{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_69879/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_69879","id":"gutenberg_69879","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69879","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Category: Sociology","Municipal government -- United States","Peace","Political participation -- United States","Social justice","Working class -- United States"],"text":"THE CITIZEN\u2019S LIBRARY\n\n OF\n\n ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND\n SOCIOLOGY\n\n EDITED BY\n\n RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D.\n\n PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY,\n UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN\n\n NEWER IDEALS OF\n PEACE\n\n\n\n\n THE CITIZEN\u2019S LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND SOCIOLOGY\n\n _12mo._ _Half Leather_ _$1.25 net, each_\n\n\n =MONOPOLIES AND TRUSTS.= By RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D.\n\n =THE ECONOMICS OF DISTRIBUTION.= By JOHN A. HOBSON.\n\n =WORLD POLITICS.= By PAUL S. REINSCH, PH.D., LL.B.\n\n =ECONOMIC CRISES.= By EDWARD D. JONES, PH.D.\n\n =OUTLINES OF ECONOMICS.= By RICHARD T. ELY.\n\n =GOVERNMENT IN SWITZERLAND.= BY JOHN MARTIN VINCENT, PH.D.\n\n =ESSAYS ON THE MONETARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.= By CHARLES J.\n BULLOCK, PH.D.\n\n =SOCIAL CONTROL.= By EDWARD A. ROSS, PH.D.\n\n =HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES.= By JESSE MACY,\n LL.D.\n\n =MUNICIPAL ENGINEERING AND SANITATION.= By M. N. BAKER, PH.B.\n\n =DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS.= By JANE ADDAMS, LL.D.\n\n =COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.= By PAUL S. REINSCH, PH.D., LL.B.\n\n =AMERICAN MUNICIPAL PROGRESS.= By CHARLES ZUEBLIN, B.D.\n\n =IRRIGATION INSTITUTIONS.= By ELWOOD MEAD, C.E., M.S.\n\n =RAILWAY LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES.= By BALTHASAR H. MEYER,\n PH.D.\n\n =STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY.= By RICHARD T. ELY,\n PH.D., LL.D.\n\n =THE AMERICAN CITY.= By DELOS F. WILCOX, PH.D.\n\n =MONEY.= By DAVID KINLEY, PH.D.\n\n =THE FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY.= By EDWARD A. ROSS.\n\n =THE ELEMENTS OF SOCIOLOGY.= By FRANK W. BLACKMAR, PH.D.\n\n =COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION.= By PAUL S. REINSCH, PH.D., LL.B.\n\n =AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS.= By HENRY C.\n TAYLOR, M.S.AGR., PH.D.\n\n =SOME ETHICAL GAINS THROUGH LEGISLATION.= By FLORENCE KELLEY.\n\n =INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ORGANIZATION.= By SAMUEL E. SPARLING, PH.D.\n\n =THE NEWER IDEALS OF PEACE.= By JANE ADDAMS, LL.D.\n\n\n THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE\n NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\n _THE CITIZEN\u2019S LIBRARY_\n\n\n Newer Ideals of Peace\n\n\n BY\n JANE ADDAMS\n\n HULL-HOUSE, CHICAGO, AUTHOR OF \u201cDEMOCRACY\n AND SOCIAL ETHICS,\u201d ETC.\n\n\n New York\n THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.\n 1906\n _All rights reserved_\n\n\n\n\n Copyrighted 1906\n By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n\n Set up, electrotyped. Printed December, 1906\n\n\n THE MASON-HENRY PRESS\n SYRACUSE, NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\n TO\n Hull-House\n AND\n its Neighbors\n\n\n\n\n PREFATORY NOTE\n\n\nThese studies in the gradual development of the moral substitutes for\nwar have been made in the industrial quarter of a cosmopolitan city\nwhere the morality exhibits marked social and international aspects.\n\nParts of two chapters have been published before in the form of\naddresses, and two others as articles in the _North American Review_\nand in the _American Journal of Sociology_. All of them however are\nheld together by a conviction that has been maturing through many years.\n\n Hull-House,\n Chicago.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n INTRODUCTION\n\n Newer ideals of peace are dynamic; if made operative\n will do away with war as a natural process 3\n\n Of the older ideals the appeal to pity is dogmatic 4\n\n The appeal to the sense of prudence also dogmatic\n and at this moment seems impotent 5\n\n Outlook for universal peace by international arbitration 6\n\n Primitive and profound impulses operate against impulse\n to war 8\n\n Appeal to pity and prudence unnecessary if the cosmopolitan\n interest in human affairs is utilized 9\n\n Social morality originates in social affections 11\n\n Emotion determines social relations in the poorer\n quarters of a cosmopolitan city 13\n\n New immigrants develop phenomenal powers of association 14\n\n Their ideal of government includes kindliness as\n well as protection 15\n\n Crowded city quarters the focal point of governmental\n progress 16\n\n Life at these points must shape itself with reference\n to the demands of social justice 17\n\n Simple foundations laid there for an international\n order 18\n\n Ideals formed \u201cin the depth of anonymous life\u201d make\n for realization 20\n\n Impulses toward compassionate conduct imperative 21\n\n The internationalism of good will foreseen by the\n philosopher 23\n\n A quickening concern for human welfare; international\n aspects illustrated by world-wide efforts\n to eradicate tuberculosis, first signs of the substitution\n of nurture for warfare 25\n\n This substitution will be a natural process 26\n\n Our very hope for it, a surrender to the ideals of the\n humble 27\n\n Accounting must be taken between survivals of militarism\n and manifestations of newer humanitarianism 28\n\n Tendency to idealization marked eighteenth-century\n humanitarian 29\n\n Newer ideals of this century sustained only by\n knowledge and companionship 30\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n SURVIVALS OF MILITARISM IN CITY GOVERNMENT\n\n American Republic founded under the influence of\n doctrinaire eighteenth-century ideals. Failure in\n municipal administration largely due to their inadequacy 31\n\n Modern substitutes of the evolutionary conception of\n progress for eighteenth-century idealism 32\n\n Failure of adjustment between the old form of government\n and present condition results in reversion\n to military and legal type 34\n\n National governmental machinery provides no vehicle\n for organized expression of popular will 35\n\n Historic governments dependent upon force of arms 36\n\n Founders placed too exclusive a value upon the\n principles defended by the War of the Revolution.\n Example of the overestimation of the\n spoils of war 37\n\n Immigration problem an illustration of the failure\n to treat our growing Republic in a spirit of progressive\n and developing democracy 39\n\n Present immigration due partly to the philosophic\n dogmas of the eighteenth-century. Theory of\n naturalization still rests upon those dogmas 40\n\n No adequate formulization of newer philosophy although\n immigration situation has become much\n more industrial than political 42\n\n Exploitation of immigrants carried on under guise of\n preparation for citizenship 46\n\n Failure to develop a government fitted to varied\n peoples 48\n\n Attitude of contempt for immigrant survival of a\n spirit of conqueror toward inferior people 49\n\n Contempt reflected by children toward immigrant\n parents 50\n\n Universal franchise implies a recognition of social\n needs and ideals 52\n\n Difficulties of administering repressive government in\n a democracy 54\n\n The attempt inevitably develops the corrupt politician\n as a friend of the vicious 56\n\n He must be followed by successive reformers who\n represent the righteous and protect tax interests 57\n\n Illustration from the point of view of humble people 58\n\n Dramatic see-saw must continue until we attain the\n ideals of an evolutionary democracy 59\n\n Community divided into repressive and repressed,\n representing conqueror and conquered 60\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n FAILURE TO UTILIZE IMMIGRANTS IN CITY GOVERNMENT\n\n Democratic governments must reckon with the unsuccessful\n if only because they represent majority\n of citizens 62\n\n To demand protection from unsuccessful is to fail\n in self-government 63\n\n Study of immigrants might develop result in revived\n enthusiasm for human possibilities reacting upon\n ideals of government 64\n\n Social resources of immigrants wasted through want\n of recognition of old habits 65\n\n Illustrated by South Italians\u2019 ability to combine community\n life with agricultural occupations, which\n is disregarded 66\n\n Anglo-Saxon distrust of experiments with land tenure\n and taxation illustrated by Doukhobors 67\n\n Immigrant\u2019s contribution to city life 69\n\n Military ideals blind statesmen to connection between\n social life and government 70\n\n Corrupt politician who sees the connection often first\n friend of immigrant 71\n\n Real statesmen would work out scheme of naturalization\n founded upon social needs 72\n\n Intelligent co-operation of immigrants necessary for\n advancing social legislation 74\n\n Daily experience of immigrants not to be ignored as\n basis of patriotism 75\n\n Lack of cosmopolitan standard widens gulf between\n immigrant parents and children 78\n\n Government is developing most rapidly in its relation\n to the young criminal and to the poor and dependent 79\n\n Denver Juvenile Court is significant in its attitude\n toward repressive government 81\n\n Good education in reform schools indicates compunction\n on the part of the State 83\n\n Government functions extended to care of defectives\n and dependents 84\n\n Ignores normal needs of every citizen 85\n\n Socialists would meet the needs of workingmen by\n socialized legislation, but refuse to deal with the\n present state 86\n\n At present radical changes must come from forces\n outside life of the people 87\n\n Imperial governments are now concerning themselves\n with primitive essential needs of workingmen 88\n\n Republics restrict functions of the government 90\n\n Is America, in clinging to eighteenth-century traditions,\n losing its belief in the average man? 91\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n MILITARISM AND INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION\n\n American cities slow to consider immigration in relation\n to industry 93\n\n Workingmen alone must regard them in relation\n to industrial situations 94\n\n Assimilation of immigrants by workingman due both\n to economic pressure and to idealism 95\n\n Illustrated by Stock Yards Strike 96\n\n And by the strike in Anthracite Coal Fields 97\n\n In the latter aroused public opinion forced Federal\n Government to deal with industrial conditions 98\n\n In complicated modern society not always easy to\n see where social order lies 101\n\n Chicago Stock Yards Strike illustrates such a situation 104\n\n Government should have gained the enthusiasm immigrants\n gave to union 107\n\n War element an essential part of strike 109\n\n Appeal to loyalty the nearest approach to a moral\n appeal 110\n\n Reluctance of United States Government to recognize\n matters of industry as germane to government 112\n\n Resulting neglect of civic duty 113\n\n The workingman\u2019s attitude toward war as expressed\n by his international organization 114\n\n Commerce the modern representative of conquest 116\n\n Standard of life should be the test of a nation\u2019s prosperity,\n so recognized by workingmen 117\n\n Social amelioration undertaken by those in closest\n contact with social maladjustments 118\n\n Present difficulties in social reform will continue\n until class interests are subordinated to a broader\n conception of social progress 119\n\n If self-government were inaugurated by advanced\n thinkers now, they would make research into\n early forms of industrial governments 121\n\n Autocratic European governments have recognized\n workingman\u2019s need of protection 122\n\n Has Democracy a right to refuse this protection? 123\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n GROUP MORALITY IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT\n\n Industrial changes which belong to the community\n as a whole have unfortunately divided it into\n two camps 124\n\n These are typified by Employers\u2019 Associations and\n Trades Unions each developing a group morality 125\n\n Trade Unions at present illustrate the eternal compromise\n between the inner concept and the outer\n act 127\n\n Present moment one of crisis in Trades Union development 128\n\n Newly organized unions in war state of development\n responsible for serious mistakes 130\n\n Tacit admission that a strike is war made during the\n Teamsters\u2019 Strike in Chicago in 1905 132\n\n Temporary loss of belief in industrial arbitration 134\n\n Teamsters\u2019 Strike not adjudicated in court threw the\n entire city into state of warfare 136\n\n New organizations of employers exhibit traits\n of militant youth 138\n\n Public although powerless to intervene, sees grave\n social consequences 140\n\n Division of community into classes; increase of race\n animosity; spirit of materialism 141\n\n Class prejudice created among children still another\n social consequence 142\n\n Disastrous effect of prolonged warfare upon the\n labor movement itself 144\n\n Real effort of trades unions at present is for recognition\n of the principle of collective bargaining 145\n\n Trades unions are forced to correct industrial ills\n inherent in the factory system itself 146\n\n Illustration from limitation of output 147\n\n Illustration from attitude towards improved machinery 148\n\n Disregard of the machine as a social product makes\n for group morality on the part of the owner and\n employees 149\n\n Contempt resulting from group morality justifies\n method of warfare 150\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n PROTECTION OF CHILDREN FOR INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY\n\n Deficiency in protective legislation 151\n\n Contempt for immigrant because of his economic\n standing 152\n\n National indifference to condition of working children 154\n\n Temptation to use child labor peculiar to this industrial\n epoch 155\n\n Our sensibilities deadened by familiarity 155\n\n Protection of the young the concern of government 156\n\n Effect of premature labor on the child 158\n\n Effect of child labor on the family 161\n\n Effect on the industrial product 162\n\n Effect on civilization 163\n\n Intelligent labor the most valuable asset of our industrial\n prosperity 164\n\n Results of England\u2019s foreign commercial policy 165\n\n Lack of consistency in the relation of the state to the\n child in the United States 166\n\n Failure of public school system to connect with\n present industrial development 167\n\n Correlation of new education with industrial situation 168\n\n Child labor legislation will secure to child its proper\n play period 169\n\n Power of association developed through play 171\n\n Co-operation, not coercion, the ideal factory discipline 173\n\n Actual factory system divorced from the instinct of\n workmanship 174\n\n The activity of youth should be valuable assets for\n citizenship as well as industry 175\n\n Military survivals in city government destroys this\n asset 176\n\n The gang a training school for group morality 177\n\n Concern of modern government in the development\n of its citizens 179\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n UTILIZATION OF WOMEN IN CITY GOVERNMENT\n\n The modern city founded upon military ideals 180\n\n Early franchise justly given to grown men on basis\n of military duty 181\n\n This early test no longer fitted to the modern city\n whose problems are internal 182\n\n Women\u2019s experience in household details valuable to\n civic housekeeping. No method of making it\n available 184\n\n Municipal suffrage to be regarded not as a right or a\n privilege, but as a piece of governmental machinery 187\n\n Franchise not only valuable as exercised by educated\n women, matters to be decided upon too basic\n to be influenced by modern education 188\n\n Census of 1900 shows greater increase of workingwomen\n than of men and increasing youth of\n working women 189\n\n Concerted action of women necessary to bring about\n industrial protection 191\n\n Women can control surroundings of their work only\n by means of franchise 192\n\n Unfair to put task of industrial protection upon\n women\u2019s trades unions as it often confuses issues 194\n\n Closer connection between industry and government\n would result if working women were enfranchised 196\n\n Failure to educate women to industrial life disastrous\n to industry itself and to women as employers 197\n\n Situation must be viewed in relation to recent immigration\n and in connection with present stage\n of factory system in America 199\n\n\n\n\n NEWER IDEALS OF PEACE\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n INTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe following pages present the claims of the newer, more aggressive\nideals of peace, as over against the older dovelike ideal. These newer\nideals are active and dynamic, and it is believed that if their forces\nwere made really operative upon society, they would, in the end, quite\nas a natural process, do away with war. The older ideals have required\nfostering and recruiting, and have been held and promulgated on the\nbasis of a creed. Their propaganda has been carried forward during the\nlast century in nearly all civilized countries by a small body of men\nwho have never ceased to cry out against war and its iniquities and who\nhave preached the doctrines of peace along two great lines. The first\nhas been the appeal to the higher imaginative pity, as it is found in\nthe modern, moralized man. This line has been most effectively followed\nby two Russians, Count Tolstoy in his earlier writings and Verestchagin\nin his paintings. With his relentless power of reducing all life to\npersonal experience Count Tolstoy drags us through the campaign of\nthe common soldier in its sordidness and meanness and constant sense\nof perplexity. We see nothing of the glories we have associated with\nwarfare, but learn of it as it appears to the untutored peasant who\ngoes forth at the mandate of his superior to suffer hunger, cold, and\ndeath for issues which he does not understand, which, indeed, can have\nno moral significance to him. Verestchagin covers his canvas with\nthousands of wretched wounded and neglected dead, with the waste,\ncruelty, and squalor of war, until he forces us to question whether a\nmoral issue can ever be subserved by such brutal methods.\n\nHigh and searching as is the preaching of these two great Russians who\nhold their art of no account save as it serves moral ends, it is still\nthe appeal of dogma, and may be reduced to a command to cease from\nevil. And when this same line of appeal is presented by less gifted\nmen, it often results in mere sentimentality, totally unenforced by a\ncall to righteousness.\n\nThe second line followed by the advocates of peace in all countries has\nbeen the appeal to the sense of prudence, and this again has found its\nablest exponent in a Russian subject, the economist and banker, Jean de\nBloch. He sets forth the cost of warfare with pitiless accuracy, and\ndemonstrates that even the present armed peace is so costly that the\nburdens of it threaten social revolution in almost every country in\nEurope. Long before the reader comes to the end of de Bloch\u2019s elaborate\ncomputation he is ready to cry out on the inanity of the proposition\nthat the only way to secure eternal peace is to waste so much valuable\nenergy and treasure in preparing for war that war becomes impossible.\nCertainly no theory could be devised which is more cumbersome, more\nroundabout, more extravagant, than the _reductio ad absurdum_ of\nthe peace-secured-by-the-preparation-for-war theory. This appeal to\nprudence was constantly emphasized at the first Hague Conference and\nwas shortly afterward demonstrated by Great Britain when she went to\nwar in South Africa, where she was fined one hundred million pounds\nand lost ten thousand lives. The fact that Russia also, and the very\nCzar who invited the Conference, disregarded the conclusions of the\nHague Tribunal makes this line of appeal at least for the moment seem\nimpotent to influence empires which command enormous resources and\nwhich lodge the power of expenditure in officials who have nothing to\ndo with accumulating the treasure they vote to expend.\n\nIt would, however, be the height of folly for responsible statesmen\nto ignore the sane methods of international discussion and concession\nwhich have been evolved largely as a result of these appeals. The\nInterparliamentary Union for International Arbitration and the\nInstitute of International Law represent the untiring efforts of the\nadvocates of peace through many years. Nevertheless universal peace,\nviewed from the point of the World\u2019s Sovereignty or of the Counsel of\nNations, is discouraging even when stated by the most ardent promoters\nof the peace society. Here it is quite possible that the mistake is\nbeing repeated which the old annalists of history made when they\nnever failed to chronicle the wars and calamities which harassed\ntheir contemporaries, although, while the few indulged in fighting,\nthe mass of them peacefully prosecuted their daily toil and followed\ntheir own conceptions of kindliness and equity. An English writer[1]\nhas recently bidden us to look at the actual state of affairs existing\nat the present moment. He says, \u201cUniversal and permanent peace may be\na vision; but the gradual change whereby war, as a normal state of\ninternational relations, has given place to peace as the normal state,\nis no vision, but an actual process of history palpably forwarded in\nour own day by the development of international law and of morals,\nand voluntary arbitration based thereon.\u201d He insists that it is the\nfunction of international lawyers merely to give coherent expression\nto the best principles which the common moral sense of civilized\nGovernments recognizes; in other words, that international law should\nbe like primitive law within the nation, a formal expression of custom\nresting on the sense of a reciprocal restraint which has been found to\nbe necessary for the common good.\n\nAssuming that the two lines of appeal--the one to sensibility and the\nother to prudence--will persist, and that the international lawyers, in\nspite of the fact that they have no court before which to plead and no\nexecutive to enforce their findings, will continue to formulate into\ncodes the growing moral sense of the nations, the following pages hope\nnot only to make clear the contention that these forces within society\nare so dynamic and vigorous that the impulses to war seem by comparison\ncumbersome and mechanical, but also to point out the development of\nthose newer social forces which it is believed will at last prove a\n\u201csovereign intervention\u201d by extinguishing the possibility of battle at\nits very source.\n\nIt is difficult to formulate the newer dynamic peace, embodying the\nlater humanism, as over against the old dogmatic peace. The word\n\u201cnon-resistance\u201d is misleading, because it is much too feeble and\ninadequate. It suggests passivity, the goody-goody attitude of\nineffectiveness. The words \u201covercoming,\u201d \u201csubstituting,\u201d \u201cre-creating,\u201d\n\u201creadjusting moral values,\u201d \u201cforming new centres of spiritual energy\u201d\ncarry much more of the meaning implied. For it is not merely the desire\nfor a conscience at rest, for a sense of justice no longer outraged,\nthat would pull us into new paths where there would be no more war nor\npreparations for war. There are still more strenuous forces at work\nreaching down to impulses and experiences as primitive and profound\nas are those of struggle itself. That \u201cancient kindliness which sat\nbeside the cradle of the race,\u201d and which is ever ready to assert\nitself against ambition and greed and the desire for achievement, is\nmanifesting itself now with unusual force, and for the first time\npresents international aspects.\n\nMoralists agree that it is not so much by the teaching of moral\ntheorems that virtue is to be promoted as by the direct expression of\nsocial sentiments and by the cultivation of practical habits; that in\nthe progress of society sentiments and opinions have come first, then\nhabits of action and lastly moral codes and institutions. Little is\ngained by creating the latter prematurely, but much may be accomplished\nto the utilization of human interests and affections. The Advocates\nof Peace would find the appeal both to Pity and Prudence totally\nunnecessary, could they utilize the cosmopolitan interest in human\naffairs with the resultant social sympathy that at the present moment\nis developing among all the nations of the earth.\n\nBy way of illustration, I may be permitted to cite the London showman\nwho used to exhibit two skulls of Shakespeare--one when he was a youth\nand went poaching, another when he was a man and wrote plays. There\nwas such a striking difference between the roystering boy indulging in\nillicit sport and the mature man who peopled the London stage with all\nthe world, that the showman grew confused and considered two separate\nacts of creation less improbable than that such an amazing change\nshould have taken place. We can easily imagine the gifted youth in the\nlittle group of rustics at Stratford-on-Avon finding no adequate outlet\nfor his powers save in a series of break-neck adventures. His only\nalternative was to sit by the fire with the village cronies, drinking\nale so long as his shillings held out. But if we follow him up to\nLondon, through all the charm and wonder of the stage which represented\nhis unfolding mind, if we can imagine his delight as he gradually\ngained the freedom, not only of that big town, but of the human city\nas well, we can easily see that illicit sport could no longer attract\nhim. To have told the great dramatist the night Hamlet first stepped\nupon the boards that it was a wicked thing to poach, to have cautioned\nhim that he must consider the cost of preserving the forest and of\nraising the deer, or to have made an appeal to his pity on behalf of\nthe wounded creatures, would have been the height of folly, because\ntotally unnecessary. All desire, almost all memory of those days, had\ndropped from him, through his absorption in the great and exciting\ndrama of life. His effort to understand it, to portray it, had utilized\nand drained his every power. It is equally true of our contemporaries,\nas it was of the great play-wright, that the attainment of this\nall-absorbing passion for multiform life, with the desire to understand\nits mysteries and to free its capacities, is gradually displacing the\njuvenile propensities to warfare.\n\nFrom this standpoint the advocates of the newer Ideals of Peace would\nhave little to do but to insist that the social point of view be kept\nparamount, realizing at the same time that the social sentiments are as\nblind as the egoistic sentiments and must be enlightened, disciplined\nand directed by the fullest knowledge. The modern students of human\nmorality have told us that primitive man, by the very necessities of\nhis hard struggle for life, came at last to identify his own existence\nwith that of his tribe. Tribal life then made room within itself for\nthe development of that compassion which is the first step towards\nsensibility and higher moral sentiment. If we accept this statement\nthen we must assume that the new social morality, which we so sadly\nneed, will of necessity have its origin in the social affections--we\nmust search in the dim borderland between compassion and morality for\nthe beginnings of that cosmopolitan affection, as it is prematurely\ncalled.\n\nThe life of the tribal man inevitably divided into two sets of actions,\nwhich appeared under two different ethical aspects: the relation within\nthe tribe and the relation with outsiders, the double conception of\nmorality maintaining itself until now. But the tribal law differed no\nmore widely from inter-tribal law than our common law does from our\ninternational law. Until society manages to combine the two we shall\nmake no headway toward the Newer Ideals of Peace.\n\nIf we would institute an intelligent search for the social conditions\nwhich make possible this combination we should naturally seek for\nthem in the poorer quarters of a cosmopolitan city where we have, as\nnowhere else, the conditions for breaking into this double development;\nfor making a fresh start, as it were, toward a synthesis upon a higher\nmoral line which shall include both. There is every opportunity and\nnecessity for compassion and kindliness such as the tribe itself\nafforded, and there is in addition, because of the many nationalities\nwhich are gathered there from all parts of the world, the opportunity\nand necessity for breaking through the tribal bond. Early associations\nand affections were not based so much on ties of blood as upon that\nnecessity for defense against the hostile world outside which made the\nlife of every man in a tribe valuable to every other man. The fact\nof blood was, so to speak, an accident. The moral code grew out of\nsolidarity of emotion and action essential to the life of all.\n\nIn the midst of the modern city which, at moments, seems to stand\nonly for the triumph of the strongest, the successful exploitation\nof the weak, the ruthlessness and hidden crime which follow in the\nwake of the struggle for existence on its lowest terms, there come\ndaily--at least to American cities--accretions of simple people, who\ncarry in their hearts a desire for mere goodness. They regularly\ndeplete their scanty livelihood in response to a primitive pity, and,\nindependent of the religions they have professed, of the wrongs they\nhave suffered, and of the fixed morality they have been taught, have\nan unquenchable desire that charity and simple justice shall regulate\nmen\u2019s relations. It seems sometimes, to one who knows them, as if they\ncontinually sought for an outlet for more kindliness, and that they are\nnot only willing and eager to do a favor for a friend, but that their\nkindheartedness lies in ambush, as it were, for a chance to incorporate\nitself in our larger relations, that they persistently expect that\nit shall be given some form of governmental expression. This is\ndoubtless due partly to the fact that emotional pity and kindness are\nalways found in greatest degree among the unsuccessful. We are told\nthat unsuccessful struggle breeds emotion, not strength; that the\nhard-pressed races are the emotional races; and that wherever struggle\nhas long prevailed emotion becomes the dominant force in fixing social\nrelations. Is it surprising, therefore, that among this huge mass of\nthe unsuccessful, to be found in certain quarters of the modern city,\nwe should have the \u201cmedium,\u201d in which the first growth of the new\ncompassion is taking place?\n\nIn addition to this compassion always found among the unsuccessful,\nemotional sentiment runs high among the newly arrived immigrants\nas a result of the emotional experiences of parting from home and\nkindred, to which he has been so recently subjected. An unusual mental\nalertness and power of perception also results from the upheaval. The\nmultitudes of immigrants flooding the American cities have many times\nsundered social habits cherished through a hundred generations, and\nhave renounced customs that may be traced to the habits of primitive\nman. These old habits and customs have a much more powerful hold than\nhave mere racial or national ties. In seeking companionship in the new\nworld, all the immigrants are reduced to the fundamental equalities and\nuniversal necessities of human life itself, and they inevitably develop\nthe power of association which comes from daily contact with those who\nare unlike each other in all save the universal characteristics of man.\n\nWhen looked at too closely, this nascent morality disappears, and one\ncan count over only a thousand kindly acts and neighborly offices. But\nwhen meditated upon in the whole, there at once emerge again those vast\nand dominant suggestions of a new peace and holiness. It would seem as\nif our final help and healing were about to issue forth from broken\nhuman nature itself, out of the pathetic striving of ordinary men, who\nmake up the common substance of life: from those who have been driven\nby economic pressure or governmental oppression out of a score of\nnations.\n\nThese various peoples who are gathered together in the immigrant\nquarters of a cosmopolitan city worship goodness for its own value,\nand do not associate it with success any more than they associate\nsuccess with themselves; they literally \u201cserve God for nought.\u201d\nIf we would adduce evidence that we are emerging from a period of\nindustrialism into a period of humanitarianism, it is to such quarters\nthat we must betake ourselves. These are the places in which it is\neasiest to study the newer manifestations of government, in which\npersonal welfare is considered a legitimate object; for a new history\nof government begins with an attempt to make life possible and human\nin large cities, in those crowded quarters which exhibit such an\nundoubted tendency to barbarism and degeneracy when the better human\nqualities are not nourished. Public baths and gymnasiums, parks and\nlibraries, are provided first for those who are without the security\nfor bare subsistence, and it does not seem strange to them that it\nshould be so. Such a community is made up of men who will continue to\ndream of Utopian Governments until the democratic government about\nthem expresses kindliness with protection. Such men will continue to\nrely upon neighborly friendliness until organized charity is able\nto identify impulsive pity with well-considered relief. They will\nna\u00efvely long for an education for their children that will fit them to\nearn money until public education shall come to consider industrial\nefficiency. As their hopes and dreams are a prophecy of the future\ndevelopment in city government, in charity, in education, so their\ndaily lives are a forecast of coming international relations. Our\nattention has lately been drawn to the fact that it is logical that\nthe most vigorous efforts in governmental reform, as well as the most\ngenerous experiments in ministering to social needs, have come from the\nlarger cities and that it is inevitable that they should be to-day \u201cthe\ncenters of radicalism,\u201d as they have been traditionally the \u201ccradles of\nliberty.\u201d[2]\n\nIf we once admit the human dynamic character of progress, then it is\neasy to understand why the crowded city quarters become focal points of\nthat progress.\n\nA deeper and more thorough-going unity is required in a community\nmade up of highly differentiated peoples than in a more settled and\nstratified one, and it may be logical that we should find in this\ncommingling of many peoples a certain balance and concord of opposing\nand contending forces; a gravitation toward the universal. Because of\ntheir difference in all external matters, in all of the non-essentials\nof life, the people in a cosmopolitan city are forced to found their\ncommunity of interests upon the basic and essential likenesses of their\ncommon human nature; for, after all, the things that make men alike\nare stronger and more primitive than the things that separate them. It\nis natural that this synthesis of the varying nations should be made\nfirst at the points of the greatest congestion, quite as we find that\nselfishness is first curbed and social feeling created at the points\nwhere the conflict of individual interests is sharpest. One dares not\ngrow too certain as to the wells of moral healing which lie under the\nsurface of the sullen work-driven life which the industrial quarters\nof the modern city present. They fascinate us by their mere size and\ndiversity, as does the city itself; but certain it is, that these\nquarters continually confound us by their manifestations of altruism.\nIt may be that we are surprised simply because we fail to comprehend\nthat the individual, under such pressure, must shape his life with\nsome reference to the demands of social justice, not only to avoid\ncrushing the little folk about him, but in order to save himself from\ndeath by crushing. It is an instance of the irresistible coalescing\nof the altruistic and egoistic impulse which is the strength of social\nmorality. We are often told that men under this pressure of life become\ncalloused and cynical, whereas anyone who lives with them knows that\nthey are sentimental and compassionate.\n\nIt is possible that we shall be saved from warfare by the \u201cfighting\nrabble\u201d itself, by the \u201cquarrelsome mob\u201d turned into kindly citizens\nof the world through the pressure of a cosmopolitan neighborhood. It\nis not that they are shouting for peace--on the contrary, if they\nshout at all, they will continue to shout for war--but that they are\nreally attaining cosmopolitan relations through daily experience.\nThey will probably believe for a long time that war is noble and\nnecessary both to engender and cherish patriotism; and yet all of the\ntime, below their shouting, they are living in the kingdom of human\nkindness. They are laying the simple and inevitable foundations for an\ninternational order as the foundations of tribal and national morality\nhave already been laid. They are developing the only sort of patriotism\nconsistent with the intermingling of the nations; for the citizens of a\ncosmopolitan quarter find an insuperable difficulty when they attempt\nto hem in their conception of patriotism either to the \u201cold country\u201d\nor to their adopted one. There arises the hope that when this newer\npatriotism becomes large enough, it will overcome arbitrary boundaries\nand soak up the notion of nationalism. We may then give up war, because\nwe shall find it as difficult to make war upon a nation at the other\nside of the globe as upon our next-door neighbor.\n\nThese humble harbingers of the Newer Ideals of Peace, venturing\nthemselves upon a larger relationship, are most touching; and while\nthe success of their efforts can never be guaranteed or spoken of too\nconfidently, they stir us with a strange hope, as if new vistas of life\nwere opening before us--vistas not illuminated with the glare of war,\nbut with a mellowed glow of their own. These paths are seen distinctly\nonly as we ascend to a more enveloping point of view and obtain a\nlarger and bulkier sense of the growing sentiment which rejects the old\nand negative bonds of discipline and coercion and insists upon vital\nand fraternal relationship, subordinating the lower to the higher.\nTo make this hope valid and intelligible, is indeed the task before\nthese humble brethren of ours and of those who would help them. They\nencourage us to hope for the discovery of a new vital relation--that\nof the individual to the race--which may lay the foundation for a new\nreligious bond adequate to the modern situation; and we almost come\nto believe that such a foundation is, in fact, being laid now--not in\nspeculation, but in action.\n\nThat which secured for the early Hebrew shepherd his health, his peace\nof mind, and his sense of connection with the Unseen, became the\nbasis for the most wonderful and widespread religion the world has\never known. Perhaps, at this moment, we need to find that which will\nsecure the health, the peace of mind, and the opportunity for normal\noccupation and spiritual growth to the humblest industrial worker, as\nthe foundation for a rational conduct of life adapted to an industrial\nand cosmopolitan era.\n\nEven now we only dimly comprehend the strength and irresistible power\nof those \u201cuniversal and imperious ideals which are formed in the\ndepths of anonymous life,\u201d and which the people insist shall come to\nrealization, not because they have been tested by logic or history,\nbut because the mass of men are eager that they should be tried as\na living experience. According to our different methods of viewing\nsociety, we express this newer ideal which is after all so old as to\nhave been engendered in the tribe itself. He who makes the study of\nsociety a mere corollary of biology, speaks of the \u201ctheory of the\nunspecialized,\u201d that the simple cell develops much more rapidly when\nnew tissue is needed than the more highly developed one; he who views\nsociety from the economic standpoint and finds hope only in a changed\nindustrial order, talks of the \u201cman at the bottom of society,\u201d of the\nproletarian who shall eventually come into his own; he who believes\nthat a wiser and a saner education will cure our social ill, speaks\never and again of \u201cthe wisdom of the little child\u201d and of the necessity\nto reveal and explore his capacity; while he who keeps close to the\nhistoric deductions upon which the study of society is chiefly founded,\nuses the old religious phrase, \u201cthe counsel of imperfection,\u201d and bids\nus concern ourselves with \u201cthe least of these.\u201d\n\nThe French have a phrase _l\u2019imperieuse bont\u00e9_ by which they designate\nthose impulses towards compassionate conduct which will not be denied,\nbecause they are as imperative in their demand for expression as is\nthe impulse to make music or to soften life by poesy and decoration.\nAccording to this definition, St. Francis was a genius in exactly the\nsame sense as was Dante or Raphael, and he revealed quite as they did,\npossibilities and reaches of the human soul hitherto unsuspected. This\ngenius for goodness has in the past largely expressed itself through\nindividuals and groups, but it may be that we are approaching a period\nwhich shall give it collective expression, and shall unite into one\nall those private and parochial efforts. It would be no more strange\nthan was that marvelous coming together of the artists and the people\nin the thirteenth century which resulted in the building of the Gothic\ncathedrals. We may be waiting for a religious enthusiasm, for a divine\nfire to fuse together the partial and feeble efforts at \u201cdoing good\u201d\ninto a transfigured whole which shall take on international proportions\nas naturally as the cathedrals towered into unheard-of heights.\nThe Gothic cathedrals were glorious beyond the dreams of artists,\nnotwithstanding that they were built by unknown men, or rather by so\nmany men that it was a matter of indifference to record their names.\nCould we compare the present humanitarian efforts to the building of\na spiritual cathedral, it would seem that the gargoyles had been made\nfirst, that the ground is now strewn with efforts to \u201cdo good\u201d which\nhave developed a diabolical capacity for doing harm. But even these\nmay fall into place. The old cathedral-builders fearlessly portrayed\nall of life, its inveterate tendency to deride as well as to bless;\nits trickery as well as its beauty. Their art was catholic enough to\nportray all, and the cathedral was huge enough to mellow all they\nportrayed into a flowing and inspired whole.