Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1921-05-13
c.prrAL vs.. LABOR

III xsars ago tie noted anthori
issar situations The world ever
80 president Emeritus. Of Har
~ Fss interviewed on the outlook
80 settlement OF the present labor
iel +. whleh had just come into view
$50. ,bs viewpoint Of the philosopher
8. i not ainiss 20 quote a few o.
s.~ s,issons held By that notable an
- which have actually been cor
rsrtiY foreeasted.
o.. ,srt Dr. Eliot says that in tht
- states political liberty has dons
- \ can 10 promote the happiness
- vel being Of the mass OF the eiti
abieh nleans substantially tbs
- percentage OF the American cit
izenry.
Tho American voter is about as free
.aasfftufioRs. and laws and political
s.,rfires can make him. We complain,
= ba snre. that the peoples will does
-, slvavg get promptly executed. be
80 IT is blocked by the action OF the
,.s,nIs's own representatives and elect
- ssrvants. and of unofficial but pow
ezf,f nolitical managers. but these
t.-,8ranees. or.ohstaeles arise after the
is8ividual voter has expressed his viii,
- made his choice between the alter
,stives set before him. and are due 10
the diverse opinions. OF clashing inter.
ssfs of parties or groups among the
yoters They are not due TO any direct
interference with the individual yot-
sr's right to form, express and act on
his own opinions.
Having thus attained TO a large de-
gree Of political liberty Tor the indi-
sidual. why are so many people in this
frae country so disconnected with the
degree of independence and practical
freedom they enjoy? Why is there
snch widespread discomfort among
working people. not only in this coun-
try bnt also In almost all the countries
of Europe? The reason is that the mass
Of the working people today feel that
they are not personally independent,
hut. on the contrary, very dependent
npon others for the satisfaction of
their daily needs and desires and for
the opportunity to earn livelihood.
Americans of the eighteenth century
and the first half of the nineteenth had
an independence of character and an
independent mode of life as farmers,
mechanics and traders, founded on
their climatic and industrial condi.
lions. and on the fact that they and
their fathers were living on fresh soil
and in freedom from the restraints of
the feudal system and the established
churches, from which they had escaped.
The great majority of the American
people today find themselves depend
ent on wages or salaries for the means
of living, and every large community
is dependent for food, fuel, shelter
clothing, and even for water. on power
full collective agencies which control
hundreds of thousands of wage-earn-
ers. In the factory system, which
necessarily prevails in most of the i'm
portant industries, the individual work
man is one unit in machine which
works well only when each indiyidu1
workman's will is subordinated to the
rate and rythm of the complicated
whole.
The factory system involves for the
individual workman incessant, mono
tonous repetition of few hand and eye
movements, and dependence for steady
employment on the intelligence, energy
and marketing skill of the owner or
manager of the works. A foolish, lazy
owner without skill in buying or sell
ing may prove as disastrous to his en-
ployes as an unjust or dishonest one.
The large industrial corporations,
great banks and insurance companies,
and the big department stores, in all of
which captains are few and privates
many. tend to diminish the personal
independence of the average man or
woman who works in them, who used
to put his savings into land or build
ings live stock, vehicles. tools or other
useful chattels: but now he must put
his savings into the stocks or bonds OF
corporations, or into savings banks, or
he must invest in the pledges of in
surance companies. thus becoming de-