I i\m ti\ i i THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES This boo 1 6 1^2^ •ed below THE YOUTH AND THE NATION THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA. Ltd. TORONTO Courtesy oj The. Smilfuionuin InslUulion Wai-tkr Rkki) When ,it til- risk of liis \\U\ Dr. I{crii hrouKlit to a successful con- cluMiun his cxpfrinM-uts willi yclUjw fever, lie wrote to his wife, "I could shout for very joy that Heaven has permitted me U) make this discovery." THE YOUTH AND THE NATION A GUIDE TO SERVICE BY HARRY H. MOORE AUTHOR OF "keeping IN CONDITION" WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SAMUEL McCUNE LINDSAY, Ph.D., LL.D. PHOFESSOR OF SOCIAL LEGISLATION COLUMBIA UNIVEBSITT ILLUSTRATED 5Jpm fork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 All rights reserved Copyright, 1917 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1917. » » » A CALL TO SERVICE You, at this moment, have the honor to belong to a generation whose hps are touched by fire. . . . The human race now passes through one of its great crises. New ideas, new issues — a new call for men to carry on the work of righteousness, of charity, of courage, of patience, and of loyalty — all these things have come and are daily coming to you. When you are old . . . however memory brings back this moment to your minds, let it be able to say to you : That was a great moment. It was the beginning of a new era. . . . This world in its crisis called for volunteers, for men of faith in life, of patience in service, of charity, and of insight. I responded to the call however I could. I volun- teered to give myself to my master — the cause of humane and brave living. I studied, I loved, I labored, unsparingly and hopefully, to be worthy of my generation. JOSIAH ROYCE. PREFACE Replies to a series of questions collected from eight hundred young men and older boys in nine representative American cities have convinced the author of the need for the information he has at- tempted to set forth in this book. The questions were formulated in an effort to reveal the youth's attitude towards society and his information re- garding the social problems which he must face later as a citizen. The replies show a deplorable amount of ignorance: in the minds of many, pov- erty does not exist; the idea of choosing a vocation for the purpose of becoming socially useful — the mere idea of so doing seems never to have occurred to many.* If we are to make headway against the social evils which threaten the nation, we must enlist the youth. We must do more than offer courses in * See The High School Boy and Modern Social Problems, Harry H. Moore, The Educational Review, October, 1917 viii PREFACE sociology and economics in the college curriculum. Many boys go to college to continue the studies in which they become interested while in high school with no clear idea of the subject-matter of sociology and economics. What is more impor- tant, only a small proportion of high school boys go to college. Many young men enter business and professional life and become citizens without any clear conception of our most fundamental social problems. This book is an attempt to arouse a wholesome interest among young men and older boys of col- lege and high school age in modern social evils, to show them how men have combatted these evils and to suggest vocational opportunities in the warfare against them. Seldom has an author been blessed with so many helpful friends as has the writer of this little vol- ume. Especially is he indebted to Professor William F. Ogburn and Professor Norman F. Coleman, of Reed College who constantly have advised him in its development. Thanks are due also to Dr. Edward O. Sisson, Commissioner of Ed- PREFACE ix ucation of the State of Idaho, to Mr. C. C. Robin- son of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, to Jesse B. Davis, Principal of the Central High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan, to H. H. Herdman, Principal of the Washington High School, Portland, Oregon, to Professors Harold G. Merriam, Joseph K. Hart, Ethel M. Coleman of Reed College, and to college and high school students all of whom have made valuable suggestions or have aided in other ways. H. H. M. Reed College, Portland, Oregon, June, 1917. INTRODUCTION War makes its strongest appeal to youth be- cause it is a challenge both to physical prowess and to the idealism of youth. Where the hazard is so great the cause must have a value greater than life itself. It becomes therefore a sort of supreme vocational motive for the time being. The surrender once made, what has been deemed worth dying for is conceived to be the supreme thing worth living for and fighting for. The author is sincerely interested in the great army of adolescent youth, the high school boys in particular who have not yet found themselves, and who are such a puzzle to their parents, their teachers and their friends. In his "Keeping in Condition" he struck the new and modern note of physical efficiency, and put in an exceptionally sensible and attractive way just the sort of good advice which the average boy is altogether too apt to overlook or treat with indifference. It is a happy, timely and helpful idea to bring together in the present volume on "The Youth and the Nation," a collection of the vocational xii INTRODUCTION experiences of some of the leaders in the really social vocations to fire the ambition and to idealize the eternal war against disease, economic injustice and man's inhumanity to man. Mr. Moore gives us in language which the boy can understand the vocational experiences of those who have gone to the front, lived in the trenches and taken the range of the enemy bacteria in the physical universe or the germs of greed and economic selfishness which are more numerous and harmful to man and his social institutions than the tor- pedoes of the submarine, the bombs of the latest aircraft, or the bullets of the most modern machine guns. This is the sort of "social literature" which is needed everywhere and for all stages of the educational process from the kindergarten to the college. A little of it has penetrated the col- leges and the universities in the last generation but for the most part that is too late to have the maximum molding effect in the choice of a voca- tion. The choices are usually made before one gets to college, and then there are so many that never go to college who stumble blindly into vo- cations that just turn up and never satisfy the real longing of the soul. It is high time that the effort was made, especially in these days of voca- INTRODUCTION xili tional education and so-called vocational guidance in our public school systems, to bring this material to the high school and to adapt it to the atmosphere and curriculum of secondary education. It is not the sentimental appeal or the motive of self-sacrifice which in the past has played so large a part in recruiting the professions of teaching and the Christian ministry, that the author relies upon chiefly in his call to social service. Strangely enough Mr. Moore passes over very lightly both of these professions in his emphasis upon the larger social vocations. Perhaps he thought they did not need further emphasis, or that they are hardly up to the highest standards demanded by the modern social spirit. It is rather, and very properly, the wonderful vista of conquest that he takes as the more positive note of appeal. The modern sani- tarian, the economist-administrator and the busi- ness man armed with science and girt about with the social values of invention, are rather the types of the ideal. These furnish the incentive to en- deavor which can only be successful in proportion as it is unselfish and breaks down whenever trans- muted into mere personal gain or arbitrary and unsocial power. In this pioneer effort Mr. Moore will receive xiv INTRODUCTION the thanks and co-operation of thousands of teach- ers and parents for whom he has merely pointed the way to a new method of attack and to new resources of information and inspiration in the vocational training and guidance of young boys. He would doubtless be the first to admit that he has merely scratched the surface of the vocational experiences of typical men in many walks of life. He will also be the more eager to welcome that growing record which others imitating his example will make of the incidents of the common everyday life about us which reflect the true social spirit of America. Samuel McCune Lindsay. New York, May 15, 1917. CONTENTS PAGE Preface vii Introduction xi CHAPTER I. The Fighting Strength of Youth 1 n. Enemies of the Nation 8 Disease 8 'Feeble-mindedness 10 > Juvenile Delinquency and Crime 11 ■« The Evils of Immigration 15 Commercialized Prostitution 18 Liquor and the Saloon 20 The Disasters of Industry 21 ^ Child Labor 23 Women in Industry 25 in. More Enemies 28 Unemployment 28 Rural Poverty 31 Poverty in the City 34 The Luxury and Extravagance of the Rich ... 