ABSTRACT
Violence produces only the results of violence and the attempt to impose reforms by violent methods is therefore foredoomed to failure. Non-violent methods of reform are likely to succeed only where a majority of the population is either actively in favour of the reform in question, or at least not prepared actively to oppose it. Private individuals, either alone or in groups, must formulate the idea of reform and must popularize it among the masses. In the modern world, as we have seen, the great obstacle to all desirable change is war. The movement of reform must therefore come from private individuals. It is the business of these private individuals to persuade the majority of their fellows that the policy of pacifism is preferable to that of militarism. The function of the well-intentioned individual, acting in isolation, is to formulate or disseminate theoretical truths. The story of prison reform is essentially similar to that of the reform of asylums.
