Such, for instance, are the
agitation for temperance and similar social reforms, for prison
reform, for the spread of education, for the suppression of vice,
and for the avoidance of war by arbitration, disarmament, or
other means; such are, in some measure, university settlements,
neighborhood guilds, the various organizations typified by the
Young Men's Christian Association and Young People's Society for
Christian Endeavor, sewing-clubs, art clubs, and even commercial
clubs; such are also, in some slight measure, the pecuniary
foundations of semi-public establishments for charity, education,
or amusement, whether they are endowed by wealthy individuals or
by contributions collected from persons of smaller means -- in so
far as these establishments are not of a religious character.
It is of course not intended to say that these efforts proceed
entirely from other motives than those of a self-regarding kind.
What can be claimed is that other motives are present in the
common run of cases, and that the perceptibly greater prevalence
of effort of this kind under the circumstances of the modern
industrial life than under the unbroken regime of the principle
of status, indicates the presence in modern life of an effective
scepticism with respect to the full legitimacy of an emulative
scheme of life.
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