Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/104

 the willingness to apply moral tests to social institutions, especially to economic practices, has not been a generally accepted usage. The tendency has been to use ethics as an emotional substitute for religion rather than as a general guide to social and personal conduct. There is, however, in recent times a disposition among the younger members of ethical societies, and to a less extent among “rationalists,” to bring their ethics and their rationalism to bear upon problems of social progress. Social-economic equality is becoming an accepted end for ethical agitation, and though the publications of the rationalist Press show little disposition to apply to social problems the fuller rationalism of Thomas Paine, Godwin, and Robert Owen, an increasing number of its leaders devote their main energy to the propagation of reforms in economic, political, and educational fields. Rationalism and free-thinking are thus gradually broadening out into instruments for bringing clear consciousness into processes of social evolution. Practical experience of the difficulties attending this process made me aware of the strength of conservatism in resisting the new demands for social justice and a reasonable economic order. For if the course of events has been such as I describe among those who profess reason and justice for their guides, what can be expected from those who