of government he calls "sociocracy" in which the control of the social future rather than the adjustment of private property interests will be the chief function.
Ten years later Ward gave out "Pure Sociology," in which he traced the origin of society, the course of social development and the means by which civilization had been built up. This was followed soon by "Applied Sociology," crown of his system and his last word on the problem of accelerating social progress. While insisting equally with the socialists on the lop-sidedness of modern progress and the non-participation of the masses in the fruits of the machine era, he utterly refused to pin his hope for the future to single tax, collectivism or any economic reform whatsoever. In his view no purely economic reform can put an end to exploitation, because it leaves untouched the great inequality of intelligence which alone makes exploitation possible. Education, therefore, is the antidote not only to contemporary exploitation, but to such exploitations as may be called into being by unforeseen future developments.
Ward believed that native talent or genius appears about as frequently in one social class as another, in working-class children as in the children of the well-to-do. The fact that through the centuries most of the great men have sprung from the comfortable classes simply proves the might of opportunity. The bringing of full educational opportunities within reach of all children will enable society for the first time to realize on all its latent assets of human capacity.
Ward lived to see his ideas generally accepted by thoughtful men. No longer is progress identified with the method of natural selection. To-day no one advocates surrender to the blind forces of social development. The laissez faire theory has been abandoned. The functions of government have greatly multiplied, especially on the side of research, education and stimulation. With this about-face Lester F. Ward had something to do. He never reached the people, but he reached the people who reached the people. His program remains yet to be realized, but the leaders are moving in the direction he pointed.
