Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1926-01-15
UNIONISM
AND HUMAN
HAPPINESS
The Present Day Movement Is
Toward Cooperation and
Organization
(By REX B. HERSEY)
University of PENNSYLVANIA

In nature nothing is static.
We can not remain put" One
invention calls for a dozen more
to make the first truly effective,
So it is with the union. Prog
ress both in the union and in its
external environment demands
further progress. The trade
union, then, must ever adapt it,
self to changing times. We can
not for a moment feel that it
has reached the acme Of service
in bringing about the eight-hour
day, better wages and work
mems compensation. Even if
all employers were unselfisk,
which they are not, and would
endcavor to effect in their plants
working conditions which would
leave no cause for complaint,
there would still remain the fact
that the great movement of the
present day is toward co-opera-
iton, organization and integra-
ton, rather than unlimited COM
petition and snall-scale industry.
Without organization, cooperation
is obviously impossible. Thus we may
rest assured that, in the nature of
things, the trade union will still be
required as a necessary industrial or
ganization of the future. A genera!
acceptance of this view hinges not on
| it's truth, but rather on the emotions
which the individual unions and the
| labor movement as a whole arouse In
their own members, as we'll as their
opponents and the general public.
These emotions in turn depend on the
fundamental purposes of unionism
and the skill and tact with which they
are pursued.
In view of these facts it behooves
| US to inquire into the ultimate goal of
unionism. Is unionism merely more
or less thoughtless response to pres
ent-day conditions, or does it, IN ad-
dition, contain an element of service,
an element of ethical attainment that
has been too little appreciated IN the
past?
During the past two years | have
/ been assisting in conducting re-
searches into the relation of the
worker to his total situation. During
the same period have been lectur-
ing to trade union classes in the Phil
adelphia labor college. For four
years previous to that was in Eur
ope trying to appraise justly the
English and German labor movements.
The results of my experiences and
reflections seem to suggest that the
only safe and justifiable goal for
trade unionism to seek is the attain
ment of that elusive ideal, "human
happiness" Yet in defining this
term, l confess that meet with diff
Guilty; no one seems to know exactly
what constitutes human happiness"
and how it may be attained. Some Of
us attain it, but, having once possess
ed it, can never be certain that 1T
will not slip overnight from our
grasp.
! Psychologists, in turn, assert that
without health and sane physical liv-
ing, happiness is impossible. The
trade unionist of the past, if he held
any view at all, would likely have
said: "Shorter hours and better pay"
The new trade unionist, while still in
Guiding the old as a necessary ele-
ment, has added a new-namely, "ln-
dustrial democracy and education"
This change in union aims means
that in the American labor movement
there is subtly taking place a with
drawal from the largely materialistic
emphasis to a more or less ldeallstlc
basis-among thinking members, at
least. Yet in both of these union
aims, the older as we'll as the new, |
believe that we can discern much more
than in the mere fact that they are
needs in themselves.
Better wages, education, industrial
democracy-all of them are merely
means to an end, the best means that
our slight knowledge of human ma
ture permits, and that end is the at
tainment of "human happiness"-not
alone for one group, but for all work
orc of tha nation