\n\nAt the present moment it requires the philosopher to unify these\nspiritual efforts of the common man into the internationalism of good\nwill, as in the past it was natural that the philosophers, the men\nwho looked at life as a whole, should have been the first to sigh for\nnegative peace which they declared would be \u201ceternal.\u201d\n\nSpeculative writers, such as Kant, Bentham, and Buckle, long ago\npointed out that the subsidence of war was inevitable as society\nprogressed. They contended that every stage of human progress is marked\nby a further curtailment of brute force, a limitation of the area in\nwhich it is permitted. At the bottom is the small savage community in\na perpetual state of warfare; at the top an orderly society stimulated\nand controlled by recognized ideals of social justice. In proportion\nas the savage society comes under the dominion of a common moral\nconsciousness, it moves up, and in proportion as the civilized society\nreverts to the use of brute force, it goes down. Reversion to that\nbrute struggle may at any moment cost the destruction of the painfully\nacquired bonds of equity, the ties of mutual principle, which are\nwrought with such effort and loosed with such ease. But these earlier\nphilosophers could not possibly have foreseen the tremendous growth\nof industry and commerce with their inevitable cosmopolitanism which\nhas so recently taken place, nor without knowledge of this could they\npossibly have prognosticated the leap forward and the aggressive\ncharacter which the concern for human welfare has latterly evinced.\nThe speculative writers among our contemporaries are naturally the\nonly ones who formulate this new development, or rather bid us heed\nits presence among us. An American philosopher[3] has lately reminded\nus of the need to \u201cdiscover in the social realm the moral equivalent\nfor war--something heroic that will speak to men as universally as war\nhas done, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual natures\nas war has proved itself to be incompatible.\u201d It may be true that we\nare even now discovering these moral substitutes, although we find\nit so difficult to formulate them. Perhaps our very hope that these\nsubstitutes may be discovered has become the custodian of a secret\nchange that is going on all about us. We care less each day for the\nheroism connected with warfare and destruction, and constantly admire\nmore that which pertains to labor and the nourishing of human life.\nThe new heroism manifests itself at the present moment in a universal\ndetermination to abolish poverty and disease, a manifestation so\nwidespread that it may justly be called international.\n\nIn illustration of this new determination one immediately thinks of\nthe international effort to rid the face of the earth of tuberculosis,\nin which Germany, Italy, France, England and America are engaged with\nsuch enthusiasm. This movement has its international congresses,\nits discoverers and veterans, also its decorations and rewards for\nbravery. Its discipline is severe; it requires self-control, endurance,\nself-sacrifice and constant watchfulness. Its leaders devote hours to\ncareful teaching and demonstration, they reclaim acres of bad houses,\nand make over the food supply of huge cities. One could instance\nthe determination to do away with neglected old age, which finds\nexpression in the Old Age Pension Acts of Germany and Australia, in the\nState Savings Banks of Belgium and France, in the enormous number of\nMutual Benefit Societies in England and America. In such undertakings\nas these, with their spontaneous and universal manifestations, are\nwe beginning to see the first timid forward reach of one of those\ninstinctive movements which carry onward the progressive goodness of\nthe race.\n\nIt is possible that this substitution of nurture for warfare is\nanalogous to that world-wide effort to put a limit to revenge which\none nation after another essayed as each reached a certain stage of\ndevelopment. To compel the avenger to accept blood-money in lieu of\nthe blood of his enemy may have been but a short step in morals,\nbut at least it destroyed the stimulus to further shedding of blood\nwhich each avenged death had afforded, and it laid the foundations\nfor court adjudications. The newer humanitarianism is more aggressive\nand substitutes emotional stimuli as well as codes of conduct. We may\npredict that each nation quite as a natural process will reach the\nmoment when virile good-will will be substituted for the spirit of\nwarfare. The process of extinguishing war, however, compared to the\nlimiting of revenge, will be amazingly accelerated. Owing to the modern\nconditions of intercourse, each nation will respond, not to an isolated\nimpulse, but will be caught in the current of a world-wide process.\n\nWe are much too timid and apologetic in regard to this newer\nhumanitarianism, and do not yet realize what it may do for us in\nthe way of courage and endurance. We continue to defend war on the\nground that it stirs the nobler blood and the higher imagination of\nthe nation, and thus frees it from moral stagnation and the bonds\nof commercialism. We do not see that this is to borrow our virtues\nfrom a former age and to fail to utilize our own. We find ourselves\nin this plight because our modern morality has lacked fibre, because\nour humanitarianism has been much too soft and literary, and has given\nitself over to unreal and high-sounding phrases. It appears that our\nonly hope for a genuine adjustment of our morality and courage to our\npresent social and industrial developments, lies in a patient effort\nto work it out by daily experience. We must be willing to surrender\nourselves to those ideals of the humble, which all religious teachers\nunite in declaring to be the foundations of a sincere moral life.\n\nThe following pages attempt to uncover these newer ideals as we may\ndaily experience them in the modern city. It may be found that certain\nsurvivals of militarism in municipal government are responsible for\nmuch of the failure in the working of democratic institutions. We may\ndiscover that the survivals of warfare in the labor movement and all\nthe other dangers of class morality rest largely upon an appeal to\nloyalties which are essentially a survival of the virtues of a warlike\nperiod. The more aggressive aspects of the newer humanitarianism may be\ntraced in the movement for social amelioration and in the protective\nlegislation which regards the weakest citizen as a valuable asset.\nThe same spirit which protests against the social waste of child\nlabor also demands that the traditional activity of woman shall be\nutilized in civic life. When the State protects its civic resources,\nas it formerly defended its citizens in time of war, industrialism\nversus militarism comes to be nurture versus conquest. In order to\ntrace the displacement of the military ideals of patriotism by those\nof a rising concern for human welfare, we must take an accounting\nbetween those forms of governmental machinery and social organization\nwhich are the historic outgrowth of conquest and repression and the\nnewer forms arising in their midst which embody the social energy\ninstantly recognizable as contemporaneous with our sincerest moral\nlife. To follow this newer humanitarianism even through its obvious\nmanifestations requires at the very outset a definite abandonment of\nthe eighteenth-century philosophy upon which so much of our present\ndemocratic theory and philanthropic activity depends. It is necessary\nfrom the very beginning to substitute the scientific method of research\nfor the a priori method of the school men if we would deal with real\npeople and obtain a sense of participation with our fellows. The\neighteenth-century humanitarian hotly insisted upon \u201cthe rights of\nman,\u201d but he loved the people without really knowing them, which is\nby no means an impossible achievement. \u201cThe love of those whom a man\ndoes not know is quite as elemental a sentiment as the love of those\nwhom a man does know,\u201d but with this difference, that he shuts himself\naway from the opportunity of being caught and carried forward in the\nstream of their hopes and aspirations, a bigger and warmer current\nthan he dreams of. The eighteenth-century humanitarian substituted his\nenthusiastic concept of \u201cthe natural man\u201d for the warmth which this\nstream might have given him, and so long as he dealt with political\nconcepts it answered his purpose. Mazzini made a most significant\nstep between the eighteenth-century morality and our own by appealing\nbeyond \u201cthe rights of man\u201d to the \u201cduties to humanity;\u201d but although an\nimpassioned democrat, he was still a moralist of the earlier type. He\nrealized with them that the appeal to humanity would evoke a finer and\ndeeper response than that to patriotism or to any sectional morality;\nbut he shared the eighteenth-century tendency to idealization. It\nremained for the moralist of this generation to dissolve \u201chumanity\u201d\ninto its component parts of men, women, and children and to serve their\nhumblest needs with an enthusiasm which, so far from being dependent\nupon glamour, can be sustained only by daily knowledge and constant\ncompanionship.\n\nIt is no easy task to detect and to follow the tiny paths of progress\nwhich the unencumbered proletarian with nothing but his life and\ncapacity for labor, is pointing out for us. These paths lead to a type\nof government founded upon peace and fellowship as contrasted with\nrestraint and defence. They can never be discovered with the eyes of\nthe doctrinaire. From the nature of the case, he who would walk these\npaths must walk with the poor and oppressed, and can only approach them\nthrough affection and understanding. The ideals of militarism would\nforever shut him out from this new fellowship.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] L. T. Hobhouse, Democracy and Reaction, page 197.\n\n[2] The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century. A. T. Weber, page\n432.\n\n[3] William James, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n SURVIVALS OF MILITARISM IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT\n\n\nWe are accustomed to say that the machinery of government incorporated\nin the charters of the early American cities, as in the Federal and\nState constitutions, was worked out by men who were strongly under the\ninfluence of the historians and doctrinaires of the eighteenth century.\nThe most significant representative of these men is Thomas Jefferson,\nand their most telling phrase, the familiar opening that \u201call men are\ncreated free and equal.\u201d\n\nWe are only now beginning to suspect that the present admitted failure\nin municipal administration, the so-called \u201cshame of American cities,\u201d\nmay be largely due to the inadequacy of those eighteenth-century\nideals, with the breakdown of the machinery which they provided. We\nrecognize the weakness inherent in the historic and doctrinaire method\nwhen it attempts to deal with growing and human institutions. While\nthese men were strongly under the influence of peace ideals which were\nearnestly advocated, both in France and in America, even in the midst\nof their revolutionary periods, and while they read the burning poets\nand philosophers of their remarkable century, their idealism, after\nall, was largely founded upon theories concerning \u201cthe natural man,\u201d a\ncreature of their sympathetic imaginations.\n\nBecause their idealism was of the type that is afraid of experience,\nthese founders refused to look at the difficulties and blunders which\na self-governing people were sure to encounter, and insisted that,\nif only the people had freedom, they would walk continuously in the\npaths of justice and righteousness. It was inevitable, therefore, that\nthey should have remained quite untouched by that worldly wisdom which\ncounsels us to know life as it is, and by that very modern belief that\nif the world is ever to go right at all, it must go right in its own\nway.\n\nA man of this generation easily discerns the crudeness of \u201cthat\neighteenth-century conception of essentially unprogressive human\nnature in all the empty dignity of its \u2018inborn rights.\u2019\u201d[4] Because\nhe has grown familiar with a more passionate human creed, with the\nmodern evolutionary conception of the slowly advancing race whose\nrights are not \u201cinalienable,\u201d but hard-won in the tragic processes of\nexperience, he realizes that these painfully acquired rights must be\ncarefully cherished or they may at any moment slip out of our hands.\nWe know better in America than anywhere else that civilization is\nnot a broad road, with mile-stones indicating how far each nation\nhas proceeded upon it, but a complex struggle forward, each race and\nnation contributing its quota; that the variety and continuity of this\ncommingled life afford its charm and value. We would not, if we could,\nconform them to one standard. But this modern attitude, which may\neven now easily subside into negative tolerance, did not exist among\nthe founders of the Republic, who, with all their fine talk of the\n\u201cnatural man\u201d and what he would accomplish when he obtained freedom and\nequality, did not really trust the people after all.\n\nThey timidly took the English law as their prototype, \u201cwhose very root\nis in the relation between sovereign and subject, between lawmaker\nand those whom the law restrains,\u201d which has traditionally concerned\nitself more with the guarding of prerogative and with the rights of\nproperty than with the spontaneous life of the people. They serenely\nincorporated laws and survivals which registered the successful\nstruggle of the barons against the aggressions of the sovereign,\nalthough the new country lacked both nobles and kings. Misled by the\nname of government, they founded their new government by an involuntary\nreference to a lower social state than that which they actually saw\nabout them. They depended upon penalties, coercion, compulsion,\nremnants of military codes, to hold the community together; and it\nmay be possible to trace much of the maladministration of our cities\nto these survivals, to the fact that our early democracy was a moral\nromanticism, rather than a well-grounded belief in social capacity and\nin the efficiency of the popular will.\n\nIt has further happened that as the machinery, groaning under the\npressure of new social demands put upon it, has broken down that from\ntime to time, we have mended it by giving more power to administrative\nofficers, because we still distrusted the will of the people. We are\nwilling to cut off the dislocated part or to tighten the gearing, but\nare afraid to substitute a machine of newer invention and greater\ncapacity. In the hour of danger we revert to the military and legal\ntype although they become less and less appropriate to city life in\nproportion as the city grows more complex, more varied in resource and\nmore highly organized, and is, therefore, in greater need of a more\ndiffused local autonomy.\n\nA little examination will easily show that in spite of the fine phrases\nof the founders, the Government became an entity by itself away from\nthe daily life of the people. There was no intention to ignore them\nnor to oppress them. But simply because its machinery was so largely\ncopied from the traditional European Governments which did distrust\nthe people, the founders failed to provide the vehicle for a vital\nand genuinely organized expression of the popular will. The founders\ncarefully defined what was germane to government and what was quite\noutside its realm, whereas the very crux of local self-government, as\nhas been well said, is involved in the \u201cright to locally determine the\nscope of the local government,\u201d in response to the needs as they arise.\n\nThey were anxious to keep the reins of government in the hands of the\ngood and professedly public-spirited, because, having staked so much\nupon the people whom they really knew so little, they became eager\nthat they should appear well, and should not be given enough power to\nenable them really to betray their weaknesses. This was done in the\nsame spirit in which a kind lady permits herself to give a tramp five\ncents, believing that, although he may spend it for drink, he cannot\nget very drunk upon so small a sum. In spite of a vague desire to\ntrust the people, the founders meant to fall back in every crisis upon\nthe old restraints which government has traditionally enlisted in its\nbehalf, and were, perhaps, inevitably influenced by the experiences of\nthe Revolutionary War. Having looked to the sword for independence from\noppressive governmental control, they came to regard the sword as an\nessential part of the government they had succeeded in establishing.\n\nRegarded from the traditional standpoint, government has always needed\nthis force of arms. The king, attempting to control the growing\npower of the barons as they wrested one privilege after another from\nhim, was obliged to use it constantly; the barons later successfully\nestablished themselves in power only to be encroached upon by the\ngrowing strength and capital of the merchant class. These are now, in\nturn, calling upon the troops and militia for aid, as they are shorn of\na pittance here and there by the rising power of the proletariat. The\nimperial, the feudal, the capitalistic forms of society each created\nby revolt against oppression from above, preserved their own forms of\ngovernment only by carefully guarding their hardly won charters and\nconstitutions. But in the very countries where these successive social\nforms have developed, full of survivals of the past, some beneficent\nand some detrimental, governments are becoming modified more rapidly\nthan in this democracy where we ostensibly threw off traditional\ngovernmental oppression only to encase ourselves in a theory of\nvirtuous revolt against oppressive government, which in many instances\nhas proved more binding than the actual oppression itself.\n\nDid the founders cling too hard to that which they had won through\npersecution, hardship, and finally through a war of revolution? Did\nthese doctrines seem so precious to them that they were determined to\ntie men up to them as long as possible, and allow them no chance to go\non to new devices of government, lest they slight these that had been\nso hardly won? Did they estimate, not too highly, but by too exclusive\na valuation, that which they had secured through the shedding of blood?\n\nMan has ever overestimated the spoils of war, and tended to lose his\nsense of proportion in regard to their value. He has ever surrounded\nthem with a glamour beyond their deserts. This is quite harmless\nwhen the booty is an enemy\u2019s sword hung over a household fire, or a\nbattered flag decorating a city hall, but when the spoil of war is\nan idea which is bound on the forehead of the victor until it cramps\nhis growth, a theory which he cherishes in his bosom until it grows so\nlarge and near that it afflicts its possessor with a sort of disease of\nresponsibility for its preservation, it may easily overshadow the very\npeople for whose cause the warrior issued forth.\n\nWas this overestimation of the founders the cause of our subsequent\nfailures? or rather did not the fault lie with their successors, and\ndoes it not now rest with us, that we have wrapped our inheritance\nin a napkin and refused to add thereto? The founders fearlessly took\nthe noblest word of their century and incorporated it into a public\ndocument. They ventured their fortunes and the future of their children\nupon its truth. We, with the belief of a progressive, developing human\nlife, apparently accomplish less than they with their insistence upon\nrights and liberties which they so vigorously opposed to mediaeval\nrestrictions and obligations. We are in that first period of conversion\nwhen we hold a creed which forecasts newer and larger possibilities\nfor governmental development, without in the least understanding its\nspiritual implications. Although we have scrupulously extended the\nfranchise to the varied immigrants among us, we have not yet admitted\nthem into real political fellowship.\n\nIt is easy to demonstrate that we consider our social and political\nproblems almost wholly in the light of one wise group whom we call\nnative Americans, legislating for the members of humbler groups whom\nwe call immigrants. The first embodies the attitude of contempt or, at\nbest, the patronage of the successful towards those who have as yet\nfailed to succeed. We may consider the so-called immigration situation\nas an illustration of our failure to treat our growing Republic in the\nspirit of a progressive and developing democracy.\n\nThe statement is made many times that we, as a nation, are rapidly\nreaching the limit of our powers of assimilation, that we receive\nfurther masses of immigrants at the risk of blurring those traits\nand characteristics which we are pleased to call American, with\nits corollary that the national standard of living is in danger\nof permanent debasement. Were we not in the midst of a certain\nintellectual dearth and apathy, of a skepticism in regard to the ideals\nof self-government which have ceased to charm men, we would see that\nwe are testing our national life by a tradition too provincial and\nlimited to meet its present motley and cosmopolitan character; that we\nlack mental energy, adequate knowledge, and a sense of the youth of\nthe earth. The constant cry that American institutions are in danger\nbetrays a spiritual waste, not due to our infidelity to national\nideals, but arising from the fact that we fail to enlarge those ideals\nin accord with our faithful experience of life. Our political machinery\ndevised for quite other conditions, has not been readjusted and adapted\nto the successive changes resulting from our development. The clamor\nfor the town meeting, for the colonial and early century ideals of\ngovernment is in itself significant, for we are apt to cling to the\npast through a very paucity of ideas.\n\nIn a sense the enormous and unprecedented moving about over the face\nof the earth on the part of all nations is in itself the result of\nphilosophic dogma of the eighteenth century--of the creed of individual\nliberty. The modern system of industry and commerce presupposes freedom\nof occupation, of travel, and residence; even more, it unhappily rests\nin a large measure upon the assumption of a body of the unemployed and\nthe unskilled, ready to be absorbed or dropped according to the demands\nof production: but back of that, or certainly preceding its later\ndevelopments, lies \u201cthe natural rights\u201d doctrine of the eighteenth\ncentury. Even so late as 1892 an official treaty of the United States\nreferred to the \u201cinalienable rights of man to change his residence\nand religion.\u201d This dogma of the schoolmen, dramatized in France and\npenetrating under a thousand forms into the most backward European\nStates, is still operating as an obscure force in sending emigrants\nto America and in our receiving them here. But in the second century\nof its existence it has become too barren and chilly to induce any\nreally zealous or beneficent activity on behalf of the immigrants after\nthey arrive. On the other hand those things which we do believe--the\nconvictions which might be formulated to the immeasurable benefit of\nthe immigrants, and to the everlasting good of our national life,\nhave not yet been satisfactorily stated, nor apparently apprehended\nby us, in relation to this field. We have no method by which to\ndiscover men, to spiritualize, to understand, to hold intercourse with\naliens and to receive of what they bring. A century-old abstraction\nbreaks down before this vigorous test of concrete cases and their\ndemand for sympathetic interpretation. When we are confronted by the\nItalian lazzaroni, the peasants from the Carpathian foothills, and the\nproscribed traders from Galatia, we have no national ideality founded\nupon realism and tested by our growing experience with which to meet\nthem, but only the platitudes of our crudest youth. The philosophers\nand statesmen of the eighteenth century believed that the universal\nfranchise would cure all ills; that liberty and equality rested only\nupon constitutional rights and privileges; that to obtain these two\nand to throw off all governmental oppression constituted the full\nduty of the progressive patriot. We still keep to this formalization\nbecause the philosophers of this generation give us nothing newer. We\nignore the fact that world-wide problems can no longer be solved by\na political constitution assuring us against opposition, but that we\nmust frankly face the proposition that the whole situation is more\nindustrial than political. Did we apprehend this, we might then realize\nthat the officers of the Government who are dealing with naturalization\npapers and testing the knowledge of the immigrants concerning the\nConstitution of the United States, are only playing with counters\nrepresenting the beliefs of a century ago, while the real issues are\nbeing settled by the great industrial and commercial interests which\nare at once the products and the masters of our contemporary life.\nAs children who are allowed to amuse themselves with poker chips\npay no attention to the real game which their elders play with the\ngenuine cards in their hands, so we shut our eyes to the exploitation\nand industrial debasement of the immigrant, and say, with placid\ncontentment, that he has been given the rights of an American citizen,\nand that, therefore, all our obligations have been fulfilled. It is as\nif we should undertake to cure the contemporary political corruption\nfounded upon a disregard of the Inter-State Commerce Acts, by requiring\nthe recreant citizens to repeat the Constitution of the United States.\n\nAs yet no vigorous effort is made to discover how far our present\nsystem of naturalization, largely resting upon laws enacted in 1802, is\ninadequate, although it may have met the requirements of \u201cthe fathers.\u201d\nThese processes were devised to test new citizens who had immigrated to\nthe United States from political rather than from economic pressure,\nalthough these two have always been in a certain sense coextensive.\nYet the early Irish came to America to seek an opportunity for\nself-government, denied them at home; the Germans and Italians started\nto come in largest numbers after the absorption of their smaller\nStates into the larger nations; and the immigrants from Russia are the\nconquered Poles, Lithuanians, Finns, and Jews. On some such obscure\nnotion the processes of naturalization were worked out, and, with a\ncertain degree of logic, the first immigrants were presented with the\nConstitution of the United States as a type and epitome of that which\nthey had come to seek. So far as they now come in search of political\nliberty, as many of them do every day, the test is still valid, but,\nin the meantime, we cannot ignore those significant figures which show\nemigration to rise with periods of depression in given countries, and\nimmigration to be checked by periods of depression in America, and we\nrefuse to see how largely the question has become an economic one.\n\nAt the present moment, as we know, the actual importing of immigrants\nis left largely to the energy of steamship companies and to those\nagents for contract labor who are keen enough to avoid the restrictive\nlaws. The business man is here again in the saddle, as he so largely\nis in American affairs. From the time that the immigrants first make\nthe acquaintance of the steamship agent in their own villages, at\nleast until a grandchild is born on the new soil, they are subjected\nto various processes of exploitation from purely commercial and\nself-seeking interests. It begins with the representatives of the\ntransatlantic lines and their allies, who convert the peasant holdings\ninto money, and provide the prospective emigrants with needless\nsupplies, such as cartridge belts and bowie knives. The brokers, in\nmanufactured passports, send their clients by successive stages for\na thousand miles to a port suiting their purposes. On the way the\nemigrants\u2019 eyes are treated that they may pass the physical test; they\nare taught to read sufficiently well to meet the literacy test; they\nare lent enough money to escape the pauper test, and by the time they\nhave reached America, they are so hopelessly in debt that it requires\nmonths of work to repay all they have received. During this time they\nare completely under the control of the last broker in the line, who\nhas his dingy office in an American city. The exploitation continues\nunder the employment agency whose operations verge into those of the\npolitician, through the naturalization henchman, the petty lawyers who\nfoment their quarrels and grievances by the statement that in a free\ncountry everybody \u201cgoes to law,\u201d by the liquor dealers who stimulate a\nlively trade among them, and, finally, by the lodging-house keepers and\nthe landlords who are not obliged to give them the housing which the\nAmerican tenant demands. It is a long dreary road, and the immigrant\nis successfully exploited at each turn. At moments one looking on is\ndriven to quote the Titanic plaint of Walt Whitman:\n\n\u201cAs I stand aloof and look, there is to me something profoundly\naffecting in large masses of men following the lead of those who do\nnot believe in men.\u201d\n\nThe sinister aspect of this exploitation lies in the fact that it is\ncarried on by agents whose stock in trade are the counters and terms\nof citizenship. It is said that at the present moment there are more\nof these agents in Palermo than perhaps in any other European port,\nand that those politicians who have found it impossible to stay even\nin that corrupt city are engaged in the brokerage of naturalization\npapers in the United States. Certainly one effect of the stringent\ncontract labor laws has been to make the padrones more powerful\nbecause \u201csmuggled alien labor\u201d has become more valuable to American\ncorporations, and also to make simpler the delivery of immigrant\nvotes according to the dictates of commercial interests. It becomes a\nveritable system of poisoning the notions of decent government; but\nbecause the entire process is carried on in political terms, because\nthe poker chips are colored red, white, and blue, we are childishly\nindifferent to it. An elaborate avoidance of restrictions quickly\nadapts itself to changes either in legislation here or at the points\nof departure, because none of the legislation is founded upon a real\nanalysis of the situation. For instance, a new type of broker in Russia\nduring the Russian-Japanese War made use of the situation in the\ninterests of young Russian Jews. If one of these men leaves the country\nordinarily, his family is obliged to pay three hundred rubles to the\nGovernment, but if he first joins the army, his family is free from\nthis obligation for he has passed into the keeping of his sergeant. Out\nof four hundred Russian Jews who, during three months, were drafted\ninto the army at a given recruiting station, only ten reported,\nthe rest having escaped through immigration. Of course the entire\nundertaking is much more hazardous, because the man is a deserter from\nthe army in addition to his other disabilities; but the brokers merely\nput up the price of their services and continue their undertakings.\n\nAll these evasions of immigration laws and regulations are simply\npossible because the governmental tests do not belong to the current\nsituation, and because our political ideas are inherited from\ngovernmental conditions not our own. In our refusal to face the\nsituation, we have persistently ignored the political ideals of the\nCeltic, Germanic, Latin, and Slavic immigrants who have successively\ncome to us; and in our overwhelming ambition to remain Anglo-Saxon, we\nhave fallen into the Anglo-Saxon temptation of governing all peoples\nby one standard. We have failed to work out a democratic government\nwhich should include the experiences and hopes of all the varied\npeoples among us. We justify the situation by some such process as that\nemployed by each English elector who casts a vote for seventy-five\nsubjects besides himself. He indirectly determines--although he may be\na narrow-minded tradesman or a country squire interested only in his\nhounds and horses--the colonial policy, which shall in turn control\nthe destinies of the Egyptian child toiling in the cotton factory in\nAlexandria, and of the half-starved Parsee working the opium fields of\nNorth India. Yet he cannot, in the nature of the case, be informed of\nthe needs of these far-away people and he would venture to attempt it\nonly in regard to people whom he considered \u201cinferior.\u201d\n\nPending a recent election, a Chicago reformer begged his hearers to\nthrow away all selfish thoughts of themselves when they went to the\npolls and to vote in behalf of the poor and ignorant foreigners of the\ncity. It would be difficult to suggest anything which would result\nin a more serious confusion than to have each man, without personal\nknowledge and experiences, consider the interests of the newly arrived\nimmigrant. The voter would have to give himself over to a veritable\ndebauch of altruism in order to persuade himself that his vote would be\nof the least value to those men of whom he knew so little, and whom\nhe considered so remote and alien to himself. In truth the attitude of\nthe advising reformer was in reality so contemptuous that he had never\nconsidered the immigrants really partakers and molders of the political\nlife of his country.\n\nThis attitude of contempt, of provincialism, this survival of\nthe spirit of the conqueror toward an inferior people, has many\nmanifestations, but none so harmful as when it becomes absorbed and\nimitated and is finally evinced by the children of the foreigners\ntoward their own parents.\n\nWe are constantly told of the increase of criminals in the second\ngeneration of immigrants, and, day after day, one sees lads of twelve\nand fourteen throwing off the restraint of family life and striking\nout for themselves. The break has come thus early, partly from the\nforced development of the child under city conditions, partly because\nthe parents have had no chance of following, even remotely, this\ndevelopment, but largely because the Americanized child has copied the\ncontemptuous attitude towards the foreigner which he sees all about\nhim. The revolt has in it something of the city impatience of country\nstandards, but much more of America against Poland or Italy. It is all\nwretchedly sordid with bitterness on the part of the parents, and\nhardhearted indifference and recklessness on the part of the boy. Only\noccasionally can the latter be appealed to by filial affection after\nthe first break has once been thoroughly made; and yet, sometimes,\neven these lads see the pathos of the situation. A probation officer\nfrom Hull-House one day surprised three truants who were sitting by\na bonfire which they had built near the river. Sheltered by an empty\nfreight car, the officer was able to listen to their conversation. The\nPole, the Italian, and the Bohemian boys who had broken the law by\nstaying away from school, by building a fire in dangerous proximity to\nfreight cars, and by \u201cswiping\u201d the potatoes which they were roasting,\nseemed to have settled down into an almost halcyon moment of gentleness\nand reminiscence. The Italian boy commiserated his parents because they\nhated the cold and the snow and \u201ccouldn\u2019t seem to get used to it;\u201d the\nPole said that his father missed seeing folks that he knew and was\n\u201csore on this country;\u201d the Bohemian lad really grew quite tender about\nhis old grandmother and the \u201cstacks of relations\u201d who came to see her\nevery Sunday in the old country, where, in contrast to her loneliness\nhere, she evidently had been a person of consequence. All of them felt\nthe pathos of the situation, but the predominant note was the cheap\ncontempt of the new American for foreigners, even though they are of\nhis own blood. The weakening of the tie which connects one generation\nwith another may be called the domestic results of the contemptuous\nattitude. But the social results of the contemptuous attitude are even\nmore serious and nowhere so grave as in the modern city.\n\nMen are there brought together by multitudes in response to the\nconcentration of industry and commerce without bringing with them\nthe natural social and family ties or the guild relationships which\ndistinguished the mediaeval cities and held even so late as the\neighteenth century, when the country people came to town in response\nto the normal and slowly formed ties of domestic service, family\naffection, and apprenticeship. Men who come to a modern city by\nimmigration break all these older ties and the national bond in\naddition. There is all the more necessity to develop that cosmopolitan\nbond which forms their substitute. The immigrants will be ready to\nadapt themselves to a new and vigorous civic life founded upon the\nrecognition of their needs if the Government which is at present\nadministered in our cities, will only admit that these needs are\ngermane to its functions. The framers of the carefully prepared\ncharters, upon which the cities are founded, did not foresee that\nafter the universal franchise had once been granted, social needs\nand ideals were bound to enter in as legitimate objects of political\naction. Neither did these framers realize, on the other hand, that the\nonly people in a democracy who can legitimately become the objects\nof repressive government, are those people who are too undeveloped\nto use their liberty or those who have forfeited their right to full\ncitizenship. We have, therefore, a municipal administration in America\nwhich concerns itself only grudgingly with the social needs of the\npeople, and is largely reduced to the administration of restrictive\nmeasures. The people who come most directly in contact with the\nexecutive officials, who are the legitimate objects of their control,\nare the vicious, who need to be repressed; and the semi-dependent\npoor, who appeal to them in their dire need; or, for quite the reverse\nreason, those who are trying to avoid an undue taxation, resenting the\nfact that they should be made to support a government which, from the\nnature of the case, is too barren to excite their real enthusiasm.\n\nThe instinctive protest against this mechanical method of civic\ncontrol, with the lack of adjustment between the natural democratic\nimpulse and the fixed external condition, inevitably produces the\nindifferent citizen, and the so-called \u201cprofessional politician.\u201d The\nfirst, because he is not vicious, feels that the real processes of\ngovernment do not concern him and wishes only to be let alone. The\nlatter easily adapts himself to an illegal avoidance of the external\nfixed conditions by assuming that these conditions have been settled\nby doctrinaires who did not in the least understand the people,\nwhile he, the politician, makes his appeal beyond the conditions to\nthe real desires of the people themselves. He is thus not only \u201cthe\npeople\u2019s friend,\u201d but their interpreter. It is interesting to note\nhow often simple people refer to \u201cthem,\u201d meaning the good and great\nwho govern but do not understand, and to \u201chim,\u201d meaning the alderman,\nwho represents them in these incomprehensible halls of State, as an\nambassador to a foreign country to whose borders they themselves could\nnot possibly penetrate, and whose language they do not speak.\n\nIn addition to this difficulty inherent in the difference between the\ntraditional and actual situation, there is another, which constantly\narises on the purely administrative side. The traditional governments\nwhich the founders had copied, in proceeding by fixed standards to\nseparate the vicious from the good, and then to legislate against the\nvicious, had enforced these restrictive measures by trained officials,\nusually with a military background. In a democracy, however,\nthe officers entrusted with the enforcement of this restrictive\nlegislation, if not actually elected by the people themselves, are\nstill the appointments of those thus elected and are, therefore,\ngood-natured men who have made friends by their kindness and social\nqualities. This is only decreasingly true even in those cities where\nappointments are made by civil service examinations. The carrying out\nof repressive legislation, the remnant of a military state of society,\nin a democracy is at last put into the hands of men who have attained\noffice because of political pull. The repressive measures must be\nenforced by those sympathizing with the people and belonging to those\nagainst whom the measures operate. This anomalous situation produces\nalmost inevitably one result: that the police authorities themselves\nare turned into allies of vice and crime. This may be illustrated\nfrom almost any of the large American cities in the relation existing\nbetween the police force and the gambling and other illicit life. The\nofficers are often flatly told that the enforcement of an ordinance\nwhich the better element of the city has insisted upon passing, is\nimpossible; that they are expected to control only the robbery and\ncrime that so often associate themselves with vice. As Mr. Wilcox[5]\nhas recently pointed out, public sentiment itself assumes a certain\nhypocrisy, and in the end we have \u201cthe abnormal conditions which are\ncreated when vice is protected by the authorities,\u201d and in the very\nworst cases there develops a sort of municipal blackmail in which\nthe administration itself profits by the violation of law. The very\ngovernmental agencies which were designed to protect the citizen\nfrom vice, foster and protect him in its pursuance because everybody\ninvolved is thoroughly confused by the human element in the situation.\nFurther than this, the officer\u2019s very kindness and human understanding\nis that which leads to his downfall, for he is forced to uphold the\nremnant of a military discipline in a self-governing community. It is\nnot remarkable, perhaps, that the police department, the most vigorous\nsurvival of militarism to be found in American cities, has always\nbeen responsible for the most exaggerated types of civic corruption.\nIt is sad, however, that this corruption has largely been due to the\nkindliness of the officers and to their lack of military training.