Some Pitfalls of Reformers
If property owners now and then stand in their own light, reformers sometimes act with more zeal than sense. The prevailing spirit is too often given to destructive criticism and too little to constructive work. It is too impatient to attain its ends quickly, and relies too little upon the slow-going processes of education. It is too prone to attribute human failure to an unfavorable environment and too little given to laying it at the door of bad heredity. It attaches too much importance to raising wages and too little to stopping leakages, utilizing wastes, and teaching people how to make better use of the resources they already have. It too often imputes improper motives to its opponents. It is occasionally unmindful that there may be honest differences of opinion concerning the wisdom of the remedies which it proposes. It is either too penurious or not sufficiently alive to extravagance in the use of the public money. It has been known to wink at the lawlessness of organized labor while denouncing the lawlessness of capital, or vice versa. It at times needlessly alienates the sympathy of those without whose support it can not succeed. It now and then contents itself with securing the enactment of a statute, forgetful that the laws have no power to enforce themselves. An aroused public opinion is sometimes lulled to sleep by an act of the legislature, and inspectors who do not inspect occasionally give the community a sense of fancied security. Those opposed to a larger measure of social control have been known to withdraw their opposition on the ground that public opinion will not long demand its enforcement. For these and other reasons, the fossilized opponents of reform occasionally render the world a much needed service by calling reformers to account and pointing out their mistakes.
