life.
A morality based on individual values is breaking down in every
direction, under the temptations and unsettlements, increased and
hastened by the war, but brought about primarily by profit seeking, by
the struggle of everyone doing as he likes, by a society so large, so
ill organized and so hurried that personal intercourse gives way to
mechanical relationships.

My position is all the more difficult as, while inclining more to the
spirit of those who, in relation to the moral questions I have dealt
with, are conservative, I yet regard very many of our accepted
conventions and our laws as productive of evil. I realize the way in
which they act so disastrously in hindering the spiritual and physical
health of our society. I am, therefore, eager for certain very
wide-reaching reforms.

I have not great patience with abstract theories of right and wrong,
rather I would test every law and every institution by its usefulness in
helping men and women. However imperfectly I have succeeded, I have set
_this aim of helpfulness_ steadfastly before me in every proposal I have
made for changes in our marriage laws and in the hindering laws which
regulate personal conduct. I do not want to discuss and consider
humanity, life, or anything else as I would like them to be, but, as
honestly as I can, I would observe and then help them as they are.

So many calamities and so much sin that could be prevented are
listlessly accepted by us as inevitable. New ideas and needs are
entangled among old; there is much of the new that is desirable to
preserve, much of the old that needs to be reformed. I would wish to
oppose two tendencies: I would prevent the too ready acceptance of the
fashions of the day, and I would also prevent a too loyal obedience to
the prejudices of yesterday. I would unite the intelligence of the
modern with the passion and sincerity of the ancient.

Such is the immensely difficult task that must be faced by every one of
us to-day. All of us are charged with heavy responsibility. Ours is a
greater inheritance than ever before there has been in the world. We
have all of us become responsible in a new and sterner way; to unite in
our search to find the new right paths. Three generations of
industrialism have created hideous abuses; we have to end them. With our
wider vision and more knowledge, with the lessons we have learned, with
the pain of our suffering, and our sacrifices still branded on our
hearts, we hav