\nThere is no doubt that the reasonableness of keeping the saloons in\nlower New York open on Sunday was apparent to the policemen of the East\nSide force long before it dawned upon the reform administration; and\nyet, that the policemen allowed themselves to connive at law-breaking,\nwas the beginning of their disgraceful downfall. Because kindness to an\nenemy may mean death or the annihilation of the army which he guards,\nall kindness is illicit on the part of the military sentinel on duty;\nbut to bring that code over bodily into a peaceful social state is to\nbreak down the morals of both sides, of the enforcer of the ill-adapted\nlaw, as well as of those against whom it is so maladroitly directed.\n\nIn order to meet this situation, there is almost inevitably developed\na politician of the corrupt type so familiar in American cities, the\npolitician who has become successful because he has made friends\nwith the vicious. The semi-criminal, who are constantly brought in\ncontact with administrative government are naturally much interested\nin its operations. Having much at stake, as a matter of course, they\nattend the primaries and all the other election processes which so\nquickly tire the good citizens whose interest in the government is a\nself-imposed duty. To illustrate: it is a matter of much moment to a\ngambler whether there is to be a \u201cwide-open town\u201d or not; it means the\nsuccess or failure of his business; it involves, not only the pleasure,\nbut the livelihood, of all his friends. He naturally attends to the\nelection of the alderman, to the appointment and retention of the\npoliceman. He is found at the caucus \u201cevery time,\u201d and would be much\namused if he were praised for the performance of his civic duty; but,\nbecause he and the others who are concerned in semi-illicit business do\nattend the primaries, the corrupt politician is nominated over and over\nagain.\n\nAs this type of politician is successful from his alliance with crime,\nthere also inevitably arises from time to time a so-called reformer\nwho is shocked to discover the state of affairs, the easy partnership\nbetween vice and administrative government. He dramatically uncovers\nthe situation and arouses great indignation against it on the part of\ngood citizens. If this indignation is enough, he creates a political\nfervor which is translated into a claim upon public gratitude. In\nportraying the evil he is fighting, he does not recognize, or at least\ndoes not make clear, all the human kindness upon which it has grown.\nIn his speeches he inevitably offends a popular audience, who know\nthat the evil of corruption exists in all degrees and forms of human\nweakness, but who also know that these evils are by no means always\nhideous, and sometimes even are lovable. They resent his over-drawn\npictures of vice and of the life of the vicious; their sense of\nfair play, their deep-rooted desire for charity and justice, are all\noutraged.\n\nTo illustrate from a personal experience: Some years ago a famous New\nYork reformer came to Chicago to tell us of his phenomenal success,\nhis trenchant methods of dealing with the city \u201cgambling-hells,\u201d as\nhe chose to call them. He proceeded to describe the criminals of\nlower New York in terms and phrases which struck at least one of his\nauditors as sheer blasphemy against our common human nature. I thought\nof the criminals whom I knew, of the gambler for whom each Saturday\nI regularly collected his weekly wage of $24.00, keeping $18.00 for\nhis wife and children and giving him $6.00 on Monday morning. His\ndespairing statement, \u201cthe thing is growing on me, and I can never give\nit up,\u201d was certainly not the cry of a man living in hell, but of him\nwho, through much tribulation had at least kept the loyal intention.\nI remembered the three girls who had come to me with a paltry sum of\nmoney collected from the pawn and sale of their tawdry finery in order\nthat one of their number might be spared a death in the almshouse and\nthat she might have the wretched comfort during the closing weeks of\nher life of knowing that, although she was an outcast, she was not a\npauper. I recalled the first murderer whom I had ever known, a young\nman who was singing his baby to sleep and stopped to lay it in its\ncradle before he rushed downstairs into his father\u2019s saloon to scatter\nthe gang of boys who were teasing the old man by giving him English\norders. The old man could not understand English and the boys were\nrefusing to pay for the drinks they had consumed, but technically had\nnot ordered.\n\nFor one short moment I saw the situation from the point of view of\nhumbler people, who sin often through weakness and passion, but seldom\nthrough hardness of heart, and I felt that in a democratic community\nsuch sweeping condemnations and conclusions as the speaker was pouring\nforth could never be accounted for righteousness.\n\nAs the policeman who makes terms with vice, and almost inevitably\nslides into making gain from vice, merely represents the type of\npolitician who is living off the weakness of his fellows, so the\nover-zealous reformer who exaggerates vice until the public is scared\nand awestruck, represents the type of politician who is living off the\ntimidity of his fellows. With the lack of civic machinery for simple\ndemocratic expression, for a direct dealing with human nature as it is,\nwe seem doomed to one type or the other--corruptionists or anti-crime\ncommittees.\n\nAnd one sort or the other we will continue to have so long as we\ndistrust the very energy of existence, the craving for enjoyment,\nthe pushing of vital forces, the very right of every citizen to be\nwhat he is without pretense or assumption of virtue. Too often he\ndoes not really admire these virtues, but he imagines them somewhere\nas a standard adopted by the virtuous whom he does not know. That\nold Frankenstein, the ideal man of the eighteenth century, is still\nhaunting us, although he never existed save in the brain of the\ndoctrinaire.\n\nThis dramatic and feverish triumph of the self-seeker, see-sawing\nwith that of the interested reformer, does more than anything else,\nperhaps, to keep the American citizen away from the ideals of genuine\nevolutionary democracy. Whereas repressive government, from the\nnature of the case, has to do with the wicked who are happily always\nin a minority in the community, a normal democratic government would\nnaturally have to do with the great majority of the population in their\nnormal relations to each other.\n\nAfter all, the so-called \u201cslum politician\u201d ventures his success upon an\nappeal to human sentiment and generosity. This venture often results in\nan alliance between the popular politician and the humblest citizens,\nquite as naturally as the reformer who stands for honest business\nadministration usually becomes allied with the type of business man\nwhose chief concern it is to guard his treasure and to prevent a rise\nin taxation. The community is again insensibly divided into two camps,\nthe repressed, who is dimly conscious that he has no adequate outlet\nfor his normal life and the repressive, represented by the cautious,\ncareful citizen holding fast to his own,--once more the conqueror and\nhis humble people.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[4] \u201cThe Spirit of Modern Philosophy,\u201d Josiah Royce, page 275.\n\n[5] The American City, Dr. Delos F. Wilcox, page 200.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n FAILURE TO UTILIZE IMMIGRANTS IN CITY GOVERNMENT\n\n\nWe do much loose talking in regard to American immigration; we use\nthe phrase, \u201cthe scum of Europe,\u201d and other unwarranted words without\nrealizing that the unsuccessful man, the undeveloped peasant, may be\nmuch more valuable to us here than the more highly developed, but\nalso more highly specialized, town dweller, who may much less readily\nacquire the characteristics which the new environment demands.\n\nIf successful struggle ends in the survival of the few, in blatant and\ntangible success for the few only, government will have to reckon most\nlargely with the men who have been beaten in the struggle, with the\neffect upon them of the contest and the defeat; for, after all, the\nunsuccessful will always represent the majority of the citizens, and it\nis with the large majority that self-government must eventually deal\nwhatever course of action other governments may legitimately determine\nfor themselves.\n\nTo demand to be protected from the many unsuccessful among us, who are\nsupposed to issue forth from the shallows of our city life and seize\nupon the treasure of the citizens as the barbarians of old came from\noutside the city walls, is of course not to have read the first lesson\nof self-government in the light of evolutionary science. It is to\nforget that a revival in self-government, an awakening of its original\nmotive power and _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_, can come only from a genuine desire\nto increase its scope, and to adapt it to new and strenuous conditions.\nIn this way science revived and leaped forward under the pressure of\nthe enlarged demand of manufacture and commerce put upon it during the\nindustrial decades just passed.\n\nWe would ask the moralists and statesmen of this dawning century,\nequipped as they are, with the historic method, to save our\ncontemporaries from skepticism in regard to self-government by\nrevealing to them its adaptability to the needs of the humblest man\nwho is so sorely pressed in this industrial age. The statesman who\nwould fill his countrymen with enthusiasm for democratic government\nmust not only possess a genuine understanding of the needs of the\nsimplest citizens, but he must know how to reveal their capacities\nand powers. He must needs go man-hunting into those curious groups\nwe call newly arrived immigrants, and do for them what the scholar\nhas done in pointing out to us the sweetness and charm which inhere\nin primitive domestic customs and in showing us the curious pivot\nthese customs make for religious and tribal beliefs. The scholar who\nhas surrounded the simplest action of women grinding millet or corn\nwith a penetrating reminiscence, sweeter than the chant they sing,\nmay reveal something of the same reminiscence and charm among many\nof the immigrants. In the midst of crowded city streets one stumbles\nupon an old Italian peasant with her distaff against her withered face\nand her pathetic hands patiently \u201cholding the thread,\u201d as has been\ndone by myriads of women since children needed to be clad; or one\nsees an old German potter, misshapen by years, his sensitive hands\nnevertheless fairly alive with skill and delicacy, and his life at\nleast illumined with the artist\u2019s prerogative of direct creation.\nCould we take these primitive habits as they are to be found every day\nin American cities and give them their significance and place, they\nwould be a wonderful factor for poetry in cities frankly given over\nto industrialism and absorbed in its activities. As a McAndrews\u2019 hymn\nexpresses the frantic rush of the industrial river, so these primitive\ncustoms could give us something of the mysticism and charm of the\nindustrial springs, a suggestion of source, a touch of the refinement\nwhich adheres to simple things. This study of origins, of survivals,\nof paths of least resistance--refining an industrial age through the\npeople and experiences which really belong to it and do not need to\nbe brought in from the outside--would surely result in a revived\nenthusiasm for human life and its possibilities which would in turn\nreact upon the ideals of government. The present lack of understanding\nof simple people and the dearth of the illumination which knowledge of\nthem would give, can be traced not only in the social and political\nmaladjustment of the immigrant in municipal centres, but is felt in\nso-called \u201cpractical affairs\u201d of national magnitude. Regret is many\ntimes expressed that, notwithstanding the fact that nine out of every\nten immigrants are of rural birth and are fitted to undertake that\npainstaking method of cultivating the soil which American farmers\ndespise, they nevertheless all tend to congregate in cities where\ntheir inherited and elaborate knowledge of agricultural processes is\nunutilized. But it is characteristic of American complacency when any\nassisted removal to agricultural regions is contemplated, that we\nutterly ignore the past experiences of the immigrant and always assume\nthat each family will be content to live in the middle of its own piece\nof ground, although there are few peoples on the face of the earth who\nhave ever tried isolating a family on one hundred and sixty acres or on\neighty, or even on forty. But this is the American way--a survival of\nour pioneer days--and we refuse to modify it, even in regard to South\nItalians, although from the day of mediaeval incursions they have lived\nin compact villages with an intense and elaborated social life, so\nmuch of it out of doors and interdependent that it has affected almost\nevery domestic habit. Italian women knead their own bread, but depend\non the village oven for its baking, and the men would rather walk for\nmiles to their fields each day than to face an evening of companionship\nlimited to the family. Nothing could afford a better check to the\nconstant removal to the cities of the farming population all over the\nUnited States than the possibility of combining community life with\nagricultural occupation. This combination would afford that development\nof civilization which, curiously enough, density alone brings and\nfor which even a free system of rural delivery is not an adequate\nsubstitute. Much of the significance and charm of rural life in South\nItaly lies in its village companionship, quite as the dreariness of the\nAmerican farm life inheres in its unnecessary solitude. But we totally\ndisregard the solution which the old agricultural community offers,\nand our utter lack of adaptability has something to do with the fact\nthat the South Italian remains in the city where he soon forgets his\ncunning in regard to silk worms and olive trees, but continues his old\nsocial habits to the extent of filling an entire tenement house with\nthe people from one village.\n\nWe also exhibit all the Anglo-Saxon distrust of any experiment with\nland tenure or method of taxation, although our single-tax advocates do\nnot fail to tell us daily of the stupidity of the present arrangement.\nIt might, indeed, be well to make a few experiments upon an historic\nbasis before their enthusiasm converts us all. For centuries in\nRussia the Slavic village, the mir system of land occupation, has\nbeen in successful operation, training men within its narrow limits\nto community administration. Yet when a persecuted sect from Russia\nwishes to find refuge in America, we insist that seven thousand\npeople shall give up all at once a system of land ownership in which\nthey are experts. Americans declare the system to be impracticable,\nalthough it is singularly like that in vogue in Palestine during the\nperiod of its highest prosperity. We cannot receive them in the United\nStates, because our laws have no way of dealing with such cases.\nAnd in Canada, where they are finally settled, the unimaginative\nDominion officials are driven to the verge of distraction concerning\nregistration of deeds and the collection of taxes from men who do not\nclaim acres in their own names, but in the name of the village. The\nofficial distraction is reflected and intensified among the people\nthemselves, to the point of driving them into the mediaeval \u201cmarching\nmania,\u201d in the hope of finding a land in the south where they may carry\nout their inoffensive \u201cmir\u201d system. The entire situation might prove\nthat an unbending theory of individualism may become as fixed as status\nitself, although there are certainly other factors in the Doukhobor\nsituation--religious bigotry, and the self-seeking of leadership.\nIn spite of the fact that the Canadian officials have in other\nmatters exhibited much of the adaptability which distinguishes the\nBritish colonial policy, they are completely stranded on the rock of\nAnglo-Saxon individualistic ownership, and assume that any other system\nof land tenure is subversive of government, forgetting that Russia\nmanages to exert a fair amount of governmental control over thousands\nof acres held under the system which they so detest.\n\nIn our eagerness to reproach the immigrants for not going upon the\nland we almost overlook the contributions to city life which those\nof them, who were adapted to it in Europe, are making to our cities\nhere. From dingy little eating-houses in lower New York, performing a\nfunction somewhat between the eighteenth-century coffee-house and the\nParisian caf\u00e9, is issuing at the present moment perhaps the sturdiest\nrealistic drama that is being produced on American soil. Late into the\nnight speculation is carried forward--not on the nice questions of\nthe Talmud and on quibbles of logic; but minds long trained on these\nseriously discuss the need of a readjustment of the industrial machine\nin order that the primitive sense of justice and righteousness may\nsecure larger play in our social organization. And yet a Russian in\nChicago who used to believe that Americans cared first and foremost\nfor political liberty and that they would certainly admire those who\nhad suffered in its cause, finds no one interested in his story of six\nyears\u2019 banishment beyond the Antarctic circle. He is really listened to\nonly when he tells the tale to a sportsman of the fish he had caught\nduring the six weeks of summer when the rivers were open. \u201cLively work\nthen, but plenty of time to eat them dried or frozen through the rest\nof the year,\u201d is the most sympathetic comment he has yet received upon\nan experience which, at least to him, held the bittersweet of martyrdom.\n\nAmong the colonies of the most recently immigrated Jews, who still\ncarry out their orthodox customs and a ritual preserved through\ncenturies in the Ghetto, one constantly feels during a season of\nreligious observance, a refreshing insistence upon the reality of the\ninner life, and upon the dignity of its expression in inherited form.\nPerhaps the most striking reproach to the materialism of Chicago is the\nsight on a solemn Jewish holiday of a Chicago River bridge lined with\nmen and women oblivious of the noisy traffic and sordid surroundings,\ncasting their sins upon the waters that they may be carried far away.\nThe scene is a clear statement that, after all, life does not consist\nin wealth, in learning, in enterprise, in energy, in success, not even\nin that modern fetich, culture, but in an inner equilibrium, in \u201cthe\nagreement of soul.\u201d It is a relief to see even this exaggerated and\ngrotesque presentation of spiritual values.\n\nBut the statesman shuts himself away from the possibility of using\nthese great reservoirs of human ability and motive power because he\nconsiders it patriotic to hold to governmental lines and ideals laid\ndown a century and a quarter ago. Because of a military inheritance,\nwe as a nation stoutly contend that all this varied and suggestive\nlife has nothing to do with government nor patriotism, and that we\nperform the full duty of American citizens when the provisions of the\nstatutes on naturalization are carried out. In the meantime, in the\ninterests of our theory that commercial and governmental powers should\nhave no connection with each other, we carefully ignore the one million\nfalse naturalization papers in the United States issued and concealed\nby commercialized politics. Although we have an uneasy knowledge that\nthese powers are curiously allied, we profess that the latter has no\nconnection with the former and no control over it. We steadily refuse\nto recognize the fact that our age is swayed by industrial forces.\n\nFortunately, life is much bigger and finer than our theories about\nit, and, among all the immigrants in the great cities, there is\nslowly developing the beginnings of self-government on the lines of\ntheir daily experiences. The man who really knows immigrants and\nundertakes to naturalize them, makes no pretense of the lack of\nconnection between their desire to earn their daily bread and their\ncitizenship. The petty and often corrupt politician who is first kind\nto immigrants, realizes perfectly well that the force pushing them to\nthis country has been industrial need and that recognition of this\nneed is legitimate. He follows the natural course of events when he\npromises to get the immigrant \u201ca job,\u201d for that is undoubtedly what\nthe immigrant most needs in all the world. If the politician nearest\nto him were really interested in the immigrant and were to work out\na scheme of naturalization fitted to the situation, the immigrant\nwould proceed from the street-cleaning and sewer-digging in which he\nfirst engages, to an understanding of the relation of these simple\noffices to city government. Through them he would understand the\nobligation of his alderman to secure cleanliness for the streets\nin which his children play and for the tenement in which he lives.\nThe notion of representative government could be made quite clear\nand concrete to him. He could demand his rights and use his vote in\norder to secure them. His very na\u00efve demands might easily become a\nrestraint, a purifying check upon the alderman, instead of a source of\nconstant corruption and exploitation. But when the politician attempts\nto naturalize the bewildered immigrant, he must perforce accept\nthe doctrinaire standard imposed by men who held a theory totally\nunattached to experience, and he must, therefore, begin with the remote\nConstitution of the United States. At the Cook County Court-House only\na short time ago a candidate for naturalization, who was asked the\nusual question as to what the Constitution of the United States was,\nreplied: \u201cThe Illinois Central.\u201d His mind naturally turned to his\nwork, to the one bit of contribution he had genuinely made to the new\ncountry, and his reply might well offer a valuable suggestion to the\nstudent of educational method. Some of our most advanced schools are\neven now making industrial construction and evolution a natural basis\nfor all future acquisition of knowledge, and they claim that anything\nless vital and creative is inadequate.\n\nIt is surprising how a simple experience, if it be but genuine, gives\nan opening into citizenship altogether lacking to the more grandiose\nattempts. A Greek-American, slaughtering sheep in a tenement-house\nyard, reminiscent of the Homeric tradition, can be made to see the\neffect of the improvised shambles on his neighbor\u2019s health and the\nright of the city to prohibit the slaughtering, only as he perceives\nthe development of city government upon its most modern basis.\n\nThe enforcement of adequate child labor laws offers unending\nopportunity to better citizenship founded, not upon theory but on\naction, as does the compulsory education law, which makes clear that\neducation is a matter of vital importance to the American city and to\nthe State which has enacted definite, well-considered legislation in\nregard to it. Some of the most enthusiastic supporters of child-labor\nlegislation and of compulsory education laws are those parents who\nsacrifice old-world tradition, as well as the much-needed earnings of\ntheir young children, because of loyalty to the laws of their adopted\ncountry. Certainly genuine sacrifice for the nation\u2019s law is a good\nfoundation for patriotism, and as this again is not a doctrinaire\nquestion, women are not debarred, and mothers who wash and scrub for\nthe meagre support of their children say, sturdily, sometimes: \u201cIt will\nbe a year before he can go to work without breaking the law, but we\ncame to this country to give the young ones a chance, and we are not\ngoing to begin by having them do what\u2019s not right.\u201d\n\nUpon some such basis as this the Hebrew Alliance and the Charity\nOrganization of New York, which are putting forth desperate energy in\nthe enormous task of ministering to the suffering which immigration\nentails, are developing understanding and respect for the alien through\ntheir mutual efforts to secure more adequate tenement-house regulation\nand to control the spread of tuberculosis; both these undertakings\nbeing perfectly hopeless without the intelligent co-operation of\nthe immigrants themselves. Through such humble doors, perchance,\nthe immigrant will at last enter into his heritage in a new nation.\nDemocratic government has ever been the result of spiritual travail\nand moral effort. Apparently, even here, the immigrant must pay the\nold cost, and he seems to represent the group and type which is making\nthe most genuine contribution to the present growth in governmental\nfunctions, with its constant demand for increasing adaptations.\n\nIn the induction of the adult immigrant into practical citizenship,\nwe constantly ignore his daily experience. We also assume in our\nformal attempts to teach patriotism to him and to his children, that\nexperience and traditions have no value, and that a new sentiment\nmust be put into aliens by some external process. Some years ago, a\npublic-spirited organization engaged a number of speakers to go to\nthe various city schools in order to instruct the children in the\nsignificance of Decoration Day and to foster patriotism among the\nforeign born, by descriptions of the Civil War. In one of the schools,\nfilled with Italian children, an old soldier, a veteran in years and\nexperience, gave a description of a battle in Tennessee, and of his\npersonal adventures in using a pile of brush as an ambuscade and a\nfortification. Coming from the schoolhouse, an eager young Italian\nbroke out, with characteristic vividness, into a description of his\nfather\u2019s campaigning under the leadership of Garibaldi, possibly\nfrom some obscure notion that that, too, was a civil war fought from\nprinciple, but more likely because the description of one battle\nhad roused in his mind the memory of another such description. The\nlecturer, whose sympathies happened to be on the other side of the\nGaribaldian conflict, somewhat sharply told him that he must forget\nall that; that he was no longer an Italian, but an American. The\nnatural growth of patriotism based upon respect for the achievements\nof one\u2019s fathers, the bringing together of the past with the present,\nthe significance of the almost world-wide effort at a higher standard\nof political freedom which swept over all Europe and America between\n1848 and 1872 could, of course, have no place in the boy\u2019s mind because\nit had none in the mind of the instructor whose patriotism apparently\ntried to purify itself by the American process of elimination.\n\nHow far a certain cosmopolitan humanitarianism ignoring national\ndifferences, is either possible or desirable, it is difficult to\nstate; but certain it is that the old type of patriotism, founded\nupon a common national history and land occupation, becomes to many\nof the immigrants who bring it with them a veritable stumbling-block\nand impediment. Many Greeks whom I know are fairly besotted with a\nconsciousness of their national importance, and the achievements\nof their glorious past. Among them the usual effort to found a new\npatriotism upon American history is often an absurd undertaking; for\ninstance, on the night of one Thanksgiving Day, I spent some time and\nzeal in a description of the Pilgrim Fathers, and the motives which\nhad driven them across the sea, while the experiences of the Plymouth\ncolony were illustrated by stereopticon slides and little dramatic\nscenes. The audience of Greeks listened respectfully, although I\nwas uneasily conscious of the somewhat feeble attempt to boast of\nAnglo-Saxon achievement in hardihood and privation, to men whose powers\nof admiration were absorbed in their Greek background of philosophy and\nbeauty. At any rate, after the lecture was over, one of the Greeks said\nto me, quite simply, \u201cI wish I could describe my ancestors to you; they\nwere very different from yours.\u201d His further remarks were translated\nby a little Irish boy of eleven, who speaks modern Greek with facility\nand turns many an honest penny by translating, into the somewhat pert\nstatement: \u201cHe says if _that_ is what your ancestors are like, that his\ncould beat them out.\u201d It is a good illustration of our faculty for\nignoring the past, and of our failure to understand the immigrant\u2019s\nestimation of ourselves. This lack of a more cosmopolitan standard, of\na consciousness of kind founded upon creative imagination and historic\nknowledge is apparent in many directions, and cruelly widens the gulf\nbetween immigrant fathers and their children who are \u201cAmericans in\nprocess.\u201d\n\nA hideous story comes from New York of a young Russian Jewess who was\nemployed as a stenographer in a down-town office, where she became\nengaged to be married to a young man of Jewish-American parentage.\nShe felt keenly the difference between him and her newly immigrated\nparents, and on the night when he was to be presented to them she\nwent home early to make every possible preparation for his coming.\nHer efforts to make the _m\u00e9nage_ presentable were so discouraging,\nthe whole situation filled her with such chagrin, that an hour before\nhis expected arrival, she ended her life. Although the father was a\nTalmud scholar of standing in his native Russian town, and the lover\nwas a clerk of very superficial attainments, she possessed no standard\nby which to judge the two men. This lack of standard must be charged\nto the entire community; for why should we expect an untrained girl\nto be able to do for herself what the community so pitifully fails to\naccomplish?\n\nAll the members of the community are equally stupid in throwing away\nthe immigrant revelation of social customs and inherited energy.\nWe continually allow this valuable human experience to go to waste\nalthough we have reached the stage of humanitarianism when no infant\nmay be wantonly allowed to die, no man be permitted to freeze or\nstarve, if the State can prevent it. We may truthfully boast that the\nprimitive, wasteful struggle of physical existence is practically over,\nbut no such statement can be made in regard to spiritual life. Students\nof social conditions recognize the fact that modern charity constantly\ngrows more democratic and constructive, and daily more concerned for\npreventive measures, but to admit frankly similar aims as matters for\nmunicipal government as yet seems impossible.\n\nIn this country it seems to be only the politician at the bottom,\nthe man nearest the people, who understands that there is a growing\ndisinterestedness taking hold of men\u2019s hopes and imaginations in every\ndirection. He often plays upon it and betrays it; but he at least knows\nit is there.\n\nThe two points at which government is developing most rapidly at the\npresent moment are naturally the two where it of necessity exercises\nfunctions of nurture and protection: first, in relation to the young\ncriminal, second, in relation to the poor and dependent. One of the\nlatest developments is the Juvenile Courts which the large cities are\ninaugurating. Only fifteen years ago when I first went to live in an\nindustrial district of Chicago, if a boy was arrested on some trifling\ncharge--and dozens of them were thus arrested each month--the only\npossible way to secure another chance for him by restoring him to his\nhome with an opportunity to become a law-abiding citizen, was through\nthe alderman of the ward. Upon the request of a distracted relative\nor the precinct captain, the alderman would \u201cspeak to the judge\u201d\nand secure the release of the boy. The kindness of the alderman was\ngenuine, as was the gratitude of all concerned; but the inevitable\nimpression remained that government was harsh, and naturally dealt out\npolicemen and prisons, and that the political friend alone stood for\nkindness. That this kindness was in a measure illicit and mysterious in\nits workings made it all the more impressive.\n\nBut so much advance has been made in so short a time as fifteen years,\ntoward incorporating kindly concern for the young and a desire to keep\nthem in the path of rectitude within the process of government itself,\nthat in Chicago alone twenty-four probation officers, as they are\ncalled, are paid from the public funds. The wayward boy is committed\nto one of these for another chance as a part of the procedure of the\ncourt. He is not merely released by an act of clemency so magnificent\nand irrelevant as to dazzle him with a sense of the aldermanic power,\nbut he is put under the actual care of a probation officer that he may\ndo better. He is assisted to keep permanently away from the police\ncourts and their allied penal institutions.\n\nIn one of the most successful of these courts, that of Denver, the\nJudge who can point to a remarkable record with the bad boys of the\ncity, plays a veritable game with them against the police force, he\nand the boys undertaking to be good without the help of repression,\nand in spite of the machinations of the police. For instance, if the\nboys who have been sentenced to the State Reform School at Golden,\ndeliver themselves without the aid of the Sheriff whose duty it is to\ntake them there, they not only vindicate their manliness and readiness\n\u201cto take their medicine,\u201d but they beat the sheriff who belongs to the\npenal machinery out of his five-dollar fee. Over this fact they openly\ntriumph--a simple example, perhaps, but significant of the attitude of\nthe well-intentioned toward repressive government.\n\nThe Juvenile Courts are beginning to take a really parental attitude\ntowards all dependent children, although for years only those orphans\nwho had inherited at least a meagre property were handed over to a\npublic guardian. Those whose parents had left them absolutely nothing\nwere allowed to care for themselves--as if the whole body of doctrine\ncontained in the phrase, \u201cthere is no wealth but life,\u201d had never\nentered into the mind of man. Because these courts are dealing with\nthe children in their social and everyday relations they have made the\nastounding discovery that even a penniless child needs the care and\ndefense of the State.\n\nThe schools for Reform are those which are inaugurating the most\nadvanced education in agriculture and manual arts. A bewildered foreign\nparent comes from time to time to Hull-House, asking that his boy be\nsent to a school to learn farming, basing his request upon the fact\nthat his neighbor\u2019s boy has been sent to \u201ca nice green, country-place.\u201d\nIt is carefully explained that the neighbor\u2019s boy was bad, and was\narrested and sent away because of his badness. After much conversation,\nthe disappointed parent sometimes understands, but he often goes away\nshaking his head, and some such words as these issue: \u201cI have been\nin this country for five years, and have never gotten anything yet.\u201d\nAt other times it is successfully explained to the man that the city\nassumes that he is looking out for himself and taking care of his own\nboy, but it ought to be possible to make him to see that if he feels\nthat his son needs the education of a farm school, that it lies with\nhim to agitate the subject and to vote for the man who will secure such\nschools. He might well look amazed, were this advice tendered him, for\nthese questions have never been presented to him to vote upon. Because\nhe does not eagerly discuss the tariff or other remote subjects which\nthe political parties present to him from time to time we assume that\nhe is not to be trusted to vote on the education of his child, although\nthere is no doubt that the one thing his ancestors decided upon, from\nthe days of bows and arrows, was the sort of training each one should\ngive his son.\n\nThe fine education that is given to a juvenile offender may indicate\na certain compunction on the part of the State. Quite as men formerly\ngloried in warfare and now apologize for it, as they formerly went\nout to spoil their enemies and now go to civilize them, so civil\ngovernments, while continuing to maintain prisons, have become more\nor less ashamed of them, and are already experimenting in better\nways to elevate and reform criminals than by the way of violence and\nimprisonment. We have already said in America that neither a gallows\nnor an unmitigated prison shall ever exist for a child.\n\nIn the matter of public charities, also, we are not timid as to\nextending the function of the government. We build enormous city\nhospitals and almhouses; we care with tenderness for the defective and\nthe dependent; but for that great mass of people just beyond the line,\nfrom whom they are constantly recruited, we do practically nothing.\nIt has been said that if a workingman in New York falls a victim to\npneumonia, he is taken to a hospital and given skilled treatment; if it\nleaves him tubercular the city will have a care over him, and valiantly\nwill stand by, putting him into a public sanatorium, providing him\nwith nutritious food and fresh air until his recovery. But if he is\nturned away from the hospital without tuberculosis, merely too depleted\nand wretched to go back to his regular employment, then the city can\ndo nothing for him unless he be ready to call himself an out-and-out\npauper. We are afraid of the notion of governmental function which\nwould minister to the primitive needs of the mass of the people,\nalthough we are quite ready to care for him whom misfortune or disease\nhas made the exception. It is really the rank and file, the average\ncitizen, who is ignored by the government, while he works out his real\nproblems through other agencies, although he is scolded for staying at\nhome on election day, and for refusing to be interested in issues which\nreally do not concern him.\n\nIt is comparatively easy to understand the punitive point of view which\nseeks to suppress, or the philanthropic which seeks to palliate; but\nit is much more difficult to formulate that city government which is\nadapted to our present normal living. As over against the survivals\nof the first two, excellent and necessary as they are, we have but\nthe few public parks and baths, the few band concerts and recreation\npiers--always excepting, of course, the public schools and the social\nactivities slowly centering around them; for public education has long\nbeen a passion in America, and we seem to have been willing to make\nthat an exception to our general theory of government.\n\nWhile governmental functions have shown this remarkable adaptation\nand growth in relation to the youth, whether he be in the public\nschools, in the Juvenile Court or in the reformatory, we hesitate\nto assume toward the adult this temper of the educator who humbly\nfollows and at the same confidently leads the little child. While the\nState spends millions of dollars and employs thousands of servants to\nnurture and heal the sick and defective, it steadfastly refuses to\nextend its kindliness to the normal working man. The Socialists alone\nconstantly appeal for this extension. They refuse, however, to deal\nwith the present State and constantly take refuge in the formulae of\na new scholasticism. Their orators are busily engaged in establishing\ntwo substitutes for human nature which they call \u201cproletarian\u201d and\n\u201ccapitalist.\u201d They ignore the fact that varying, imperfect human nature\nis incalculable, and that to eliminate its varied and constantly\nchanging elements is to face all the mistakes and miscalculations which\ngathered around the \u201cfallen man,\u201d or the \u201ceconomic man,\u201d or any other\nof the fixed norms which have from time to time been substituted for\nexpanding and developing human life. In time \u201cthe proletarian\u201d and \u201cthe\ncapitalist\u201d will become the impedimenta which it will be necessary to\nclear away in order to make room for the mass of living and breathing\ncitizens with whom self-government must eventually deal.\n\nThere is no doubt that the existence of the mass, the mere size of the\nmodern city, increases the difficulty of the situation. Charles Booth\u2019s\nmaps portraying the standard of living for the people of London afford\nalmost the only attempt at a general social survey of a modern city, at\nleast so far as it may be predetermined from the standard of income.\nFrom his accompanying twelve volumes may be deduced the occupations of\nthe people with their real wages, their family budget and their culture\nlevel, and, to a certain extent, their recreations and spiritual life.\nIf one gives one\u2019s self over to a moment of musing on this mass of\ninformation, so huge and so accurate, one is almost instinctively aware\nthat any radical changes, so much needed in the blackest districts,\nmust largely come from forces outside the life of the people. An\nenlarged mental life must come from the educationalist, increased\nwages from the business interests, alleviation of suffering from the\nphilanthropists. What vehicle of correction is provided for the people\nthemselves, what device has been invented for loosing that kindliness\nand mutual aid which is the marvel of all charity visitors? What broad\nbasis has been laid down for a modification of their most genuine and\npressing needs through their own initiative? The traditional Government\nexpresses its activity in keeping the streets clean and the district\nlighted and policed. It is only during the last quarter of a century\nthat the London County Council has erected decent houses, public\nbaths, and many other devices for the purer social life of the people.\nAmerican cities have gone no further, although they presumably started\nat workingmen\u2019s representation a hundred years ago, so completely were\nthe founders misled by the name of government, and the temptation to\nsubstitute the form of political democracy for real self-government\ndealing with advancing social ideals. Even now London has twenty-eight\nBorough Councils, in addition to the London County Council itself,\nfifteen hundred direct representatives of the people, as over against\nseventy in Chicago although the latter city has a population one-half\nas large. Paris has twenty Mayors, with corresponding machinery for\nlocal government, as over against the New York concentration in one\nhuge City Hall, too often corrupt.\n\nIn Germany, perhaps more than anywhere else, the government has\ncome to concern itself with the primitive essential needs of its\nworking-people. In their behalf, the Government has forced industry,\nin the person of the large manufacturers, to make an alliance with\nit. The manufacturers are taxed for accident insurance of workingmen,\nfor old-age pensions and sick benefits; and a project is being formed\nin which they shall bear the large share of insurance against\nnon-employment when it has been made clear that non-employment\nis the result of an economic crisis brought about through the\nmaladministration of finance.