38 The Inequitable Distribution of Wealth 40 Will the Nation Survive 43 IV. Shall the Youth Enlist? 46 V. Choosing a Life Work 55 Social Considerations in Various Voca- tions 56 Considerations of Special Fitness . 62 XV xvi CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE VI. Preparation for Life Work 67 Physical Preparation 67 Mental Preparation 71 Vn. Defenders of the Nation — In the Professions 77 A Physician 77 A Teacher 83 A Physical Director 85 A Lawyer 87 A Politician 89 An Engineer 91 A Minister 94 A Missionary 97 Three Men in the Field of Art 100 A Forester 101 A Journalist 102 Vni. Defenders of the Nation — In Business Life . . 106 A Student of Economics who became a Busi- ness Man 106 A Business Man who Practiced the Golden Rule 108 A Man who Gave his Business to his Em- ployees 110 A Corporation President who Promotes Welfare Work Ill Attitudes Towards Profit Sharing and Wel- fare Work 112 IX. Defenders of the Nation — In Agriculture and Industry 116 From Farmer to Governor 117 Other Useful Farmers 119 The County Agent 120 Social Usefulness in Farming 121 A Chanii)i()n of Labor 123 A Leader of Miners 126 CONTENTS xvii CHAPTER PAGE X. Defenders of the Nation — In Organized So- cial Work 131 The Secretary of the National Child Labor Committee 132 A Prison Warden 134 The Founder of the Adirondack Cottage San- itarium 136 A Secretary of the Young Men's Christian As- sociation 139 XI. Defenders of the Nation — In Avocations 143 A Railroad President who Defended Public Interests 143 Two Bankers who Served their City and State 148 An Avocation for Students 150 Thoughtless Imitation vs. Intelligent Serv- ice 152 Problems All Must Face 155 Xn. A Call to Action 158 Selected Books 169 Notes 171 ILLUSTRATIONS Walter Reed Frontispiece Facing page Air Shaft Opening of a Tenement 16 Boys who will Never See 20 The Trapper Boy 24 A Street Gamin 52 Charles R. Henderson 90 John M. Eshleman 90 Who will Buy Food for the Children Now? 109 Sing Sing Prison 134 Owen R. Lovejoy 140 John R. Mott 140 WiUiam H. Baldwin, Jr 144 An Immigrant Boy 150 Two Ways of Getting a Meal 162 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION THE YOUTH AND THE NATION A GUIDE TO SERVICE CHAPTER I THE FIGHTING STRENGTH OF YOUTH When the German army was invading Belgium and had reached Liege, a Belgian youth of seven- teen named Van der Bern was placed in charge of a patrol of twenty men for reconnoitering out- side the city. On the night of August 5, 1914, he had been out with his men for twenty-five minutes, when they unexpectedly came upon a group of about fifty Germans. The surprised Belgians began to flee, but Van der Bern shouted, **A moi!" and ran fearlessly towards the Germans. The others responded and together they hurled themselves upon the enemy. The odds were over- whelmingly against them and in a few minutes Van der Bern was left with only two companions. In thirty seconds these two fell. With almost superhuman effort, the boy got them back to 2 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION safety, but not before two German bullets had struck him. He placed his comrades in the care of the Red Cross, went to his superior officer and reported the engagement. Then he fell in a faint. In an action in Russia near Ivoff, a company of Russians in a trench was surprised by a large body of Austrians. A murderous fire was con- centrated upon them. Whenever a Russian hat was seen, it was instantly perforated with bullets. The Russians were able to do but little. They soon ran out of ammunition. The officers in charge called for a volunteer to make an attempt to bring reinforcements from the Russian lines. The Austrians were firing from a distance of only three hundred paces; the risk was great. A youth named Nicholas Orloff responded. As soon as he started, the fire of the Austrians was turned full upon him. He was shot. Wounded as he w^as, he crawled forward until he reached the Russian position. Reinforcements were sent and his companions were saved. Nicholas Orloff was awarded the Cross of St. George — the highest Russian military decoration.^ When the Italian government in July, 1915, issued an order forbidding the acceptance of vol- unteers under eighteen years of age, says a dis- FIGHTING STRENGTH OF YOUTH 3 patch from Lugano, there was great disappoint- ment among sixteen and seventeen year old boys. When they had to give up their arms and uniforms, many broke down and wept.^ In American wars thousands of brave youths have enhsted and their heroism is still remem- bered. In the War of 1812, David Farragut, when but a boy, distinguished himself in a bloody battle with the English; and we are still thrilled by the youthful exploits of John Paul Jones, Ethan Allen and Commodore Perry. Soon after the outbreak of the Great War, many American young men, though their own country had not yet become involved, enlisted in the Canadian and French armies. One of these was Victor Chapman. When the war broke out he was studying in Paris. He immediately entered the Foreign Legion and later joined a group of young Americans in the aviation service of France. On one occasion. Chapman, wishing to gratify a wounded comrade's desire for an orange, obtained a small basket of them and set forth in his aero- plane for the hospital where his friend lay. While on his way, he discovered several black spots against the sky indicating an engagement between French and German aircraft. Chapman imme- 4 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION diately dashed to a great height, put his machine gun into action and brought down two German aeroplanes. Then one of the Germans found his mark and Chapman plunged hfeless to the earth. Victor Chapman combined in his h'fe young and tranquil gayety with decision, energy, and char- acter. The venerated French philosopher, Emile Boutroux, said of Chapman in the Paris Temps^ "He was duty incarnate; disdaining all danger, he dreamed only of doing his utmost in a useful task." 3 To many youths in the Great War have come opportunities for heroic action; and to most sol- diers at the front has come the excitement of the charge. To the rank and file, war brings also the drudgery and monotony of camp life and the sordidness of life in the trenches. Bullets may be faced with courage. It is the mud and water, the vermin, the stench, the weariness, the enforced inactivity that try men's souls. Yet the youths of every nation always have been ready; and however unexpected have been the drudgery, monotony and hardship, they have met them cheerfully and courageously. Aroused by patriotic emotions, they have gladly left loved ones and the comforts of home in order that they FIGHTING STRENGTH OF YOUTH 5 might fight for their country. The best fighters of every nation have been its youths. In attending to military warfare, however, the youths of America have overlooked enemies within our borders more dangerous than menacing armies. They have failed to notice that disease, crime and poverty have been causing destruc- tion more serious than the devastation of war. The number who died of typhoid fever in the United States in 1912 probably exceeded the num- ber killed in six of the greatest battles of the Civil War; ^ crime, as we shall see, causes a vast amount of suffering and poverty undermines the strength of the whole nation. In times of military warfare it is especially im- portant to combat these internal enemies, be- cause they sap the energies of the youth — the nation's best fighters. Only as we are successful in overcoming our internal foes, can we be in con- dition for other wars. In 1916 and 1917 the men and boys of the United States were in a deplorable state of unpreparedness. Their physical unfitness was shown by the small proportion of applicants admitted into the regular army. During the first fifty-eight days of the campaign for recruits which began in March, 1916, /owr out of every five THE YOUTH AND THE NATION were rejected because they ivere physically unfits Every year thousands of men and boys are in- capacitated for military service through injuries sustained in industry; '^ other thousands are weak- ened by dissipation and disease; '' an army of youths may be found at all times in our jails and prisons, useless as fighters and a source of expense to the nation; thousands of boys and men are being weakened through lack of suflScient nourish- ment due to poverty.