Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-03
The HQSkin Letter By ' = Rsss1


AMERICAN WORKERS.
!, practically be debarred from colleges
) and universities supported by communi-
ty funds or endowed for the purpose
of giving education to ALL
Few College Graduates
Only 2 per cent of all the millions
of adults in this country are college
graduates. The vast majority not only
cannot afford the money and time re-
CURED TO go TO college: they cannot
even afford to attend high school,. The
average citizen and voter goes prompt
ly TO work as soon as he has completed
grammar school. if not before. having
acquired only the barest smattering of
an education and. until recently, little
chance of acquiring any more.
The new workers colleges are spe-
clally designed Go meet the needs of
tins average citizen and worker. The
classes are usually held on two even
lngs a week and on Saturdays and
Sundays in the most convenient, place
which happens to be available. Some
are housed in high school buildings.
some IN public halls and others in local
trade union headquarters. The work
man pledges himself to attend the
classes SO weeks a year during n no
Rod Of three years.
Special textbooks have been written
for his benefit by experts. They pro
sent lucidiy and e~lementarily the back
ground of each subject in the simplest
language. They are manufactured and
sold "heaply so that they are within
the reach of any worker. Among the
subjects treated are literature, sci
ence. sociology. history, politics. labor
and finance. The aim is not to change
a mans vocation or to hplp him in
crease his earning capacity. but simply
70 provide him with a general educa-
tional background which will enable
nm TO use Intelligently the vote which
he enjoys.
Perhaps the greatest cause Of mod
erh Industrial unrest, declares Sprn-
Ger Miller Jr., secretary -treasurer of
! the workers educational bureau os
America, lies in the fact that in the
highly specialized modern industry n
worker does not get any creative sat
!siactlon out of his work. \ man NAV
pc trained to fasten on the same holt
TO the same piece Of machinery as soon
as the law permits him to leave school
ana ne may stay at that monotouous
work for 80 years.
AS a result he has no sense Of his
relation to the industry of which hc is
a part and no sense of the indnstrvs
relation to society. He stores M re-
sentiment, naturally, because he has no
creative outlet whatever. lie hoes not
share in the adventure and enterpri o
OF the organization for which he
works. This suppression of his Gre
alive impulse has been responsible for
| inc nGVrHnSf= tho iah,r., -
oLed. 1t is manifested throughout the
industrial world in dissatisfaction and
discomfort.
Incubus of FeudaIism
The work of the bureau and of tho
workers universities is to provide
these men with the cultural background
which will enable them to use their
creative energies. The modern indus
trial world suffers from an incubus of
me Old feuddl system. perhaps not s,
much IN America rs in Great Britain
nut ever to a great extent here. Over
there there IS no free land. industry is
highly centralized ard the workers ara
struggling under an Inheritance of old
injustice.
Under the feudal system and the
early trade systems n man was apprru-
alccd to a certain work at IN early age
and he was kept nj it throughout
life. In former times this man could
ma n certain creative satisfaction in
his work because he bad the entire
making of it. But with the develop
Iuent Of industry, specialization came
about and men were trained TO do only
one infinitesimal part in the creation
OF a finished product from a factory.
They had no education and no training
TO make them use their leisure in Gre,
alive pursuits. They knew nothing
about what was going on in the world
so it came about that when they
were granted political privileges thew
were not equipped TO use them inteIli-
gently. That is usually the case; the
form is usually achieved before the
substance. We had the form of democ-
racy. but we had no real democracy
because workers were not equal to the
bcurgeoisie and higher hourgeoisie in
tho fundamentals of education.
What is actually working out with
the workers colleges is that among the
3o.o0O,OO workers in the western
world there is now n vast number of
them who are taking courses which
give them a sound knowledge OF the
fundamentals OF history, sociology, fl
nance. industry, politics. labor, litera-
ture and art The colleges are not
7"ratlonal: they have nothing to do
With quick means to monetary success
or higher wages. They are cultural
solely and simply. They are founded
on a belief that the workers can and
will enjoy a higher and better life and
that the whole of society will profit
by it if creative outlet is given to the
! nan who works with his banda"