\n\nGermany proposes to regulate the maximum amount of rent which\nlandlords of certain types of houses may be permitted to require,\nquite as the usury laws limit the maximum amount of interest which\nmay be demanded. And yet industry in Germany has flourished, and\nthis control on behalf of the normal workingman as he faces life in\nhis daily vocation has apparently not checked its systematic growth,\nnor limited its place in the world\u2019s market. As a result of this\nconstant supervision of industry, the German police although a part of\na military government, are constantly employed in the regulation of\nsocial affairs; and in these branches of government it is remarked that\nthey are dropping their military tone and assuming toward the people\nthe attitude of helpers and protectors. The police force in Germany is\nthe lowest executive organ of the interior government and there are,\ntherefore, as many kinds of police departments as there are different\ndepartments in this interior government. They follow the Government\ninspectors of the forest, the railways, the fields and roads, to see\nthat their instructions are obeyed. In the Department of Public\nHealth it is the police officers who finally enforce instructions in\nregard to vaccination, meat inspection, sale of food-stuffs, and the\ntransportation of animals; in the department of factory inspection\nthe police not only enforce the provisions of the factory laws, but\nthey are responsible for the books in which the wages paid to minors\nare recorded; and it is from the police stations that the cards of\nthe Government insurance for working-people are issued. Any special\ninvestigation ordered by the legislature is, as a matter of course,\nundertaken by the police. These varied activities, of course, require\nmen of education and ability, and the very extension of function has\nbroken down the military ideal in the country where that ideal is most\nfirmly intrenched. But in a Republic founded upon a revulsion from\noppressive government we still keep the police close to their negative\nr\u00f4le of preserving order and arresting the criminal. The varied\nfunctions they perform in Germany would be impossible in America,\nbecause it would be hotly resented by the American business man who\nwill not brook any governmental interference in industrial affairs.\nThe inherited instinct that government is naturally oppressive, and\nthat its inroads must be checked, has made it a matter of principle and\npatriotism to keep the functions of government more restricted and\nmore military than has become true in military countries.\n\nAlmost every Sunday in the Italian quarter in which I live various\nmutual benefit societies march with fife and drum and with a brave\nshowing of banners, celebrating their achievement in having surrounded\nthemselves by at least a thin wall of protection against disaster,\nupon having set up their mutual good will against the day of\nmisfortune. These parades have all the emblems of patriotism; indeed,\nthe associations present the primitive core of patriotism, brothers\nstanding by each other against hostile forces from without. I assure\nyou that no Fourth of July celebration, no rejoicing over the birth\nof an heir to the Italian throne, equals in heartiness and sincerity\nthese simple celebrations. Again one longs to pour into the government\nof their adopted country all this affection and zeal, this real\npatriotism. A system of State insurance would be a very simple device\nand secure a large return.\n\nAre we in America retaining eighteenth-century traditions, while\nGermany is gradually evolving into a Government logically fitted to\ncope with the industrial situation of the twentieth century? Do we\nso fail to apprehend what democracy is, that we are really afraid to\nextend the functions of municipal administration? Have we lost that\nmost conservative of all beliefs--the belief in the average man, and\nthereby forfeited Aristotle\u2019s ideal of a city \u201cwhere men live a common\nlife for noble ends\u201d?\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n MILITARISM AND INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION\n\n\nAmerican cities have been slow to consider industrial questions as\ngermane to government, and the Federal authorities have persistently\ntreated the millions of immigrants who arrive every year upon a\npolitical theory and method adopted a century ago, because both of\nthem ignore the fact that the organization of industry has completed\na revolution during that period. The gigantic task of standardizing\nthe successive nations of immigrants throughout the country has fallen\nupon workmen because they alone cannot ignore the actual industrial\nsituation. To thousands of workmen the immigration problem is a\nquestion of holding a job against a constantly lowering standard of\nliving, and to withstand this stream of \u201craw labor\u201d means to them the\nmaintenance of industrial efficiency and of life itself. Workingmen\nare engaged in a desperate struggle to maintain a standard of wages\nagainst the constant arrival of unskilled immigrants at the rate of\nthree-quarters of a million a year, at the very period when the\nelaboration of machinery permits the largest use of unskilled men.\n\nIt may be owing to the fact that the workingman is brought into direct\ncontact with the situation as a desperate problem of a living wage\nagainst starvation; it may be that wisdom is at her old trick of\nresiding in the hearts of the simple, or that this new idealism, which\nis that of a reasonable life and labor, must, from the very nature of\nthings, proceed from those who labor; or possibly it may be because\namelioration arises whence it is so sorely needed; but certainly it is\ntrue, that, while the rest of the country talks of assimilation as if\nit were a huge digestive apparatus, the man with whom the immigrant\nhas come most sharply into competition, has been forced into fraternal\nrelations with him.\n\nCuriously enough, however, as soon as the immigrant situation is\nfrankly regarded as an industrial one, as these men must regard it,\nthe political aspects of the industrial situation is revealed in the\nfact that trade organizations which openly concern themselves with\nthe immigration problem on its industrial side, quickly take on the\nparaphernalia and machinery which have hitherto associated themselves\nonly with governmental life and control. The trades unions have worked\nout all over again local autonomy, with central councils and national\nrepresentative bodies and the use of the referendum vote; and they also\nexhibit many of the features of political corruption and manipulation.\n\nThe first real lesson in self-government to many immigrants has come\nthrough the organization of labor unions, and it could come in no\nother way, for the union alone has appealed to their necessities. One\nsees the first indication of an idealism arising out of these primal\nnecessities, and at moments one dares to hope that it may be sturdy\nenough and sufficiently founded upon experience to make some impression\nupon the tremendous immigration situation.\n\nThe movements embodying a new idealism have traditionally sought refuge\nwith those who are near to starvation. Although the spiritual struggle\nis associated with the solitary garret of the impassioned dreamer,\nit may be that the idealism fitted to our industrial democracy will\nbe evolved in crowded sewer ditches and in noisy factories. It may\nbe contended that this remarkable coming together of the workingman\nand the immigrant has been the result of an economic pressure, and is\nwithout merit or idealism, and that the trades union record on Chinese\nexclusion and negro discrimination has been damaging. Be that as it\nmay, this assimilation between the immigrant and the workingman has\nexhibited amazing strength, which may be illustrated from two careful\nstudies made in two different parts of the country.\n\nTo quote first from a study made from the University of Wisconsin\nof the stock yards strike which took place in Chicago in 1904[6]:\n\u201cPerhaps the fact of the greatest social significance is that this\nwas not merely a strike of skilled labor for the unskilled, but was\na strike of Americanized Irish, Germans, and Bohemians, in behalf of\nSlovaks, Poles, and Lithuanians.... This substitution of races in the\nstock yards has been a continuing process for twenty years. The older\nnationalities have already disappeared from the unskilled occupations,\nand the substitution of races has evidently run along the line of\nlower standard of living. The latest arrivals, the Lithuanians and\nSlovaks, are probably the most oppressed of the peasants of Europe.\u201d\nThe visitors who attended the crowded meetings of the strikers during\nthe summer of 1904 and heard the same address successively translated\nby interpreters into six or eight languages, who saw the respect\nshown to the most uncouth of the speakers by the skilled American men\nrepresenting a distinctly superior standard of life and thought, could\nnever doubt the power of the labor organizations for amalgamation,\nwhatever opinion they might hold concerning their other values. This\nmay be said in spite of the fact that great industrial disturbances\nhave arisen from the under-cutting of wages by the lowering of racial\nstandard. Certainly the most notable of these have taken place in those\nindustries and at those places in which the importation of immigrants\nhas been deliberately fostered as a wage-lowering weapon; and even in\nthose disturbances and under the shock and strain of a long strike,\ndisintegration did not come along the line of race cleavage.\n\nThe other study was made in the anthracite coal fields, and was\nundertaken from the University of Pennsylvania[7]: \u201cThe United\nMine Workers of America is taking men of a score of nationalities,\nEnglish-speaking and Slav, men of widely different creeds, languages,\nand customs, and of varying powers of industrial competition, and is\nwelding them into an industrial brotherhood, each part of which can\nat least understand of the others that they are working for one great\nand common end. This bond of unionism is stronger than one can readily\nimagine who has not seen its mysterious workings or who has not been\na victim of its members\u2019 newly found enthusiasm. It is to-day the\nstrongest tie that can bind together 147,000 mine workers and the\nthousands dependent upon them. It is more than religion, more than the\nsocial ties which hold together members of the same community.\u201d\n\nIt was during a remarkable struggle on the part of this amalgamation\nof men from all countries, that the United States government, in spite\nof itself, was driven to take a hand in an industrial situation,\nowing to the long strain and the intolerable suffering entailed upon\nthe whole country. Even then, however, the Government endeavored to\nconfine its investigation to the mere commercial questions of tonnage\nand freight rates with their political implications, and it was only\nwhen an aroused and moralized public opinion insisted upon it that\nthe national commission was driven to consider the human aspects of\nthe case. Because of this public opinion, columns of newspapers and\ndays of investigation were given to the discussion of the deeds of\nviolence, discussions having nothing to do with the original demands\nof the strikers and entering only into the value set upon human life\nby each of the contesting parties. Did the union encourage violence\nagainst non-union men, or did it really do everything to suppress\nviolence? Did it live up to its creed which was to maintain a standard\nof living that families might be properly housed and protected from\ndebilitating toil and disease, and that children might be nurtured into\nAmerican citizenship? Did the operators protect their men as far as\npossible from mine damp, from length of hours proven by experience to\nbe exhausting? Did they pay a wage to the mine laborer sufficient to\nallow him to send his children to school? Questions such as these, a\nstudy of the human problem, invaded the commission day after day during\nthe sitting. One felt for the moment the first wave of a rising tide\nof humanitarianism, until the normal ideals of the laborer to secure\nfood and shelter for his family, a security for his own old age, and\na larger opportunity for his children became the ideals of democratic\ngovernment.\n\nLet us imagine the result if, during the long anthracite strike, the\nhumane instinct had so over-mastered the minds of the strikers, and so\nexalted their passions that they had lifted a hand against no man, even\nthough he seemed to be endangering their cause before their eyes. Such\na result might have come about, partly because the destruction of life\nhad become abhorrent and impossible to them engaged as they were in\nthe endeavor to raise life in the coal regions to a higher level, and\npartly because they would have scorned to destroy an enemy in order\nto achieve a mere negative result when the power lay within themselves\nto convert him into an ally, when they might have made him a source\nof help and power, a comrade of the same undertaking. If the element\nof battle, of mere self-seeking, could be eliminated from strikes,\nif they could remain a sheer uprising of the oppressed and underpaid\nto a self-conscious recognition of their condition, so unified, so\nirresistible as to sweep all the needy within its flood, we should have\na tide rising, not to destruction, but to beneficence. Let us imagine\nthe state of public feeling if there had been absolutely no act of\nviolence traceable, directly or indirectly, to the union miners; if\nduring the long months of the strike the great body of miners could\nhave added the sanction of sustained conduct to their creed. Public\nsympathy would have led to an understanding of the need these miners\nwere trying to meet, and the American nation itself might have been\nready to ask for legislation concerning the minimum wage, and for\nprotection to life and limb, equal to the legislation of New Zealand\nor Germany. But because the element of warfare unhappily did exist,\ngovernment got back to its old business of repression.\n\nTo preserve law and order is obviously the function of government\neverywhere; and yet in our complicated modern society, especially as\nthousands of varied peoples are crowded into cities, it is not always\neasy to see just where real social order lies. The officials themselves\nare sometimes perplexed, and at other times deliberately use the\ndevices of government for their own ends. We may take once more in\nillustration the great strike in the Chicago stock-yards. The immediate\nobject of the strike was the protection of the wages of the unskilled\nmen from a cut of one cent per hour, although, of course, the unions\nof skilled men felt that this first invasion of the wages increased\nthrough the efforts of the union, would be but the entering wedge of an\nattempt to cut wages in all the trades represented in the stock-yards.\nOwing to the refusal on the part of the unions to accept arbitration\noffered by the packers at an embarrassing moment, and because of the\nfailure of the unions to carry out the terms of a contract, the strike\nin its early stages completely lost the sympathy of that large part of\nthe public dominated by ideals of business honor and fair dealing. It\nlost, too, the sympathy of that growing body of organized labor which\nis steadily advancing in a regard for the validity of the contract, and\nis faithfully cherishing the hope that in time the trades unions may\nuniversally attain an accredited business standing.\n\nThe leaders after the first ten days were, therefore, forced to\nmake the most of the purely human appeal which lay in the situation\nitself, that 30,000 men, including the allied trades, were losing\nweeks of wages, with a possible chance of the destruction of their\nunions on behalf of the unskilled who were the newly arrived Poles\nand Lithuanians, unable as yet to look out for themselves. Owing\nto the irregular and limited hours of work--a condition quite like\nthat prevailing on the London docks before the great strike of the\ndockers--the weekly wage of these unskilled men was exceptionally low,\nand the plea of the strikers was based upon the duty of the strong\nto the weak. A chivalric call was issued that the standard of life\nmight be raised to that designated as American, and that this mass of\nunskilled men might secure an education for their children. Of course\nno appeal could have been so strong as this purely human one which\nunited for weeks thousands of men of a score of nationalities into that\nsolidarity which only comes through a self-sacrificing devotion to an\nabsorbing cause.\n\nThe strike involved much suffering and many unforeseen complications.\nAt the end of eight weeks the union leaders made the best terms\npossible. Through these terms the skilled workers were guaranteed\nagainst a reduction in wages, but no provision was made for the\nunskilled in whose behalf the strike had at first been undertaken.\nAlthough the hard-pressed leaders were willing to make this concession,\nthe politicians in the meanwhile had seen the great value of the human\nsentiment which bases its appeal on the need of the under dog and which\nhad successfully united this mass of workingmen into a new comradeship\nwith the immigrants. The appeal was infinitely more valuable than any\nmerely political cry, and the fact that the final terms of settlement\nwere submitted to a referendum vote at once gave the local politicians\na chance to avail themselves of this big, loosely defined sympathy.\nThey did avail themselves of this in so dramatic a manner that they\nalmost succeeded, solely upon that appeal, in taking the strike out of\nthe hands of the legitimate officers and placing it in their own hands\nfor their own political ends.\n\nThe situation was a typical one, exemplifying the real aim of popular\ngovernment with its concern for primitive needs, forced to seek\nexpression outside of the organized channels of government. If the\nmilitia could have been called in, government would have been placed\neven more dramatically in the position of the oppressor of popular\nself-government. The phenomenal good order, the comparative lack of\nviolence on the part of the striking workmen, gave no chance for the\nbringing in of the militia. The city politician was of course very much\ndisappointed, for it would have afforded him an opening to put the\nodium of this traditional opposition of government, an opposition which\nhas always been most dramatically embodied in the soldier, upon the\npolitical party dominating the State but not the city. It would have\ngiven the city politician an excellent opportunity to show the concern\nof himself and his party for the real people, as over against the\nattitude of the party dominating the State. But because the militia was\nnot called, his scheme failed, and the legitimate strike leaders who,\nalthough they passed through much tribulation because of this political\ninterference, did not eventually lose control.\n\nThe situation in the Chicago stock-yards also afforded an excellent\nepitome of the fact that government so often finds itself, not only in\nopposition to the expressed will of the people making the demand at the\nmoment, but apparently against the best instincts of the mass of the\ncitizens as a whole.\n\nFor years the city administration had so protected the property\ninterests invested in the stock-yards, that none of the sanitary\nordinances had ever been properly enforced. The sickening stench and\nthe scum on the branch of the river known as Bubbly Creek at times\nmade that section of the city unendurable. The smoke ordinances were\nopenly ignored, nor did the meat inspector ever seriously interfere\nwith business, being quite willing to have meat sold in Chicago which\nhad not passed the inspection for foreign markets. The water steals,\ntoo, for which the stock-yards were at one time notorious, must have\nbeen more or less known to certain officials. But all this merely\ncorrupted a limited number of inspectors, and although their corruption\nwas complete and involved entire administrations, it did not actually\ntouch large numbers of persons. During the strike of 1904, however,\n1,200 policemen, actual men possessed of human sensibilities, were\ncalled upon to patrol the yards inside and out. There is no doubt\nthat the police inspector of the district thoroughly represented the\nalliance of the City Hall with the business interests, that he did\nnot mean to discover anything which was derogatory to the packers nor\nto embarrass them in any way during the conduct of the strike. Had\nthese 1,200 men, more than a regiment in numbers, been a regiment in\ntraining and tradition, they, too, would have seen nothing, and would\nhave been content at heart, as they were obliged to be in conduct, to\nhave arrested the strikers on the slightest provocation, and to have\nprotected the strike-breakers.\n\nBut they were, in point of fact, called upon to face a very peculiar\nsituation, because of the type of men and women who formed the bulk\nof the strike-breakers, and because, during the first weeks of the\nstrike, these men and women were kept constantly inside the yards,\nday and night. In order to hold them at all, discipline outside of\nworking hours was thoroughly relaxed, and the policemen in charge\nof the yards, while there ostensibly to enforce law and order, were\nobliged every night to connive at prize-fighting, at open gambling, and\nat prostitution. They were there, not to enforce law and order as it\ndefines itself in the minds of the bulk of healthy-minded citizens, but\nonly to keep the strikers from molesting the non-union workers. This\nwas certainly commendable, but, after all, only part of their real duty.\n\nBecause they were normal men living in the midst of normal life and\nnot in barracks, they were shocked by the law-breaking which they were\nordered to protect, and much drawn in sympathy to the strikers whom\nthey were supposed to regard as public enemies. An investigator who\ninterviewed one hundred policemen found only one who did not frankly\nextol the virtues of the strikers as over against the shocking vices of\nthe imported men. This, of course, was an extreme case brought about by\nthe unusual and peculiar type of the imported strike-breakers. There\nis, however, trustworthy evidence incorporated in affidavits which were\nat the time submitted to the Mayor of Chicago, concerning the unlawful\nconduct of the men who were under the protection of the city police.\n\nIt was hard for a patriot not to feel jealous of the union and of the\nenthusiasm of those newly emigrated citizens. They poured out their\ngratitude and affection upon this first big friendly force which had\noffered them help in their desperate struggle in the New World. This\ndevotion, this comradeship, and this fine _esprit de corps_ should have\nbeen won by the Government itself from these newly arrived, scared,\nand untrained citizens. The union was that which had concerned itself\nwith the real struggle for life, shelter, a chance to work, and bread\nfor their children. It had come to them in a language they could\nunderstand, through men with interests akin to their own, and it gave\nthem both their first chance to express themselves through a democratic\nvote, and an opportunity to register by a ballot their real opinion\nupon a very important matter.\n\nThey used the referendum votes, the latest and perhaps the most clever\ndevice of democratic government, and yet they used it to decide a\nquestion which the government supposed to be quite outside its realm.\nWhen they left the old country, the government of America held their\ndeepest hopes, and represented that which they believed would obtain\nfor them the fullness of life denied them in the lands of oppressive\ngovernments. It is a curious commentary on the fact that we have not\nyet attained self-government when the real and legitimate objects of\nmen\u2019s desires must still be incorporated in those voluntary groups for\nwhich the government, when it does its best, can only afford protection\nfrom interference. As the religious revivalist looks with longing upon\nthe fervor of a single-tax meeting, as the orthodox Jew sees his son\nstay away from Yom Kippur service in order to pour all his religious\nfervor, his precious zeal for righteousness which has been gathered\nthrough the centuries, into the Socialist Labor Party--so a patriot\nfinds himself exclaiming to the immigrant, like another Andrea del\nSarto to his wife, \u201cOh, but what do they--what do they to please you\nmore?\u201d\n\nThe stock-yards strike afforded an example of the national appeal\nsubordinated to an appeal made in the name of labor. During the early\nstages of the strike it was discovered that newly arrived Macedonians\nwere taking many of the places vacated by the strikers. One of the\nmost touching scenes during the strike was the groups of Macedonians\nwho would sit together in the twilight playing on primitive pipes\nsingularly like the one which is associated with the great god Pan. The\nslender song would carry amazingly in the smoke-bedimmed air, affecting\nthe spectator with a curious sense of incongruity.\n\nWhen the organized labor of Chicago discovered that the strikers\u2019\nplaces were taken by Greeks, the unions threatened, unless the Greeks\nwere \u201ccalled off,\u201d to boycott the Greek fruit-dealers all over the\ncity, who with their street stands are singularly dependent upon\nthe patronage of workingmen. The fact that the strike-breakers were\nMacedonians, as it happened, was an additional advantage at the\nmoment; for the Greeks have been much concerned to make it clear that\nMacedonia belongs to Greece, and have hotly resented the efforts of\nBulgaria to establish a protectorate over the country. They therefore\nresponded at once to this acknowledgment of their claim, and, partly to\nshow that the Macedonians and Greeks were countrymen, partly because\nthey resented the implication that a Greek could act a cowardly part\nin any situation, and also, doubtless, because they were merchants\nthreatened with loss of trade, they made superhuman efforts to clear\nthe yards of Macedonians. This they accomplished in a remarkably short\ntime. So reckless were they in the methods they used that it was\ncommon gossip throughout the Greek colony that strike-breakers would\nbe refused the comforts of religion by the Greek priests in the city,\nalthough doubtless this rumor was unfounded. This utter recklessness\nof method, this determination to deter strike-breaking at any cost,\nis, of course, a revelation of the war element which is an essential\npart of any strike. The appeal to \u201cloyalty\u201d is the nearest approach to\na moral appeal which can be safely made in the midst of a war of any\nsort. During a long strike one result of the non-moral appeal is to\nconfuse the situation so that it becomes utterly impossible to tell how\nmany men refuse to become strike-breakers because they are terrorized\nand how many stay away from conviction. The non-moral appeal not only\nsins against the principles advocated by trades unionists, but it\ncontradicts itself and brings great confusion into the situation, as\nwar ideals always do when thrust into a peaceful society. It was, for\ninstance, quite impossible to tell whether the lowering in the type\nof man who was willing to take a striker\u2019s place, so that at last\nonly very ignorant men from the southern plantations could be induced\nto work, was due to a species of class consciousness, a response to\nthe demand felt so strongly by labor men--\u201cThou shalt not take thy\nneighbor\u2019s job\u201d--or whether workingmen are becoming so afraid to take\nstriker\u2019s places that these places must at last be given to men who\nhave come from such remote parts of the country that \u201cthey do not know\nenough to be afraid.\u201d The unions themselves could take no accounting of\ntheir real strength because of the terrorism which had become thrust\ninto the situation. And yet all that the stock-yards workers were\ndemanding through this long and disastrous strike, was the minimum\nwage which has been guaranteed by conservative governments elsewhere,\nand is recognized even in the United States in much governmental work\nunder the contracts of civil or Federal authorities. So timid are\nAmerican cities, however, in dealing with this perfectly reasonable\nsubject of wages in its relation to municipal employees, that when they\ndo prescribe a minimum wage for city contract work, they allow it to\nfall into the hands of the petty politician and to become part of a\npolitical game, making no effort to give it a dignified treatment in\nrelation to the cost of living and to the margin of leisure. In this\nthe English cities have anticipated us, both as to time and legitimate\nprocedure. Have Americans formed a sort of \u201cimperialism of virtue,\u201d\nholding on to preconceived ideals of government and insisting that\nthey must fit all the people who come to our shores, even though they\ncrush the most promising bits of self-expression in the process? Is the\nAmerican attitude toward self-government like that of the Anglo-Saxon\ntowards civilization, save that he goes forth to rule all the nations\nof the earth by one pattern, while we remain at home and bid them to\nrule themselves by one pattern? We firmly decline not only to consider\nmatters of industry and commerce as germane to government, but we also\ndecline to bring men together upon that most natural and inevitable of\nall foundations, their industrial needs.\n\nThe government which refuses to consider matters of this sort, or at\nleast waits until their neglect becomes a scandal before it consents to\ndeal with them, as a result of this caution forces the most patriotic\ncitizens to ignore the Government and to embody their scruples and\nhopes of progress in voluntary organizations. To be afraid to extend\nthe functions of government may be to lose what we have. A government\nhas always received feeble support from its constituents as soon as\nits demands appeared childish or remote. Citizens inevitably neglect\nor abandon civic duty, when their government no longer embodies their\ngenuine desires. It is useless to hypnotize ourselves by unreal talk of\ncolonial ideas, and of our patriotic duty towards immigrants as though\nthe situation was one demanding the passage of a set of resolutions\nwhen we fail to realize that the nation can be saved only by patriots\nwho are possessed of a contemporaneous knowledge.\n\nAs industrial relations imply peaceful relations, under a certain\nrough reorganization and reconstruction of governmental functions\nwhich the association of labor presents, it is inevitable that in\nits international aspects the association should formally advocate\nuniversal peace. Workmen have always realized, however feebly and\nvaguely they may have expressed it, that it is they who in all ages\nhave borne the heaviest burden of privation and suffering imposed on\nthe world by the military spirit.\n\nThe first international organization founded, not to promote a\ncolorless peace, but to advance and develop the common life of all\nnations, was founded in London in 1864 by workingmen, and was called\nsimply \u201cThe International Association of Workingmen.\u201d They recognized\nthat a supreme interest raised all workingmen above the prejudice of\nrace, and united them by wider and deeper principles than those by\nwhich they were separated into nations. They hoped that as religion,\nscience, art, had become international, so now at last labor might take\nits place as an international interest. A few years later, at its third\ncongress in Brussels they recommended that in case of war a universal\nstrike be declared.\n\nThere is a growing conviction among workingmen of all countries\nthat, whatever may be accomplished by a national war, however moral\nthe supposed aim of such a war, there is one inevitable result--an\nincreased standing army, the soldiers of which are non-producers, and\nmust be fed by the workers.\n\nThe surprising growth of Socialism, at the moment, is due largely to\nthe fact that it is the only political party upon an international\nbasis, and also that it frankly ventures its future upon a better\nindustrial organization. These two aspects have had much more to do\nwith its hold in industrial neighborhoods than have its philosophic\ntenets or the impassioned appeal of its propagandists. The Socialists\nare making almost the sole attempt to preach a morality sufficiently\nall-embracing and international to keep pace with even that material\ninternationalism which has standarized the threads of screws and the\nsize of bolts, so that machines may become interchangeable from one\ncountry to another. It is the same sort of internationalism which\nMazzini preached when distracted Italy was making her desperate\nstruggle for a unified and national life. He issued his remarkable\naddress to her workingmen and solemnly told them that the life of the\nnation could not be made secure until her patriots were ready to die\nfor human issues. He saw, earlier than most men, that the desire to\nbe at unity with all human beings, to claim the sense of a universal\naffection is a force not to be ignored. He believed that it might\neven then be strong enough to devour the flimsy stuff called national\nhonor, glory, and prestige, which incite to war and induce workingmen\nto trample over each other\u2019s fields and to destroy the results of each\nother\u2019s labor.\n\nWorkingmen dream of an industrialism which shall be the handmaid of\na commerce ministering to an increased power of consumption among\nthe producers of the world, binding them together in a genuine\ninternationalism. Existing commerce has long ago reached its\ninternational stage, but it has been the result of business aggression\nand constantly appeals for military defense and for the forcing of new\nmarkets. In so far as commerce has rested upon the successful capture\nof the resources of the workers, it has been a relic of the mediaeval\nbaron issuing forth to seize the merchants\u2019 boats as they passed his\ncastle on the Rhine. It has logically lent itself to warfare, and is,\nindeed, the modern representative of conquest. As its prototype rested\nupon slavery and vassalage, so this commerce is founded upon a contempt\nfor the worker and believes that he can live on low wages. It assumes\nthat his legitimate wants are the animal ones comprising merely food\nand shelter and the cost of replacement. The industrialism of which\nthis commerce is a part, exhibits this same contemptuous attitude, but\nit is more easily extended to immigrants than to any other sort of\nworkmen because they seem further away from a common standard of life.\nThis attitude toward the immigrant simply illustrates once more that it\nis around the deeply significant idea of the standard of life that our\nindustrial problems of to-day centre. The desire for a higher standard\nof living in reality forms the base of all the forward movements of\nthe working class. \u201cThe significance of the standard of life lies not\nso much in the fact that for each of us it is different, as that for\nall of us it is progressive,\u201d[8] constantly invading new realms. To\nimagine that for immigrants it is merely a question of tin cups and\nplates stored in a bunk _versus_ a white cloth and a cottage table,\nand that all goes well if sewing-machines and cottage-organs reach\nthe first generation of immigrants, and fashionable dressmakers and\npianos the second, is of course a most untutored interpretation. Until\nthe standard of life is apprehended in its real significance and made\nthe crux of the immigrant situation, as recent economists are making\nthe power of consumption the test of a nation\u2019s prosperity, we shall\ncontinue to ignore the most obvious and natural basis for understanding\nand mutual citizenship.\n\nBecause workmen have been forced to consider this standard of living\nin regard to immigrants as well as themselves, they have made genuine\nefforts toward amalgamation. This is perhaps easily explained, for,\nafter all, the man in this country who realizes human equality is not\nhe who repeats the formula of the eighteenth century, but he who has\nlearned that the \u201cidea of equality is an outgrowth of man\u2019s primary\nrelations with nature. Birth, growth, nutrition, reproduction, death,\nare the great levelers that remind us of the essential equality of\nhuman life. It is with the guarantee of equal opportunities to play\nour parts well in these primary processes that government is chiefly\nconcerned\u201d[9] and not merely with the repression of the vicious, nor\nwith guarding the rights of property. All that devotion of the trades\nunion for the real issues and trials of life could, of course, easily\nbe turned into a passion for self-government and for the development\nof the national life if we were really democratic from the modern\nevolutionary standpoint, and held our town-meetings upon the topics of\nvital concern.\n\nSo long, however, as the Government declines to concern itself with\nthese deeper issues involved in the standard of life and the industrial\nstatus of thousands of its citizens, we must lose it.\n\nIf progress were inaugurated by those members of the community who\npossess the widest knowledge and superior moral insight, then social\namelioration might be brought about without the bungling and mistakes\nwhich so distress us all. But, over and over again, salutary changes\nare projected and carried through by men of even less than the average\nethical development, because their positions in life have brought them\nin contact with the ills of existing arrangements. To quote from John\nMorley: \u201cIn matters of social improvement, the most common reason\nwhy one hits upon a point of progress and not another, is that one\nhappens to be more directly touched than the other by the unimproved\npractice.\u201d[10] Perhaps this is a sufficient explanation of the fact\nthat untrained workmen are entrusted with the difficult task of\nindustrial amelioration and adjustment, while the rest of the community\noften seems ignorant of the truth that institutions which do not march\nwith the extension of human needs and relationships are dead, and may\neasily become a deterrent to social progress. Unless we subordinate\nclass interests and class feeling to a broader conception of social\nprogress, unless we take pains to come in contact with the surging and\ndiverse peoples who make up the nation, we cannot hope to attain a sane\nsocial development. We need rigid enforcement of the existing laws,\nwhile at the same time, we frankly admit the inadequacy of these laws,\nand work without stint for progressive regulations better fitted to\nthe newer issues among which our lot is cast; for, unless the growing\nconscience is successfully embodied in legal enactment, men lose the\nhabit of turning to the law for guidance and redress.\n\nI recall, in illustration of this, an instance which took place fifteen\nyears ago. I had newly come to Chicago, fresh from the country, and had\nlittle idea of the social and industrial conditions in which I found\nmyself on Halsted Street, when a dozen girls came from a neighboring\nfactory with a grievance in regard to their wages. The affair could\nhardly have been called a labor difficulty. The girls had never heard\nof a trades union, and were totally unaccustomed to acting together.\nIt was more in the nature of a \u201cscrap\u201d between themselves and their\nforeman. In the effort toward adjustment, there remains vividly in my\nmemory a conversation I had with a leading judge who arbitrated the\ndifficulty. He expressed his belief in the capacity of the common law\nto meet all legitimate labor difficulties as they arise. He trusted\nits remarkable adaptability to changing conditions under the decisions\nof wise and progressive judges. He contended, however, that, in order\nto adjust it to our industrial affairs, it must be interpreted, not so\nmuch in relation to precedents established under a judicial order which\nbelongs to the past, but in reference to that newer sense of justice\nwhich this generation is seeking to embody in industrial relations. He\nforesaw something of the stress and storm of the industrial conflicts\nwhich have occurred in Chicago since then, and he expressed the hope\nthat the Bench of Cook County might seize the opportunity, in this\nnew and difficult situation, of dealing with labor difficulties in a\njudicial spirit.\n\nWhat a difference it would have made in the history of Chicago during\nthe last fifteen years if more men had been possessed of this temper\nand wisdom, and had refused to countenance the use of force. If more\nmen had been able to see the situation through a fresher medium; to\napprehend that the old legal enactments were too individualistic and\nnarrow; that a difference in degree may make a difference in kind;\nif they had realized that they were the first generation of American\njurists who had to deal with a situation made novel by the fact that\nit was brought about by the coming together of two millions of people\nlargely on an industrial basis!\n\nOur constitutions were constructed by the advanced men of the\neighteenth century, who had studied the works of the most radical\nthinkers of that century. Radicalism then meant a more democratic\npolitical organization, and in its defence, they fearlessly quoted the\nGreek city and the Roman Forum. But we have come to admit that our\npresent difficulties are connected with our industrial organization\nand with the lack of connection between that organization and our\ninherited democratic form of government. If self-government were\nto be inaugurated by the advanced men of the present moment, they\nwould make a most careful research into those early organizations of\nvillage communities, folk-motes, and mirs, those primary cells of\nboth industrial and political organizations, where the people knew\nno difference between the two, but, quite simply, met to consider in\ncommon discussion all that concerned their common life. They would\ninvestigate the crafts, guilds, and artels, which combine government\nwith daily occupations, as did the self-governing university and free\ntown. They would seek for the connection between the liberty-loving\nmediaeval city and its free creative architecture, that art which\ncombines the greatest variety of artists and artisans. They would\nnot altogether ignore the \u201ccompulsion of origins\u201d and the fact that\nour present civilization is most emphatically an industrial one. In\nGermany, when the Social Democratic party first vigorously asserted the\neconomic basis of society and laid the emphasis upon its industrial\naspect, the Government itself, in a series of legislative measures,\ndesignated \u201cthe Socialism of Bismarck,\u201d found itself dealing directly\nwith industry, through a sheer effort to give itself a touch of\nreality. The Government of Russia, in the first year of the Japanese\nWar, made an effort to relieve the needs of the people. The bureaucracy\nitself organized the workmen into a species of trades unions through\nwhich the Russian Government promised to protect the proletarian from\nthe aggressions of capital. The entire incident was suggestive of the\nprotection afforded by the central State to the slowly emancipated\nserfs of central Europe when the barons, reluctant to give up their\nrights and privileges, so unjustly oppressed them.