THE FUTURE OF THE RACE

In proportion as fair means are found and utilized for remedying the gross inequalities in the present distribution of wealth, and big fortunes disappear, it will become necessary for the State to undertake more and more generally the functions that have, during the last few generations, been largely dependent upon private philanthropy.  This will be an advantage not merely in putting this welfare work upon a securer basis, but in enlisting the loyalty of the masses to the Government.  Much of the energy and devotion which are now given to the labor-unions, because in them alone the workers see hope of help, might be given to the State if it should take upon itself more adequately to minister to the people’s needs.  The rich can get health and beauty for themselves; but the poor are largely dependent upon public provision for a wholesome and cheerful existence.  Laissez-faire individualism has provided them with saloons; in the new age the State must provide them with something better than saloons.  “Flowers and sunshine for all,” in Richard Jefferies’ wistful phrase-the State should make a determined and thoroughgoing effort, not merely to repress, to punish, to palliate conditions, but in every positive way that expert thought can devise and the people will vote to support, to add to the worth of human life.  We may consider these paternal functions of government under three heads:  the improvement of human environment, to make it more beautiful and convenient; the development, through educational agencies, of the mental and moral life of the people; and the improvement, by various means, of the human stock itself.

In what ways should the State seek to better human environment?

(1) Municipal governments should supervise town and village planning.  The riotous individualism of our American people has resulted in the haphazard growth of countless dreary towns and an architectural anarchy that resembles nothing more than an orchestra playing with every instrument tuned to a different key.  The stamp of public control is to be seen, if at all, in an inconvenient and monotonous chessboard plan for streets.  Congestion of traffic at the busy points; wide stretches of empty pavement on streets little used; houses of every style and no style, imbued with all the colors of the spectrum; weed-grown vacant lots, unkempt yards, some fenced, some unfenced; poster-bedecked billboards-verily, the average American town is not a thing of beauty.  Matthew Arnold’s judgment is corroborated by every traveler.  “Evidently,” he wrote, “this is that civilization’s weak side.  There is little to nourish and delight the sense of beauty there.”  A certain crudeness is inevitable in a new country, and will be outgrown; age is a great artist.  Man usually mars with his first strokes; and it is only when he has met his practical needs that he will dally with aesthetic considerations.  Many of our older cities and villages