In setting forth the difficulties which have to be grappled with,I shall endeavour in all things to understate rather than overstate my case.I do this for two reasons:first,any exaggeration would create a reaction;and secondly,as my object is to demonstrate the practicability of solving the problem,I do not wish to magnify its dimensions.In this and in subsequent chapters I hope to convince those who read them that there is no overstraining in the representation of the facts,and nothing Utopian in the presentation of remedies.I appeal neither to hysterical emotionalists nor headlong enthusiasts;but having tried to approach the examination of this question in a spirit of scientific investigation,I put forth my proposals with the view of securing the support and co-operation of the sober,serious,practical men and women who constitute the saving strength and moral backbone of the country.I fully admit that them is much that is lacking in the diagnosis of the disease,and,no doubt,in this first draft of the preion there is much room for improvement,which will come when we have the light of fuller experience.But with all its drawbacks and defects,I do not hesitate to submit my proposals to the impartial judgment of all who are interested in the solution of the social question as an immediate and practical mode of dealing with this,the greatest problem of our time.
The first duty of an investigator in approaching the study of any question is to eliminate all that is foreign to the inquiry,and to concentrate his attention upon the subject to be dealt with.Here Imay remark that I make no attempt in this book to deal with Society as a whole.I leave to others the formulation of ambitious programmes for the reconstruction of our entire social system;not because I may not desire its reconstruction,but because the elaboration of any plans which are more or less visionary and incapable of realisation for many years would stand in the way of the consideration of this Scheme for dealing with the most urgently pressing aspect of the question,which Ihope may be put into operation at once.