\n\nShall a democracy be slower than these old Powers to protect its\nhumblest citizen, and shall it see them slowly deteriorating because,\naccording to democratic theory, they do not need protection?\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[6] Trade Unionism and Labor Problems, by John R. Commons, page 248.\n\n[7] \u201cThe Slav Invasion,\u201d by F. J. Warne, pages 118, 119.\n\n[8] The Standard of Life, by Mrs. Bernard Bosanquet, page 4.\n\n[9] The American City. Delos F. Wilcox, page 200.\n\n[10] Compromise, John Morley, page 213.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n GROUP MORALITY IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT\n\n\nThis generation is constantly confronted by radical industrial changes,\nfrom which the community as a whole profits, but which must inevitably\nbring difficulty of adjustment and disaster to men of certain trades.\nIn all fairness, these difficulties should be distributed and should\nnot be allowed to fall completely upon the group of working-people\nwhose labor is displaced as a result of the changes and who are obliged\nto learn anew their method of work and mode of life.\n\nIf the great industrial changes could be considered as belonging\nto the community as a whole and could be reasonably dealt with,\nthe situation would then be difficult enough, but it is enormously\ncomplicated by the fact that society has become divided into camps in\nrelation to the industrial system and that many times the factions\nbreak out into active hostility. These two camps inevitably develop\ngroup morality--the employers tending toward the legal and contractual\ndevelopment of morality, the workingmen toward the sympathetic\nand human. Among our contemporaries, these two are typified by the\nemployers associations and the trades unions.\n\nIt is always difficult to judge a contemporaneous movement with any\ndegree of fairness, and it is perennially perplexing to distinguish\nwhat is merely adventitious and temporary from that which represents\nessential and permanent tendencies. This discrimination is made much\nmore difficult when a movement exhibits various stages of development\ncontemporaneously, when a dozen historic phases are going on at the\nsame time. Yet every historic movement towards democracy, which\nconstantly gathers to itself large bodies of raw recruits while the\nolder groups are moving on, presents this peculiar difficulty. In the\ncase of trades unions, certain groups are marked by lawlessness and\ndisorder, others by most decorous business methods, and still others\nare fairly decadent in their desire for monopolistic control. It is a\nlong cry from the Chartists of 1839, burning hayricks, to John Burns of\n1902, pleading in the House of Commons with well-reasoned eloquence for\nan extension of the workingmen\u2019s franchise. Nevertheless they are both\nmanifestations of the same movement towards universal suffrage and show\nno greater difference than that between the Chicago teamsters, who\nwere blocking commerce and almost barricading the streets in 1902 when\nat the same moment John Mitchell made his well-considered statement\nthat he would rather lose the coal strike, with all that that loss\nimplied, than gain it at the cost of violence. Students of industrial\nhistory will point out the sequence and development of the political\nmovement from the Chartist to the Independent Labor party. They will\ntell us that the same desire burned in the hearts of the ignorant\nfarmers which fired the distinguished parliamentarian, but they give\nno help to our bewildered minds when we would fain discover some order\nand sequence between the widely separated events of the contemporaneous\nlabor movement.\n\nWe must first get down to the question, In what does \u201cthe inevitably\ndestined rise of the men of labor\u201d consist? What are we trying to\nsolve in this \u201cmost hazardous problem of the age\u201d? Is progress in the\nlabor movement to come, as we are told progress comes in the non-moral\nworld, by the blind, brute struggle of individual interests; or is it\nto come, as its earlier leaders believed, through the operation of the\nhuman will? Is it a question of morals which must depend upon educators\nand apostles; or is it merely a conflict of opposing rights which may\nlegitimately use coercion? The question, from the very nature of the\ncase, is confusing; for, of necessity, the labor movement has perfectly\nlegitimate economic and business aspects, which loom large and easily\novershadow the ethical. We would all agree that only when men have\neducation, a margin of leisure, and a decent home can they find room to\ndevelop the moral life. Before that, there are too many chances that\nit will be crushed out by ignorance, by grinding weariness, and by\nindecency. But the danger lies in the conviction that these advantages\nare to be secured by any means, moral or non-moral, and in holding them\nparamount to the inner life which they are supposed to nourish. The\nlabor movement is confronted by that inevitable problem which confronts\nevery movement and every individual. How far shall the compromise be\nmade between the inner concept and the outer act? How may we concede\nwhat it is necessary to concede, without conceding all?\n\nWe constantly forget that, in the last analysis, the spiritual growth\nof one social group is conditioned by the reaction of other social\ngroups upon it. We ignore the fact that the worship of success, so long\ndominant in America, has taught the majority of our citizens to count\nonly accomplishment and to make little inquiry concerning methods.\nSuccess has become the sole standard in regard to business enterprises\nand political parties, but it is evident that the public intends to\ncall a halt before it is willing to apply the same standard to labor\norganizations.\n\nIt is clear that the present moment is one of unusual crisis--that many\nof the trades unions of America have reached a transitional period,\nwhen they can no longer be mere propagandists, but are called upon to\ndeal with concrete and difficult situations. When they were small and\npersecuted, they held to the faith and its implication of idealism. As\nthey become larger and more powerful, they make terms with the life\nabout them, and compromise as best they may with actual conditions.\n\nThe older unions, which have reached the second stage that may be\ndescribed as that of business dealing, are constantly hampered and\nharassed by the actions of the younger unions which are still in the\nenthusiastic stage. This embarrassment is especially notable just\nnow, for, during this last period of prosperity, trades unions have\nincreased enormously in numbers; the State Federation of Minnesota,\nfor instance, reported an increase of six hundred per cent. in one\nyear. Nearly all the well-established unions have been flooded by new\nmembers who are not yet assimilated and disciplined.\n\nDuring this period of extraordinary growth, the labor movement has\nnaturally attracted to itself hundreds of organizations which are yet\nin their infancy and exhibit all the weakness of \u201cgroup morality.\u201d This\ndoubtless tends to a conception of moral life which is as primitive as\nthat which controlled the beginnings of patriotism, when the members\nof the newly conscious nation considered all those who were outside\nas possible oppressors and enemies, and were loyal only towards those\nwhom their imagination included as belonging to the national life. They\ngave much, and demanded much, in the name of blood brothers, but were\nmerciless to the rest of the world. In addition to its belligerent\nyouth and its primitive morality, the newer union is prone to declare\na strike, simply because the members have long suffered what they\nconsider to be grievances, and the accumulated sense of unredressed\nwrong makes them eager for a chance to \u201cfight for their rights.\u201d At\nthe same time, the employer always attempts his most vigorous attack\nupon a new union, both because he does not wish organized labor to\nobtain a foothold in his factory, and because his chances for success\nare greater before his employees are well disciplined in unionism.\nNevertheless in actual conflict a young union will often make a more\nreckless fight than an older one, like the rough rider in contrast\nwith the disciplined soldier. The members of a newly organized group\nnaturally respond first to a sense of loyalty to each other as against\ntheir employers, and then to the wider consciousness of organized\nlabor as against capital. This stage of trades unionism is full of\nwar phraseology, with its \u201cpickets\u201d and \u201cbattle-grounds,\u201d and is\nresponsible for the most serious mistakes of the movement.\n\nThe sense of group loyalty holds trades unionists longer than is normal\nto other groups, doubtless because of the constant accessions of those\nwho are newly conscious of its claims.\n\nThose Chicago strikes, which, during the last few years, have\nbeen most notably characterized by disorder and the necessity for\npolice interference, have almost universally been inaugurated by\nthe newly organized unions. They have called to their aid the older\norganizations, and the latter have entered into the struggle many times\nunder protest and most obviously against their best interests.\n\nThe Chicago Federation of Labor has often given its official\nindorsement to hot-headed strikes on the part of \u201cbaby unions\u201d because\nthe delegates from the newly organized or freshly recruited unions had\nthe larger vote, and the appeal to loyalty and to fraternity carried\nthe meeting against the judgment of the delegates from the older unions.\n\nThe members of newly organized unions more readily respond to the\nappeal to strike, in that it stirs memory of their \u201corganization\nnight,\u201d when they were admitted after solemn ceremonies into the\nAmerican Federation of Labor. At the same time, the organizers\nthemselves often hold out too large promises, on the sordid side, of\nwhat organization will be able to accomplish. They tell the newly\ninitiated what other unions have done, without telling at the same time\nhow long they have been organized and how steadily they have paid dues.\nSeveral years ago, when there seemed to be a veritable \u201cstrike fever\u201d\nin Chicago among the younger trades unions, it was suggested in the\nFederation of Labor that no union be authorized to declare a strike\nuntil it had been organized for at least two years. The regulation\nwas backed by some of the strongest and wisest trades unionists,\nbut it failed to pass because the organizers were convinced that it\nwould cripple them in forming new unions. They would be obliged to\npoint to many months of patient payment of dues and humdrum meetings\nbefore any real gain could be secured. The organizers, in fact, are\nin the position of a recruiting officer who is obliged to tell his\nraw material of all the glories of war, but at the same time bid them\nremember that warfare is always inexpedient. He must advise them to\ntake a long and tedious training in the arts of diplomacy and in the\nmost advanced methods of averting war before any action can possibly be\nconsidered.\n\nIn point of fact the organizers do not do this, and many men join\nunions expecting that a strike will be speedily declared which will\nsettle all the difficulties of modern industrialism. It is, therefore,\nnot so remarkable that strikes should occur often and should exhibit\nwarlike features. What is remarkable is the attitude of the public\nwhich has certainly eliminated the tactics of war in other civil\nrelations.\n\nA tacit admission that a strike is war and that all the methods of\nwarfare are permissible was made in Chicago during the teamsters\u2019\nstrike of 1905, when there was little protest against the war method\nof conducting a struggle between two private organizations, one of\nemployer and one of employed. Why should the principles of legal\nadjustment have been thus complacently flung to the winds by the two\nmillions of citizens who had no direct interest in this struggle, but\nwhose pursuits in business were interfered with, whose safety on the\nstreets was imperiled, and whose moral sensibilities were outraged?\n\nHow did the public become hypnotized into a passive endurance of a\nstreet warfare in which two associations were engaged, like feudal\nchiefs with their recalcitrant retainers? In those similar cases, when\nblood grew too hot on both sides, the mediaeval emperor intervened and\ncompelled peace. General public opinion is our hard-won substitute for\nthe emperor\u2019s personal will. Public opinion, however, did not assert\nitself and interfere--on the contrary, the entire town acquiesced in\nthe statement of the contestants that this method of warfare was the\nonly one possible, and thereupon yielded to a tendency to overvalue\nphysical force and to ignore the subtler and less obvious conditions on\nwhich the public welfare rests. At that time all methods of arbitration\nand legal redress were completely set aside.\n\nThere is no doubt but that ideas and words which at one time fill a\ncommunity with enthusiasm may, after a few years, cease to be a moving\nforce, apparently from no other reason than that they are spent and\nno longer fit into the temper of the hour. Such a fate has evidently\nbefallen the word \u201carbitration,\u201d at least in Chicago, as it is applied\nto industrial struggles. Almost immediately following the labor\ndisturbances of 1894 in Chicago, the agitation was begun for a State\nBoard of Arbitration, resulting in legislation and the appointment of\nthe Illinois Board. At that time the public believed that arbitration\nwould go far towards securing industrial peace, or at least that it\nwould provide the device through which labor troubles could be speedily\nadjusted, and during that period there was much talk concerning\ncompulsory arbitration with reference to the successful attempts in New\nZealand.\n\nDuring the industrial struggles of later years, however, not only\nare the services of the State Board rejected, but voluntary bodies\nconstantly find their efforts less satisfactory. Employers contend\nthat arbitration implies the yielding of points on both sides.\nSince, however, most boards of arbitration provide that grievances\nmust be submitted to them before the strike occurs, and the men are\nthus kept at work while the grievances are being considered, the men\ntherefore have virtually nothing to lose by declaring a strike. They\nare subjected to a temptation to constantly formulate new demands,\nbecause, without losing time or pay, they are almost certain to secure\nsome concession, however small, in their favor. The employers in the\nteamsters\u2019 strike thus explained their position when they declared\nthat there was nothing which could be submitted to arbitration. These\nemployers also contended that the ordinary court has no precedent\nfor dealing with questions of hours and wages, of shop rules, and\nmany other causes of trade-union disputes, because all these matters\nare new as questions of law and can be satisfactorily adjusted only\nthrough industrial courts in which tradition and precedent bearing\nupon modern industrial conditions have been accumulated. The rise and\nfall of wages affect not one firm only, but a national industry, and\neven the currents of international trade, so that it is impossible to\ntreat of them as matters in equity. With this explanation, the Chicago\npublic rested content during the long weeks of the teamsters\u2019 strike,\nfor no one pointed out that these arguments did not apply to this\nparticular situation, so accustomed have we grown in Chicago to warfare\nas a method of settling labor disputes. The charges of the Employers\u2019\nAssociation against the teamsters did not involve any points demanding\nadjustment through industrial courts. The charges the Employers\u2019\nAssociation made were those of broken contracts, of blackmail, and of\nconspiracy, all of them points which are constantly adjudicated in Cook\nCounty courts.\n\nIt was constantly asserted that officers of the Teamsters\u2019 Union\ndemanded money from employers in the height of the busy season in order\nto avert threatened strikes; that there was a disgraceful alliance\nbetween certain members of the Team Owners\u2019 Association and officers of\nthe Teamsters\u2019 Union.\n\nIt would, of course, have been impossible to prove blackmail and\nthe charges of \u201cgraft,\u201d unless the employers themselves or their\nrepresentatives had borne testimony, which would inevitably have\nimplicated themselves. During the first weeks of the strike, these\ncharges were freely made, definite sums were named, and dates were\ngiven. There was also an offer on the part of various managers to make\naffidavits, but later they shrank from the publicity, and refused to\ngive them, preferring apparently to throw the whole town into disorder\nrather than to \u201cstand up\u201d to the consequences of their own acts and to\nacknowledge the bribery to which they claim they were forced to resort.\nThey demonstrated once more that a show of manliness and an appeal to\narms may many times hide cowardice.\n\nTo throw affairs into a state of warfare is to put them where the moral\naspect will not be scrutinized and where the mere interest of the game\nand a desire to watch it will be paramount.\n\nThe vicious combination represented by certain men in the Team Owners\u2019\nAssociation and in the Teamsters\u2019 Union, \u201cthe labor and capital hunting\ntogether\u201d kind, is a public menace which can be abolished only by a\ncombined effort on the part of the best employers and the best labor\nmen. The \u201cbetter element\u201d certainly were in a majority, for the most\ndangerous members of this sinister combination were at last reduced\nto fifteen or twenty men. These very men, however, after a prolonged\nstrike, became either victors or martyrs, and in either case were\nfirmly established in power and influence for the succeeding two\nyears. Why should an entire city of two million people have been put\nto such an amazing amount of inconvenience and financial loss, with\ntheir characters brutalized as well, in order to accomplish this? The\ntraditional burning of the house in order to roast the pig is quite\noutdone by this overturning of a city in order to catch a \u201cscore of\nrascals,\u201d for in the end the rascals are not caught, and it is as if\nthe house were burned and the pig had escaped. Was it not the result\nof acting under military fervor? Over and over again it has been found\nthat organizations based upon a mutual sense of grievance or of outrage\nhave always been militant, for while men cannot be formed permanently\ninto associations whose chief bond is a sense of exasperation and\nwrong dealing, during the time they are thus held together they are\ncommitted to aggressive action.\n\nMoral rights and duties formed upon the relations of man to man are\napplicable to all situations, and to deny this applicability to a\ndifficult case, is to beg the entire question. The consequences do not\nstop there, for we all know that to deny the validity of the moral\nprinciple in one relation is to sap its strength in all relations.\n\nEmployers often resent being obliged to have business relations\nwith workingmen, although they no longer say that they will refuse\nto deal with them, as a woman still permits herself to say that she\n\u201cwill not argue with a servant.\u201d They nevertheless contend that the\nmen are unreasonable, and that because it is impossible to establish\ncontractual relations with them, they must be coerced. This contention\ngoes far toward legitimatizing terrorism. It therefore seems to them\ndefensible to refuse to go into the courts and to insist upon war\nbecause they do it from a consciousness of rectitude, although this\ninsensibly slips into a consciousness of power, as self-righteousness\nis so prone to do. But these are all the traits of militant youth,\nwhich in the teamsters\u2019 strike was indeed borne out by the facts in the\ncase.\n\nThe Employers\u2019 Association of Chicago was largely composed of merchants\nwhose experience with trades unionism was almost limited to the\nTeamsters\u2019 Union which has been in existence for only five years and,\nfrom the first, has been truculent and difficult. Had the employers\ninvolved been manufacturers instead of merchants, they would have had\nyears of experience with unions of skilled men, and they would have\nmore nearly learned to adjust their personal and business relations\nto trades unionism. When an entire class in a community confess that\nwithout an appeal to arms they cannot deal with trades unions, who,\nafter all, represent a national and international movement a hundred\nyears old, they practically admit that they cannot manage their\nbusiness under the existing conditions of modern life. To a very\ngreat extent it is a confession of weakness, to a very great extent a\nconfession of frailty of temper. To make the adjustment to the peculiar\nproblems of one\u2019s own surroundings is the crux of life\u2019s difficulties.\n\u201cNew organizations\u201d and \u201cnew experiments in living\u201d would not arise if\nthere were not a certain inadequateness in existing organizations and\nways of living. The new organizations and experiments may not point\nto the right mode of meeting the situation, but they do point to the\nexistence of inadequateness and the need of readjustment. Changes in\nbusiness methods have been multiform during the past fifteen years,\nand Chicago business men who have made those other adjustments would\ncertainly be able to deal with labor in its present organized form if\nthey were not inhibited by certain concepts of their \u201cgroup morality.\u201d\n\nIn the meantime the public, which has been powerless to interfere, can\nonly point to the consequences of grave social import which are sure to\nresult from a prolonged period of disturbance.\n\nFirst, there is the sharp division of the community into classes, with\nits inevitable hostility and misunderstanding. Capital lines up on one\nside, and labor on the other, until the \u201cfair-minded public\u201d disappears\nand Chicago loses her democratic spirit which has always been her most\nprecious possession. In its place is substituted loyalty to the side to\nwhich each man belongs, irrespective of the merits of the case--the \u201cmy\ncountry right or wrong\u201d sentiment which we call patriotism only in war\ntimes, the blind adherence by which a man is attached against his will,\nas it were, to the blunders of \u201chis own kind.\u201d\n\nDuring the first week of the strike, I talked with labor men who were\nwilling to admit that there were grounds for indictment against at\nleast two of the officers in the teamsters\u2019 locals. During the third\nweek of the strike all that was swept aside, and one heard only that\nthe situation must be taken quite by itself, with no references to\nthe first causes, that it was a strike of organized capital against\norganized labor, and that we could have no peace in Chicago until it\nwas \u201cfought to a finish.\u201d\n\nSecond, there is an enormous increase in the feeling of race animosity,\nbeginning with the imported negro strike-breakers, and easily extending\nto \u201cDagoes\u201d and all other distinct nationalities. The principle of\nracial and class equality is at the basis of American political life,\nand to wantonly destroy it is one of the gravest outrages against the\nRepublic.\n\nChicago is pre\u00ebminently a city of mixed nationalities. It is our\nproblem to learn to live together in forbearance and understanding\nand to fuse all the nations of men into the newest and, perhaps,\nthe highest type of citizenship. To accept this responsibility may\nconstitute our finest contribution to the problems of American life,\nbut we may also wantonly and easily throw away such an opportunity\nby the stirring up of race and national animosity which is so easily\naroused and so reluctantly subsides.\n\nThird, there is the spirit of materialism which controls the city and\nconfirms the belief that, after all, brute force, a trial of physical\nstrength, is all that counts and the only thing worthy of admiration.\nAny check on the moral consciousness is paralyzed when the belief\nis once established that success is its own justification. When the\nstream of this belief joins the current of class interest, the spirit\nof the prize fighters\u2019 ring which cheers the best round and worships\nthe winner, becomes paramount. It is exactly that which appeals to\nthe so-called \u201choodlum,\u201d and his sudden appearance upon the street\nat such times and in such surprising numbers demonstrates that he\nrealizes that he has come to his own. At the moment we all forget that\nthe determination to sacrifice all higher considerations to business\nefficiency, to make the machine move smoothly at any cost, \u201cto stick\nat nothing,\u201d may easily make a breach in the ethical constitution of\nsociety which can be made good only by years of painful reparation.\n\nFourth, there is the effect upon the children and the youth of the\nentire city, for the furrow of class prejudice, which is so easily run\nthrough a plastic mind, often leaves a life-long mark. Each morning\nduring the long weeks of the strike, thousands of children at the more\ncomfortable breakfast tables learned to regard labor unions as the\ninciters of riot and the instruments of evil, thousands of children\nat the less comfortable breakfast tables shared the impotent rage\nof their parents that \u201claw is always on the side of capital,\u201d and\nboth sets of children added to the horrors of Manchuria and Warsaw,\nwhich were then taking place, the pleasurable excitement that war\nhad become domesticated upon their own streets. We may well believe\nthat these impressions and emotions will be kept by these children\nas part of their equipment in life and that their moral conceptions\nwill permanently tend toward group moralities and will be cast into a\ncoarser mold.\n\nIn illustration of this point I may, perhaps, cite my experience during\nthe Spanish War.\n\nFor ten years I had lived in a neighborhood which is by no means\ncriminal, and yet during October and November of 1898 we were startled\nby seven murders within a radius of ten blocks. A little investigation\nof details and motives, the accident of a personal acquaintance with\ntwo of the criminals, made it not in the least difficult to trace\nthe murders back to the influence of the war. Simple people who\nread of carnage and bloodshed easily receive suggestions. Habits of\nself-control which have been but slowly and imperfectly acquired\nquickly break down when such a stress is put upon them.\n\nPsychologists intimate that action is determined by the selection\nof the subject upon which the attention is habitually fixed. The\nnewspapers, the theatrical posters, the street conversations for weeks,\nhad to do with war and bloodshed. Day after day, the little children on\nthe street played at war and at killing Spaniards. The humane instinct,\nwhich keeps in abeyance the tendency to cruelty, as well as the growing\nbelief that the life of each human being, however hopeless or degraded,\nis still sacred, gives way, and the more primitive instinct asserts\nitself.\n\nThere is much the same social result during a strike, in addition\nto the fact that the effect of the prolonged warfare upon the labor\nmovement itself is most disastrous. The unions at such times easily\nraise into power the unscrupulous \u201cleader,\u201d so-called. In times of\ntumult, the aggressive man, the one who is of bellicose temper, and\nis reckless in his statements, is the one who becomes a leader. It is\na vicious circle--the more warlike the times, the more reckless the\nleader who is demanded, and his reckless course prolongs the struggle.\nSuch men make their appeal to loyalty for the union, to hatred and to\ncontempt for the \u201cnon-union\u201d man. Mutual hate towards a non-unionist\nmay have in it the mere beginnings of fellowship, the protoplasm of\ntribal fealty, but no more. When it is carried over into civilized\nlife it becomes a social deterrent and an actual menace to social\nrelations.\n\nIn a sense it is fair to hold every institution responsible for the\ntype of man whom it tends to bring to the front, and the type of\norganization which clings to war methods must, of course, consider\nit nobler to yield to force than to justice. The earlier struggle of\ndemocracy was for its recognition as a possible form of government\nand the struggle is now on to prove democracy an efficient form of\ngovernment. So the earlier struggles of trades unions were for mere\nexistence, and the struggle has now passed into one for a recognition\nof contractual relations and collective bargaining which will make\ntrades unions an effective industrial instrument. It is much less\njustifiable of course in the later effort than it was in the earlier to\ncarry on the methods of primitive warfare.\n\nThis new effort, however, from the very nature of things, is bringing\nanother type of union man into office and is modifying the entire\nsituation. The old-time agitator is no longer useful and a cooler man\nis needed for collective bargaining. At the same time the employers\nmust put forth a more democratic and a more reasonable type of man if\nthey would bear their side of this new bargaining, so that it has come\nabout quite recently that the first attempts have been made in Chicago\ntowards controlling in the interests of business itself this natural\ntendency of group morality.\n\nIt may offer another example of business and commerce, affording us\na larger morality than that which the moralists themselves teach.\nCertain it is that the industrial problems engendered by the industrial\nrevolutions of the last century, and flung upon this century for\nsolution, can never be solved by class warfare nor yet by ignoring\ntheir existence in the optimism of ignorance.\n\nAmerica is only beginning to realize, and has not yet formulated, all\nthe implications of the factory system and of the conditions of living\nwhich this well-established system imposes upon the workers. As we\nfeel it closing down upon us, moments of restlessness and resentment\nseize us all. The protest against John Mitchell\u2019s statement[11] that\nthe American workingman has recognized that he is destined to remain\na workingman, is a case in point. In their attempt to formulate and\ncorrect various industrial ills, trades unions are often blamed for\nwhat is inherent in the factory system itself and for those evils which\ncan be cured only through a modification of that system. For instance,\nfactory workers in general have for years exhibited a tendency to\nregulate the output of each worker to a certain amount which they\nconsider a fair day\u2019s work, although to many a worker such a restricted\noutput may prove to be less than a fair day\u2019s work. The result is, of\ncourse, disastrous to the workers themselves as well as to the factory\nmanagement, for it doubtless is quite as injurious to a man\u2019s nervous\nsystem to retard his natural pace as it is to unduly accelerate it.\nThe real trouble, which this \u201climitation\u201d is an awkward attempt to\ncorrect, is involved in the fact that the intricate subdivision of\nfactory work, and the lack of understanding on the part of employees\nof the finished product, has made an unnatural situation, in which the\nworker has no normal interest in his work and no direct relation to it.\nIn the various makeshifts on the part of the manufacturer to supply\nmotives which shall take the place of the natural ones so obviously\nmissing, many devices have been resorted to, such as \u201cspeeding up\u201d\nmachinery, \u201csetting the pace,\u201d and substituting \u201cpiece work\u201d for day\nwork. The manufacturers may justly say that they have been driven to\nthese various expedients, not only by the factory conditions, but by\nthe natural laziness of men. Nevertheless reaction from such a course\nis inevitably an uncompromising attempt on the part of the workers\nto protect themselves from overexertion and to regulate the output.\nThe worst cases I have ever known have occurred in unorganized shops\nand have been unregulated and unaided by any trades union. The \u201cpace\nsetter\u201d in such a shop is often driven out and treated with the same\nanimosity which the \u201cscab\u201d receives in a union shop.\n\nIn the same spirit we blame trades unionists for that disgraceful\nattitude which they have from time to time taken against the\nintroduction of improved machinery--a small group blindly attempting\nto defend what they consider their only chance to work. The economists\nhave done surprisingly little to shed light upon this difficulty;\nindeed, they are somewhat responsible for its exaggeration. Their old\ntheory of a \u201cwage fund\u201d which did not reach the rank and file of trades\nunionists until at least in its first form it had been abandoned by the\nleading economists, has been responsible both for much disorder along\nthis line, and for the other mistaken attempt \u201cto make work for more\nmen.\u201d\n\nA society which made some effort to secure an equitable distribution of\nthe leisure and increased ease which new inventions imply would remove\nthe temptations as well as the odium of such action from the men who\nare blinded by what they consider an infringement of their rights.\n\nIf the wonderful inventions of machinery, as they came along during\nthe last century, could have been regarded as in some sense social\npossessions, the worst evils attending the factory system of\nproduction--starvation wages, exhausting hours, unnecessary monotony,\nchild labor, and all the rest of the wretched list--might have been\navoided in the interest of society itself. All this would have come\nabout had human welfare been earlier regarded as a legitimate object of\nsocial interest.\n\nBut no such ethics had been developed in the beginning of this century.\nSociety regarded machinery as the absolute possession of the man who\nowned it at the moment it became a finished product, quite irrespective\nof the long line of inventors and workmen who represented its gradual\ngrowth and development. Society was, therefore, destined to all the\nmaladjustment which this century has encountered. Is it the militant\nspirit once more as over against the newer humanitarianism? The\npossessor of the machine, like the possessor of arms who preceded him,\nregards it as a legitimate weapon for exploitation, as the former held\nhis sword.\n\nOne of the exhibits in the Paris Exposition of 1900 presented a\ncontrast between a mediaeval drawing of a castle towering above the\nhamlets of its protected serfs, and a modern photograph of the same\nhill covered with a huge factory which overlooked the villages of\nits dependent workmen. The two pictures of the same hill and of the\nsame plain bore more than a geographic resemblance. This suggestion\nof modern exploitation would be impossible had we learned the first\nlessons which an enlarged industrialism might teach us. Class and\ngroup divisions with their divergent moralities become most dangerous\nwhen their members believe that the inferior group or class cannot\nbe appealed to by reason and fair dealing, but must be treated upon\na lower plane. Terrorism is considered necessary and legitimate that\nthey may be inhibited by fear from committing certain acts. So far\nas employers exhibit this spirit toward workmen, or trades unionists\ntoward non-unionists, they inevitably revert to the use of brute\nforce--to the methods of warfare.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[11] Organized Labor, John Mitchell. Preface.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n PROTECTION OF CHILDREN FOR INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY\n\n\nIn the previous chapters it was stated that the United States, compared\nto the most advanced European nations, is deficient in protective\nlegislation. This, as has been said, is the result of the emphasis\nplaced upon personal liberty at the date of the first constitutional\nconventions and of the inherited belief in America that government is\nof necessity oppressive, and its functions not to be lightly extended.\n\nIt is also possible that this protection of the humblest citizen has\nbeen pushed forward in those countries of a homogeneous population\nmore rapidly than in America, because of that unconscious attitude of\ncontempt which the nationality at the moment representing economic\nsuccess always takes toward the weaker and less capable. There is no\ndoubt that we all despise our immigrants a little because of their\neconomic standing. The newly arrived immigrant goes very largely into\nunskilled work; he builds the railroads, digs the sewers, he does\nthe sort of labor the English-speaking American soon gets rid of;\nand then, because he is in this lowest economic class, he falls into\nneed, and we complain that in America the immigrant makes the largest\nclaim upon charitable funds. Yet in England, where immigration has\ncounted for very little; in Germany, where it has counted almost not\nat all, we find the same claim made upon the public funds by people\nwho do the same unskilled work, who are paid the same irregular and\nlow wages. In Germany, where this matter is approached, not from the\ncharitable, but from the patriotic side, there is a tremendous code\nof legislation for the protection of the men who hold to life by the\nmost uncertain economic tenure. In England there exists an elaborated\ncode of labor laws, protecting the laborer at all times from accidents,\nin ways unknown in America. Here we have only the beginning of all\nthat legislation, partly because we have not yet broken through the\nbelief that the man who does this casual work is not yet quite one\nof ourselves. We do not consider him entitled to the protective\nlegislation which is secured for him in other countries where he is\nquite simply a fellow-citizen, humble it may be, but still bound to the\ngoverning class by ties of blood and homogeneity.\n\nOur moral attitude toward one group in the community is a determining\nfactor of our moral attitude toward other groups, and this relation of\nkindly contempt, of charitable rather than democratic obligation, may\nlend some explanation to the fact that the United States, as a nation,\nis sadly in arrears in the legislation designed for the protection of\nchildren. In the Southern States, where a contemptuous attitude towards\na weaker people has had the most marked effect upon public feeling,\nwe have not only the largest number of unprotected working children,\nbut the largest number of illiterate children as well. There are, in\nthe United States, according to the latest census[12] 580,000 children\nbetween the ages of ten and fourteen years, who cannot read nor write.\nThey are not the immigrant children. They are our own native-born\nchildren. Of these 570,000 are in the Southern States and ten thousand\nof them are scattered over the rest of the Republic.\n\nThe same thing is true of our children at work. We have two millions\nof them, according to the census of 1900--children under the age of\nsixteen years who are earning their own livings.\n\nLegislation of the States south of Maryland for the children is like\nthe legislation of England in 1844. We are sixty-two years behind\nEngland in caring for the children of the textile industries.\n\nMay we not also trace some of this national indifference to the\ndisposition of the past century to love children without really knowing\nthem? We refuse to recognize them as the great national asset and\nare content to surround them with a glamour of innocence and charm.\nWe put them prematurely to work, ignorant of the havoc it brings,\nbecause no really careful study has been made of their capacities\nand possibilities--that is, no study really fitted to the industrial\nconditions in which they live.\n\nEach age has, of course, its own temptations and above all its own\npeculiar industrial temptations and needs to see them not only in the\nlight of the increased sensibility and higher ethical standards of\nits contemporaries, but also in relation to its peculiar industrial\ndevelopment. When we ask why it is that child-labor has been given\nto us to discuss and to rectify, rather than to the people who\nlived before us, we need only to remember that, for the first\ntime in industrial history, the labor of the little child has in\nmany industries become as valuable as that of a man or woman. The\nold-fashioned weaver was obliged to possess skill and strength to pull\nhis beam back and forth. It is only through the elaborated inventions\nof our own age that skill as well as strength has been so largely\neliminated that, for example, a little child may \u201ctend the thread\u201d in\na textile mill almost as well as an adult. This is true of so many\nindustries that the temptation to exploit premature labor has become\npeculiar to this industrial epoch and we are tempted as never before to\nuse the labor of little children.\n\nWhat, then, are we going to do about it? How deeply are we concerned\nthat this labor shall not result to the detriment of the child, and\nwhat excuses are we making to ourselves for thus prematurely using up\nthe strength which really belongs to the next generation? Of course,\nit is always difficult to see the wrong in a familiar thing; it is\nalmost a test of moral insight to be able to see that an affair of\nfamiliar intercourse and daily living may also be wrong. I have taken a\nChicago street-car on a night in December at ten o\u2019clock, when dozens\nof little girls who had worked in the department stores all day were\nalso boarding the cars. I know, as many others do, that these children\nwill not get into their beds before midnight, and that they will have\nto be up again early in the morning to go to their daily work. And yet\nbecause I have seen it many times I take my car almost placidly--I am\nhappy to say, not quite placidly. Almost every day at six o\u2019clock I see\ncertain factories pouring out a stream of men and women and boys and\ngirls. The boys and girls have a peculiar hue--a color so distinctive\nthat one meeting them on the street, even on Sunday when they are in\ntheir best clothes and mingled with other children who go to school and\nplay out of doors, can distinguish them in an instant, and there is on\ntheir faces a premature anxiety and sense of responsibility, which we\nshould declare pathetic if we were not used to it.