The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-01-14
JANE ADAMS on LABOR
AND CAPITALS themes.
Ridiculous Purpose of Manu-
facturers to Form Educa
tional Institutions,
~
Worhngmen Form Their Own
Moral Code and Inspire
Each Other. ~

Manufacturers as whole. however,
when they attempt educational in-s
stitutions in connection with their fac
tories, are prone to follow conventional
lines and to exhibit the weakness Of
imitation. We find, indeed, that the
weak middle-clas educator constantly
makes the mistakes Of the middle class
moral1st when he attempts to aid the
working people. The latter has con-
stantly and traditionally urged upon
the workingman the specialized virtues
of thrift, industry and sobriety-au
virtues pertaining to the individual
When each man had his own shop 1t
was perhaps wise to lay almost ex-
elusive stress upon the Industrial vir-
tues of diligence and thrift; but az
industry has become more highly or.
ganlzed, life becomes incredibly COM
plex and interdependent. If working
man Is to have a conception of his
value at all he must see industry in
Its unity and entirety, he must have a
conception that will include not only
himself and his immediate family and
community, but the industrial organiza-
tion as a whole. It is doubtless true
that dexterity of hand becomes less
and less imperative as the invention of
machinery and subdivision of labor
proceed; but it becomes all the more
necessary, if the workman is to save
his life at all, that he should get a
sense of his individual relation to the
system. Feeding a machine with a
material of which he has no knowledge,
producing a product totally unrelated
to the rest of his life without in the
least knowing what becomes of it or
Its connection with the community, is,
of course, unquestionably deadening to
his intellectual and moral life. To
make the moral connection it would be
necessary to give him a social CON-
sciOusness of the value of his work,
and at least sense of participation
and a certain joy in its ultimate use; to
make the intellectual connection it
would be essential to create in him
ment of industry and the relation of
his individual work to it. IS
-Workingmen themselves have made
{
would be well for moralists and educat-.
.orA to study Is slas a. strllk1nE fact thai.
when workingmen formulate their own
moral code and try to inspire and en-
courage each other, it is always large
and general doctrine which they preach.
They were the first class of men to
organize an international association,
and the constant talk at modern labor
meetings is Of solidarity and the iden-
tity of the interests of workingmen the
world over. 1t is difficult to secure a
successful organization of men into the
simplest trades organization without an
appeal to the most abstract principles
of justice and brotherhood. AS they
have formulated their own morals ~
laying the greatest stress upon the
largest morality, so if they could found
their own schools it is doubtful whether
they would be of the mechanic institute
type. Courses of study arranged by a
group of workinEmen are most naive In
their breadth and generality. They
will select the history of the world in
preference to that of any period or
nation. The "wonders of science" or
"the story of evolution will attract
to q lecture when zoology
or chemistry will drive them away. The
"outlines of literature" or "the best in
will draw an audience when
a lecture on English poetry will be
solitary. This results partly from 4
wholesome desire to have general
knowledge before special knowledge,
and is partly rebound from the
specialization of labor to which the
is subjected. When he is
free from work and can direct his own
mind he tends to roam, to dwell upon
large themes. Much the same tendency
is found in programs of study arranged
by women's clubs in country places.
The unframed mind, wearied with
detail. when it gets an OPP
portunity to make its demand heard.
asks for general philosophy and back
Adams rs