This does not mean that the balance has become even, for I am of Jean
Lahor’s opinion: “The plutocrats may be preparing for the masses of the
future a still more crushing yoke, with more falsity and more deadening
effect--by the suggestions of the Press, which they have completely in
their power--than has ever been the case with aristocracies or
autocracies, whose authority had its origin at least in the finer human
energies, in a noble desire for power.”
It must nevertheless be recognised that, in order that the relations
between man and man should no longer be in the hands of those devoid of
conscience and feeling, a certain equality, a meeting on common ground
for action, has been already established in modern society; if the lower
classes have climbed the ladder far enough to attain to that domain
which seemed bound to remain in the hands of the higher, the latter, on
the other hand, have not hesitated to leave the heights to which class
prejudice might have held them, and invade the territory of trade and
commerce.
A man of high position will no longer lose caste by becoming the head of
a motor factory; a nobleman may take part in commercial enterprise, a
prince of the blood sell, in his own name, the products of his vineyards
and lands.
It is the same from the point of view of women. As they think more, as
they become carried away by the desire to prove their value and the need
for individual effort, the middle-class woman is reaching towards higher
and higher branches of education. Great ladies, even princesses, do not
disdain to draw profit from the industrial arts, from painting and
literature.
These new social conditions could not continue but by the spread and
improvement of education and the growing sense of justice as understood
by Herbert Spencer; that is to say, the responsibility of the individual
taken in connection with the need for social co-operation.
Complete equality will never exist; comparative equality must be based
on such liberty as, by its exercise, cannot infringe upon the liberties
of others.
It must not be forgotten that social harmony is the result of the
adjustment of conflicting rights and duties. One has to-day to take
into consideration the fact that the humblest artisan is working for the
good of society just as is the most famous engineer, the greatest
inventor, the noblest writer, or the most celebrated statesman.
Therefore, being “morally equal in duty, they are morally equal in
rights.”
Education, that leveller of castes, dispenser of good, justice, and
harmony, is the outcome of the experience of each utilised for the good
of all. It should come from ourselves as well as from others, and pass
through the way of reason.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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