^ In times of security from external foes, the na- tion should seek to direct the skill of its army and the fighting strength of its entire body of young men into the warfare against poverty, crime and disease. This is a warfare which must be waged incessantly. The fighting seldom will be dramatic. Most of it will be as monotonous as life in a mili- tary training camp. Only a few men will be called upon to die in action. Many will be required to render a more difficult service. They will be called upon to live for their country, giving full years of active service, struggling against dis- couragement and grappling with intricate, baffling problems. Alike in times of great national crises and in periods of constructive activity, the young man FIGHTING STRENGTH OF YOUTH 7 must consider thoughtfully what his duty to his country is and what patriotism means. To wear a little flag in one's button-hole, to march in a parade, to applaud the manoeuvers of battle-ships on the moving-picture screen, to sing "My Coun- try, 'Tis of Thee" with fervor — these things in themselves are but empty forms. To have value they must be accompanied by a love of country so strong that it demands expression in some sub- stantial service. Men may serve the nation by fighting in army or navy. They may render service which is as important, by taking part in the warfare against the nation's internal enemies. Young men always are eager to defend their country from its foes without. They will be eager to protect it from enemies within our gates when they realize that these enemies are a greater menace. If the United States is to survive as a great nation, and if civili- zation is to advance during the next quarter century, the nation's youth must wage with vigor and persistence this warfare against disease, crime and poverty. CHAPTER II ENEMIES OF THE NATION Every man is familiar with the Hves of one or more military heroes, with the campaigns they have waged and the battles they have lost and won. Their lives have been an inspiration. Let us now consider the warfare against crime, disease and poverty and a few of its heroes. We shall find that it is a warfare demanding energy, endurance, determination and courage of a high order, and a high degree of intelligence. These ancient foes of mankind — disease, crime and poverty — manifest themselves in many dif- ferent social evils. Let us look at the devastation and suffering which they cause. Disease. — In July, 1916, there were mobilized in New York City, the forces of nation, state and city for one of the biggest battles to save human life that has ever been fought. A million babies were threatened with a mysterious disease, called in- fantile paralysis. In a few weeks, there were thou- sands of cases and hundreds of deaths. 8 ENEMIES OF THE NATION 9 Health Commissioner Emerson of New York City, with the consent of the pohce department, called out New York's 10,000 "home guards" — citizens trained for co-operation in crises — to aid in enforcing sanitary measures. Deputy Surgeon General W. C. Rucker of the United States Public Health Service established a complete laboratory and an administrative force of public health serv- ants to help the city health officers.^ By Septem- ber, the epidemic seemed to have run its course. The means of transmission, however, has not been ascertained, and the conquest of the disease has not yet been achieved. In the United States, there are probably at all times about 3,000,000 persons seriously ill, and every day 1700 unnecessary deaths. ^° Of the 20,000,000 school children in the country to-day 2,000,000 will die of tuberculosis (consumption) if they continue to die at the present rate.^^ If a single health officer were required to take the names of these doomed children as they passed through his office at the rate of one a minute, ten hours a day, seven days in the week, the task would take over nine years. England and Germany protect their citizens by health insurance. The only great industrial 10 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION country without such protection for its people is the United States. Systematic fights against infantile paralysis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis and other diseases are waged with vigor from time to time; a few have given their lives in fighting them. A well organized warfare against disease is developing. When physicians adopt more vigorous methods and attack disease in its many breeding places instead of waiting for it first to attack human hves, great victories will be won by science and much human suffering will be prevented. Feehle-mindedness. — In 1803, Martin Kallikak, Jr., a feeble-minded man, married Rhoda Zabeth, a normal woman. They had ten children and from them have come not less than four hundred and seventy descendants. Among these ten children and their descendants were the following: 143 feeble-minded persons. 36 illegitimate children. 33 sexually immoral persons, mostly prostitutes. 24 confirmed alcoholics. 3 epileptics. 82 children who died in infancy. 8 persons who kept houses of ill fame. 3 criminals. ^'-^ ENEMIES OF THE NATION 11 Feeble-mindedness constitutes a serious menace to society, for it is one of the chief causes of crime, prostitution, alcohohsm and poverty. Many of the feeble-minded are unable to hold positions in in- dustry; they can support neither themselves nor their families. Feeble-mindedness is transmitted from generation to generation. If both parents are feeble-minded the children are almost sure to be feeble-minded; if only one parent is defective, feeble-mindedness is likely to show in either of the next two generations. There are from 300,000 to 400,000 feeble-minded persons in the United States. ^^ In other words, there are virtually as many feeble-minded per- sons in the country as there are students in the colleges and universities. Sociologists are seri- ously considering what can be done safely to prevent the feeble-minded from reproducing themselves. Juvenile Delinquency and Crime. — A Chicago jail was full of the confusion of curses, screams, groans and obscenity. "It's a dull night, but noisy," said the patient turnkey. Suddenly two figures appeared outside the entrance, one was a big policeman, the other, a boy of seventeen, short and slender. 