Evening star., 1920-02-01
INDUSTRIAL BLINDNESS
IS DIAGNOSIS AT GARY
Human Strife Cripples Willing Monster Of
Mechanism and Cuts Production.
New Outlook Coming.

power into steel rails-when I saw all
this. the impression of dominance was
immeasurably increased.
AS 1 saw it that stormy December
day, just at dusk, it seemed a kind
Of titan, dwarfing all the human life
around and within it, So few men
were to be seen. or they were so in
significant. so dim. compared with the
stupendous machinery, that one bare
ly noticed them. The mechanism ap-
peared. somehow. to be operating it.
there it was. a kind of monster
squatting on the shore of the gray
lake A tireless monster that never
sleeps, Regardless of disputatious
workers and capitalists and econo-
mists and politicians, it tolls day and
night. summer and winter, Sundays,
Christmas. the Fourth of July. Its
appetite is unappeasable. Thousands
of men digging for their lives in the
iron ranges of Minnesota and thou
sands more in the coal fields and
quarries of Indiana and Illinois can
scarcely keep it satisfied. It drinks
the entire flow Of q river. 1t re-
quires 10000 men at Gary alone,
speaking a babel of twenty Ian
guages. to serve the intimate daily
necessities of a single mill.
Implaeable Power of Machinery.
Each time 1 visited Gary these i'm
pressions deepened. More and more
I seemed to feel the implacable pow
er of the mechanism there by the
lake; and. in comparison, the insig-
nificance Of the human element in the
process. One evening. as I was go
ing out along the high embankment
from which one can glimpse the
whole enormous aggregationsr of
flaming chimneys and spreading
mills, it came to me, that, in it's es-
sence. mankind was facing the prob
lem as to whether machinery should
dominate men or men machinery.
Were men to be merely cogs or ser
anisms or were they to stand out
as masters. using easily and freely
and creatively the tools they had
made? Was the genius of mech
anism." as Carlyle expressed it
long ago, to sit forever like an in
cubus upon the soul Of man." or was
the soul of man to free itself and
command the genius of mechanism?
I think many an observer, visiting
industrial towns. will
have the same question vividly pre-
sented to him, and he will begin
straightway to try, with all his pow
er, to see whether or not the soul of
man is really dominated by the mech
anism. and why it is-and how it
can come free and triumphant in the
struggle. For this is the true theme,
the motif of this vast drama.
Yet the more I looked at Gary and
it's mills and it's men, the more /
thought about them. the more amaz-
ing, after all, it seemed that these
little insects of human beings should
be there at all. that they should have
been able, somehow, to create such a
stupendous mechanism, such a titanic
iron slave, and that having created
it they should be able to command for
it's service 50 many of the forces of
electricity and gas-that they should
know where to find all of the varied
ingredients and bring them together
exactly on time. mix them accurately
and produce finally such an outpour-
ing Of fashioned steel.
The Brain Of the Machine.
I went into the immense room, larger
than any cathedral. where the ingots
were being rolled. All the machinery
was powerfully at work-and no other
sublimer impression of resistless pow
er than a modern rolling mill-but
nowhere at first did see a single
man. Not one! 1t was almost uncannyI
Presently I looked up. There in a
partly glassed cage high on the wall
sat the worker among his levers and
his buttons; the cerebellum of the
by men.
A moment later it came to me with
a fash exactly what the trouble was.
Yes, men actually controlled the mon
ster, but they Quarreled with another
about it; there was a divided spirit;
there was no common purpose! They
were crippling the willing slave OF
them all, who was toiling to give them
bread and clothing and shelter-and
whatever of books. education and cul-
ture they might be able to acquire.
There were actually soldiers patrol
ling the streets and guarding the mills
to prevent them from killing one an
other or from injuring the monster.
They had built a marvellous machine
and were threatening to break it up
because they couldn't agree about
managing it.
Is Per Cent Production.
Nor was this crippling confined
merely to times like the present Of
open strife. If that were all. we
might speedily find a remedy. But 1t
was going on all the time; there was
no real cooperation; no true unity
of spirit. scientist in management,
Mr. CAN'T, after a lifetime devoted to
the Stuoy VI ihouStiAaA PiaH@'' so"e IL
as his mature Judgment that on the
average the manufacturing capacity
of this country was not more than 25
per cent of what it ought to be if the
productive machinery were properly
managed. A part Of this was due to
inefficiency of the management, and
part due to the slackness and want
| of interest of the workers. Think of
/ it: A slave willing to do four times
as much work as it is doing-but Grip
o1rf,,;op tha oo-t,~Jt