Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-12-10
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

An Interesting Paper on "shoemaking
 in Connecticut'' by F. J. Kingsbury.
 We have received a copy of the Journal of Social Science, recently pub lished, which contains fair statement of both sides of the labor question. One of the most interesting papers is by F. J. Kingsbury of this city upon 'Shoemaking in Connecticut" He says:
 "When the village shoemaker had his bench in his own home and supplied the wants of his neighbors, although there was "odds" in shoemakers, as it has always been admitted that there is in deacons. the social position of many shoemakers was as good as that of any body in the community in which they lived. They were the deacons of the churches, sometimes, indeed, the local preachers, justices of the peace, grand jurymen, town clerks, selectmen, school committees, members of the legislature, militia officers, captains, majors, colo nels and generals. They sent their sons to college, their daughters to academies and schools of high grade. Their lives were plain and simple, but so were the lives of all about them. They read and they thought. The shoe makers shop of those days was a school of politics and theology.
 "To the boys of the neighborhood the shoemakers' shop, in the long winter evenings, was the gymnasium Gin the German sense, the school of technology and applied science, the club and the university, all in one. There they cov- cred their balls and made their slings; there they saw old journeymen crack hickory nuts on their naked knees; there they sharpened their wits on ar ithmetlcal puzzles and historical conun- drums, and listened to political and theological discussions, and to tales of Revolutionary battles and personal ad- venture; there they played checkers, "fox-and-geese" and ''twelve-mens morris," making the forms for these lat ter games with chalk upon lap board and playing with black and yellow corn, the black being the yellow smoked in the lamp. Doubtless they saw and learned good many things not abso- lutely essential to their mental and moral development, but on the whole not much harm was done. Neither was discipline wanting. The shoemaker's strap had its wholesome virtues, and there was not the slightest hesitation in using it whenever occasion seemed to demand.
 "The workmen under the old regime was not by any means always satisfied nor entirely happy. He wanted more than he got. and he grumbled because he did not get it. If, however, a strike, or a hostile combination had been sug- gested as a remedy, he would have quoted Esop, and said that he was not such fool as to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. l am not saying that he would be right in his argument. It is history that am trying to write.
 In the modern workroom there is no time or opportunity for discussion or conversation. There is no leisure for amusing or instructing boys. Boys themselves, except as workers, are not permitted. There are no arguments, no studies, no puzzles, no problems. No play is mingled with the work, nothing that tends to expand the faculties or broaden the mental outlook beyond the thing in the hand. The workman be- comes less of man and more of a machine.
 May not this be at least partial solution of the change? And if it is, may not organization do something in the way of counteracting or counterbalanc- ing this tendency? To see the nature and seat of the evil is to suggest the remedy. Restore the social feature longer possible) but out of it, in the holiday and the evening club; and let the object be to replace the thing which has been lost-namely, cheerful con- versation, intelligent discussion, sym pathy with the rising generation; a pure and intelligent interest in boys, their pastimes and their training. In some such way as this perhaps it may be possible to replace what we have lost-the moral, social and educational training of the old handicraft work shop. It is certainly worth getting back again at any reasonable cost
 Copies of the Journal may be obtained for thirty cents each from F. B. San born, the general secretary, at Concord, Masf.