12 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION " Have you got room for our young friend here? " asked the officer with a grin, as the turnkey swung open the heavy door. The boy's face was pale and his eyes had a look of terror in them. "Please don't lock me up, mister," he pled. "Haven't you got some friend who'll go your bail,'' How about the man you work for?" asked the turnkey. "Oh, no! If he knows I'm pinched, I'll lose my job. I don't want nobody to know." "We'll give you the best we've got," said the turnkey. "Come along." He opened a cell door and the boy went falter- ingly in. There were two others in the cell, one a dope fiend and the other a youth charged with picking pockets. The dope fiend made room for the boy on his wooden bench. For fourteen hours, they were confined there together. Now and then, the boy would fall to sleep only to be awakened by the hideous screams of a prisoner with delirium tremens. Occasionally the dope fiend leaned over and talked with the boy in low tones. Later in the night he began to suffer from lack of his drug; presently he dropped to the floor; his head fell back and his eyes rolled wildly. All night long, at frequent intervals, there were outbursts of ENEMIES OF THE NATION 13 drunken profanity as groups of new prisoners were received and put into cells. In the morning, the boy was taken in a patrol wagon to the boys' court. It appeared in court that, while riding his bicycle, he had run acciden- tally into a child. He had stopped immediately, had picked up the child and had taken it to its mother. This was his crime. Because of it, his self-respect had been assaulted; he had been ex- posed to both physical and moral disease; he had heard more profanity and vulgarity in one night, than most boys hear in a year.^^ Conditions in many city police stations are bad; in county jails they are worse. Some are under- ground, as were the dungeons of the dark ages. In some cases, the cells are overrun with vermin and rats. In many county jails, no attempt is made to keep boys separate from adult murderers, perverts and other criminals. A large proportion of those detained are innocent. ^^ Many men leave state prisons worse criminals than when they came. Said one man, "I will tell you how I felt at the end of my jSrst term. I hated everybody and everything, and I made up my mind I would get even." The greatest crime in the United States is the 14 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION wholesale manufacture of criminals. Many of our prisons, instead of reforming men who have made bad beginnings in life, have been making hardened criminals out of them. Often, when released, they associate with youths who are just getting out into the world and pass on to them the lessons in crime they have learned while in prison. What should we say of a hospital that released most of its patients uncured to go out into the community and spread disease broadcast.'^ ^^ There were probably not less than 100,000 chil- dren before juvenile courts in 1910. Of these, over 14,000, most of them boys, were committed to reform schools and similar institutions.^^ Juvenile delinquency tends to become more serious in times of war. In Berlin in 1915 there were twice as many crimes committed by children as in 1914. In England, in 1917, juvenile delin- quency had increased at least 34 per cent since the war began. ^^ The development of home economics and other movements which tend to strengthen the home life will prevent much delinquency; so, too, will the pro- motion of supervised playgrounds, gymnasiums and swimming pools, social centers and club work for boys and girls in settlements and religious institutions. ENEMIES OF THE NATION 15 On January 1, 1910, there were 111,498 prisoners confined in the prisons, penitentiaries, jails and workhouses of the United States. ^^ If all these prisoners were transferred to one Institution, an area of over seven square miles would be necessary for the building and grounds. Pioneers in prison reform have been working for years. Society now is learning that the criminal is a sick man mentally and that the prison ought to be his hospital. To treat him as a sick man is less expensive in the long run and it is far more humane. Public oflScers are beginning to see this. Selfish interests, prejudice and ignorance, are giving way to enlightened public opinion. The fight for prison reform has begun. The Evils of Immigration. — On Wednesday, Jan- uary 5, 1916, several thousand men employed by the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, in East Youngstown, Ohio, struck for an increase in wages. On Thursday there were a few signs of disorder. On Friday, thousands were on the streets, and many were drinking. A large group were massed near a steel bridge which constituted the main en- trance to the company's plant. This bridge was in charge of uniformed guards employed by the company. There were signs of hostility between 10 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION the guards and the strikers, then some of the strikers started onto the bridge toward the guards. According to one report, the guards advanced and fired; the strikers retreated until they came to a pile of bricks. Using these for ammunition, they pressed back against the guards. A general riot of destruction followed. The saloons were raided, and their doors and windows broken. The rioters obtained dynamite, threatening, as they said, "to blow East Youngs- town to hell!" They tried to burn the enemy's plant, and they succeeded in setting fire to the business section of the town and assaulted the firemen who tried to fight the flames. Eight were killed and others were wounded; four complete city blocks were destroyed at a loss of $500,000 to $1,000,000. The next morning the militia arrived and quiet was restored. What was the cause of this warfare? The op- pression of the workers was one cause; the saloon was another. An important cause was the utter failure on the part of East Youngstown to Amer- icanize its foreign-born population. East Youngs- town has a population of 9,700, most of whom are Poles, Lithuanians and Serbs. Of these, less than five per cent are registered voters. There were Air Shaft Opening of a Six-story Tenement in New York People live four stories below this roof. All the light and air they get comes through this slit. This kind of construction is prohibited in new buildings. ENEMIES OF THE NATION 17 nineteen saloons, and not a church of any kind in the town. There were no night schools. When the Superintendent of Education was reproached with this fact, he replied that the Board of Educa- tion had refused to give a dollar "for teaching foreigners." ^^ In cities and towns throughout the Middle West and the East, there are large groups of foreign- born people. Over one-quarter of the foreign- born in Buffalo, Cleveland and Milwaukee, in 1910, were unable to speak English. 2° Many are ignorant of our customs. They are underpaid and shamefully abused. They cause serious trouble in industry. In the lower east side of New York City, dwell 500,000 human beings, most of them immigrants. This is a population greater than that of Utah or Montana. In 1910, there were over 10,000 ten- ements with "air-shafts" furnishing neither sun- light nor fresh air.-^ A child living its early years in dark rooms without sunlight and fresh air grows up anaemic, weak and sickly like a plant grown in the dark. It is handicapped in school, in in- dustry, and in all of its activities. Strong nations are not made of such material. ^- During the year ending June 30, 1914, a million 18 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION and a quarter persons came to the United States from foreign lands. ^^ This number was equal to the population of the entire state of West Virginia in 1910. Of all the problems before the people to-day, the problem of Americanizing the immi- grant is one of the most acute. The public schools of the United States are doing admirable work towards the Americanizing of immigrant children. The public schools of many cities also conduct night schools for adult immi- grants. Cleveland, Ohio, and other cities are making systematic efforts to educate adult immi- grants in the responsibilities of citizenship. The effort must be extended. Commercialized Prostitution. — A girl of twenty- two years married a man of twenty-six. About a month after the wedding, the bride was con- fined to her bed with severe suffering and fever. She was taken to a physician who discovered that she had gonorrhoea (clap). This wrecked her health and made her incapable of bearing children. Careful