The Washington critic. (Washington City, D.C.) 1890-1890, 1890-02-16
LIFE MORE THAN MEAT.
INTERPRETATION OF THE SOCIAL
MOVEMENT OF THE TIMES.

lions Among Workmen, and Dis
cusses the Cause OF the social
Unrest-The Industrial Revolution.
Professor Henry G. Adams of the
University of Michigan lecturod be-
fore large audience In the hall of the
National Museum yesterday afternoon.
His subject was "An Interpretation of
the Social Movement of Our Times"
ut is my purpose" he said, Ito in
terpret this evening, so far as it lies In
my power, the social movements of
our own times. In undertaking such
task 1t Is necessary at the outset to
choose between two ways of thinking
on what is happening about us, or,
stated in q personal manner between
two classes of thinkers.
con the one hand there are those
who profess to explain the unrest in
modern society by referring 1t to the
spirit of jealousy on the part of those
whose possessions are small, and to the
love of power and ACKNOWLEDGMENT on
the part of those who force their way
into leadership. There is no just
ground for complaint, eXclaim these
self-appointed representatives of the
Middle States. Are not workmen, as a
whole, better off than they once were?
Do they not have more to eat and more
to wear2 Are not prices cheaper and
wages higher Why, then, should
they complain?
1t is envy which leads them to COM
plain-it is ambition that raises their
complaint. What they need is parson
or q prison, and it makes little differ
ence which.
IT do not care to say word respect
ing this Interpretation of social unrest.
My opinion is that the increase of ma
terial comforts for the great mass of
men is less than many seem to think;
but for this evening l purpose bringing
the discussion upon higher plane.
The life is more than meat. The ben.
efits of civilization are not synonymous
with an appeased appetite. The cause
of discomfort lies in the minds Of men,
and the source Of unrest is found in
the aspirations of men. A social move
ment is not explained by saying that
agitators take advantage of the spirit
of envy to stir up strife.
"A great man is he who voices the
will of the people; he cannot construe
that will. A successful leader is one
who points the way by which pop
ular ideal may be realized; he cannot
create an ideal. A social movement
must spring from the conditions in
which men live.
For such assertions you may readily
appreciate that ally myself with those
who hold that social movement is
sure to rise whenever there is lack of
hpr 1ntNr t1A Nf 20
and the ideals of the living
1t becomes my duty, therefore,
in undertaking to interpret the
social movement of our own times
to disclose first those changes in indus
trial method by which harmony in in
dustries has been disturbed, and then to
trace the influence of such changes into
the structure of society. We are in
these days so accustomed to the use of
machinery, and so familiar with great
industries, that it is difficult to picture
society in which tools were used, and
in which industries were small.
THE flying shuttle invented in 1873
was a contrivance as important as 1t was
simple. Not only did this increase the
efficiency of the work, but it relieved
the weaver from the most tedious part
of his labor. Before this he had been
obliged to bend first to the right and
throw the shuttle through and then to
the left TO throw it back again. The
invention of spinning jenny in 1860
was the first of long series of inven-
tons which resulted in an industrial
revolution, and the difficulty is for us
to appreciate that so small a thing could
bring about revolution.
1.-THE spinning jenny increased the
efficiency of the spinners a hundred
fold and thus gave the weavers more
yarn than they could weave. The ad.
justments that had grown up with cen
turtles were destroyed in a moment. II
may be said that our industrial system
is founded on coal, for it is this which
permits man to bring such tremendous
forces to his assistance. There is in q
ton of coal laten energy equal to eleven
million times its own weight, one
eleventh of which is rendered valuable
by means of an ordinary steam engine
This means that a miner in Pennsyl
vania who digs five tons of coal a day
gains for society what is equivalent tc
100000 tons of energy, and this he
does for $3.50 day. :"
"Why should the invention of ma
chinery, the object of which is to save
labor, have resulted in the creation of I
laboring class? The meaning of my
statement, however, becomes cleal
when it is learned that by the phras,
'laboring class is not meant class o
men who labor, but class of men who
having no property in anything bu
themselves, are obliged to seek an OPP
portunity of working from those WHIT
are the proprietors of the agencies o
production.
when machinery came to be useC
there sprang into existence class o
proprietors over the mechanism of pro
duction, and all others engaged in man
ufacturing pursuits were forced tt
come to those proprietors for employ
ment. Many years did not pass befor
acomplete separation took place be
tween the two classes. The factor,
system gradually arose and by it
growth independent workers wer
forced to the wall. There was thu
created great class of non possessor
who depended upon daily wages 70
the means of livelihood.
under the old system these me-
were the proprietors of the materia
upon which they worked, of the tool
with which they worked and of tn
houses In which the work was carrie
on. But under the factory system the
are proprietors of nothing. This the
was what was meant in saying that tn
development of machinery had give
rise to a distinct laboring class.
means that the industrial community G
this century, for the first time.
divided into possessors and non'posse'
, sors, whose interests seem to be ident
; cal so far as production is concerned
, but whose interests are opposed to eac