The present social situation demands that we shall push forward in the
direction of a twofold objective. First, we must give human life the best
possible set of conditions under which to exist and develop. Second, we
must do what is properly possible to assist it to develop at its best
under those conditions. We must make of the physical world the best
environment we can. We must then encourage people to obtain the largest
benefit from that environment.
The highest values we can cultivate are the human values. It is all well
enough to lay out beautiful parks, build broad streets, erect costly
monuments, and rear majestic buildings. However, to do these things alone
would be following a very short-sighted plan. Such a program cannot long
continue unless we keep producing men who can carry it forward.
Furthermore, its results would be of no value to the future without a
vigorous and hardy race to enjoy them when the future arrives.
If we develop the highest type of human beings we shall not be lacking any
good thing when the to-morrows come. After all, the human problems are
about the only ones we have. Give us worthy people, and everything else
will take care of itself. Where wealth accumulates and men decay the
country decays with them. Where humanity is regnant and ascendent
everything else is certain to be at its best. The world goes upward or
downward, forward or backward with its people. All that enters into our
physical environment must first be conceived in the mind and wrought by
the hand of man. Humanity is, therefore, the most important object to
which our interest and service can be dedicated. It represents both the
divine problem and the human task. Only by discharging our full duty to it
can we realize the dream of a new heaven and a new earth. The strength,
and worth, and happiness of human beings are the things for which we
should all be living, both for the sake of others and that of ourselves.