treatment produced but slight improve- ment, and finally a surgical operation was per- formed. This improved her health, but she was never able to have children. The husband ad- mitted that he had contracted a "mild gonorrhoea" ENEMIES OF THE NATION 19 years before, but had considered himself cured. An examination showed the germs of gonorrhoea in him.24 Thousands of girls become the innocent victims of men who have failed in their youth to recognize the seriousness of illicit sex relations. Hundreds of women become invalids for life; hundreds re- main childless; other hundreds give birth to chil- dren who soon become blind or who remain de- fective in other ways all their lives. While the guilty husband generally acquires disease from a prostitute, this does not mean that she is primarily responsible. The prostitute, in the first place, is often the innocent victim of men. After girls take their first few missteps, their downfall is rapid. They become outcasts, and are accepted only in the society of their kind. For a short time, the prostitute's life may be a gay one, but only for a short time. It soon becomes a hell on earth. Hundreds of girls are sacrificed to satisfy the lust of men. Men are largely to blame for prostitution and for the infection of innocent women and children. Though the guilty man may suflFer less than the innocent woman and child whom he infects, these diseases in men are serious because they render men 20 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION unfit for either civil or military service. According to a recent report of the War Department, prob- ably one man in five of the class from which re- cruits are drawn for the regular army suffers from syphilis. ^^ In many cities, prostitution still is permitted as a business. It brings in thousands of dollars in profits to property owners, keepers of bawdy- houses and liquor dealers. Various regulative methods have proved ineffective. The red-light district is a plague spot, from which are spread two vile and terrible diseases. The work of recently organized Social Hygiene Societies is focusing the attention of hundreds of high-minded men on these problems. Sex educa- tion and the enforcement of proper laws are being advocated. It is believed that much can be done to reduce prostitution and venereal disease. Though an encouraging beginning has been made, much more will have to be done, if the women and children of the United States are to be safe. Liquor and the Sa/oo/i.— That alcoholic liquors cause much disease, crime and poverty is known by many high school students. The United States spends annually $1,750,000,000 for liquor. This == a -a ENEMIES OF THE NATION 21 amount of money is almost beyond the grasp of the mind. It would build twelve hospitals in each of the forty-eight states in the Union at a cost of $600,000 each, twenty colleges in each state at a cost of $1,200,000 each, 300 recreation centers with gymnasiums and swimming pools at $500,000 each, and there would be left over, $102,400,000 to pro- mote industrial education. ^^ During recent years, the warfare against the saloon has been achieving success. At the be- ginning of 1916, nineteen states had voted out the saloon. Reverses will doubtless come and there will be many hard fights before this evil traffic is finally destroyed. The success of prohibition in war time should hasten the coming of permanent prohibition. The Disasters of Industry. — In November, 1909, fire broke out in a coal mine at Cherry, Illinois. There were 500 men in the mine at the time; of these, 124 escaped. Then the shafts had to be sealed in an effort to smother the flames. For days, the wives, children and friends of the en- tombed miners waited in fearful suspense. The militia were called. They formed a human line around the mouth of the shaft to keep back the sorrowing throng as it pressed towards the pit 22 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION where their loved ones were imprisoned. Miners who had escaped threatened to seize the shaft. As soon as it was possible to make a descent into the mine, a party of firemen from Chicago led by three graduates from the Columbia University School of Mines went down in the cage and for a night and a day, three hundred feet underground, they fought the flames. No sign of life was seen; the state mine inspectors gave up all hope and left the field. At last, the rescuers reported that they had discovered living men who had walled themselves in from fire and gas. Twenty were saved. For seven days they had faced the horrors of hell. Three hundred were found dead. They sacrificed their lives in the coal industry; and the widows and children of most of them were left dependent on charity." In December, 1907, 344 were killed at the Monongah mines in West Virginia, and 228 at Jacob's Creek, Pennsylvania. The waste of human life in industry is appalling. Men, women and children are poisoned, maimed for life and killed. Human life in America is cheap. There are 35,000 killed every year in the industries of this country and 700,000 injured.-^ Each one of us enjoys the comforts of life because of the risks taken by the ENEMIES OF THE NATION 23 workers in industry. Can we comprehend these figures? They mean that every day in the United States nearly one hundred are killed in industry and nearly two thousand are injured — that one man is killed every fifteen minutes, and that one is injured every minute, twenty-four hours a day. Systematic efforts are being made to protect the worker in industry. Employers are now being held liable for accidents, safety devices are being installed, industrial insurance is being provided by law. The "Safety First" movement is proving effective. The slaughter continues, however, and hard work must be done before the workers will be reasonably safe. Every new industry as it springs up will present new problems. Child Labor. — On an early winter morning long before the sun was up, two little girls, Mary and Jane O'Connor, plodded along a Vermont mountain road. Each carried a dinner pail. They were spin- ners bound for the cotton mill. One was fifteen years old ; she had worked three years. The other was fourteen ; she had worked two years. They had got up at four-fifteen in the morning, and had walked two and a half miles to the mill, because they could not afford to ride. Each earned three dollars a week. In the mill where these children worked, 24 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION eighteen out of fifty employees were children from eleven to sixteen years of age. The law in each of the New England States forbids the employment of children under four- teen except under exceptional circumstances. But laws are sometimes violated. The mill owner may prefer children to adults; child labor is cheap; children are docile; they seldom demand higher wages and shorter hours. The earlier the child goes to work, the more like a machine it becomes. If the little body soon wears out, if the child is seriously injured or killed, many mill owners seemingly do not care. There are other children ready to take its place. -^ In the United States, nearly two million chil- dren between the ages of ten and sixteen are em- ployed in various gainful occupations. A proces- sion of them advancing at the rate of one per minute day and night would require nearly four years to pass a given point. ^° In times of war, children constitute the second line of national defense. If they are taken from school and required to work long hours in field or factory, if they are underfed, if they are not guarded as the nation's choicest assets, when they are needed later, they will not be prepared and the nation will suffer. Z is H ?3 ENEMIES OF THE NATION 25 Thousands of men and women throughout the land are interesting themselves in the cause of the children who toil. A definite campaign is being waged against the employment of children. It is a campaign of education, and a campaign for better laws. In 1916, an important battle in the campaign was won when Congress passed a law prohibiting industries which employ children below certain standards from shipping any of their prod- ucts into other states. Women in Industry. — Grace Brown, a sales- woman, had been at work twelve years. Though earlier in life she had earned as much as twelve dol- lars a week in a knitting mill, the long hours and unsanitary conditions had broken her health and she was now getting six dollars and had given up hope of advancement. She lived in a furnished room with two other women, each paying one dol- lar a week rent. She cared nothing for her fellow lodgers, but stayed with them to keep down ex- penses. She cooked her breakfast and supper in this crowded room at an expense of $1.95 a week. She said that her "hearty" meal was eaten in a restaurant at noon; for this she paid fifteen cents. Her entire expenditures for the week were : Lodg- ing, $1.00; board, $1.95; lunches, $1.05; insurance. 