Yet again, each has a private interest in public morals and profits by
improving them. Not in large ways only, by aggressions and breaches of
contract, by adulterations and short measures, does each suffer from
the general unconscientiousness; but in more numerous small ways. Now
it is through the untruthfulness of one who gives a good character to
a bad servant; now it is by the recklessness of a laundress who, using
bleaching agents to save trouble in washing, destroys his linen; now
it is by the acted falsehood of railway passengers who, by dispersed
coats, make him believe that all the seats in a compartment are taken
when they are not. Yesterday the illness of his child due to foul
gases, led to the discovery of a drain that had become choked because
it was ill-made by a dishonest builder under supervision of a careless
or bribed surveyor. To-day workmen employed to rectify it bring on him
cost and inconvenience by dawdling; and their low standard of work,
determined by the unionist principle that the better workers must not
discredit the worse by exceeding them in efficiency, he may trace to
the immoral belief that the unworthy should fare as well as the worthy.
To-morrow it turns out that business for the plumber has been provided
by damage which the bricklayers have done.
Thus the improvement of others, physically, intellectually and morally,
personally concerns each; since their imperfections tell in raising the
cost of all the commodities he buys, in increasing the taxes and rates
he pays, and in the losses of time, trouble and money, daily brought on
by others' carelessness, stupidity, or unconscientiousness.
§ 79. Very obvious are certain more immediate connections between
personal welfare and ministration to the welfare of those around.
The evils suffered by those whose behavior is unsympathetic, and the
benefits to self which unselfish conduct brings, show these.
That any one should have formulated his experience by saying that
the conditions to success are a hard heart and a sound digestion, is
marvelous considering the many proofs that success, even of a material
kind, greatly depending as it does on the good offices of others, is
furthered by whatever creates good will in others. The contrast between
the prosperity of those who, to but moderate abilities join natures
which beget friendships by their kindliness, and the adversity of those
who, though possessed of superior faculties and greater acquirements,
arouse dislikes by their hardness or indifference, should force upon
all the truth that egoistic enjoyments are aided by altruistic actions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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