust in youth’s natural instinct to acquire knowledge. It is a tremendous change; the old system was impure in its psychology, and corrupted alike the mind of the teacher and the taught. Nobody in the old days was so unteachable as a school-master; and yet his whole profession is really--to learn of youth. And the ethical impurity of the old system came at the point where there was a lack of goodwill--a lack of mutual confidence. In trade again, how much co-operation has been over-ridden by competition--manœuvres of one against the other, designed to the other’s detriment. We have been told that competition is absolutely necessary to keep us efficient in business; it is precisely the same school of thought which says that war is necessary to keep us efficient as a nation. But in a family you don’t need competition; where there is goodwill, co-operation and the give-and-take of new ideas for the common stock are enough. To-day we are beginning to wake up to the possibility of co-operation taking the place of competition. It is the purer idea; and being the purer we shall probably in the end find it the more economical. And what shall we say about politics? Does anyone pretend that our politics are pure; or that the system on which we run them is anything but a vast system of adulteration?--which may perhaps be thus expressed:--Two great bodies of opinion trying to misunderstand each other and trying to make the general public share in their misunderstanding, in order that their own side may attain to power. When you start on a discussion, what is the pure reason for that discussion? To try to arrive at a common understanding--mental co-operation. But is it for that purpose that we raise our party cries and run a general election?