\n\nHow far are we responsible when we allow custom to blind our eyes\nto the things that are wrong? In spite of the enormous growth in\ncharitable and correctional agencies designed for children, are we\nreally so lacking in moral insight and vigor that we fail even to\nperceive the real temptation of our age and totally fail to grapple\nwith it? An enlightened State which regarded the industrial situation\nseriously would wish to conserve the ability of its youth, to give them\nvaluable training in relation to industry, quite as the old-fashioned\nState carefully calculated the years which were the most valuable for\nmilitary training. The latter, looking only toward the preservation of\nthe State, took infinite pains, while we are careless in regard to the\nmuch greater task which has to do with its upbuilding and extension. We\nconscientiously ignore industry in relation to government and because\nwe assume that its regulation is unnecessary, so we conclude that the\nprotection of the young from premature participation in its mighty\noperations is not the concern of the Government.\n\nThe municipal lodging-house in Chicago in addition to housing vagrants,\nmakes an intelligent effort to put them into regular industry. A\nphysician in attendance makes a careful examination of each man who\ncomes to the lodging-house, and one winter we tried to see what\nconnection could be genuinely established between premature labor and\nworn-out men. It is surprising to find how many of them are tired to\ndeath of monotonous labor, and begin to tramp in order to get away\nfrom it--as a business man goes to the woods because he is worn out\nwith the stress of business life. This inordinate desire to get away\nfrom work seems to be connected with the fact that the men started to\nwork very early, before they had the physique to stand up to it, or\nthe mental vigor with which to overcome its difficulties, or the moral\nstamina which makes a man stick to his work whether he likes it or\nnot. But we cannot demand any of these things from the growing boy.\nThey are all traits of the adult. A boy is naturally restless, his\ndetermination easily breaks down, and he runs away. At least this seems\nto be true of many of the men who come to the lodging-house. I recall\na man who had begun to work in a textile mill quite below the present\nlegal age in New England, and who had worked hard for sixteen years.\nHe told his tale with all simplicity; and, as he made a motion with\nhis hand, he said, \u201cI done that for sixteen years.\u201d I give the words\nas he gave them. \u201cAt last I was sick in bed for two or three weeks\nwith a fever, and when I crawled out, I made up my mind that I would\nrather go to hell than to go back to that mill.\u201d Whether he considered\nChicago as equivalent to that, I do not know; but he certainly tramped\nto Chicago, and has been tramping for four years. He does not steal.\nHe works in a lumber camp occasionally, and wanders about the rest of\nthe time getting odd jobs when he can; but the suggestion of a factory\nthrows him into a panic, and causes him quickly to disappear from the\nlodging-house. The physician has made a diagnosis of general debility.\nThe man is not fit for steady work. He has been whipped in the battle\nof life, and is spent prematurely because he began prematurely.\n\nYet the state makes no careful study as to the effect upon children\nof the subdivided labor which many of them perform in factories.\nA child who remains year after year in a spinning room gets no\ninstruction--merely a dull distaste for work. Often he cannot stand up\nto the grind of factory life, and he breaks down under it.\n\nWhat does this mean? That we have no right to increase the list\nof paupers--of those who must be cared for by municipal and State\nagencies because when they were still immature and undeveloped, they\nwere subjected to a tremendous pressure. I recall one family of five\nchildren which, upon the death of the energetic mother who had provided\nfor it by means of a little dress-making establishment, was left to the\ncare of a feeble old grandmother. The father was a drunkard who had\nnever supported his family, and at this time he definitely disappeared.\nThe oldest boy was almost twelve years old--a fine, manly little\nfellow, who felt keenly his obligation to care for the family.\n\nWe found him a place as cash-boy in a department store for two dollars\na week. He held it for three years, although his enthusiasm failed\nsomewhat as the months went by, and he gradually discovered how little\nhelp his wages were to the family exchequer after his carfare, decent\nclothes and unending pairs of shoes were paid for. Before the end of\nthe third year he had become listless and indifferent to his work, in\nspite of the increase of fifty cents a week. In the hope that a change\nwould be good for him, a place as elevator-boy was secured. This\nhe was unable to keep, and then one situation after another slipped\nthrough his grasp, until a typhoid fever which he developed at the age\nof fifteen, seemed to explain his apathy.\n\nAfter a long illness and a poor recovery, he worked less well.\nFinally, at the age of sixteen, when he should have been able really\nto help the little family and perhaps be its main support, he had\nbecome a professional tramp, and eventually dropped completely from\nour knowledge. It was through such bitter lessons as these we learned\nthat good intentions and the charitable impulse do not always work\nfor righteousness; that to force the moral nature of a child and to\nput tasks upon him beyond his normal growth, is quite as cruel and\ndisastrous as to expect his undeveloped muscle to lift huge weights.\n\nAdolescence is filled with strange pauses of listlessness and\ndreaminess. At that period the human will is perhaps further away from\nthe desire of definite achievement than it ever is again. To work ten\nhours a day for six days in a week in order to buy himself a pair of\nstout boots, that he may be properly shod to go to work some more,\nis the very last thing which really appeals to a boy of thirteen or\nfourteen. If he is forced to such a course too often, his cheated\nnature later re-asserts itself in all sorts of decadent and abnormal\nways.\n\nAn enlightened state would also concern itself with the effect of\nchild labor upon the parents. We have in Chicago a great many European\nimmigrants, people who have come from country life in Bohemia or the\nsouth of Italy, hoping that their children will have a better chance\nhere than at home. In the old country these immigrants worked on farms\nwhich provided a very normal activity for a young boy or girl. When\nthey come to Chicago, they see no reason why their children should not\ngo to work, because they see no difference between the normal activity\nof their own youth and the grinding life, to which they subject their\nchildren. It is difficult for a man who has grown up in outdoor life\nto adapt himself to the factory. The same experience is found in the\nSouth with the men who come to the textile towns from the little farms.\nThey resent monotonous petty work, and get away from it; they will\nin preference take more poorly paid work, care of horses or janitor\nservice--work which has some similarity to that to which they have\nbeen accustomed. So the parents drop out, and the children, making the\nadaptation, remain, and the curious result ensues of the head of the\nhousehold becoming dependent upon the earnings of the child. You will\nhear a child say, \u201cMy mother can\u2019t say nothing to me. I pay the rent;\u201d\nor, \u201cI can do what I please, because I bring home the biggest wages.\u201d\nAll this tends to break down the normal relation between parents and\nchildren. The Italian men who work on the railroads in the summer find\nit a great temptation to settle down in the winter upon the wages\nof their children. A young man from the south of Italy was mourning\nthe death of his little girl of twelve; in his grief he said, quite\nsimply, \u201cShe was my oldest kid. In two years she could have supported\nme, and now I shall have to work five or six years longer until the\nnext one can do it.\u201d He expected to retire permanently at thirty-four.\nThat breaking down of the normal relation of parent and child, and the\ntendency to demoralize the parent, is something we have no right to\nsubject him to. We ought to hold the parent up to the obligation which\nhe would have fulfilled had he remained in his early environment.\n\nA modern state might rightly concern itself with the effect of child\nlabor upon industry itself. There has been for many years an increasing\ncriticism of the modern factory system, not only from the point of view\nof the worker, but from the point of view of the product itself. It\nhas been said many times that we can not secure good workmanship nor\nturn out a satisfactory product unless men and women have some sort\nof interest in their work, and some way of expressing that interest\nin relation to it. The system which makes no demand upon originality,\nupon invention, upon self-direction, works automatically, as it were,\ntowards an unintelligent producer and towards an uninteresting product.\nThis was said at first only by such artists and social reformers as\nMorris and Ruskin; but it is being gradually admitted by men of affairs\nand may at last incorporate itself into actual factory management, in\nwhich case the factory itself will favor child labor legislation or\nany other measure which increases the free and full development of the\nindividual, because he thereby becomes a more valuable producer. We may\ngradually discover that in the interests of this industrial society\nof ours it becomes a distinct loss to put large numbers of producers\nprematurely at work, not only because the community inevitably loses\ntheir mature working power, but also because their \u201cfree labor\nquality,\u201d which is so valuable, is permanently destroyed.\n\nExercise of the instinct of workmanship not only affords great\nsatisfaction to the producer, but also to the consumer, if he be\npossessed of any critical faculty, or have developed genuine powers of\nappreciation. Added to the conscience which protests against the social\nwaste of child labor, we have the taste that revolts against a product\ntotally without the charm which pleasure in work creates. We may at\nlast discover that we are imperiling our civilization at the moment of\nits marked materialism, by wantonly sacrificing to that materialism the\neternal spirit of youth, the power of variation, which alone is able to\nprevent it from degenerating into a mere mechanism.\n\nIt would be easy to produce many illustrations to demonstrate that in\nthe leading industrial countries a belief is slowly developing that the\nworkman himself is the chief asset, and that the intelligent interest\nof skilled men, the power of self-direction and co-operation which is\nonly possible among the free-born and educated, is exactly the only\nthing which will hold out in the markets of the world. As the foremen\nof factories testify again and again, factory discipline is valuable\nonly up to a certain point, after which something else must be depended\non if the best results are to be achieved.\n\nMonopoly of both the raw material and the newly-opened markets is\ncertainly a valuable factor in a nation\u2019s industrial prosperity; but\nwhile we spend blood and treasure to protect one and secure the other,\nwe wantonly destroy the most valuable factor of all, intelligent labor.\nNothing can help us here save the rising tide of humanitarianism, which\nis not only emotional enough to regret the pitiless and stupid waste\nof this power but also intelligent enough to perceive what might be\naccomplished by its utilization.\n\nWe are told that the German products hold a foremost place in the\nmarkets of the world because of Germany\u2019s fine educational system,\nwhich includes training in trade-schools for so many young men. We\nknow, too, that there is at the present moment a strong party in\nGermany opposing militarism, not from the \u201cpeace society\u201d point of\nview, but because it withdraws all the young men from the industrial\nlife for the best part of three years during which their activity is\nmerely disciplinary, with no relation to the industrial life of the\nnation. This anti-military party insists that the loss of the three\nyears is a serious matter, and that one nation cannot successfully hold\nits advance position if it must compete with other nations which are\nalso establishing trade-schools but which do not thus withdraw their\nyouth from continuous training at the period of their greatest docility\nand aptitude.\n\nEngland is discovering that the cheap markets afforded by semi-savage\npeoples, which she has thrown open to her manufacturers, are now\nreacting in the debasement of her products and her factory workers.\nThe manufacturer produces the cheap and inferior articles which he\nimagines the new commerce will demand. The result upon the workers in\nthe factories producing these unworthy goods, is that they are robbed\nof the skill which would be demanded if they were ministering to an\nincreasing demand of taste and if they were supplying the market of a\ncivilized people. It would be a curious result of misapplied energy\nif those very markets which the Briton has so eagerly sought, would\nfinally so debase the English producers that all the increased wealth\nthe markets have brought to the nation would be consumed in efforts to\nredeem the debased working population.\n\nWe have made public education our great concern in America, and perhaps\nthe public-school system is our most distinctive achievement; but\nthere is a certain lack of consistency in the relation of the State\nto the child after he leaves the public school. At great expense the\nState has provided school buildings and equipment, and other buildings\nin which to prepare professional teachers. It has spared no pains to\nmake the system complete, and yet as rapidly as the children leave the\nschoolroom, the State seems to lose all interest and responsibility in\ntheir welfare and has, until quite recently, turned them over to the\nemployer with no restrictions.\n\nAt no point does the community say to the employer, We are allowing\nyou to profit by the labor of these children whom we have educated at\ngreat cost, and we demand that they do not work so many hours that they\nshall be exhausted. Nor shall they be allowed to undertake the sort of\nlabor which is beyond their strength, nor shall they spend their time\nat work that is absolutely devoid of educational value. The preliminary\neducation which they have received in school is but one step in the\nprocess of making them valuable and normal citizens, and we cannot\nafford to have that intention thwarted, even though the community as\nwell as yourself may profit by the business activity which your factory\naffords.\n\nSuch a position seems perfectly reasonable, yet the same citizens who\nwillingly pay taxes to support an elaborate public-school system,\nstrenuously oppose the most moderate attempts to guard the children\nfrom needless and useless exploitation after they have left school and\nhave entered industry.\n\nWe are forced to believe that child labor is a national problem, even\nas public education is a national duty. The children of Alabama, Rhode\nIsland, and Pennsylvania belong to the nation quite as much as they\nbelong to each State, and the nation has an interest in the children\nat least in relation to their industrial efficiency, quite as it has\nan interest in enacting protective tariffs for the preservation of\nAmerican industries.\n\nUniform compulsory education laws in connection with uniform child\nlabor legislation are the important factors in securing educated\nproducers for the nation. Fortunately, a new education is arising which\nendeavors to widen and organize the child\u2019s experience with reference\nto the world in which he lives.[13] The new pedagogy holds that it is\na child\u2019s instinct and pleasure to exercise all his faculties and to\nmake discoveries in the world around him. It is the chief business of\nthe teacher merely to direct his activity and to feed his insatiable\ncuriosity. In order to accomplish this, he is forced to relate the\nchild to the surroundings in which he lives; and the most advanced\nschools are, perforce, using modern industry for this purpose. The\neducators have ceased to mourn industrial conditions of the past\ngeneration, when children were taught agricultural and industrial\narts by the natural co-operation with their parents, and they are\nendeavoring to supply this inadequacy by manual arts in the school,\nby courses in industrial history, and by miniature reproductions of\nindustrial processes, thus constantly coming into better relations with\nthe present factory system. These educators recognize the significance\nand power of contemporary industrialism, and hold it an obligation to\nprotect children from premature participation in our industrial life,\nonly that the children may secure the training and fibre which will\nlater make this participation effective, and that their minds may\nfinally take possession of the machines which they will guide and feed.\n\nBut there is another side to the benefits of child-labor legislation\nrepresented by the time element, the leisure which is secured to\nthe child for the pursuit of his own affairs, quite aside from the\nopportunity afforded him to attend school. Helplessness in childhood,\nthe scientists tell us, is the guarantee of adult intellect, but they\nalso assert that play in youth is the guarantee of adult culture. It\nis the most valuable instrument the race possesses to keep life from\nbecoming mechanical.\n\nThe child who cannot live life is prone to dramatize it, and the very\nprocess is a constant compromise between imitation and imagination, as\nthe over-mastering impulse itself which drives him to incessant play is\nboth reminiscent and anticipatory. In proportion as the child in later\nlife is to be subjected to a mechanical and one-sided activity, and as\na highly subdivided labor is to be demanded from him, it is therefore\nmost important that he should have his full period of childhood and\nyouth for this play expression in order that he may cultivate within\nhimself the root of a culture which alone can give his later activity a\nmeaning.[14] This is true whether or not we accept the theory that the\naesthetic feelings originate in the play impulse, with its corollary\nthat the constant experimentation found in the commonest forms of\nplay are to be looked upon as \u201cthe principal source of all kinds of\nart.\u201d At this moment, when industrial forces are concentrated and\nunified as never before, unusual care must be taken to secure to the\nchildren their normal play period, that the art instinct may have some\nchance, and that the producer himself may have enough individuality of\ncharacter to avoid becoming a mere cog in the vast industrial machine.\n\nQuite aside also from the problem of individual development and\nfrom the fact that play, in which the power of choice is constantly\npresented and constructive imagination required, is the best corrective\nof the future disciplinary life of the factory, there is another reason\nwhy the children who are to become producers under the present system\nshould be given their full child-life period.\n\nThe entire population of the factory town and of those enormous\ndistricts in every large city in which the children live who most need\nthe protection of child-labor legislation, consists of people who have\ncome together in response to the demands of modern industry. They are\nheld together by the purely impersonal tie of working in one large\nfactory, in which they not only do not know each other, but in which\nno one person nor even group of persons knows everybody. They are\nutterly without the natural and minute acquaintance and inter-family\nrelationships that rural and village life afford, and are therefore\nmuch more dependent upon the social sympathy and power of effective\nassociation which is becoming its urban substitute.\n\nThis substitute can be most easily elaborated among groups of\nchildren. Somewhere they must learn to carry on an orderly daily\nlife--that life of mutual trust, forbearance, and help which is the\nonly real life of civilized man. Play is the great social stimulus,\nand it is the prime motive which unites children and draws them into\ncomradeship. A true democratic relation and ease of acquaintance is\nfound among the children in a typical factory community because they\nmore readily overcome differences of language, tradition, and religion\nthan do the adults. \u201cIt is in play that nature reveals her anxious\ncare to discover men to each other,\u201d and this happy and important\ntask, children unconsciously carry forward day by day with all the\nexcitement and joy of co-ordinate activity. They accomplish that which\ntheir elders could not possibly do, and they render a most important\nservice to the community. We have not as yet utilized this joy of\nassociation in relation to the system of factory production which is\nso pre\u00ebminently one of large bodies of men working together for hours\nat a time. But there is no doubt that it would bring a new power into\nmodern industry if the factory could avail itself of that _esprit de\ncorps_, that triumphant buoyancy which the child experiences when he\nfeels his complete identification with a social group; that sense of\nsecurity which comes upon him sitting in a theatre or \u201cat a party,\u201d\nwhen he issues forth from himself and is lost in a fairyland which\nhas been evoked not only by his own imagination, but by that of his\ncompanions as well. This power of association, of assimilation, which\nchildren possess in such a high degree, is easily carried over into\nthe affairs of youth if it but be given opportunity and freedom for\naction, as it is in the college life of more favored young people.\nThe _esprit de corps_ of an athletic team, that astonishing force\nof co-operation, is, however, never consciously carried over into\nindustry, but is persistently disregarded. It is, indeed, lost before\nit is discovered--if I may be permitted an Irish bull--in the case of\nchildren who are put to work before they have had time to develop the\npower beyond its most childish and haphazard manifestations.\n\nFactory life depends upon groups of people working together, and yet\nit is content with the morphology of the group, as it were, paying\nno attention to its psychology, to the interaction of its members.\nBy regarding each producer as a solitary unit, a tremendous power is\ntotally unutilized. In the case of children who are prematurely put to\nwork under such conditions, an unwarranted nervous strain is added as\nthey make their effort to stand up to the individual duties of life\nwhile still in the stage of group and family dependence.\n\nWe naturally associate a factory with orderly productive action; but\nsimilarity of action, without identical thought and co-operative\nintelligence, is coercion, and not order. The present factory\ndiscipline needs to be redeemed as the old school discipline has been\nredeemed. In the latter the system of prizes and punishments has been\nlargely given up, not only because they were difficult to administer,\nbut because they utterly failed to free the powers of the child.\n\n\u201cThe fear of starvation,\u201d of which the old economists made so much, is,\nafter all, but a poor incentive to work; and the appeal to cupidity\nby which a man is induced to \u201cspeed up\u201d in all the various devices of\npiece-work is very little better. Yet the factory still depends upon\nthese as incentives to the ordinary workers. Certainly one would wish\nto protect children from them as long as possible. In a soap factory\nin Chicago little girls wrap bars of soap in two covers at the minimum\nrate of 3,000 bars a week; their only ambition is to wrap as fast as\npossible and well enough to pass the foreman\u2019s inspection. The girl\nwhose earnings are the largest at the end of the week is filled with\npride--praiseworthy, certainly, but totally without educational value.\n\nLet us realize before it is too late that in this age of iron, of\nmachine-tending, and of subdivided labor, we need as never before\nthe untrammeled and inspired activity of youth. To cut it off from\nthousands of working children is a most perilous undertaking, and\nendangers the very industry to which they have been sacrificed.\n\nOnly of late years has an effort been made by the city authorities,\nby the municipality itself, to conserve the play instinct and to\nutilize it, if not for the correction of industry, at least for the\nnurture of citizenship. It has been discovered that the city which is\ntoo careless to provide playgrounds, gymnasiums, and athletic fields\nwhere the boys legitimately belong and which the policeman is bound to\nrespect, simply puts a premium on lawlessness. Without these places\nof their own, groups of boys come to look upon the policeman as an\nenemy, and he regards them as the most lawless of all the citizens.\nThis is partly due to the fact that because of our military survivals\nthe officer is not brought in contact with the educational forces of\nthe city, but only with its vices and crime. He might have quite as\ngreat an opportunity for influencing the morals of youth as the school\nteacher has. At least one American city spends twenty per cent. more in\nprovision for the conviction of youths than for their education, for\nthe city which fails to utilize this promising material of youthful\nadventure does not truly get rid of it, and finds it more expensive to\ncare for as waste material than as educative material. At a certain\nage a boy is possessed by a restless determination to do something\ndangerous and exciting--a \u201cdifficult stunt,\u201d as it were--by which he\nmay prove that he is master of his fate and thus express his growing\nself-assertion. He prefers to demonstrate in feats requiring both\ncourage and adroitness, and it may be said that tradition is with him\nin his choice. That this impulse is mixed with an absurd desire on the\npart of the boy to \u201cshow off,\u201d to impress his companions with the fact\nthat he is great and brave and generally to be admired, does not in\nthe least affect its genuineness. The city which fails to provide an\nopportunity for this inevitable and normal desire on the part of the\nyoung citizens makes a grave mistake and invites irregular expression\nof it. The thwarted spirit of adventure finds an outlet in infinite\nvarieties of gambling; craps, cards, the tossing of discarded union\nbuttons, the betting on odd or even automobile numbers, on the number\nof newspapers under a boy\u2019s arm. Another end which can be accomplished,\nif the city recognizes play as legitimate and provides playgrounds\nand athletic fields, is the development of that self-government and\nself-discipline among groups of boys, which forms the most natural\nbasis for democratic political life later.\n\nThe boy in a tenement-house region who does not belong to the gang is\nnot only an exception, but a very rare exception. This earliest form\nof social life is almost tribal in its organization, and the leader\ntoo often holds his place because he is a successful bully. The gang\nmeets first upon the street, but later it may possess a club room in\na stable, in a billiard room, in an empty house, under the viaduct,\nin a candy store, in a saloon or even in an empty lot. The spirit of\nassociation, the fellowship and loyalty which the group inspires,\ncarry them into many dangers; but there is no doubt that it is through\nthese experiences that the city boy learns his political lessons.\nThe training for political life is given in these gangs, and also an\nopportunity to develop that wonderful power of adaptation which is the\ncity\u2019s contribution, even to the poorest of her children. A clever\nman once told me that he doubted whether an alderman could be elected\nin a tenement-house district unless he had had gang experience, and\nhad become an adept in the interminable discussion which every detail\nof the gang\u2019s activity receives. This alone affords a training in\ndemocratic government, for it is the prerogative of democracy to invest\npolitical discussion with the dignity of deeds, and to provide adequate\nmotives for discussion. In these social folk-motes, so to speak, the\nyoung citizen learns to act upon his own determination. The great pity\nis that it so often results in a group morality untouched by a concern\nfor the larger morality of the community. Normal groups reacting upon\neach other would tend to an equilibrium of a certain liberty to all,\nbut this cannot be accomplished in the life of the street where the\nweaker boy or the weaker gang is continually getting the worst of\nit. And it is only on the protected playground that the gangs can be\nmerged into baseball nines and similar organizations, governed by\nwell-recognized rules.\n\nWe have already democratized education in the interests of the entire\ncommunity; but recreation and constructive play, which afford the best\nsoil for establishing genuine and democratic social relations, we have\nleft untouched, although they are so valuable in emotional and dynamic\npower. Further than that, the city that refrains from educating the\nplay motive is obliged to suppress it. In Chicago gangs of boys between\nfourteen and sixteen years of age, who, possessing work-certificates\nare outside of the jurisdiction of the truant officer, are continually\nbeing arrested by the police, since they have no orderly opportunity\nfor recreation. An enlightened city government would regard these\ngroups of boys as the natural soil in which to sow the seeds of\nself-government. As every European city has its parade-ground, where\nthe mimics of war are faithfully rehearsed, in order that the country\nmay be saved in times of danger, so, if modern government were as\nreally concerned in developing its citizens as it is in defending them,\nwe would look upon every playing-field as the training-place and\nparade-ground of mature citizenship.\n\nFrederick the Great discovered and applied the use of the rhythmic\nstep for the marching of soldiers. For generations men had gone\nforth to war, using martial music as they had used the battle-cry,\nmerely to incite their courage and war spirit; but the music had had\nnothing to do with their actual marching. The use of it as a practical\nmeasure enormously increased the endurance of the soldiers and raised\nthe records of forced marches. Industry at the present moment, as\nrepresented by masses of men in the large factories, is quite as\nchaotic as the early armies were. We have failed to apply our education\nto the real life of the average factory producer. He works without any\ninner coherence or sense of comradeship. Our public education has done\nlittle as yet to release his powers or to cheer him with the knowledge\nof his significance to the State.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[12] For further analysis of the census figures relating to children,\nconsult \u201cSome Ethical Gains Through Legislation.\u201d Mrs. Florence Kelley.\n\n[13] School and Society, by John Dewey.\n\n[14] The Play of Man, Groos, page 394.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n UTILIZATION OF WOMEN IN CITY GOVERNMENT\n\n\nWe are told many times that the industrial city is a new thing upon the\nface of the earth, and that everywhere its growth has been phenomenal,\nwhether we look at Moscow, Berlin, Paris, New York, or Chicago. With or\nwithout the mediaeval foundation, modern cities are merely resultants\nof the vast crowds of people who have collected at certain points which\nhave become manufacturing and distributing centres.\n\nFor all political purposes, however, the industrial origin of the city\nis entirely ignored, and political life is organized exclusively in\nrelation to its earlier foundations.\n\nAs the city itself originated for the common protection of the people\nand was built about a suitable centre of defense which formed a\ncitadel, such as the Acropolis at Athens or the Kremlin at Moscow,\nso we can trace the beginning of the municipal franchise to the time\nwhen the problems of municipal government were still largely those of\nprotecting the city against rebellion from within and against invasion\nfrom without. A voice in city government, as it was extended from the\nnobles, who alone bore arms, was naturally given solely to those who\nwere valuable to the military system. There was a certain logic in\ngiving the franchise only to grown men when the existence and stability\nof the city depended upon their defence, and when the ultimate value\nof the elector could be reduced to his ability to perform military\nduty. It was fair that only those who were liable to a sudden call to\narms should be selected to decide as to the relations which the city\nshould bear to rival cities, and that the vote for war should be cast\nby the same men who would bear the brunt of battle and the burden of\nprotection. We are told by historians that the citizens were first\ncalled together in those assemblages which were the beginning of\npopular government, only if a war was to be declared or an expedition\nto be undertaken.\n\nBut rival cities have long since ceased to settle their claims by force\nof arms, and we shall have to admit, I think, that this early test of\nthe elector is no longer fitted to the modern city, whatever may be\ntrue, in the last analysis, of the basis for the Federal Government.\n\nIt has been well said that the modern city is a stronghold of\nindustrialism, quite as the feudal city was a stronghold of militarism,\nbut the modern city fears no enemies, and rivals from without and\nits problems of government are solely internal. Affairs for the most\npart are going badly in these great new centres in which the quickly\ncongregated population has not yet learned to arrange its affairs\nsatisfactorily. Insanitary housing, poisonous sewage, contaminated\nwater, infant mortality, the spread of contagion, adulterated food,\nimpure milk, smoke-laden air, ill-ventilated factories, dangerous\noccupations, juvenile crime, unwholesome crowding, prostitution,\nand drunkenness are the enemies which the modern city must face and\novercome would it survive. Logically, its electorate should be made up\nof those who can bear a valiant part in this arduous contest, of those\nwho in the past have at least attempted to care for children, to clean\nhouses, to prepare foods, to isolate the family from moral dangers, of\nthose who have traditionally taken care of that side of life which, as\nsoon as the population is congested, inevitably becomes the subject of\nmunicipal consideration and control.\n\nTo test the elector\u2019s fitness to deal with this situation by his\nability to bear arms, is absurd. A city is in many respects a\ngreat business corporation, but in other respects it is enlarged\nhousekeeping. If American cities have failed in the first, partly\nbecause office holders have carried with them the predatory instinct\nlearned in competitive business, and cannot help \u201cworking a good thing\u201d\nwhen they have an opportunity, may we not say that city housekeeping\nhas failed partly because women, the traditional housekeepers, have\nnot been consulted as to its multiform activities? The men of the city\nhave been carelessly indifferent to much of this civic housekeeping, as\nthey have always been indifferent to the details of the household. They\nhave totally disregarded a candidate\u2019s capacity to keep the streets\nclean, preferring to consider him in relation to the national tariff or\nto the necessity for increasing the national navy, in a pure spirit of\nreversion to the traditional type of government which had to do only\nwith enemies and outsiders.\n\nIt is difficult to see what military prowess has to do with the\nmultiform duties, which, in a modern city, include the care of parks\nand libraries, superintendence of markets, sewers, and bridges,\nthe inspection of provisions and boilers, and the proper disposal\nof garbage. Military prowess has nothing to do with the building\ndepartment which the city maintains to see to it that the basements be\ndry, that the bedrooms be large enough to afford the required cubic\nfeet of air, that the plumbing be sanitary, that the gas-pipes do not\nleak, that the tenement-house court be large enough to afford light\nand ventilation, and that the stairways be fireproof. The ability to\ncarry arms has nothing to do with the health department maintained by\nthe city, which provides that children be vaccinated, that contagious\ndiseases be isolated and placarded, that the spread of tuberculosis be\ncurbed, and that the water be free from typhoid infection. Certainly\nthe military conception of society is remote from the functions of the\nschool boards, whose concern it is that children be educated, that they\nbe supplied with kindergartens and be given a decent place in which to\nplay. The very multifariousness and complexity of a city government\ndemands the help of minds accustomed to detail and variety of work, to\na sense of obligation for the health and welfare of young children, and\nto a responsibility for the cleanliness and comfort of others.\n\nBecause all these things have traditionally been in the hands of\nwomen, if they take no part in them now, they are not only missing the\neducation which the natural participation in civic life would bring to\nthem, but they are losing what they have always had. From the beginning\nof tribal life women have been held responsible for the health of\nthe community, a function which is now represented by the health\ndepartment; from the days of the cave dwellers, so far as the home\nwas clean and wholesome, it was due to their efforts, which are now\nrepresented by the bureau of tenement-house inspection; from the period\nof the primitive village, the only public sweeping performed was what\nthey undertook in their own dooryards, that which is now represented by\nthe bureau of street cleaning. Most of the departments in a modern city\ncan be traced to woman\u2019s traditional activity, but in spite of this,\nso soon as these old affairs were turned over to the care of the city,\nthey slipped from woman\u2019s hands, apparently because they then became\nmatters for collective action and implied the use of the franchise.\nBecause the franchise had in the first instance been given to the man\nwho could fight, because in the beginning he alone could vote who could\ncarry a weapon, the franchise was considered an improper thing for a\nwoman to possess.\n\nIs it quite public spirited for women to say, \u201cWe will take care of\nthese affairs so long as they stay in our own houses, but if they go\noutside and concern so many people that they cannot be carried on\nwithout the mechanism of the vote, we will drop them. It is true that\nthese activities which women have always had, are not at present being\ncarried on very well by the men in most of the great American cities,\nbut because we do not consider it \u2018ladylike\u2019 to vote shall we ignore\ntheir failure\u201d?\n\nBecause women consider the government men\u2019s affair and something\nwhich concerns itself with elections and alarms, they have become so\nconfused in regard to their traditional business in life, the rearing\nof children, that they hear with complacency a statement made by the\nNestor of sanitary reformers, that one-half of the tiny lives which\nmake up the city\u2019s death rate each year might be saved by a more\nthorough application of sanitary science. Because it implies the use of\nthe suffrage, they do not consider it women\u2019s business to save these\nlives. Are we going to lose ourselves in the old circle of convention\nand add to that sum of wrong-doing which is continually committed\nin the world because we do not look at things as they really are?\nOld-fashioned ways which no longer apply to changed conditions are a\nsnare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled.\nIt is so easy to believe that things that used to exist still go\non long after they are passed; it is so easy to commit irreparable\nblunders because we fail to correct our theories by our changing\nexperience. So many of the stumbling-blocks against which we fall are\nthe opportunities to which we have not adjusted ourselves. Because it\nshocks an obsolete ideal, we keep hold of a convention which no longer\nsquares with our genuine insight, and we are slow to follow a clue\nwhich might enable us to solace and improve the life about us.\n\nWhy is it that women do not vote upon the matters which concern them\nso intimately? Why do they not follow these vital affairs and feel\nresponsible for their proper administration, even though they have\nbecome municipalized? What would the result have been could women\nhave regarded the suffrage, not as a right or a privilege, but as a\nmere piece of governmental machinery without which they could not\nperform their traditional functions under the changed conditions of\ncity life? Could we view the whole situation as a matter of obligation\nand of normal development, it would be much simplified. We are at the\nbeginning of a prolonged effort to incorporate a progressive developing\nlife founded upon a response to the needs of all the people, into the\nrequisite legal enactments and civic institutions. To be in any measure\nsuccessful, this effort will require all the intelligent powers of\nobservation, all the sympathy, all the common sense which may be gained\nfrom the whole adult population.\n\nThe statement is sometimes made that the franchise for women would be\nvaluable only so far as the educated women exercised it. This statement\ntotally disregards the fact that those matters in which woman\u2019s\njudgment is most needed are far too primitive and basic to be largely\ninfluenced by what we call education. The sanitary condition of all\nthe factories and workshops, for instance, in which the industrial\nprocesses are at present carried on in great cities, intimately affect\nthe health and lives of thousands of workingwomen.\n\nIt is questionable whether women to-day, in spite of the fact that\nthere are myriads of them in factories and shops, are doing their\nfull share of the world\u2019s work in the lines of production which have\nalways been theirs. Even two centuries ago they did practically all\nthe spinning, dyeing, weaving, and sewing. They carried on much of the\nbrewing and baking and thousands of operations which have been pushed\nout of the domestic system into the factory system. But simply to keep\non doing the work which their grandmothers did, was to find themselves\nsurrounded by conditions over which they have no control.