Man is a progressive being and shows wonder ful capacity for conquering obstacles that seem insurmountable. One after another they are overcome by the more venturesome and the stronger. Less and less they tend to assume a definite and permanent form. Land, capital, and directing skill become in turn limiting fac tors. A lack of any one is a serious obstacle, but it cannot be said abstractly that the lack of any one is more serious than that of another. Which one is in fact lacking at a given time is only to be ascertained by direct observation, or by the terms which those who have it to offer are able to make. It is probable that at present in civilized countries labor is more scarce than any one of the other necessary elements. For it is possible that efficient labor may also be lack ing and that this deficiency may prove an obsta cle. It is less to be regretted than any other, however, for where it exists it implies a high reward to labor. This is itself a favorable con dition for social progress where labor is free. A relatively large income for laborers tends to secure that diffusion of the benefits of industrial progress which is an indispensable condition of social progress. It was pointed out in the clos ing proposition concerning industry, that a dif fuion of knowledge is desirable for industrial reasons. Inversely, a wider diffusion of wealth is desirable for its social, educational, and moral results. As nearly as it is safe to formulate a social ideal, we may find it in a state of society in which the only serious obstacle to further progress lies in the lack of a sufficient number of persons to fully utilize the capital, land, and directive energy in existence.
We may now venture upon a more specific enumeration of a few of the positive obstacles to social progress encountered by various com munities in greater or less degree. First may be mentioned a bad climate and a lack of natural advantages, not because these are first in importance, but because they are most obvi ous, and they are only to a very moderate extent traceable to man's agency. Something can be done by the planting of trees, by irrigation, and in other ways to modify an unfavorable climate, and much may be done to overcome its effects upon human beings and animals ; but an abso lute lack of the materials of industry can be overcome only by enlarging the environment to include regions more favored.
A despotic, or a corrupt, or an inefficient gov ernment may do more to retard progress than an unfavorable climate, or poverty of resources. Of the three species of bad government, it is difficult to decide which is the most obnoxious. A despotic government destroys individual ini tiative and self-reliance ; a corrupt government saps confidence and undermines the virtues upon which social progress depends ; an inef ficient government withholds the cooperation upon which citizens have a right to rely. None of them accomplishes the legitimate industrial end of government in acting as a channel through which citizens may freely and effec tively unite for those mutual services which are better accomplished in cooperation than in isolation. A government which is strong, pure,
and free, is not a "necessary evil," but an excel lent means of securing worthy ends. When it becomes deficient in any of these essential respects it becomes in so far an obstacle.
Intemperance and immorality of every other kind are socially dangerous. They are an obstacle to the efficient making of goods, for this requires a steady hand and clear brain. They are an obstacle to the right use of goods, for this demands personal character of the best type. They totally prevent the wisest choice of goods, and so stand as obstacles in each of the three ways of possible advancement. Strong drink may not be responsible for so large a part of poverty as is sometimes represented in " hysterical " statistics, but it is nevertheless one of the chief obstacles to social progress ; and by its side must be put over-indulgence in rich food and in personal adornment and house hold furniture that are discordant, extravagant, and in bad taste. This whole group of obstacles may be described as the wilful substitution of lower for higher pleasures. Vice and folly account, not only for personal ruin, but for social stagnation.
An applicant for appointment in a benevolent society was recently asked to name in a word the most important cause of pauperism. He replied without hesitation, "relief-giving." The questioner, a high authority on the subject, accepted the reply as correct. Indiscriminate giving is an obstacle to social progress. It creates paupers and subjects to temptation many who are entirely competent to make their own living. It transforms many of those who might add to the social wealth into social para sites living on the wealth created by others.
The withdrawal of indiscriminate public relief has generally been followed by a diminution of poverty and a general improvement of the con dition of society. Social progress demands not less of fraternal helpfulness, but less encourage ment to mendicancy, and less carelessness con cerning the ultimate effects of alms.
War, civil and foreign, has been one of the great destroyers of commerce and industry. It has absorbed energies which might have made for social progress. It has developed social habits and instincts. It has taken the lives of the best workers and has saddled upon nations intolerable burdens of debt. There have been many compensations. War has at times been a civilizer and a useful school for peoples who were having too little domestic and foreign social contact. But under present con ditions such contact is secured by commerce and peaceful intercourse. War and preparations for war are obstacles to the inter-exchange of goods and of ideas among the nations of the earth, and upon such changes, progress is most closely dependent. The cost of enormous mili tary armaments must be•reckoned among those 2B obstacles to social progress which might be re moved.