Our Foes at Home (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. The Redemption Of The People's Estate. There are only two ways in which, so far as human experience goes, great social and political abuses can be cured. We know them by the names of reform and revolution. The radical difference between the two processes is that in reform men set before themselves a change which they desire to bring about, and endeavor to find some method which will lead up to and bring it about; in revolution they rise in revolt against evils that have grown intolerable, and generally conclude that as matters cannot well be worse they will take their chance of what the future may bring. It follows that, as a rule, reform is a gradual and peaceable process, while revolution is sudden and violent. It need not be pointed out to reasonable men how greatly the former is to be preferred to the latter process for the removal of social evils. If there were a doubt, experience would remove it. The world has advanced by means of the reforms instituted deliberately by men. Again and again civilization, and nearly all that made life worth living, has nearly perished in the throes of violent revolution which timely reforms would have prevented. It is the element of time, however, that is all-important. It is in the nature of all great abuses, whether social or political, to grow and strengthen with their growth; and it is generally in their earlier stages only that they can be effectually dealt with by the gentler method of reform. Should these stages be allowed to pass it is too frequently the case that society at large is condemned to suffer the penalty of its blindness or folly in the loss and destruction entailed by revolution. The evils that threaten the future of America are still in their earlier stages of growth. It is true that g...