\n\nSometimes when I see dozens of young girls going into the factories of\na certain biscuit company on the West Side of Chicago, they appear for\nthe moment as a mere cross-section in the long procession of women who\nhave furnished the breadstuffs from time immemorial, from the savage\nwoman who ground the meal and baked a flat cake, through innumerable\ncottage hearths, kitchens, and bake ovens, to this huge concern in\nwhich they are still carrying on their traditional business. But always\nbefore, during the ages of this unending procession, women themselves\nwere able to dictate concerning the hours and the immediate conditions\nof their work; even grinding the meal and baking the cake in the ashes\nwas diversified by many other activities. But suddenly, since the\napplication of steam to the processes of kneading bread and of turning\nthe spindle, which really means only a different motor power and not\nin the least an essential change in her work, she has been denied the\nprivilege of regulating the conditions which immediately surround her.\n\nIn the census of 1900, the section on \u201cOccupations\u201d shows very clearly\nin what direction the employment of women has been tending during the\nlast twenty years. Two striking facts stand out vividly: first, the\nincrease in the percentage of workingwomen over the percentage of men,\nand second, the large percentage of young women between sixteen and\ntwenty years old in the total number of workingwomen as compared with\nthe small percentage of young men of the same ages in the total number\nof workingmen. Practically one-half of the workingwomen in the United\nStates are girls--young women under the age of twenty-five years. This\nincrease in the number of young girls in industry is the more striking\nwhen taken in connection with the fact that industries of to-day differ\nmost markedly from those of the past in the relentless speed which\nthey require. This increase in speed is as marked in the depths of\nsweat-shop labor as in the most advanced New England mills, where the\neight looms operated by each worker have increased to twelve, fourteen,\nand even sixteen looms. This speed, of course, brings a new strain into\nindustry and tends inevitably to nervous exhaustion. Machines may be\nrevolved more and more swiftly, but the girl workers have no increase\nin vitality responding to the heightened pressure. An ampler and more\nfar-reaching protection than now exists, is needed in order to care\nfor the health and safety of women in industry. Their youth, their\nhelplessness, their increasing numbers, the conditions under which\nthey are employed, all call for uniform and enforceable statutes. The\nelaborate regulations of dangerous trades, enacted in England and on\nthe Continent for both adults and children, find no parallel in the\nUnited States. The injurious effects of employments involving the use\nof poisons, acids, gases, atmospheric extremes, or other dangerous\nprocesses, still await adequate investigation and legislation in this\ncountry. How shall this take place, save by the concerted efforts of\nthe women themselves, those who are employed, and those other women who\nare intelligent as to the worker\u2019s needs and who possess a conscience\nin regard to industrial affairs?\n\nIt is legitimate and necessary that women should make a study of\ncertain trades and occupations. The production of sweated goods,\nfrom the human point of view, is not production at all, but waste.\nIf the employer takes from the workers week by week more than his\nwages restore to them, he gradually reduces them to the state of\nindustrial parasites. The wages of the sweated worker are either being\nsupplemented by the wages of relatives and the gifts of charitable\nassociations, or else her standard of living is so low that she is\ncontinually losing her vitality and tending to become a charge upon the\ncommunity in a hospital or a poorhouse.[15]\n\nYet even the sweat-shops, in which woman carries on her old business\nof making clothing, had to be redeemed, so far as they have been\nredeemed, by the votes of men who passed an anti-sweat-shop law; by\nthe city fathers, who, after much pleading, were induced to order\nan inspection of sweat-shops that they might be made to comply with\nsanitary regulations. Women directly controlled the surroundings of\ntheir work as long as their arrangements were domestic, but they\ncannot do this now unless they have the franchise, as yet the only\nmechanism devised by which a city selects its representative and by\nwhich a number of persons are able to embody their collective will in\nlegislation. For a hundred years England has been legislating upon\nthe subject of insanitary workshops, long and exhausting hours of\nwork, night work for women, occupations in which pregnant women may\nbe employed, and hundreds of other restrictions which we are only\nbeginning to consider objects of legislation here.\n\nSo far as women have been able, in Chicago at least, to help the\npoorest workers in the sweat-shops, it has been accomplished by women\norganized into trades unions. The organization of Special Order Tailors\nfound that it was comparatively simple for an employer to give the\nskilled operatives in a clothing factory more money by taking it away\nfrom the wages of the seam-sewer and button-holer. The fact that it\nresulted in one set of workers being helped at the expense of another\nset did not appeal to him, so long as he was satisfying the demand of\nthe union without increasing the total cost of production. But the\nSpecial Order Tailors, at the sacrifice of their own wages and growth,\nmade a determined effort to include even the sweat-shop workers in the\nbenefits they had slowly secured for themselves. By means of the use\nof the label they were finally able to insist that no goods should be\ngiven out for home-finishing save to women presenting union cards, and\nthey raised the wages from nine and eleven cents a dozen for finishing\ngarments, to the minimum wage of fifteen cents. They also made a\nprotest against the excessive subdivision of the labor upon garments, a\npractice which enables the manufacturer to use children and the least\nskilled adults. Thirty-two persons are commonly employed upon a single\ncoat, and it is the purpose of the Special Order Tailors to have all\nthe machine work performed by one worker, thus reducing the number\nworking on one coat to twelve or fourteen. As this change will at the\nsame time demand more skill on the part of the operator, and will\nincrease the variety and interest in his work, these garment-makers\nare sacrificing both time and money for the defence of Ruskinian\nprinciples--one of the few actual attempts to recover the \u201cjoy of\nwork.\u201d Although the attempt was, of course, mixed with a desire to\npreserve a trade from the invasion of the unskilled, and a consequent\nlowering of wages, it also represented a genuine effort to preserve to\nthe poorest worker some interest and value in the work itself. It is\nmost unfair, however, to put this task upon the trades unionists and to\nso confuse it with their other efforts that it, too, becomes a cause\nof warfare. The poorest women are often but uncomprehending victims of\nthis labor movement of which they understand so little, and which has\nbecome so much a matter of battle that helpless individuals are lost in\nthe conflict.\n\nA complicated situation occurs to me in illustration. A woman from\nthe Hull-House Day Nursery came to me two years ago asking to borrow\ntwenty-five dollars, a sum her union had imposed as a fine. She gave\nsuch an incoherent account of her plight that it was evident that\nshe did not in the least understand what it was all about. A little\ninvestigation disclosed the following facts: The \u201cNursery Mother,\u201d\nas I here call her for purposes of identification, had worked for a\nlong time in an unorganized overall factory, where the proprietor,\ndealing as he did in goods purchased exclusively by workingmen, found\nit increasingly difficult to sell his overalls because they did not\nbear the union label. He finally made a request to the union that the\nemployees in his factory be organized. This was done, he was given the\nuse of the label, and upon this basis he prospered for several months.\n\nWhether the organizer was \u201cfixed\u201d or not, the investigation did\nnot make clear; for, although the \u201cNursery Mother,\u201d with her\nfellow-workers, had paid their union dues regularly, the employer was\nnot compelled to pay the union scale of wages, but continued to pay\nthe same wages as before. At the end of three months his employees\ndiscovered that they were not being paid the union scale, and demanded\nthat their wages be raised to that amount. The employer, in the\nmeantime having extensively advertised his use of the label, concluded\nthat his purpose had been served, and that he no longer needed the\nunion. He refused, therefore, to pay the union scale, and a strike\nensued. The \u201cNursery Mother\u201d went out with the rest, and within a few\ndays found work in another shop, a union shop doing a lower grade of\nmanufacturing. At that time there was no uniform scale in the garment\ntrades, and although a trade unionist working for union wages, she\nreceived lower wages than she had under the non-union conditions in\nthe overall factory. She was naturally much confused and, following\nher instinct to get the best wages possible, she went back to her\nold place. Affairs ran smoothly for a few weeks, until the employer\ndiscovered that he was again losing trade because his goods lacked\nthe label, whereupon he once more applied to have his shop unionized.\nThe organizer, coming back, promptly discovered the recreant \u201cNursery\nMother,\u201d and, much to her bewilderment, she was fined twenty-five\ndollars. She understood nothing clearly, nor could she, indeed, be made\nto understand so long as she was in the midst of this petty warfare.\nHer labor was a mere method of earning money quite detached from her\nEuropean experience, and failed to make for her the remotest connection\nwith the community whose genuine needs she was supplying. No effort\nhad been made to show her the cultural aspect of her work, to give her\neven the feeblest understanding of the fact that she was supplying a\ngenuine need of the community, and that she was entitled to respect\nand a legitimate industrial position. It would have been necessary to\nmake such an effort from the historic standpoint, and this could be\nundertaken only by the community as a whole and not by any one class in\nit. Protective legislation would be but the first step toward making\nher a more valuable producer and a more intelligent citizen. The whole\neffort would imply a closer connection between industry and government,\nand could be accomplished intelligently only if women were permitted to\nexercise the franchise.\n\nA certain healing and correction would doubtless ensue could we but\nsecure for the protection and education of industrial workers that\nnurture of health and morals which women have so long reserved for\ntheir own families and which has never been utilized as a directing\nforce in industrial affairs.\n\nWhen the family constituted the industrial organism of the day, the\ndaughters of the household were carefully taught in reference to the\nplace they would take in that organism, but as the household arts have\ngone outside the home, almost nothing has been done to connect the\nyoung women with the present great industrial system. This neglect has\nbeen equally true in regard to the technical and cultural sides of that\nsystem.\n\nThe failure to fit the education of women to the actual industrial\nlife which is carried on about them has had disastrous results in two\ndirections. First, industry itself has lacked the modification which\nwomen might have brought to it had they committed the entire movement\nto that growing concern for a larger and more satisfying life for each\nmember of the community, a concern which we have come to regard as\nlegitimate. Second, the more prosperous women would have been able to\nunderstand and adjust their own difficulties of household management in\nrelation to the producer of factory products, as they are now utterly\nunable to do.\n\nAs the census of 1900 showed that more than half of the women\nemployed in \u201cgainful occupations\u201d in the United States are engaged\nin households, certainly their conditions of labor lie largely in\nthe hands of women employers. At a conference held at Lake Placid by\nemployers of household labor, it was contended that future historical\nreview may show that the girls who are to-day in domestic service\nare the really progressive women of the age; that they are those\nwho are fighting conditions which limit their freedom, and although\nthey are doing it blindly, at least they are demanding avenues of\nself-expression outside their work; and that this struggle from\nconditions detrimental to their highest life is the ever-recurring\nstory of the emancipation of first one class and then another. It was\nfurther contended that in this effort to become sufficiently educated\nto be able to understand the needs of an educated employer from an\nindependent standpoint, they are really doing the community a great\nservice, and did they but receive co-operation instead of opposition,\ndomestic service would lose its social ostracism and attract a more\nintelligent class of women. And yet this effort, perfectly reasonable\nfrom the standpoint of historic development and democratic tradition,\nreceives little help from the employing housekeepers, because they know\nnothing of industrial development.\n\nThe situation could be understood only by viewing it, first, in the\nrelation to recent immigration and, second, in connection with the\nfactory system at the present stage of development in America. A review\nof the history of domestic service in a fairly prosperous American\nfamily begins with the colonial period, when the daughters of the\nneighboring farmers came in to \u201chelp\u201d during the busy season. This was\nfollowed by the Irish immigrant, when almost every kitchen had its Nora\nor Bridget, while the mistress of the household retained the sweeping\nand dusting and the Saturday baking. Then came the halcyon days of\nGerman \u201csecond girls\u201d and cooks, followed by the Swedes. The successive\nwaves of immigration supply the demand for domestic service, gradually\nobliterating the fact that as the women became more familiar with\nAmerican customs, they as well as their men folk, entered into more\nskilled and lucrative positions.\n\nIn these last years immigration consists in ever-increasing numbers\nof South Italians and of Russian, Polish, and Rumanian Jews, none of\nwhom have to any appreciable extent entered into domestic service. The\nItalian girls are married between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, and\nto live in any house in town other than that of her father seems to an\nItalian girl quite incomprehensible. The strength of the family tie,\nthe need for \u201ckosher\u201d foods, the celebration of religious festivities,\nthe readiness with which she takes up the sewing trades in which her\nfather and brother are already largely engaged, makes domestic service\na rare occupation for the daughters of the recent Jewish immigrants.\nMoreover, these two classes of immigrants have been quickly absorbed,\nas, indeed, all working people are, by the increasing demand for the\nlabor of young girls and children in factory and workshops. The paucity\nof the material for domestic service is therefore revealed at last, and\nwe are obliged to consider the material for domestic service which a\ndemocracy supplies, and also to realize that the administration of the\nhousehold has suffered because it has become unnaturally isolated from\nthe rest of the community.\n\nThe problems of food and shelter for the family, at any given\nmoment, must be considered in relation to all the other mechanical\nand industrial life of that moment, quite as the intellectual life\nof the family finally depends for its vitality upon its relation to\nthe intellectual resources of the rest of the community. When the\nadministrator of the household deliberately refuses to avail herself\nof the wonderful inventions going on all about her, she soon comes\nto the point of priding herself upon the fact that her household is\nadministered according to traditional lines and of believing that the\nmoral life of the family is so enwrapped in these old customs as to\nbe endangered by any radical change. Because of this attitude on the\npart of contemporary housekeepers, the household has firmly withstood\nthe beneficent changes and healing innovations which applied science\nand economics would long ago have brought about could they have worked\nnaturally and unimpeded.\n\nThese moral and economic difficulties, whether connected with the\nisolation of the home or with the partial and unsatisfactory efforts\nof trades unions, could be avoided only if society would frankly\nrecognize the industrial situation as that which concerns us all,\nand would seriously prepare all classes of the community for their\nrelation to the situation. A technical preparation would, of course,\nnot be feasible, but a cultural one would be possible, so that all\nparts of the community might be intelligent in regard to the industrial\ndevelopments and transitions going on about them. If American women\ncould but obtain a liberating knowledge of that history of industry\nand commerce which is so similar in every country of the globe, the\nfact that so much factory labor is performed by immigrants would\nhelp to bring them nearer to the immigrant woman. Equipped with \u201cthe\ninforming mind\u201d on the one hand and with experience on the other, we\ncould then walk together through the marvelous streets of the human\ncity, no longer conscious whether we are natives or aliens, because\nwe have become absorbed in a fraternal relation arising from a common\nexperience.\n\nAnd this attitude of understanding and respect for the worker is\nnecessary, not only to appreciate what he produces, but to preserve\nhis power of production, again showing the necessity for making that\nsubstitute for war--human labor--more aggressive and democratic. We\nare told that the conquered races everywhere, in their helplessness,\nare giving up the genuine practise of their own arts. In India, for\ninstance, where their arts have been the blossom of many years of\nlabor, the conquered races are casting them aside as of no value in\norder that they may conform to the inferior art, or rather, lack of\nart, of their conquerors. Morris constantly lamented that in some parts\nof India the native arts were quite destroyed, and in many others\nnearly so; that in all parts they had more or less begun to sicken.\nThis lack of respect and understanding of the primitive arts found\namong colonies of immigrants in a modern cosmopolitan city, produces\na like result in that the arts languish and disappear. We have made\nan effort at Hull-House to recover something of the early industries\nfrom an immigrant neighborhood, and in a little exhibit called a\nlabor museum, we have placed in historic sequence and order methods\nof spinning and weaving from a dozen nationalities in Asia Minor and\nEurope. The result has been a striking exhibition of the unity and\nsimilarity of the earlier industrial processes. Within the narrow\nconfines of one room, the Syrian, the Greek, the Italian, the Russian,\nthe Norwegian, the Dutch, and the Irish find that the differences in\ntheir spinning have been merely putting the distaff upon a frame or\nplacing the old hand-spindle in a horizontal position. A group of women\nrepresenting vast differences in religion, in language, in tradition,\nand in nationality, exhibit practically no difference in the daily\narts by which, for a thousand generations, they have clothed their\nfamilies. When American women come to visit them, the quickest method,\nin fact almost the only one, of establishing a genuine companionship\nwith them, is through this same industry, unless we except that\nstill older occupation, the care of little children. Perhaps this\nexperiment may claim to have made a genuine effort to find the basic\nexperiences upon which a cosmopolitan community may unite at least on\nthe industrial side. The recent date of the industrial revolution and\nour nearness to a primitive industry are shown by the fact that Italian\nmothers are more willing to have their daughters work in factories\nproducing textile and food stuffs than in those which produce wood and\nmetal. They interpret the entire situation so simply that it appears\nto them just what it is--a mere continuation of woman\u2019s traditional\nwork under changed conditions. Another example of our nearness to early\nmethods is shown by the fact that many women from South Italy and from\nthe remoter parts of Russia have never seen a spinning-wheel, and\nlook upon it as a new and marvelous invention. But these very people,\nwho are habitually at such a disadvantage because they lack certain\nsuperficial qualities which are too highly prized, have an opportunity\nin the labor museum, at least for the moment, to assert a position in\nthe community to which their previous life and training entitles them,\nand they are judged with something of a historic background. Their very\napparent remoteness gives industrial processes a picturesque content\nand charm.\n\nCan we learn our first lesson in modern industry from these humble\npeasant women who have never shirked the primitive labors upon which\nall civilized life is founded, even as we must obtain our first\nlessons in social morality from those who are bearing the brunt of\nthe overcrowded and cosmopolitan city which is the direct result of\nmodern industrial conditions? If we contend that the franchise should\nbe extended to women on the ground that less emphasis is continually\nplaced upon the military order and more upon the industrial order of\nsociety, we should have to insist that, if she would secure her old\nplace in industry, the modern woman must needs fit her labors to the\npresent industrial organization as the simpler woman fitted hers to the\nmore simple industrial order. It has been pointed out that woman lost\nher earlier place when man usurped the industrial pursuits and created\nwealth on a scale unknown before. Since that time women have been\nreduced more and more to a state of dependency, until we see only among\nthe European peasant women as they work in the fields, \u201cthe heavy,\nstrong, enduring, patient, economically functional representative of\nwhat the women of our day used to be.\u201d\n\nCultural education as it is at present carried on in the most advanced\nschools, is to some extent correcting the present detached relation\nof women to industry but a sense of responsibility in relation to the\ndevelopment of industry would accomplish much more. As men earned\ntheir citizenship through their readiness and ability to defend their\ncity, so perhaps woman, if she takes a citizen\u2019s place in the modern\nindustrial city, will have to earn it by devotion and self-abnegation\nin the service of its complex needs.\n\nThe old social problems were too often made a cause of war in the\nbelief that all difficulties could be settled by an appeal to arms. But\ncertainly these subtler problems which confront the modern cosmopolitan\ncity, the problems of race antagonisms and economic adjustments, must\nbe settled by a more searching and genuine method than mere prowess\ncan possibly afford. The first step toward their real solution must\nbe made upon a past experience common to the citizens as a whole and\nconnected with their daily living. As moral problems become more and\nmore associated with our civic and industrial organizations, the\ndemand for enlarged activity is more exigent. If one could connect the\nold maternal anxieties, which are really the basis of family and tribal\nlife, with the candidates who are seeking offices, it would never be\nnecessary to look about for other motive powers, and if to this we\ncould add maternal concern for the safety and defence of the industrial\nworker, we should have an increasing code of protective legislation.\n\nWe certainly may hope for two results if women enter formally into\nmunicipal life. First, the opportunity to fulfill their old duties and\nobligations with the safeguard and the consideration which the ballot\nalone can secure for them under the changed conditions, and, second,\nthe education which participation in actual affairs always brings.\nAs we believe that woman has no right to allow what really belongs\nto her to drop away from her, so we contend that ability to perform\nan obligation comes very largely in proportion as that obligation is\nconscientiously assumed.\n\nOut of the mediaeval city founded upon militarism there arose in the\nthirteenth century a new order, the middle class, whose importance\nrested, not upon birth or arms, but upon wealth, intelligence, and\norganization. This middle class achieved a sterling success in the\nsucceeding six centuries of industrialism because it was essential to\nthe existence and development of the industrial era. Perhaps we can\nforecast the career of woman, the citizen, if she is permitted to bear\nan elector\u2019s part in the coming period of humanitarianism in which\ngovernment must concern itself with human welfare. She will bear her\nshare of civic responsibility because she is essential to the normal\ndevelopment of the city of the future, and because the definition\nof the loyal citizen as one who is ready to shed his blood for his\ncountry, has become inadequate and obsolete.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[15] A Case for the Factory Acts. Mrs. Sidney Webb.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n\n PASSING OF THE WAR VIRTUES\n\n\nOf all the winged words which Tolstoy wrote during the war between\nRussia and Japan, perhaps none are more significant than these:\n\u201cThe great strife of our time is not that now taking place between\nthe Japanese and the Russians, nor that which may blaze up between\nthe white and the yellow races, nor that strife which is carried\non by mines, bombs, and bullets, but that spiritual strife which,\nwithout ceasing, has gone on and is going on between the enlightened\nconsciousness of mankind now awaiting for manifestation and that\ndarkness and that burden which surrounds and oppresses mankind.\u201d In\nthe curious period of accommodation in which we live, it is possible\nfor old habits and new compunctions to be equally powerful, and it is\nalmost a matter of pride with us that we neither break with the old nor\nyield to the new. We call this attitude tolerance, whereas it is often\nmere confusion of mind. Such mental confusion is strikingly illustrated\nby our tendency to substitute a statement of the historic evolution of\nan ideal of conduct in place of the ideal itself. This almost always\noccurs when the ideal no longer accords with our faithful experience\nof life and when its implications are not justified by our latest\ninformation. In this way we spare ourselves the necessity of pressing\nforward to newer ideals of conduct.\n\nWe quote the convictions and achievements of the past as an excuse for\nourselves when we lack the energy either to throw off old moral codes\nwhich have become burdens or to attain a morality proportionate to our\npresent sphere of activity.\n\nAt the present moment the war spirit attempts to justify its noisy\ndemonstrations by quoting its great achievements in the past and by\ndrawing attention to the courageous life which it has evoked and\nfostered. It is, however, perhaps significant that the adherents of war\nare more and more justifying it by its past record and reminding us of\nits ancient origin. They tell us that it is interwoven with every fibre\nof human growth and is at the root of all that is noble and courageous\nin human life, that struggle is the basis of all progress, that it is\nnow extended from individuals and tribes to nations and races.\n\nWe may admire much that is admirable in this past life of courageous\nwarfare, while at the same time we accord it no right to dominate\nthe present, which has traveled out of its reach into a land of new\ndesires. We may admit that the experiences of war have equipped the men\nof the present with pluck and energy, but to insist upon the selfsame\nexpression for that pluck and energy would be as stupid a mistake as if\nwe would relegate the full-grown citizen, responding to many claims and\ndemands upon his powers, to the school-yard fights of his boyhood, or\nto the college contests of his cruder youth. The little lad who stoutly\ndefends himself on the school-ground may be worthy of much admiration,\nbut if we find him, a dozen years later, the bullying leader of a\nstreet-gang who bases his prestige on the fact that \u201cno one can whip\nhim,\u201d our admiration cools amazingly, and we say that the carrying over\nof those puerile instincts into manhood shows arrested development\nwhich is mainly responsible for filling our prisons.\n\nThis confusion between the contemporaneous stage of development and the\nhistoric r\u00f4le of certain qualities, is intensified by our custom of\nreferring to social evolution as if it were a force and not a process.\nWe assume that social ends may be obtained without the application of\nsocial energies, although we know in our hearts that the best results\nof civilization have come about only through human will and effort.\nTo point to the achievement of the past as a guarantee for continuing\nwhat has since become shocking to us is stupid business; it is to\nforget that progress itself depends upon adaptation, upon a nice\nbalance between continuity and change. Let us by all means acknowledge\nand preserve that which has been good in warfare and in the spirit of\nwarfare; let us gather it together and incorporate it in our national\nfibre. Let us, however, not be guilty for a moment of shutting our\neyes to that which for many centuries must have been disquieting to\nthe moral sense, but which is gradually becoming impossible, not only\nbecause of our increasing sensibilities, but because great constructive\nplans and humanized interests have captured our hopes and we are\nfinding that war is an implement too clumsy and barbaric to subserve\nour purpose. We have come to realize that the great task of pushing\nforward social justice could be enormously accelerated if primitive\nmethods as well as primitive weapons were once for all abolished.\n\nThe past may have been involved in war and suffering in order to bring\nforth a new and beneficent courage, an invincible ardor for conserving\nand healing human life, for understanding and elaborating it. To obtain\nthis courage is to distinguish between a social order founded upon\nlaw enforced by authority and that other social order which includes\nliberty of individual action and complexity of group development. The\nlatter social order would not suppress the least germ of promise, of\ngrowth and variety, but would nurture all into a full and varied life.\nIt is not an easy undertaking to obtain it and it cannot be carried\nforward without conscious and well-defined effort. The task that is\nreally before us is first to see to it, that the old virtues bequeathed\nby war are not retained after they have become a social deterrent and\nthat social progress is not checked by a certain contempt for human\nnature which is but the inherited result of conquest. Second, we must\nact upon the assumption that spontaneous and fraternal action as virile\nand widespread as war itself is the only method by which substitutes\nfor the war virtues may be discovered.\n\nIt was contended in the first chapter of this book that social morality\nis developed through sentiment and action. In this particular age we\ncan live the truth which has been apprehended by our contemporaries,\nthat truth which is especially our own, only by establishing nobler and\nwiser social relations and by discovering social bonds better fitted\nto our requirements. Warfare in the past has done much to bring men\ntogether. A sense of common danger and the stirring appeal to action\nfor a common purpose, easily open the channels of sympathy through\nwhich we partake of the life about us. But there are certainly other\nmethods of opening those channels. A social life to be healthy must be\nconsciously and fully adjusted to the march of social needs, and as we\nmay easily make a mistake by forgetting that enlarged opportunities are\never demanding an enlarged morality, so we will fail in the task of\nsubstitution if we do not demand social sympathy in a larger measure\nand of a quality better adapted to the contemporaneous situation.\n\nPerhaps the one point at which this undertaking is most needed is in\nregard to our conception of patriotism, which, although as genuine\nas ever before, is too much dressed in the trappings of the past and\ncontinually carries us back to its beginnings in military prowess and\ndefence. To have been able to trace the origin and development of\npatriotism and then to rest content with that, and to fail to insist\nthat it shall respond to the stimulus of a larger and more varied\nenvironment with which we are now confronted, is a confession of\nweakness; it exhibits lack of moral enterprise and of national vigor.\n\nWe have all seen the breakdown of village standards of morality when\nthe conditions of a great city are encountered. To do \u201cthe good lying\nnext at hand\u201d may be a sufficient formula when the village idler\nand his needy children live but a few doors down the street, but\nthe same dictum may be totally misleading when the villager becomes\na city resident and finds his next-door neighbors prosperous and\ncomfortable, while the poor and overburdened live many blocks away\nwhere he would never see them at all, unless he were stirred by a\nspirit of social enterprise to go forth and find them in the midst\nof their meagre living and their larger needs. The spirit of village\ngossip, penetrating and keen as it is, may be depended upon to bring to\nthe notice of the kind-hearted villager all cases of suffering--that\nsomeone is needed \u201cto sit up all night\u201d with a sick neighbor, or that\nthe village loafer has been drunk again and beaten his wife; but in\na city divided so curiously into the regions of the well-to-do and\nthe congested quarters of the immigrant, the conscientious person\ncan no longer rely upon gossip. There is no intercourse, not even a\nscattered one, between the two, save what the daily paper brings, with\nits invincible propensity to report the gossip of poverty and crime,\nperhaps a healthier tendency than we imagine. The man who has moved\nfrom the village to the cosmopolitan city and who would continue even\nhis former share of beneficent activity must bestir himself to keep\ninformed as to social needs and to make new channels through which his\nsympathy may flow. Without some such conscious effort, his sympathy\nwill finally become stratified along the line of his social intercourse\nand he will be unable really to care for any people but his \u201cown kind.\u201d\nAmerican conceptions of patriotism have moved, so to speak, from the\nNew England village into huge cosmopolitan cities. They find themselves\nbewildered by the change and have not only failed to make the\nadjustment, but the very effort in that direction is looked upon with\ndeep suspicion by their old village neighbors. Unless our conception of\npatriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection\nand the real interest of the nation. We know full well that the\npatriotism of common descent is the mere patriotism of the clan--the\nearly patriotism of the tribe--and that, while the possession of a\nlike territory is an advance upon that first conception, both of them\nare unworthy to be the patriotism of a great cosmopolitan nation. We\nshall not have made any genuine advance until we have grown impatient\nof a patriotism founded upon military prowess and defence, because this\nreally gets in the way and prevents the growth of that beneficent and\nprogressive patriotism which we need for the understanding and healing\nof our current national difficulties.\n\nTo seek our patriotism in some age other than our own is to accept a\ncode that is totally inadequate to help us through the problems which\ncurrent life develops. We continue to found our patriotism upon war\nand to contrast conquest with nurture, militarism with industrialism,\ncalling the latter passive and inert and the former active and\naggressive, without really facing the situation as it exists. We\ntremble before our own convictions, and are afraid to find newer\nmanifestations of courage and daring lest we thereby lose the virtues\nbequeathed to us by war. It is a pitiful acknowledgment that we have\nlost them already and that we shall have to give up the ways of war, if\nfor no other reason than to preserve the finer spirit of courage and\ndetachment which it has engendered and developed.\n\nWe come at last to the practical question as to how these substitutes\nfor the war virtues may be found. How may we, the children of an\nindustrial and commercial age, find the courage and sacrifice which\nbelong to our industrialism. We may begin with August Comte\u2019s assertion\nthat man seeks to improve his position in two different ways, by\nthe destruction of obstacles and by the construction of means, or,\ndesignated by their most obvious social results, if his contention is\ncorrect, by military action and by industrial action, and that the two\nmust long continue side by side. Then we find ourselves asking what\nmay be done to make more picturesque those lives which are spent in a\nmonotonous and wearing toil, compared to which the camp is exciting and\nthe barracks comfortable. How shall it be made to seem as magnificent\npatiently to correct the wrongs of industrialism as to do battle for\nthe rights of the nation? This transition ought not to be so difficult\nin America, for to begin with, our national life in America has been\nlargely founded upon our success in invention and engineering, in\nmanufacturing and commerce. Our prosperity has rested upon constructive\nlabor and material progress, both of them in striking contrast to\nwarfare. There is an element of almost grim humor in the nation\u2019s\nreverting at last to the outworn methods of battle-ships and defended\nharbors. We may admit that idle men need war to keep alive their\ncourage and endurance, but we have few idle men in a nation engaged\nin industrialism. We constantly see subordination of sensation to\nsentiment in hundreds of careers which are not military; the thousands\nof miners in Pennsylvania doubtless endure every year more bodily pain\nand peril than the same number of men in European barracks.\n\nIndustrial life affords ample opportunity for endurance, discipline,\nand a sense of detachment, if the struggle is really put upon the\nhighest level of industrial efficiency. But because our industrial life\nis not on this level, we constantly tend to drop the newer and less\ndeveloped ideals for the older ones of warfare, we ignore the fact that\nwar so readily throws back the ideals which the young are nourishing\ninto the mold of those which the old should be outgrowing. It lures\nyoung men not to develop, but to exploit; it turns them from the\ncourage and toil of industry to the bravery and endurance of war, and\nleads them to forget that civilization is the substitution of law for\nwar. It incites their ambitions, not to irrigate, to make fertile and\nsanitary, the barren plain of the savage, but to fill it with military\nposts and tax-gatherers, to cease from pushing forward industrial\naction into new fields and to fall back upon military action.\n\nWe may illustrate this by the most beneficent acts of war, when\nthe military spirit claiming to carry forward civilization invades\na country for the purpose of bringing it into the zone of the\ncivilized world. Militarism enforces law and order and insists upon\nobedience and discipline, assuming that it will ultimately establish\nrighteousness and foster progress. In order to carry out this good\nintention, it first of all clears the decks of impedimenta, although\nin the process it may extinguish the most precious beginnings of\nself-government and the nucleus of self-help, which the wise of the\nnative community have long been anxiously hoarding.\n\nIt is the military idea, resting content as it does with the passive\nresults of order and discipline, which confesses a totally inadequate\nconception of the value and power of human life. The charge of\nobtaining negative results could with great candor be brought against\nmilitarism, while the strenuous task, the vigorous and difficult\nundertaking, involving the use of the most highly developed human\npowers, can be claimed for industrialism.\n\nIt is really human constructive labor which must give the newly invaded\ncountry a sense of its place in the life of the civilized world, some\nidea of the effective occupations which it may perform. In order to\naccomplish this its energy must be freed and its resources developed.\nMilitarism undertakes to set in order, to suppress and to govern, if\nnecessary to destroy, while industrialism undertakes to liberate latent\nforces, to reconcile them to new conditions, to demonstrate that their\naroused activities can no longer follow caprice, but must fit into a\nlarger order of life. To call this latter undertaking, demanding ever\nnew powers of insight, patience, and fortitude, less difficult, less\nmanly, less strenuous, than the first, is on the face of it absurd.\nIt is the soldier who is inadequate to the difficult task, who strews\nhis ways with blunders and lost opportunities, who cannot justify his\nvocation by the results, and who is obliged to plead guilty to a lack\nof rational method.\n\nOf British government in the Empire, an Englishman has recently\nwritten, \u201cWe are obliged in practise to make a choice between good\norder and justice administered autocratically in accordance with\nBritish standards on the one hand, and delicate, costly, doubtful,\nand disorderly experiments in self-government on British lines upon\nthe other, and we have practically everywhere decided upon the former\nalternative. It is, of course, less difficult.\u201d[16] Had our American\nideals of patriotism and morality in international relations kept\npace with our experience, had we followed up our wide commercial\nrelations with an adequate ethical code, we can imagine a body of\nyoung Americans, \u201cthe flower of our youth,\u201d as we like to say,\nproudly declining commercial advantages founded upon forced military\noccupation and informing their well-meaning government that they\ndeclined to accept openings on any such terms as these, that their\nideals of patriotism and of genuine government demanded the play of\ntheir moral prowess and their constructive intelligence. Certainly in\nAmerica we have a chance to employ something more active and virile,\nmore inventive, more in line with our temperament and tradition, than\nthe mere desire to increase commercial relations by armed occupation\nas other governments have done. A different conduct is required\nfrom a democracy than from the mere order-keeping, bridge-building,\ntax-gathering Roman, or from the conscientious Briton carrying the\nblessings of an established government and enlarged commerce to all\nquarters of the globe.