For some time in our society there has been a growing concern against
immorality, against vice, against idleness; in short against those
which can rightly be called social ills. Such a tendency is certainly
good and satisfying; a sign of a notable social progress altho for
the majority it is a cause of alarm and regret because of the seeming
increase of such ills. Is there a positive increase of immorality? Is
there real cause for alarm because of a moral retrogression of our
society?
After having asked myself these questions and after having considered
the bases for the public clamor and for the excited opinion before the
sight of growing vice and immorality, I can say that this tendency
of public opinion is satisfying--a sign of betterment, of progress
of general morals. In other words, it is not immorality which is
growing. Rather, it is the moral consciousness which is gaining
ground in individual consciences, thus forming a public opinion which
formerly did not exist, completely awake to existing social evils and
which are combatted. Not that social morals has been decadent. On the
contrary, a moral consciousness has been rapidly formed in our society,
a consciousness which formerly was found only among an inconsiderable
minority, and which resulted in the new movement against vice and
immorality.