Social evolution and political theory / by Leonard T. Hobhouse.

  • Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social evolution and political theory / by Leonard T. Hobhouse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/240 page 5
    evil of social changes is no mere form of words, but a way of expressing a deep-seated truth which those who ig¬ nore it will in practice strike on sooner or later. You may remember a certain simile employed by Mr. Her¬ bert Spencer in his “ Study on Sociology.” Give a man a sheet of metal with a dint in it, he says, and ask him to flatten it out. What does he do ? If he knows nothing of metal work, he takes a hammer and knocks the dint flat, only to find that it has reappeared elsewhere. He applies the hammer again at the new point with the same result, and so he goes on till he convinces himself that dints are not to be levelled out by this direct and easy method. So it is, urges Mr. Spencer, with society. We find some evil or evils which we seek to prevent by direct and forcible means, only to find, says this critic of social effort, that a corresponding evil appears somewhere else. We put down overt crime only to find that some form of secret vice is increasing. A temperance crusade sup¬ presses drunkenness, and it is discovered that those who used to drink now find an outlet for excitement in gam¬ bling. Compensation for accidents is secured by law to workmen, and in consequence it is alleged that elderly workmen are refused situations. Workmen form trade unions to maintain and improve the conditions of their work, and no sooner do they succeed than their em¬ ployers imitate them and form federations by which the unions are overpowered. Strikes are replaced by mu¬ tual agreements which are to initiate an era of industrial peace, and it is found that the wider the agreement the less it meets the local difficulties of mine and workshop, and we see workmen striking substantially against their own leaders. I need not here inquire whether in all
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3