Evening star., 1937-09-26
ENERGY STUDY MAY BARE
REAL CAUSE OF STRIKES
Industrial Unrest, Imbedded Deep in
Mans Nature, to Be Object of Re-
search Into "Speed.Up" Neurosis.

out running amok? We suspect that
the present-day automobile mechanic
on the line actually works 10 times
harder than his blacksmith or his
farm laborer grandfather. But the
greater part of his work doesn't 20
into the making of automobiles. 1t
goes into the hopeless task of ad-
Justing his nervous system to a rou-
tine for which it never was intended.
This effort to tame and domesticate
the wild animal, man, has been 60
Ing on spasmodically for only about
10000 years at the most-less than a
thousandth part of the lifetime of the
species on earth. But only within
the last 80 years has the attempt
really been serious. In ancient Egypt.
Of course, they captured slaves and
worked them to death by long, steady
hours at such hopeless tasks as build
ing the pyramids. But they worked
them in chains and yokes, and under
the lashes of the overseers. They
expected, quite naturally, that if a
slave once got chance to kill his
master he would do so. Throughout
history man never has done a ma
chimes job except as a slave. That
doesn't mean that he has been tanned
any more than bear in a cage.
Original Nature Asserts Self.
DR.. William NJ Mann, director of
me zoo, will most earnestly urge any,
body who seeks his advice on the sub
Ject not to keep a bear for a pet
around the house. A bear cub is a
cunning, darling little fellow. Nobody
can help loving it. 1t will frolic with
the children, turn somersaults, show
an intelligence almost human. But
sooner or later, DR.. Mann tells YOU,
that bear will be dangerous wild
beast, as likely as not to kill the chill
dren with whom it has played The
only place to keep it is in a cage at
the ZOO from which it can't escape.
1t isn't that the bear is innately vi
cious. It's simply that the creature is
made for life in the forest, not in the
house. It's original nature asserts
itself.
Perhaps that's the way with man.
1t will be up to the investigators of
the "speed-up" neurosis to find out.
The "speed-up," of course, can be
considered only the aggravation of
the cause which brings the neurosis
to the surface. The syndrome of this
neurosis is an uncomfortable diSsatis-
faction with everything and which
nEHS IFS pYnrQccinr iy, friE
ings-up, window breaking and such
pastimes more in line with mans
natural proclivities.
Supposing the U. A. w. investiga-
ton shows that man can't work at a
steady pace regardless of how long
or short the hours and Furthermore
that man can't work without an emo
tional drive inherent in the work
itself. Modern civilization and stand
ards of living are geared to this sort
of work. To abandon it would be to
wreck the whole economic structure
of society.
What can the United Automobile
Workers, or anybody else do about it?
Throw the world back into savagery
Is one suggestion.
Change man is another. This might
be done-in a million years.
Squirting Inventions.
Another suggestion is to spur on the
invention of mechanical men who
can do everything real men can do
more precisely and efficiently and
whose neural grooves can be made to
order out Of copper wire. This is by
no means visionary. The National
Resources Committee recently re-
ported nearly 200 skilled jobs which
the photoelectric eye can do better
than any human being. 1t may not
be entirely fantastic to envision the
day when man will never enter an
automobile factory except for occa-
sional repair jobs. The material may
go in at one end and the finished car
come out at the other without having
been touched by human hand.
This, of course, will demand that
some other way be found for the dis
tribution of wealth except through
wages.
Then man can 60 back to his nat
urai status as wild animal and to
his normal occupations of hunting,
fishing, playing and fighting. He
would be released also for stirring ad-
ventures of the imagination and the
intellect which might bring the race
to greater heights.
The U. A. W. may have started,
however unwittingly. the job of get
ting human beings out of the factory
altogether.