Instruction and citizenship:

The problem is how to form a more vigorous municipal life, how to draw to the performance of the simple and elementary duties of Citizenship the large mass of the people. One method suggests itself at once in relation at least to that department of work with shich the Society concern itself. Let there be studentes and teachers of the history of charity, poor law, and social economy. If those who believe in the latent strength and sound instincts of our community undertake the task, they will win from the waste much force that is now unspent or turned to private uses only, and make a rich haevest of the fallow land of much blundering goodwill and confused endeavour. We ought not to have insanitary dwellings or any large population of paupers and dependents. From one and from the other alike, knowledge and 'fitting action' in charity are connected, and how the latter dependends on the co-operation of the many, the duty of trying to instruct and enlist a much larger number of fellow-workers will be obvious.

SW 402