26 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION $0.21 ; clothing, contributions to church, occasional carfare and other expenses, $1.79; total, $6.00. For fifteen years she had given freely all her energies to industry. Now she was thin and worn from hard work and severe economizing, though she was only thirty-five years of age. Miss Brown praised the firm for which she worked for generosity in many of its policies; but she felt profoundly discouraged in not being able to make enough to enable her to live more decently. ^^ Grace Brown's wages were six dollars a week. What does this amount of money mean.'^ To many, it means three theater tickers, gasoline for a week, a pair of shoes, or the cost of an evening at bridge. To thousands of girls and women it means that every penny must be carefully guarded. If more food is needed than the regular meager allowance provides, it must be bought with the money that should go for clothes. If it is nec- essary to buy a new waist to replace the old one at which the forewoman has glanced reproachfully, it may be necessary to go without lunches for several days. Room rent must be paid regularly. And behind it all lies the chance of losing one's position in a slack season. ^^ Six dollars a week is the wage not merely of a few women. Probably ENEMIES OF THE NATION 27 two-fifths or more of the women wage earners in the United States earn less than six dollars a week.^^ In many cases, not only are the wages low; the working day is long, often ten hours and longer. To hundreds of girls, this means weakened vitality, ill-health and disease. They are later unable prop- erly to fulfil the duties of motherhood. Their chil- dren may be handicapped from birth. Hundreds of men and women, familiar with the conditions, are attacking these evils with vigor. The public conscience is being awakened. Massa- chusetts, Wisconsin, Oregon and a few other states have passed laws setting a minimum wage for women workers; and many more laws are needed. CHAPTER III MORE ENEMIES We have considered several distressing manifesta- tions of disease, crime and poverty. We must now turn our attention to evils which, in the opinion of many economists, are more fundamental. Uneinployment.— "Frank A. Mallin went to the central police station Wednesday night and asked to be locked up on a charge of vagrancy. He said he had been conducting an unsuccessful search for work for so long that he was sure he must be a vagrant. In any event he was so hungry he must be fed." ^^ Incidents similar to this, reported by a San Francisco newspaper, have not been uncom- mon during the past few years. "One family, in which the wife was soon to be- come a mother, had not a scrap of food in the house," reported the Detroit Board of Commerce, in the winter of 1914-15. "Two children had gone two days without food. The father was out of work." ^-^ One man for the sake of temporary relief advertised to sell to a physician "all right and title to his body." ^' 28 MORE ENEMIES 29 Two hundred and fifty men were found huddled together in four dark rooms of an employment agency, where they had to stand all night, because if they lay down or sat up, some would have to be turned out.^^ Sometimes one hears it said that the unemployed can get work if they want it. While it is true that there are professional tramps and others who do not want work, these do not make up the great army of the unemployed. Such sweeping remarks simply show how ignorant are the men who make them. It is foolish to make such statements, when often there are ten men for every available job. Recently in Philadelphia 5,000 men answered an advertisement for 300 workers at the Philadelphia Ship Repair Company's yards. In Hartford, 700 men and women refused to leave the gate of a tobacco warehouse which employed only twenty- four of the entire number. In Atlantic City, 500 unemployed responded in a mad scramble to a notice for fifty men to do construction work — it was necessary to call the police. ^^ In unemployment, we have a most singular social phenomenon — thousands of strong, able-bodied men wanting work, but unable to get it, while thousands of their women and children suffer for 30 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION the products of their labor. Idleness is demoral- izing to an individual, and an idle nation inevitably drifts towards degradation.^^ According to the 1900 Census, there were over 735,000 wage earners who lost from seven to twelve months' time during the preceding year.^° Three- quarters of a million men is a large number. They would fill a city of the size of Boston or St. Louis without leaving any room for their wives and children. Yet every one of them was out of work more than half a year. Later figures for the en- tire country are not available, but, as is well known, conditions were much worse during the winter of 1914-15; nearly a half million were un- employed in New York City alone. ^^ Men have hardly awakened to the seriousness of unemployment. It presents a baffling problem. A few, however, are attacking it with determina- tion. Federal and state employment agencies are endeavoring to distribute the workers more evenly. The co-operation of employers is being sought. A beginning has been made, but only a beginning. If during war, and if during unusually good times, there is plenty of work for all, we cannot assume that the problem has been solved. It will recur until an adequate remedy has been carefully MORE ENEMIES 31 worked out. The problem presents a challenge to our ablest young men. Rural Poverty. — A frail little woman with faded eyes and broken body gave testimony in the spring of 1915 at Dallas, Texas, before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations. Her dress, the best she had, was faded with many washings. Her body quivered with nervous tension. The crowd listened eagerly as she told her story in her weak, thin voice. "Do you work in the fields.'^" she was asked. "Yes, ma'am." "And do you do the housework.^*" "There ain't no one else to do it." "And the sewing.^^" "Yes." "Did you make your sun-bonnet, too.'^" "Yes, ma'am. I make all the clothes for the children and myself." "Do you make your hats.^" "Yes'm, I make my hats. I only had two since I been married." "Only two hats.?" "Yes'm, two." "And how long have you been married.?" "Twenty years." 32 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION "Do you do the milking?" "Most always, when we can afford a cow." "What time do you get up in the morning?" "I usually gits up in time to have breakfast by four o'clock in the summer time." "And after breakfast?" "In choppin' and pickin' time, I work in the fields." "Do you cook the dinner?" "I generally leave the field at eleven o'clock to get dinner ready." "What do you do after dinner?" "I most always goes back to the field.'