The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-11-25
Modern Conscience
THIS that I call ME is made up of many
By DIR. FRANK CRANE

4 'd1S that call ME- is made up OF many
ingredients.
First, there is earth, DUST matter,
which 1 hold in common with stones, seas,
stars, and material substance in general.
! Then there is my living organism; in this
am akin to all plants in meadow, mountain
and river-bed.
| Another part of me is animal, wherein I
am brother to all birds, fishes, insects and
other animal life.
| Then comes my human element, in which
possession am partner with the whole hui
man race. All who have died, from Adam to
my parents, have poured this quality into me
all who now live constitute a huge body of
which 1 am a small member.
A large part of me is English, a part is
American, part comes from my own family
stock, a part is created by the influence Of
all l meet. M
When l get down to- that portion which is
distinctively ME and nobody else, it is ex-
tremely small.
| 1t is what the taste is to the apple, the per-
fume is to the flower, the Correggiosity is to
work of Correggio, the style is to an au-
thors words.
This being the case, if you wish to "save"
or to reform ME, you have a large and in
| teresting contract on your hands.
|
the flavor bit, but you must make different
the tree, the garden, the country, and the
climate.
To reform me in any way that will in
sure that l stay reformed you have to re-
form the folks belong to, the city live in,
the books l read, the friends l play with to-
gether with my state, nation, race, and the
whole human nature of the soil, for the
present.
For many centuries those who wanted to
make men better have pounded away at the
individual For ages the church was pos
sessed of the idea that the larger ME-that is
to say, the state, mankind at large, was
doomed; it was non-salvable, and the best
the savers could do was to pluck few brands
from the burning" Humanity was goner
few might be rescued as the elect.
1t has been discovered that this sort of
saving does not save. To secure a good,
honest upright, and noble man we have to
begin with great-gr grandparents, and to include
society at large.
The benevolence that gives beggar quar-
ter has become suspected. TO be real be-
nevolence it must alter the conditions that
make beggars
10 imprisOn grating police and to rescue
fallen women here and there seem to do little
good; more and more you hear the saying,
1t is the system that is wrong"
The conscience of the world is deepening. 1t
is enlargening to embrace the larger ME.
We are not losing faith; we are discovering
that to help people permanently it takes more
faith than we ever dreamed of.
We can no longer go on in "the good old
way reScuing individuals and calling social,
business and government conditions 1.-THE will
of God" We are waking to the conviction
that we can and we must bring those condi-
tions up to conform with justice and humane
ness.
There is new note in the thunder of the
modern conscience. It no more says we must
rescue the fallen, feed the hungry, and give
aims to the poor; it declares that we must
prevent crime hunger and poverty
The cry of ancient Rome that the bar
barians must be destroyed; the cry of mod
ern civilization is that there must be 20 more
Ibarbarians. ,rN