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METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
AMUSEJIENTS OF THE PEOPLE.*
THE possible Methods by which we may hope to accomplish
Social Reform are almost infinite in number and variety. As
society becomes more complex and the forms of lzumnn activity
multiply, so must multiply also the points at which careful
legislation and continuous social effort are required to prevent
abuse, and secure the best utilisation of resources. Nor nro
theso Methods of Social Reform to be regarded as alternatives,
one or other or a few of which are to be considered sufficient.
They are to be advocated and adopted conjunctively, not disjunctively.
Each and all must be brought into simultaneous
play, if any considerable effect is to be produced. It ia
common to hear social reformers express disappointment that
their efforts seem to bear such slight results. Schools have
been built, penny readings started, penny banks, libraries,
and various useful institutions established, and yet crime and
ignorance and drunkenness shorn no apparent diminutionnay,
sometimes they show an increase.
But it is altogether a mistake to suppose that a few
Methods of Social Reform, almost casually adopted according
to the crotchets of the reformer, can be expected to make any
serioae impression upon the bad habits of a population-babits
'I Contemporary Review," Ootober, 1878, vol. xxxiii., pp. 498-513.
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