The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-31

paper Syndicate)
wHAD double object in selecting this
theme and in preparing this address.
My first desire was to encourage re-
formers and my second was to stimulate
TO activity those who have not hereto-
fore been interested in reforms. But the
word reform" is not used in any mar
row or restricted sense: it is not confined
TO political reforms. Reform is change
for the better, and a reformer is one who
is trying to improve conditions. There
are, in fact. but three classes of people
who are not reformers and it would be a
s-iiscrion upon you to assume that you
are in any one of the three classes.
The first class contains those who lack
intelligence-who do not know that there
are wrongs to be righted and abuses to
be removed In the second class will be
found those who know that reform is
possible, but who are so hard hearted and
Indifferent to the welfare Of their fell
lows that they do not desire the reforms
secured. The third and last class is made
up of those who have pecuniary interest
in existing abuses-who have their hands
in other peoples pockets and do not want
to be disturbed
Has Many Difficulties
The reformer has many difficulties to
encounter, but l shall only mention two
at this time. The first is the difference
in the degree of interest which people
feel in reforms. Reformers are all the
way from Just above freezing up to boil
ing point. When reformer is just above
freezing he must be handled very tender
ly, for. with little drop in the temper
ature, he is out of the class; but when he
is at boiling point he is at work. One OF
the chief purposes of speaking on reform
is to raise the temperature and put the
reformer TO work among his fellows II
;s easier TO increase the zeal of one who
believes in a reform than it is to convert
ono IN a reform who is really against It
lust as in political campaigns it is easier
90 .et ont the vote than it is to convert
men to the party.
The second difficulty is even greater
,,v tba difficulty in securing co-opera-
tion between reformers. If l were to Sc
loot from the audience 10 persons. recon-
mended to me as the most advanced re-
formers of your community, and found
upon inquiry that the 10 agreed upon the
aos,rahili+v of 10 reforms. not half of them
would agree as to which reform is most
important and probably no two would
-sqree as to the relative Importance of the
10 reforms. Because a reformer is honest
he is apt to be obstinate, and because he
is conscious that he is disinterested he Is
not prone to compromise
Some Refuse to Aid
Some reformers become so interested
in one reform that they will not partici-
pate in the securing of others which they
regard of less Importance, and some'
honest people, too. when they find what
they regard as a panacea, not only re-
fuse to aid in the bringing of other re-
FORMS but, when their reform is rejected,
desire conditions to become worse and
worse and worse-and even help to make
them worse-in the hope that the people
will at last in desperation accept what
they now reject. / am not willing to in
dorse this philosophy. 1 am not willing
to help make any condition worse, no
matter how sure | may be that out of
that worse condition good may finally
come. Human Judgment is not sufficiently
unerring to enable us to measure with
certainty the result of the acts of others
or even the result of our own actions.
4 am resrained by the fear that if help
to make condition worse | may not
afterwards be able to make it better. 1
have put my theory into the form of
an illustration; if | ever get 1t into my
head that l can raise a man from the
dead shall not kill a man in order to
experiment with him-I shall try it upon
q dead man.
No Particular Reform
But l am not going to advocate any
particular reform. AS L stated in the
beginning my purpose is to encourage
reforms and to arouse the indifferent to
ACTIVITY. And reformers need encourage
ment. When one sees an evil clearly he
wonders why all do not see it; when he
finds remedy that seems sufficient he
wonders why all do not accept it AS
great reforms come slowly 1t is not
strange that those who labor earnestly