The Glenwood post., 1916-01-01

| WA SAS30 W. LOU III LIVE x4Vu. S1lu8Ilc2
AT last certain bulletins ca,rc by wire.
less; the csp.sn posted then, in the
gaagway and p. cr>wdeu around to
get the first news ffom t.. homeland
What do you think it was? First, that
larry Thaw had escaped from the
asylum at Matteawan, and, secondly.
that there was to be prize fight in
San, Francisco on the Fourth of July.
The officers Of the ship seemed to be-
ueve that these were the most inter-
esttng items Of information that could
possibly be furnished American travel
ers.
As to our relations with South Amer
lea, that is an unknown land to most of
the people of North America. 1 have
asked many college students if liue
were dropped straight south from New
York City whether it would fall to the
east or west of South America; wheth-
er it would fall in the Atlantic or the
Pacific ocean. Not one student in
twenty could answer. They do not
know whether South America is nearer
to Europe than it is to North America,
or whether the opposite is true. How
many Americans can read a letter writ
ten in Spanish, or write one in the
same language? How many have any
knowledge of Portuguese? Vastly more
important, how many have any knowl-
edge of the American mind, its
likes and dislikes, its sensitive points,
its proud traditions, its historical as
pirations? We are not willing to study
these nations, and yet we talk about a
spiritual partnership with them and
about commercial intercourse. The
young men who are to represent Ameri
can manufacturers in the great repuh-
lie south Of us must be equipped in
language, in knowledge of trade routes,
in knowledge of natural resources, i'm
ports and exports, and, above all, in
knowledge of social and political ideals.
If we are not willing to study these re-
publics we might as well give up the
idea of any commercial intercourse
with them.
Restore Personal Relations
We must also insist that every hui
man being is person, and not thing.
The industrial revolution has brought
about, necessarily, but most unhappily,
impersonal relations between employer
and employe. When l go to the city
of Lynn, Mass, where lived as boy,
I see two or three Of the old shoe
makers shops where once the shoes
were made by hand in the old fashioned
way. The cobbler sat on his bench,
with the apprentice beside him; made
the entire pair of shoes, put it in the
little window with three or four pancs
of glass, and then sold it to personal
friend, who wore the shoes every day
as he passed the little shop. The
whole transaction was personal one,
involving personal honor and probity
and friendship. Now, in the same city,
find the employer sitting behind IL
glass door, while thousand employees
are outside in the factory. That glass
door is a mono conductor. What does
the man in the office know of the as
What does he know of the literature
that they read, the oratory on which
they are fed, the half-baked ideas that
they have made their own? What does
he know of the eviction of the family
from the tenement house that occurred
last week, or the burial of the little
child under the green mound! On the
other hand, what do those men in the
factory know of the sleepless nights
that come to their employer? What
do they know of his anxious study Of
the markets Of the world, of his strug-
gle to meet the note that is coming
due, or of his strenuous efforts to carry
the business through some financial
crisis? t-l
We have got to break. down that
glass door, or, rather, would say We
have got to break down the lack OF.
sympathy and understanding which now
separates the two great classes in mod
ern production. We have got to know
not how the other half lives, but, what
is vastly more important how the other
half thinks. If we really could know
how the other half thinks, we should
see, perhaps, some reason in his think
ing, and the first step would be taken
In the getting together which is 80 In
dispensible to further progress. We
must get together in mind, in ideal, as
Euronaau sQldiers get tQgether in the