None of us can really prosper permanently if there are masses among us who are debased and degraded.
This sentence reminds me of the quote, "You're only as strong as the weakest link." In context to the annotation, you can not improve as a society if you don't acknowledge and aim to fix the ones below you.
must feel our obligation to work by governmental action, and in all other ways possible, to make the conditions better for those who are unfairly pressed down in the fierce competition of modern industrial life.
Even if you're being well taken care of in your job industry, you should want to fight for the improvement of others industries that are less fortunate regardless of who they are. To create equality for the present and the future.
atrophy
Atrophy is any weakening or degeneration (especially through lack of use). Vocabulary.com. (n.d.). Atrophy. In Vocabulary.com Dictionary. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/atrophy
Basically the power and control will wither away if it isn't being commanded by the people.