\n\nIt has been the time-honored custom to attribute unjust wars to the\nselfish ambition of rulers who remorselessly sacrifice their subjects\nto satisfy their greed. But, as Lecky has recently pointed out, it\nremains to be seen whether or not democratic rule will diminish war.\nImmoderate and uncontrolled desires are at the root of most national\nas well as of most individual crimes, and a large number of persons\nmay be moved by unworthy ambitions quite as easily as a few. If the\nelectorate of a democracy accustom themselves to take the commercial\nview of life, to consider the extension of trade as the test of a\nnational prosperity, it becomes comparatively easy for mere extension\nof commercial opportunity to assume a moral aspect and to receive the\nmoral sanction. Unrestricted commercialism is an excellent preparation\nfor governmental aggression. The nation which is accustomed to condone\nthe questionable business methods of a rich man because of his success,\nwill find no difficulty in obscuring the moral issues involved in any\nundertaking that is successful. It becomes easy to deny the moral basis\nof self-government and to substitute militarism. The soldier formerly\nlooked down upon the merchant whom he now obeys, as he still looks down\nupon the laborer as a man who is engaged in a business inferior to\nhis own, as someone who is dull and passive and ineffective. When our\npublic education succeeds in freeing the creative energy and developing\nthe skill which the advance of industry demands, this attitude must\ndisappear, and a spectacle such as that recently seen in London among\nthe idle men returned from service in South Africa, who refused to work\nthrough a contemptuous attitude towards the \u201cslow life\u201d of the laborer,\nwill become impossible. We have as yet failed to uncover the relative\ndifficulty and requisite training for the two methods of life.\n\nIt is difficult to illustrate on a national scale the substitution of\nthe ideals of labor for those of warfare.\n\nAt the risk of being absurd, and with the certainty of pushing an\nillustration beyond its legitimate limits, I am venturing to typify\nthis substitution by the one man whom the civilized world has most\nclosely associated with military ideals, the present Emperor of\nGermany. We may certainly believe that the German Emperor is a\nconscientious man, who means to do his duty to all his subjects; that\nhe regards himself, not only as general and chief of the army, but also\nas the fostering father of the humble people. Let us imagine the quite\nimpossible thing that for ten years he does not review any troops, does\nnot attend any parades, does not wear a uniform, nor hear the clang of\nthe sword as he walks, but that during these ten years he lives with\nthe peasants \u201cwho drive the painful plow,\u201d that he constantly converses\nwith them, and subjects himself to their alternating hopes and fears\nas to the result of the harvest, at best so inadequate for supplying\ntheir wants and for paying their taxes. Let us imagine that the German\nEmperor during these halcyon years, in addition to the companionship\nof the humble, reads only the folk-lore, the minor poetry and the\nplaintive songs in which German literature is so rich, until he comes\nto see each man of the field as he daily goes forth to his toil \u201cwith a\nsoldier tied to his back,\u201d exhausted by the double strain of his burden\nand his work.\n\nLet us imagine this Emperor going through some such profound moral\nchange as befell Count Tolstoy when he quitted his military service\nin the Caucasus and lived with the peasants on his estate, with this\ndifference that, instead of feeling directly responsible for a village\nof humble folk, he should come to feel responsible for all the toilers\nof the \u201cFatherland\u201d and for the international results of the German\narmy. Let us imagine that in his self-surrender to the humblest of his\npeople, there would gradually grow up in his subconsciousness, forces\nmore ideal than any which had possessed him before; that his interests\nand thoughts would gradually shift from war and the man\u0153uvres and\nextensions of the army, to the unceasing toil, the permanent patience,\nwhich lie at the bottom of all national existence; that the life of\nthe common people, which is so infinite in its moral suggestiveness,\nwould open up to him new moral regions, would stir new energies within\nhim, until there would take place one of those strange alterations in\npersonality of which hundreds of examples are recorded. Under a glow\nof generous indignation, magnanimity, loyalty to his people, a passion\nof self-surrender to his new ideals, we can imagine that the imperial\ntemperament would waste no time in pinings and regret, but that, his\nenergies being enlisted in an overmastering desire to free the people\nfrom the burden of the army, he would drive vigorously in the direction\nof his new ideals. It is impossible to imagine him \u201cpassive\u201d under this\nconversion to the newer ideals of peace. He would no more be passive\nthan St. Paul was after his conversion. He would regard the four\nmillion men in Europe shut up in barracks, fed in idleness by toiling\npeasants, as an actual wrong and oppression. They would all have to\nbe freed and returned to normal life and occupation--not through the\ncomparatively easy method of storming garrisons, in which he has had\ntraining, but through conviction on the part of rulers and people of\nthe wrong and folly of barrack idleness and military glitter. The\nfreeing of the Christians from the oppressions of the Turks, of the\nSpaniards from the Moslems, could offer no more strenuous task--always,\nhowever, with the added difficulty and complication that the change\nin the people must be a moral change analogous to the one which had\nalready taken place within himself; that he must be debarred from\nthe use of weapons, to which his earlier life had made him familiar;\nthat his high task, while enormous in its proportion, was still most\ndelicate in its character, and must be undertaken without the guarantee\nof precedent, and without any surety of success. \u201cSmitten with the\ngreat vision of social righteousness,\u201d as so many of his contemporaries\nhave been, he could not permit himself to be blinded or to take refuge\nin glittering generalities, but, even as St. Paul arose from his vision\nand went on his way in a new determination never again changed, so he\nwould have to go forth to a mission, imperial indeed in its magnitude,\nbut \u201cover-imperial\u201d in the sweep of its consequences and in the\ndifficulty of its accomplishment.\n\nCertainly counting all the hours of the Emperor\u2019s life spent in camp\nand court dominated by military pomp and ambition, he has given more\nthan ten years to military environment and much less than ten years\nto the bulk of his people, and it would not be impossible to imagine\nsuch a conversion due to the reaction of environment and interest.\nSuch a change having taken place, should we hold him royal in temper\nor worthy of the traditions of knight-errantry, if he were held back\nby commercial considerations, if he hesitated because the Krupp\nCompany could sell no more guns and would be thrown out of business?\nWe should say to this Emperor whom our imaginations have evoked,\nWere your enthusiasms genuine enough, were your insights absolutely\ntrue, you would see of how little consequence these things really\nare, and how easily adjusted. Let the Krupp factories, with their\ntremendous resources in machinery and men, proceed to manufacture\ndredging machines for the reclaiming of the waste land in Posen; let\nthem make new inventions to relieve the drudgery of the peasant,\nagricultural implements adequate to Germany\u2019s agricultural resources\nand possibilities. They will find need for all the power of invention\nwhich they can command, all the manufacturing and commercial ability\nwhich they now employ. It is part of your new vocation to adjust the\nindustries now tributary to the standing armies and organization\nof warfare, to useful and beneficent occupations; to transform and\nreadjust all their dependent industries, from the manufacturing of\ncannon and war-ships to that of gold braid and epaulets. It is your\nmission to revive and increase agriculture, industry, and commerce,\nby diverting all the energy which is now directed to the feeding,\nclothing, and arming of the idle, into the legitimate and normal\nchannels of life.\n\nIt is certainly not more difficult to imagine such a change occurring\nto an entire people than in the mind and purpose of one man--in fact,\nsuch changes are going on all about us.\n\nThe advance of constructive labor and the subsidence and disappearance\nof destructive warfare is a genuine line of progression. One sees much\nof protection and something of construction in the office of war, as\nthe Roman bridges survived throughout Europe long after the legions\nwhich built them and crossed them for new conquests had passed out of\nmind. Also, in the rising tide of labor there is a large admixture of\nwarfare, of the purely militant spirit which is sometimes so dominant\nthat it throws the entire movement into confusion and leads the laborer\nto renounce his birthright; but nevertheless the desire for battle is\nbecoming constantly more restricted in area. It still sways in regions\nwhere men of untamed blood are dwelling, and among men who, because\nthey regard themselves as a superior race, imagine that they are free\nfrom the ordinary moral restraints; but its territory constantly\ngrows smaller and its manifestations more guarded. Doubtless war will\nexist for many generations among semi-savage tribes, and it will also\nbreak out in those nations which may be roused and dominated by the\nunrestricted commercial spirit; but the ordinary life of man will go\non without it, as it becomes transmitted into a desire for normal human\nrelationship.\n\nIt is difficult to predict at what moment the conviction that war is\nfoolish or wasteful or unjustifiable may descend upon the earth, and\nit is also impossible to estimate among how many groups of people this\nconviction has already become established.\n\nThe Doukhobors are a religious sect in Russia whose creed emphasizes\nthe teaching of non-resistance. A story is told of one of their young\nmen who, because of his refusal to enter the Russian army, was brought\nfor trial before a judge, who reasoned with him concerning the folly\nof his course and in return received a homily upon the teachings of\nJesus. \u201cQuite right you are,\u201d answered the judge, \u201cfrom the point of\nabstract virtue, but the time has not yet come to put into practise the\nliteral sayings of Christ.\u201d \u201cThe time may not have come for you, your\nHonor,\u201d was the reply, \u201cbut the time has come for us.\u201d Who can tell at\nwhat hour vast numbers of Russian peasants upon those Russian steppes\nwill decide that the time has come for them to renounce warfare, even\nas their prototype, the mujik, Count Tolstoy, has already decided that\nit has come for him? Conscious as the peasants are of religious motive,\nthey will meet a cheerful martyrdom for their convictions, as so many\nof the Doukhobors have done. It may, however, be easy to overestimate\nthis changed temper because of the simple yet dramatic formulation\ngiven by Tolstoy to the non-resisting spirit. How far Tolstoy is really\nthe mouthpiece of a great moral change going on in the life of the\nRussian peasant and how far he speaks merely for himself, it is, of\ncourse, impossible to state. If only a few peasants are experiencing\nthis change, his genius has certainly done much to make their position\ndefinite. The man who assumes that a new degree of virtue is possible,\nthereby makes it real and tangible to those who long to possess it but\nlack courage. Tolstoy at least is ready to predict that in the great\naffairs of national disarmament, it may easily be true that the Russian\npeasants will take the first steps.\n\nTheir armed rebellion may easily be overcome by armed troops, but what\ncan be done with their permanent patience, their insatiable hunger\nfor holiness? All idealism has its prudential aspects, and, as has\nbeen pointed out by Mr. Perris,[17] no other form of revolution is so\nfitted to an agricultural people as this continued outburst of passive\nresistance among whole communities, not in theory, but in practise.\nThis peasant movement goes on in spite of persecution, perfectly\nspontaneous, self-reliant, colossal in the silent confidence and power\nof endurance. In this day of Maxim guns and high explosives, the old\nmethod of revolt would be impossible to an agricultural people, but\nthe non-resistant strike against military service lies directly in\nline with the temperament and capacity of the Russian people. That\n\u201cthe government cannot put the whole population in prison, and, if it\ncould, it would still be without material for an army, and without\nmoney for its support,\u201d is an almost irrefutable argument. We see here,\nat least, the beginnings of a sentiment that shall, if sufficiently\ndeveloped, make war impossible to an entire people, a conviction of sin\nmanifesting itself throughout a nation.\n\nWhatever may have been true of the revolutionist of the past when\nhis spike was on a certain level of equality with the bayonet of\nthe regular soldier, and his enthusiasm and daring could, in large\nmeasure, overcome the difference, it is certainly true now that\nsuch simple arms as a revolutionist could command, would be utterly\nfutile against the equipment of the regular soldier. To continue the\nuse of armed force means, under these circumstances, that we must\nrefer the possibilities of all social and industrial advance to the\nconsent of the owners of the Maxim guns. We must deny to the humble\nthe possibility of the initiation of progressive movements employing\nrevolution or, at least, we must defer all advance until the humble\nmany can persuade the powerful few of the righteousness of their cause,\nand we must throw out the working class from participation in the\nbeginnings of social revolutions. Tolstoy would make non-resistance\naggressive. He would carry over into the reservoirs of moral influence\nall the strength which is now spent in coercion and resistance. It\nis an experiment which in its fullness has never been tried in human\nhistory, and it is worthy of a genius. As moral influence has ever a\nlarger place in individual relationship and as physical force becomes\ndaily more restricted in area, so Tolstoy would \u201cspeed up\u201d the process\nin collective relationships and reset the whole of international life\nupon the basis of good will and intelligent understanding. It does not\nmatter that he has entered these new moral fields through the narrow\ngateway of personal experience; that he sets forth his convictions with\nthe limitations of the Russian governmental environment; that he is\nregarded at this moment by the Russian revolutionists as a quietist and\nreactionary. He has nevertheless reached down into the moral life of\nthe humble people and formulated for them as for us the secret of their\nlong patience and unremitting labor. Therefore, in the teachings of\nTolstoy, as in the life of the peasants, coextensive with the doctrine\nof non-resistance, stress is laid upon productive labor. The peasant\nBandereff, from whom Tolstoy claims to have learned much, has not only\nproclaimed himself as against war, but has written a marvelous book\nentitled \u201cBread Labor,\u201d expressing once more the striking antithesis,\nthe eternal contrast between war and labor, and between those who abhor\nthe one and ever advocate the other.\n\nWar on the one hand--plain destruction, Von Moltke called\nit--represents the life of the garrison and the tax-gatherer, the Roman\nemperor and his degenerate people, living upon the fruits of their\nconquest. Labor, on the other hand, represents productive effort,\nholding carefully what has been garnered by the output of brain and\nmuscle, guarding the harvest jealously because it is the precious bread\nmen live by.\n\nIt is quite possible that we have committed the time-honored folly of\nlooking for a sudden change in men\u2019s attitude toward war, even as the\npoor alchemists wasted their lives in searching for a magic fluid and\ndid nothing to discover the great laws governing chemical changes and\nreactions, the knowledge of which would have developed untold wealth\nbeyond their crude dreams of transmuted gold.\n\nThe final moral reaction may at last come, accompanied by deep remorse,\ntoo tardy to reclaim all the human life which has been spent and the\ntreasure which has been wasted, or it may come with a great sense of\njoy that all voluntary destruction of human life, all the deliberate\nwasting of the fruits of labor, have become a thing of the past, and\nthat whatever the future contains for us, it will at least be free\nfrom war. We may at last comprehend the truth of that which Ruskin has\nstated so many times, that we worship the soldier, not because he goes\nforth to slay, but to be slain.\n\nThat this world peace movement should be arising from the humblest\nwithout the sanction and in some cases with the explicit indifference,\nof the church founded by the Prince of Peace, is simply another example\nof the strange paths of moral evolution.\n\nTo some of us it seems clear that marked manifestations of this\nmovement are found in the immigrant quarters of American cities. The\nprevious survey of the immigrant situation would indicate that all the\npeoples of the world have become part of the American tribunal, and\nthat their sense of pity, their clamor for personal kindness, their\ninsistence upon the right to join in our progress, can no longer be\ndisregarded. The burdens and sorrows of men have unexpectedly become\nintelligent and urgent to this nation, and it is only by accepting\nthem with some magnanimity that we can develop the larger sense of\njustice which is becoming world-wide and is lying in ambush, as it\nwere, to manifest itself in governmental relations. Men of all nations\nare determining upon the abolition of degrading poverty, disease, and\nintellectual weakness, with their resulting industrial inefficiency,\nand are making a determined effort to conserve even the feeblest\ncitizen to the State. To join in this determined effort is to break\nthrough national bonds and to unlock the latent fellowship between man\nand man. In a political campaign men will go through every possible\nhardship in response to certain political loyalties; in a moment of\nnational danger men will sacrifice every personal advantage. It is but\nnecessary to make this fellowship wider, to extend its scope without\nlowering its intensity. Those emotions which stir the spirit to deeds\nof self-surrender and to high enthusiasm, are among the world\u2019s most\nprecious assets. That this emotion has so often become associated with\nwar, by no means proves that it cannot be used for other ends. There\nis something active and tangible in this new internationalism, although\nit is difficult to make it clear, and in our striving for a new word\nwith which to express this new and important sentiment, we are driven\nto the rather absurd phrase of \u201ccosmic patriotism.\u201d Whatever it may\nbe called, it may yet be strong enough to move masses of men out of\ntheir narrow national considerations and cautions into new reaches of\nhuman effort and affection. Religion has long ago taught that only\nas the individual can establish a sense of union with a power for\nrighteousness not himself, can he experience peace; and it may be\npossible that the nations will be called to a similar experience.\n\nThe International Peace Conference held in Boston in 1904 was opened\nby a huge meeting in which men of influence and modern thought from\nfour continents, gave reasons for their belief in the passing of\nwar. But none was so modern, so fundamental and so trenchant, as the\naddress which was read from the prophet Isaiah. He founded the cause\nof peace upon the cause of righteousness, not only as expressed in\npolitical relations, but also in industrial relations. He contended\nthat peace could be secured only as men abstained from the gains of\noppression and responded to the cause of the poor; that swords would\nfinally be beaten into plowshares and pruning-hooks, not because men\nresolved to be peaceful, but because all the metal of the earth would\nbe turned to its proper use when the poor and their children should be\nabundantly fed. It was as if the ancient prophet foresaw that under\nan enlightened industrialism peace would no longer be an absence of\nwar, but the unfolding of world-wide processes making for the nurture\nof human life. He predicted the moment which has come to us now that\npeace is no longer an abstract dogma but has become a rising tide of\nmoral enthusiasm slowly engulfing all pride of conquest and making war\nimpossible.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[16] Imperialism, by John A. Hobson. Page 128.\n\n[17] The Grand Mujik, G. H. Perris.\n\n\n\n\n INDEX\n\n\n Altruism, manifestations of, 17;\n in politics, 48.\n\n Anglo-Saxon, temptation to govern all peoples alike, 47;\n distrust of experiment, 67;\n individualistic, 68;\n attitude towards self-government, 112.\n\n Arbitration, change in attitude toward, 133;\n in New Zealand, 134.\n\n Aristotle\u2019s ideal of a city, 92.\n\n Assimilation, limit to United States power of, 39;\n workingman\u2019s attitude toward, 94, 117.\n\n\n Bandereff, 234.\n\n Bentham, 23.\n\n Bloch, Jean de, 4.\n\n Booth, Charles, maps of London, 86.\n\n Bosanquet, Mrs. Bernard, 116.\n\n Buckle, 23.\n\n Burns, John, 125.\n\n\n Charity, organization of in New York, 74;\n modern, democratic and constructive, 79;\n extension of, 84;\n and unskilled labor, 152.\n\n Chicago Municipal Lodging House, 157.\n\n Chicago Federation of Labor, 130, 131.\n\n Chicago Stock Yards Strike, power of unions for amalgamation shown in,\n 96;\n object of, 101, 111;\n use of referendum vote in, 103, 108;\n good order of, 104;\n paradoxes shown by, 104;\n example of national appeal subordinated to union, 106;\n strike-breaker in, 106;\n Greek in, 109.\n\n Child Labor, social waste of, 28;\n a national problem, 107;\n industrial value of, 154;\n responsibility of State, 156;\n effect of sub-divided, 158;\n effect of premature, 159;\n effect on parents, 161;\n effect on product, 162.\n\n Child Labor Legislation, makes for better citizens, 73;\n immigrant parents and, 74;\n uniform, 168;\n leisure gained for play, 169.\n\n Commerce, international, 115;\n modern representative of conquest, 116.\n\n Comte, Augustus, 217.\n\n Constitution of the U. S., and the immigrant, 42, 43, 72, 73.\n\n Contempt, social results of, 51;\n in industrialism, 116;\n for immigrant, 151;\n for primitive arts, 202.\n\n Cosmopolitan city, beginnings of newer ideals of peace found in, 11,\n 13, 18;\n centers of radicalism, 16;\n bond of union in, 17, 204;\n difficulties due to size of, 86, 216;\n subtle problems of, 206.\n\n Cosmopolitan standard, lack of, 78.\n\n\n Dante, 21.\n\n Democratic government, causes of failure of, 47;\n arousing enthusiasm for, 63;\n result of moral effort, 75;\n inherited form of, 121.\n\n Democracy, modified slowly, 37;\n repressive legislation in, 52;\n lack of civic expression for, 59;\n failure to apprehend, 91;\n effects of commercialism on, 222.\n\n Denver Juvenile Court, 81.\n\n Doctrinaire method, weakness of, 31;\n conditions settled by, 53;\n unattached to experience, 72;\n not fitted to modern patriotism, 74.\n\n Domestic service, 51;\n a review of the history of, 199.\n\n Doukhobors, situation in Canada, 67;\n emphasize non-resistance, 230;\n meet martyrdom, 231.\n\n\n Education, related to industrial efficiency, 16;\n belief in, as social remedy, 21;\n of vital importance to city, 73;\n compulsory, 74;\n advanced and reform schools, 82;\n passion in America, 85;\n distinctive achievement in America, 166;\n for factory children, 167;\n less expensive than repression, 175;\n already democratized, 178.\n\n Educators, recognizing industrialism, 169.\n\n Eighteenth-century philosophy, abandonment of, required, 28;\n inadequacy of, 31;\n responsible for immigration, 40;\n belief in universal franchise, 42;\n ideal man of, 60;\n ideals still influence statesman, 70;\n retained in America, 91;\n formula of equality, 117;\n radicalism of, 121.\n\n Employer, prone to attack new union, 129;\n charges against unions, 135;\n attitude toward business relations with unions, 138;\n traditions in household, 201.\n\n England, labor laws of, 152;\n debasement of products of, 166.\n\n\n Franchise, 38;\n universal panacea, 42;\n universal franchise, 52;\n beginnings of municipal, 180;\n military test absurd, 182;\n why women should have, 192.\n\n Factory system, 163;\n worst evils of, 149;\n uneducational, 173.\n\n\n Gang, almost tribal in organization, 176;\n political training in, 177.\n\n German Emperor, 224.\n\n Germany, government deals with needs of workingman, 88;\n police socialized in, 89;\n not afraid to extend municipal functions, 91;\n economic protection in, 122, 152;\n opposition to militarism in, 165.\n\n Golden, State Reform State School, 81.\n\n Government, newer manifestations of, 15;\n away from the life of the people, 35;\n oppressive, dependent on the sword, 36;\n opposition to, formerly patriotism, 42;\n dealing with naturalization, 42;\n test not current, 47;\n concern for the young incorporated in, 80;\n fear of extending functions, 84;\n traditional activities meagre, 87;\n non-interference in industry, 90;\n functions of, 101;\n patriotic citizens forced to ignore, 112.\n\n\n Hague tribunal, 5.\n\n Hebrew alliance, 74.\n\n Heroism, new, 25, 218.\n\n Historic method, 31, 63.\n\n Hobhouse, L. T., 6.\n\n Hobson, John A., 221.\n\n Household labor, conference at Lake Placid, 198;\n history of, in America, 199;\n causes of paucity of, 200.\n\n Hull-House, experiences, 50, 58, 77, 82, 91, 119, 143, 159, 194, 203,\n 204.\n\n Humanitarianism, in immigrant quarters, 15;\n aggressive, 26;\n scientific method applied to, 28;\n cosmopolitan, 76;\n present stage of, 79, 99;\n its relation to labor power, 165.\n\n\n Idealism, provincial aspects of, 231.\n\n Immigrants, emotional sentiment among, 13;\n unusual power of association among, 14;\n franchise extended to, 38;\n philosophy in regard to, 41;\n exploitation of, 42, 45;\n evasion of immigration laws by, 47;\n contempt for, 49;\n charm and historical association among, 64, 70;\n ignoring past experience of, 65;\n beginnings of self-government among, 71;\n relations of politician to, 72;\n attempts to teach patriotism to, 75;\n revelation of social customs among, 79;\n standardizing by workmen, 93;\n difficulties largely industrial, 94;\n as wage lowering weapon, 97;\n standard of living for, 102, 116;\n claim on charitable funds, 152;\n present contrasted with youthful condition of, 161;\n early industries among, 203;\n historic backgrounds of, 205;\n manifestations of peace movement among, 235.\n\n Immigration, decreased by industrial depression, 44;\n of recent years, 200.\n\n Industrialism, 15;\n versus militarism, 28, 220;\n significance of primitive arts in relation to, 64;\n idealism in, 95;\n as basis for legislation, 121.\n\n Industrial interests, in contemporary life, 42;\n and the immigrant, 71;\n germane to government, 122;\n and international peace, 113.\n\n Industrial development, changes in, 124.\n\n Illiterate children in the U. S., 163.\n\n Internationalism, 23;\n socialism based on, 114;\n Mazzini\u2019s address on, 115;\n active and tangible, 237.\n\n International Peace Conference in Boston, 237.\n\n Interparliamentary union for international arbitration, 6.\n\n Institute of International Law, 6.\n\n\n James, William, 24.\n\n Jefferson, Thomas, 31.\n\n Justice, the larger, 236.\n\n Juvenile Courts, 80;\n Denver, 81;\n parental attitude of, 82.\n\n\n Kant, 23.\n\n Kelley, Mrs. Florence, 153.\n\n\n Lecky, 222.\n\n London, Charles Booth, maps of, 87;\n government of, 88.\n\n\n Machinery and the industrial situation, 149.\n\n Mazzini, 29, 115.\n\n Militarism, versus industrialism, 28;\n police department a survival of, 55;\n mediaeval city founded on, 207;\n negative results of, 220.\n\n Mitchell, John, 126, 146.\n\n Morality, class, 27;\n group, 124, 145;\n antiquated codes of, 210;\n village standards of, 215.\n\n Morley, John, 118.\n\n Morris, William, 203.\n\n Municipal government, admitted failure of, 31;\n full of survivals, 34;\n two points of rapid development in, 79;\n ignores interests of average citizen, 85;\n failure to provide playgrounds, 176;\n indifference of citizens to, 183;\n woman\u2019s traditional activities in, 184.\n\n\n Naturalization, 42;\n rests on laws of 1802, 43;\n brokerage in papers of, 46, 71;\n test not contemporaneous, 42.\n\n Non-resistance, a misleading word, 8;\n non-resistance strike, 232;\n aggressive, 233.\n\n\n Patriotism, belief that war engenders, 18;\n a newer, arising, 19;\n founded on sacrifice, 74;\n taught too formally, 75;\n primitive core of, 91;\n founded on war, 140, 217;\n bound in trappings of the past, 214.\n\n Peace, dynamic versus dogmatic, 7;\n predicted by Isaiah, 237.\n\n Perris, G. H., 231.\n\n Play, a social stimulus, 171;\n develops self-government and discipline, 173;\n attitude of enlightened city government to, 178.\n\n Politician, professional, produced by mechanical government, 52;\n friend of the vicious, 56;\n appeals to human sentiment, 59;\n first friend of immigrant, 72;\n understands people\u2019s hopes, 79;\n attempts to control strike, 103.\n\n Protective legislation, aggressive aspect of the newer\n humanitarianism, 28;\n U. S. deficient in, 152.\n\n\n Reformer, contemptuous attitude of, 49;\n sweeping condemnations of, 57;\n alliance with business interests of, 61.\n\n Revolutionary War, 36, 37.\n\n Revolutionist, 232.\n\n Repressive legislation, 54;\n human element in, 55.\n\n Royce, Josiah, 32.\n\n Ruskin, 235.\n\n Russia, 68;\n the mir, 67;\n attitude toward workmen, 122;\n the army of, 230.\n\n\n Self-government, difficulties and blunders of, 32;\n crux of local, 35;\n skepticism for ideals of, 39;\n must deal with unsuccessful, 62;\n scope of, 63;\n forms of democracy for, 88;\n immigrants\u2019 first lesson in, 95;\n clearly not yet attained, 108;\n popular government oppressor of, 104;\n might profit by industrial experience, 121.\n\n Shakespeare, 9.\n\n Social, evolution, 211;\n morality in, 213.\n\n Socialism, based on internationalism and industrialism, 114.\n\n Socialist\u2019s attitude to present government, 86.\n\n St. Francis, 21.\n\n\n Teamsters\u2019 strike, war element in, 132;\n employers\u2019 position as to arbitration in, 134;\n alliance between employers\u2019 and unionists\u2019 offices in, 135;\n inexperience of merchant employers in, 136;\n social results of, 141.\n\n Tolstoy, 3, 4, 209, 225, 230, 231, 233, 234.\n\n Tribal law, 11.\n\n Tribal Morality, 18.\n\n Trades unions imitate city government, 94;\n teach immigrants self-government, 95;\n power for amalgamation of, 97;\n attitude toward violence, 98;\n causes for loss of sympathy for, in Stock Yards Strike, 101;\n human appeal in, 102;\n gratitude of immigrant toward, 107;\n devotion to, might be turned to national life, 118;\n organized by Russian government, 122;\n contemporaneous movement difficult to judge, 125;\n success not sole standard of, 128;\n present a time of crisis for, 129;\n attitude toward strike, 130;\n social result of strike on, 144;\n struggle for recognition, 145;\n attitude toward improved machinery, 148;\n uncomprehending victim of, 195.\n\n\n War, defence of, 26;\n prophecy of subsidence of, 23;\n moral equivalent for, 24;\n ideals in peace confusing, 110;\n phraseology of new union, 130;\n crime traceable to Spanish, 143;\n new social problems not to be settled, 206;\n attempts to justify by past records, 210;\n substitutes for virtues of, 217;\n contrast between labor and, 234.\n\n Warfare, cost of, 4;\n customary method of settling labor disputes, 135;\n recognition of good in, 212;\n civilization substitutes law for, 219;\n ideals of labor substituted for those of, 224;\n disappearance of, 229.\n\n Webb, Mrs. Sidney, 191.\n\n Whitman, Walt, 45.\n\n Wilcox, Dr. Charles F., 54.\n\n Wilcox, Delos F., 117.\n\n Women, duty toward municipal government, 28, 185, 208;\n conventions a snare to, 186;\n franchise only for educated, 188;\n effect of machinery on work of, 190;\n increasing employment of, 189;\n necessity for protection of working, 191, 196;\n necessity for franchise for, 191, 197;\n relation to clothing manufacture, 192;\n lack in education of, 197, 202, 206.\n\n\n Verestchagin, 3, 4.\n\n Von Moltke, 234.\n\n\n\n\n _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_\n\n DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS\n\n =By JANE ADDAMS=, Hull-House, Chicago. 9 + 281 pages, 12 mo., cloth,\n leather back, $1.25 net. Citizen\u2019s Library.\n\n\n\u201cMiss Addams is clear. She has not been precipitate in the preparation\nof her book. She has reconsidered, corrected, and recorrected it,\nspoken with temperance and courtesy.... As gentle, as patient, as\nsincere, and as astute as Jane Addams herself is the philosophy set\nforth in these pages.... The processes of Miss Addams\u2019 thought are\ninteresting to thousands. The sense that none of us is living up to\nthe best idea of democracy is upon each of us.... Miss Addams is\nbound to receive a respectful hearing. As a leader who ever prays to\nlead aright, a sociologist who is willing to test her theories in a\npractical and personal way, a theorist who is not ashamed to own when\nshe has been mistaken, a friend who will remain true to her friend no\nmatter what may arise, and a person of leisure and power, who has the\ncivic interest at heart, she has come to be prized as one of the chief\nof citizens.\u201d--_Chicago Tribune._\n\n\u201cIts pages are remarkably--we were about to say refreshingly--free\nfrom the customary academic limitations.... In fact, are the result\nof actual experience in hand to hand contact with social problems....\nNo more truthful description, for example, of the political \u2018boss\u2019 as\nhe thrives to-day in our great cities has ever been written than is\ncontained in Miss Addams\u2019 chapter on \u2018Political Reform.\u2019 The whole\nchapter will be accepted as a realistic picture of conditions as they\nare to-day in the city of Chicago. The same thing may be said of the\nother chapters of the book in regard to their presentation of social\nand economic facts.\u201d--_Review of Reviews._\n\n\u201cToo much emphasis cannot be laid upon the efficiency and inspiration\nafforded by these essays. \u2018Charitable Effort,\u2019 \u2018Filial Affections,\u2019\n\u2018Household Adjustment,\u2019 \u2018Industrial Amelioration,\u2019 \u2018Educational\nMethods,\u2019 \u2018Political Reform,\u2019 are the topics treated in a masterly and\nrevolutionary style. Miss Addams shatters some of our most cherished\nillusions upon the relations which should exist between the helper and\nthe helped, between parent and child, mistress and maid, the members\nof a family, between the \u2018boss\u2019 and the community. She takes the\nsubject entirely out of the realms of sentimentality, puts it upon\na solid moral basis, and by a close and logical train of reasoning\nbrings her conclusions home to the conscience and common sense of every\nmember of the social structure. The book is startling, stimulating and\nintelligent.\u201d--_Philadelphia Ledger._\n\n\n The Arbiter in Council\n\nA discussion of peace and war, in which take part, each from his own\nviewpoint, a lawyer \u201cwith a conscience,\u201d a stock broker, a learned\nprofessor of history, a journalist, a retired admiral, an army officer,\nand two clergymen of widely differing forms of church government. The\nArbiter is a veteran student of politics, a disciple of John Bright.\n\n \u201cAs a summary of all that is to be said on the subject, thrown into\n readable form, the book is well done; ... almost no topic is left\n untouched.\u201d--_Nation._\n\n \u201cWhat strikes one in reading this book even more than its\n readableness, is the wide range of its information.... The points of\n view offered are many and diversified.... No argument worth using is\n left unused.\u201d--_The Evening Mail._\n\n \u201cThe subjects discussed include the causes and consequences of war;\n modern warfare; private war and the duel; perpetual peace or the\n federation of the world; arbitration, the political economy of war,\n and Christianity and war. It is a notable book, or will become one as\n it is widely read.\u201d--Editorial in _The Boston Herald_.\n\n \u201cThe Arbiter\u2019s friends are drawn from several ranks in life, and\n they bring to the symposium wide reading in the literature of the\n subject, logical powers and a persuasive manner of speaking. \u2018The\n Arbiter in Council\u2019 may be regarded as a conspectus of the best\n thought on warfare, especially in relation to the topic of universal\n peace.\u201d--_Philadelphia Press._\n\n\n 6 + 567 pages, 8\u2019vo., cloth, $2.50 net.\n\n\nOn many of the subjects touched upon in Miss Addams\u2019s \u201cThe Newer Ideals\nof Peace\u201d interesting material may be found in the volumes named\nbelow:--\n\n\n ON CITY GOVERNMENT\n\n The American City\n\n By DELOS F. WILCOX, Ph. D.\n\n \u201cIn the \u2018American City\u2019 Dr. Wilcox ... has written a book that every\n thoughtful citizen should read. The problems of the street, the\n tenement, public utilities, civic education, the three deadly vices,\n municipal revenue and municipal debt, with all their related and\n subsidiary problems, are clearly and fully considered.\u201d--_Pittsburgh\n Gazette._\n\n =6 + 423 pages, 12 mo., cloth, leather back, $1.25 net.= _Citizen\u2019s\n Library._\n\n\n ON THE LABOR PROBLEM\n\n Labor Problems\n\nBy THOMAS SEWALL ADAMS, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Political\nEconomy, and HELEN L. SUMNER, Honorary Fellow in Political Economy,\nUniversity of Wisconsin.\n\n \u201cA volume which has a labor-saving value for any library.... Here\n one finds upon each of the problems treated--woman and child labor,\n immigration, strikes and boycotts, labor organizations and employers\u2019\n associations, the agencies of industrial peace, profit-sharing,\n co-operation, industrial education, labor laws, and the material\n progress of the wage-earning classes--the principal facts and comments\n of all the chief authorities ... with helpful bibliographical lists\n and references to volumes and chapters.\u201d--_The Commons_, Chicago.\n\n =15 + 579 pages, cr. 8 vo., cloth, $1.60 net.=\n\n\n ON INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION\n\n Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation\n\n By MRS. FLORENCE KELLEY.\n\nThe book has grown out of the author\u2019s experience as Chief Inspector of\nFactories in Illinois from 1893 to 1897, as Secretary of the National\nConsumers\u2019 League from 1899 till now, and chiefly as a resident at\nHull-House, and later at the Nurses\u2019 Settlement, New York.\n\n \u201cMrs. Kelley\u2019s primary aim is to set forth the results achieved by\n the agitation and education of the past decade or so in certain\n social directions--in the recognition of the children\u2019s right to\n childhood and to instruction and to opportunity, of the adult\u2019s right\n to leisure, of woman\u2019s right to the ballot, and of the purchaser\u2019s\n right to genuine honest products. Her secondary aim is to show how\n much remains to be achieved, and what obstacles the friends of\n anti-child-labor legislation, eight-hour laws, pure food and correct\n label laws, woman suffrage and so on, have to surmount.\u201d--_The\n Record-Herald_, Chicago.\n\n=Cloth, leather back, 341 pp., 12 mo., $1.25 net.= _Citizen\u2019s Library._\n\n\n ON SOME CONDITIONS OF CHILD LIFE\n\n The Bitter Cry of the Children\n\nBy JOHN SPARGO, Author of \u201cSocialism.\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018There have been many books written about the children of the poor,\n but none of them gives us so impressive a statement as is contained\n here of the most important and powerful cause of poverty.\u2019 This\n prefatory judgment of Robert Hunter will be handed on by everyone who\n reads.... The book will live and set hundreds of teachers and social\n workers and philanthropists to work.... School teachers need this\n book, social workers, librarians, pastors, editors, all who want to\n understand the problem of poverty or education.\u201d--WILLIAM H. ALLEN in\n _The Annals of the American Academy_.\n\n =16 + 257 pages, 12 mo., $1.25 net.=\n\n\n ON CONDITIONS AMONG THE POOR\n\n =Poverty.= A Definition and an Estimate of its Extent\n\nBy ROBERT HUNTER, President of the Social Reform Club; Chairman of New\nYork Child Labor Committee; formerly head worker of the University\nSettlement of New York.\n\n \u201cI cannot delay writing you of my profound interest in your new\n book, \u2018Poverty,\u2019 which I have to-day read, with instruction, with\n satisfaction, and with a deep sense of your mastery of the subject....\n Your chapter on \u2018The Immigrant\u2019 seems to me the most concise, the most\n convincing and the most logical brief statement of the subject that I\n have ever seen.\u201d--ROBERT DE C. WARD, Harvard University.\n\n =9 + 382 pages, 12 mo., cloth, $1.50, net.=\n\n\n A SOCIOLOGICAL SOURCE-BOOK\n\n Readings in Descriptive and Historical Sociology\n\nEdited by FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Sociology\nand the History of Civilization in Columbia University. The book\nis a selection of extracts from sources ranging from the Bible to\nyesterday\u2019s newspaper, connected with a mere outline of theory. The\nbook is at once a rounded outline of social theory, and a suggestive\nguide in the method of classifying the new materials constantly\nappearing in reviews and the daily press.\n\n =24 + 553 pages, cloth, 12 mo., $1.60 net.=\n\n\n THE MACMILLAN COMPANY\n Publishers 64-66 Fifth Ave. New York\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\nErrors in punctuation have been fixed.\n\nPage 12: \u201cmany nationalties\u201d changed to \u201cmany nationalities\u201d\n\nPage 35: \u201cthe the hands\u201d changed to \u201cthe hands\u201d\n\nPage 116: \u201cBernard Bosenquet\u201d changed to \u201cBernard Bosanquet\u201d\n\nPage 123: \u201cemanicipated serfs\u201d changed to \u201cemancipated serfs\u201d\n\nPage 173: \u201cof the the group\u201d changed to \u201cof the group\u201d\n\nPage 174: \u201cgirls wr bars of soap\u201d changed to \u201cgirls wrap bars of soap\u201d\n\nPage 192: \u201cinsanity workshops\u201d changed to \u201cinsanitary workshops\u201d\n\nPage 194: \u201cwork inself\u201d changed to \u201cwork itself\u201d","title":"Newer ideals of peace","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":55945}