aptitude qualifies him, and in which his capacity, his native gifts, and all his faculties can unfold. And this is not merely the realization of the idea of justice; it is the sole means of attaining the best that can be hoped for from any establishment or any government department.

Every individual has his personal-ity and his standing

This means that justice requires us to make it easy for every individual to obtain the esteem and respect that are his due.

Yet the sense of justice does not suffice, in itself, to bridge that gulf which separates the man of com-fortable means from the destitute man. To it must be added love, which in the relations between individuals holds the place of the soul in the body. Every individual must be ready at all times to give and to bestow, of his money and of himself: giving when giving is possible, and bestowing all that can be bestowed of material and moral things. As for the giving of oneself, it means not holding back and withdrawing, but sharing with others in their joys and their sorrows, and knowing how to put oneself in another's place and how to listen to his complaint—indeed, how to spend one's time gener-ously on everyone who is looking for a human being who will listen to his complaint and the misery of his wounds. A man must not meet his fellow man with the deaf language of the law or with rigid rules when he does not grasp the spirit of that law nor the aim of those rules. The complainant and the sufferer must be made to understand that in this age he can rise and advance if he sets about exerting effort with a gradualness that will not exhaust him. The aim

of all must be directed not toward trying and condemning, but simply toward understanding and the exercise of thought. For judg-ment means, in reality, finding the outlets that lead to hope, not lock-ing the door of mercy in the face of one who stands in need of it.

It has been proven that gain is assured in all forms of social activity when benefit is joined to the work. No work should be undertaken without the participa-tion in it of those who benefit from it. Social work must be done with their cooperation—indeed, thanks to that cooperation whenever possible; they must share, to the widest extent feasible, in the work that is done for their sake. And it is clear that this whole system rests fundamentally on love, and on love alone. For the social spirit is nothing but a practical, daily application of the affection and the brotherhood that God has placed within us.

Now that we have attempted in this way to define what the "social spirit" is, we pass on to the study of "social service itself."

Part Two Social Service

Social service—whether the body performing it be a private establishment, a municipal admin-istration, a village center, or one of the juvenile courts, etc.—must, in keeping with the manifestations of advancement, progress, and civilization, always be in full accord with the individual and suited to his needs. An example of this: the movement of indus-trialization, despite the undeniable benefits it achieves—for it is a col-lective security for the individual wage-earning worker—by its very constitution leads to social conse-quences which tend to diminish, if

not at times to disregard entirely, the human personality. For the individual is not, in himself, an economic unit through which progress is achieved; he is, rather, the object and the end of progress, whatever it may be. He is the sole and most important purpose for whose sake all technical, political, and legislative efforts must be devised and organized.

So it is, likewise, in the sphere of justice, and especially in the sphere of justice concerning juveniles. We have known for a long time how much truth and honesty there is in the well-known saying, "Perfect justice is perfect injustice." The best of intentions, when they are turned into deeds, always need to be examined and watched, so that they remain good intentions and are not transformed into their opposite.

Accordingly, "social service" may be defined, in keeping with its very name, as a civil or public system which undertakes, first, to uncover the defects that beset the fundamental structure of every community; and second, to contribute thereafter to the application of the laws and regulations ordering the life of that community in the most just and compassionate manner pos-sible—whether by proposing the amendment of those laws and reg-ulations, or by extending prompt and effective assistance in cases that very often appear hopeless.

This is the essential function of social service; and it is also, regrettably, the limit it cannot go beyond.

The immediate aim of social service

Having set forth this definition of social service, and in view of the