New-York tribune., 1919-03-06
Learning to Live Together

minute blood clot lodging in the
brain may bring instant paralysis and
death to a strong and powerful man. A
needle thrust into the heart, or into
little bulb at the base Of the brain, brings
the whole multifarious operations of the
human body to a standstill. You may
quarter a jellytish, or chop up an earth
worm, and it makes little differences; the
parts go on living. But in the higher
form of vertebrate animal mechanism
every part must keep up its functions
or we die.
There is a striking parallel in our mod
ern industrial life A strike of the Lon
don electrical workers threatens to bring
to a standstill the business of the great
est city in the world. An economic diff
ference between the dealers and pro-
ducers Of milk nearly plunged this city
into a disaster Not long ago there was
threatened strike on the railways which
would have paralyzed the industrial life
of the whole nation. So interdependcnt
have become the functions of modern
society.
The larger part of this astonishing
change has come about since the develop
ment Of the steam engine and modern
machinery; that is, within the last $50
years. Nearly half of our population now
dwells in cities and towns and is en-
gagged in manufacturing and distributing.
In 1890, when the first census was taken,
year after the beginning of the Re-
public, nearly 90 per cent of the popula-
ton was on the farms. In those DAYS
people largely produced their own food,
made their own butter, built their own
houses made their own clothes and shoes
and harness and the rest.
Back of all this was a social fact Of
great significance. A man was generally
his own boss. The proportion Of men
who work for hire has increased enor-
mously. On the farms it is higher than
ever before. In industry, of course, it is
very high. Broadly, we should suppose
two-thirds of the working population are
employees. This change is deeply related
to the antagonisms, the strikes, the Ga
Dor" troubles of present-day life. The
spirit Of the pioneer is not dead. And it
does not fit easily into the cogs and wheels
of present-day social and industrial ma
chinery There is an unexpended surplus
of energy and self-assertion that will
find an outlet some way. A part will ex-
pend its power in impracticable dreams;
a part has been taken up in the wonder
full development Of sports, and yet an
other part effervesces in thousands upon
thousands of social organizations, move
ments" for one reform and another, So
cieties and clubs, in which a multitude of
individuals may be presidents, or secre-
taries, or directors, and satisfy in some
way the all-powerful instinct to achieve
to attain.
In our political and municipal affairs
we have the committee or elective form
of administration developed to remark
able degree. We no longer have any use
for kings and specialists in ruling. There
is very strong impulse toward a still
wider extension of this form of dele
gated power to industry and business.
Violent efforts to establish such a regime
are seen in Russia. The problem of the
future seems to be how to preserve the
powerful spirit of initiative and enter
prise and discipline it to the present de-
mands of q society prone to forget how
much Of its prosperity is due to indi-
vidual genius.