Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-04-27
MAN AND MACHINERY
Bv II. Addington Bruce
Dy IT. 1uUIIIS tOII DIuCC
NNE hundred per cent employment, di-
I minished production, decreased eff

Il
minished production, decreased eff
~ cheney, increasing discomfort. Thus
a business man the other day summarized
| the labor situation
He was inclined quite evidently to attrib-
ute what he described as a truly alarming
state of affairs to "socialistic agitation" He
| spoke of growing 'class antagoniSm" and de-
| plored 1.-THE unreasonable hostility of labor to
capital"
But there is one factor of which he made
| no mention, yet which is perhaps chiefly re-
sponsible for the widespread unrest among
the workers. 1t is a distinctly psychological
factor and. is found in the restrictive influ-
ence exercised by our machine industrialism
on fundamental human instinct.
Every normal man, no matter what his
social status, has an Unborn urge to creative
self-expression He cannot be happy, he can
not even feel at ease, unless in some way this
urge is gratified.
And formerly every man had in his work
means for gratifying the creative impulse
IN the days before the invention of the steam
engine and the growth of the factory system
every worker was, and felt himself to be, a.
creator of whatever his industry produced.
Ii he were, let us suppose, shoemaker
ne mad scope for true creation through every
stage OF the making of shoe. Contrast the
snoemaklng process of today, as described by
andre lrldon, for example, in his Psyche
Analysis"
The men and women employed in mod
ern shoe factories, who simply release lever
hundred times day, stopping or starting
some electrically driven machine tool. ner
FORM day after day monotonous tasks of
tragmentary character.
"Not one of them sees more than part
Of shoe. Those who assemble the parts
had no share in the producing of those
parts
This means thwarting, a blocking, of the
instinct for self-expression. A similar thwart-
ing is found in every industry where the in
vention of machinery, has promoted special
zation of labor.
But, as psychologists are we'll aware, trou-
BILE results when an instinct is denied all real
ization. Especially must this be true of so
fundamental SO insistent an instinct as the
creative urge.
And as machinery has more and more
multiplied the ranks of those blocked from
self-expression have grown. Which is one of
the great reasons social unrest has increased
with the passing of the years.
OF course we cannot revert to the days
of handwork. Modern industrialism has
come to stay. But we can and we should
encourage and assist the workers in machine
industrialism to find ways of satisfying their
vital need for self-expression in the hours
when they are away from the machine.
Today most workers merely kill time
during their leisure. They engage in amuse-
ments which have no creative value what
ever, hence which leave them as dissatisfied
as their monotonous, specialized work.
But some, the truly fortunate, take up
hobbies that permit them self-expression as
their work does not.
We see these lucky ones perhaps cultivat-
ing little gardens, in the cool of the evening,
perhaps playing some musical instrument
perhaps developing gift for painting or
writing, perhaps taking part in constructive
social work.
In their hobbies they are happy and con-
tented--as those without hobbies can never
be- no matter what their wages, if their daily
work itself is misunderstanding
There is hint here for employers and en-
ployed alike. Its acceptance, I am persuad-
ed, will go far to bring the industrial peace
which we manifestly and sorely need.
copyright 1920, by the Associated News
papers)