* "And then you get supper too?" "Yes'm, and do up the dishes. Then I try to do what sewing has to be done." "Do you have many social gatherings in the country?" "Not very often. We usually have church once a month." "Are there any libraries in the communities in which you have lived?" "No'm." She was the wife of Levi Stewart. Together they had wandered over parts of Arkansas and Texas. Life had been a dreary struggle. They MORE ENEMIES 33 were seven hundred dollars in debt and had no land of their own. In order to have "hands" for picking cotton, they had tried to raise a large family.42 The neglect and oppression of the farmer con- stitutes a grave social evil. People are urged to go "back to the farm," when economic conditions in the country do not permit many to make even a comfortable living. Though most farmers are sure of sufficient food, many do not get much addi- tional income. In a favored county in New York, the average income of farmers is $423 per year.^^ Farm land is being held at higher prices than most men are able to pay for it. The farmer, in many places, is being unjustly taxed. It is diffi- cult for young men without capital to start life on a farm of their own. An increasing proportion of farmers are tenants. Pests often prevent profits; poor roads make marketing difficult; and when the farmer is ready to sell his crop, he is often at the mercy of commis- sion merchants. He must accept what they will pay or nothing at all. Many farmers are isolated, and their lives are lonely. In many communities, their schools are inefficient, and their churches are unattractive. 34 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION The farmer's wife often must work even harder than the farmer.^* Thousands of farmers toil from morning to night and are utterly unable to make headway against the drudgery and sordid- ness of their existence. In recent years, efforts have been inaugurated to remedy these evils. The Department of Agricul- ture of the Federal Government has done much. The Federal Rural Credits Law, passed in 19 IC, will probably make it possible for many farmers to borrow money at reasonable interest and make better progress. State legislatures are considering bills in the interest of the farmer. Wliere scientific agriculture is being applied, there is dawning for the farmer a better day. Poverty in the City. — Walter A. Wyckoff, a pro- fessor in Princeton University, lived for long periods as a laborer in order to learn the facts of industry at first hand. At a factory gate he heard a man applying for a job. At home were an old mother, a wife and two young children. The man had got jobs off and on through the winter in a sweat shop and had made just enough to keep them all alive. "The boss had all but agreed to take him," Mr. Wyckoff writes, "when, struck evidently by the cadaverous look of the man, he told him MORE ENEMIES 35 to bare his arm. Up went the sleeve of his coat and of his ragged flannel shirt, exposing a naked arm with the muscles nearly gone, and the blue- white, transparent skin stretched over sinews and the outlines of the bones. Pitiful beyond words was his effort to give a semblance of strength to the biceps which rose faintly to the upward move- ment of the forearm." The boss sent him off with an oath and a contemptuous laugh. ^^ The New York Journal reported the following news item: "On a pile of rags in a room bare of furniture and freezing cold, Mary Gallin, dead from starvation, with an emaciated baby four months old crying at her breast, was found this morning at 513 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, by Policeman McConnor of the Flushing Avenue Station. Huddled together for warmth in another part of the room were the father, James Gallin, and three children ranging from two to eight years of age. The children gazed at the policeman much as ravenous animals might have done. They were famished, and there was not a vestige of food in their comfortless home." ^^ A laborer in New York asked a question that was not answered at the time and has not yet been answered. He was out of work and said he 36 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION would take a job in the subway at one dollar and fifty cents per day, as he could find nothing else. He had a wife and three children under twelve years of age. "I'll take the job," he said, "but how in hell is a man to support his family on a dollar and a half a day, tell me that.^" ^^ Working six full days a week for an entire year, he would earn $468. According to the weight of authority, the low limit of a living wage for cities of the north, east and west for a family of five is $650. Tliis estimate is based on a purely physical standard — "a sanitary dwelling and sufficient food and clothing to keep the body in working order. It is precisely the same standard that a man would demand for his horses or slaves." What is a man to do who can't possibly earn over $468 in a year, when the very least he can live on decently is $650 a year.' '^ A certain writer, well known for his graceful style, has said that the poor remain poor because they show no great desire to be anything else. Those who make such statements show their ignorance of conditions. Thousands work from morning till night, year after year, at the full stretch of their powers, in an effort to attain some MORE ENEMIES 37 degree of comfort. Yet the odds are against them. They are miserable. Alfred Marshall, the English economist, calls attention to the large amount of genius lost to the nation, because it is born in poor children, where it perishes for want of opportu- nity. ^^ There are great groups of people who, through- out their lives, have insufficient food, clothing and shelter. They labor from childhood for the bare existence they are able to sustain. Savings for a rainy day, wholesome recreation, enjoyment of the world's achievements in literature and art are out of the question. Says Thomas Carlyle: "It is not to die, or even to die of hunger, that makes a man wretched; many men have died; all men must die. . . . But it is to live miserable we know not why; to work sore and yet gain noth- ing ... it is to die slowly all our life long, im- prisoned in a deaf, dead. Infinite Injustice" ^° — this is the essence of poverty. Suppose that a college youth were thrown entirely on his own resources with a young wife and three little children and he found he was un- able to make enough to provide a sanitary dwelling for his family and sufficient food and clothing to keep their bodies in good working order. Suppose 38 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION he couldn't provide for his family the same stand- ard of living one would require for slaves or for horses, what would he do about it? There are not just a few men in this predicament. There are probably ten million persons in the United States living in poverty. In addition, there are probably five million dependent upon some form of public relief. ^^ In New York's secondary schools have been found 160,000 children who "show the stigmata of prolonged undernourishment." Poverty kills hundreds of children annually in the United States. If a foreign nation were to invade the country and kill a like number, millions would be spent in forcing a retreat.^^ No single campaign ever will eliminate poverty. It is a result of ignorance, disease, low wages, un- employment, and other causes. A vigorous per- sistent warfare must be waged against all these evils, and a larger number must enlist. The Luxury and Extravagance of the Rich. — There appeared in the daily newspapers of Feb- ruary 20, 1916, the following dispatch from Edensburg, Pennsylvania: "The Roman baths, the sunken gardens, cascades, pergolas, wide, rolling sweeps of green splotched with the rich coloring $28,000 IS PAID FOR A SALT CELLARl Cem of Ashburnham Collection ] Brings a Record Price at Christie's. .LEEOSAI PiTOMIME BALI $30,500 FOR A TOILET SETiwiaxlne Elliott a statuesque Bluebeard Wife -- Craig VVadsworth Appears in Persian Attire. $80,000 FOR A IIELMET. Specimen of Art BouRlit by Wldener, of Philadelphia. New York. February 26. — P. A. B. Widener, ot Philadelphia, it was an- nounced to-day, has acquired tho famous Morosinl helmet, said to bo ih*^ finest epecimen of its kind, for JEWELED CAT DI NES OUT With Her Owner Looking Ever So Well in a White Clawhammer. The guests in tlie Summer dlniug room ot the Waldorf-Astoria had their atten- tion' attracted last nlsht by the appear- ance of a tall. slim, fair man in a white ckiw hammer coat and Panama bat. who black cjit wearing a 'diamond [ind'ruby collar to tlie tblo with him under He was accompanied by two WOMEN SHOW PET DOGS IN WALDORF-ASTORIA Sawdust Ring Laid Out for Judg- ing in the East .Room. PAYS W2;800 FORBOOKATHOESALE Competitive Bidding to the Last for *' Le Morte D'Arthur," Translated from the French.. ELEVEN FIR STS FOR LftWSON ^ Adnplfl from a similar display in Ilarprr's Wcck-ly "There arc probably ten million persons in the I'nlted States living in poverty " !i»<> HVSfiA.vo ASKS TO bl: jailed, ^VI^E GOES TO hospital. '^iS^.c^.^ic^ Ca^ 3 I. /"?/«. Woman Blind Is Atso III, With Mate on Vcree of In&nnlty an lie- suit of Poverty. DIE OF STARVATION, TOO PROUD TO BEG Steven Farley and Wife Found When Their Passaic Home Is Broken Into. Mis. Ira Daniels is in the liospUal __ . ,^^ ,»,..^ „,n«x, ... , ,.~ .-..^ and her husband is in jail on the verge U HER DEAD BODY IN HIS ARMS of insanity as a result of extreme pov DISTRESS OF POO REVEALED BY COLM Thousands Out of Employmeni Appeal for Foo(t and Shelter. MANY FAMILIES ASK A! FAMILY OF FIVE DESTITUTE Mother and Four Children Have N< Means oC Support. A mother and her four little cliiidrei the younscsl six weeks old and tlic eldest four years, are destitute. Mrs ri. K. Boudurant, of the Widows* pen- sion committee, discovered the womai fiflOTHER AND BABE STARVE^ Autljorities I'ind Home Without Food Enough for Family. JOLIET. fit., Dec. 23.— Mr."). William Hafner and her new-born baby were found dead in their home on Bluff street here today, and the authorities gave starvation as the cause. DEPICTS GIRLS' LIFE ON $5 TO $T A WEEK Miss Packard Tells Factory Commission How Clerks Feel the Pinch of Poverty. LUNCH MONEY. FOR SUITS "in the United States, the richest nation in the world." MORE ENEMIES 39 of rare flowers and all the other luxurious, ex- quisite and expensive things that will surround 'Immergrun,' the new million dollar summer home of , which has been started here, will rival the glory of any other multi-millionaire's summer home in America. The baths, encased in plate glass, will cost $150,000, many times the cost of the Roman baths of Lucullus, the most luxurious Roman of them all." ^^ Recent New York newspapers report a "Pan- tomime Ball," at which one society woman wore gems worth $500,000, also the loss of a $15,000 muff by a New York woman traveling in London, and the sale of a set of dishes to for $120,000 to adorn his $7,000,000 Fifth Avenue Mansion.'^'' While thousands of girls are working long hours in New York City at a wage insufficient to keep their bodies in good working order, while thou- sands of little children lack fresh air and a little space in which to play, "a tall, slim, fair man in a white claw-hammer suit" dines at the Waldorf- Astoria with a black cat wearing a diamond and ruby collar, and a former Philadelphia girl returns from Europe with a bulldog of ancient pedigree wearing a pink necktie and a ruby ring in its nose.*^ In a fashionable dog shop on Fifth Avenue in New 40 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION York, one may buy a dog's dressing table for $150, trouserettes, dressing gowns, silk-lined blankets, boots, stockings, manicure sets, woolen-lined muzzles and a variety of drugs especially prepared for dogs. One fashionable woman announced that her pet poodle, Spot, had cost her $17,500 for maintenance the previous year, '"^ Flush times have led to extravagance and debauchery. The luxury of ancient Babylon was commonplace compared with conditions among certain rich classes in the large cities of the country. The Inequitable Distribution of Wealth. — From earliest times, by fighting, toiling, inventing, mi- grating, organizing, man has been able to produce a constantly increasing amount of wealth. Man's first foes, the wild animals of the forest, were long ago conquered. Man domesticated cattle and made them a source of food supply. He learned to till the soil and got food from it. He invented machinery, and now he can produce in one hour food value which before required twenty-three hours of labor." Before the Great War there was more wealth in the world than at any other time in history. Even to-day there is probably enough for all.''^ And yet in the United States, the richest nation in the world, misery is gnawing at the vitals MORE ENEMIES 41 of society, hundreds of thousands lack the means to keep their bodies in good working order. In the minds of many, it is doubtful if the masses of human beings are any happier than the cave men who roamed wild in the forests thousands of years ago. If there is enough for all, why must men suffer for lack of food? Many believe it is because of an unjust distribution of wealth. As the wealth of the world has increased it has become concentrated among a few. The careful estimates of W, I. King, Instructor in Statistics at the University of Wisconsin, indicate that over fifty per cent of the wealth of the United States is owned by only two per cent of the people. ^^ These owners of property have come by their wealth in various ways. Many have earned their wealth by honest, hard work. Some have ac- quired large fortunes by dishonest dealings. Many have inherited large sums of money. Others have become wealthy because they were keen enough to acquire large blocks of land in the center of young growing cities. As the city developed around their property, its value increased to many times its cost price. According to economic principles, much of the world's wealth is created by society. A grocery 42 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION store in a desert would not earn money for its owner. It must be set up in a community of people who need food. This fact is so obvious that its significance always is not recognized. It is largely the community that makes a newspaper profitable for its owners. As a community grows, more persons buy newspapers, and as newspaper circulation grows, advertising sells for more money. So, also, as the population of a state increases, a shoe factory in the state becomes more valuable to its owners. A downtown lot would be worth but a few dollars without the business which society builds up around it. Particularly have wealthy men been dependent upon the labor of their em- ployees. Without the workers to serve customers, set type, make shoes, and erect buildings, men with capital could not reap great profits. There is a growing public sentiment against the concentration into the hands of a few persons of the wealth created in large measure by society. Steps are being taken which will enable society to get back for the use of all the people more of the wealth which it has created. This is done to some extent now by the income tax and the inheritance tax. In 1917, the Federal Government made a substantial increase in its income tax. In Cali- MORE ENEMIES 43 fornia inheritances of $500,000 and over are taxed twelve to thirty per cent by the state. ^° Steps also are being taken which will prevent railroads and other monopolies from making over a certain rate of interest on their investments. When a man in the meat-packing business amasses a fortune of $1,000,000 and dies, is there any good reason why his son should get all the money, while many of the ranch men who raised his cows and many of the workers who prepared the meat have not enough to keep their bodies in good working order? Further tax reforms, higher wages in industry, profit sharing, and other reforms should bring about a more equitable distribution of the world's wealth. Will the Nation Survive? — The evils here dis- cussed have developed largely during the last one hundred and fifty years. Up to that time, man lived a comparatively simple life. Then began the age of machinery. Factories and mills were built. Great industries developed. During the last thirty or forty years, there have been more mechanical inventions than in all the rest of his- tory. These inventions have brought vast eco- nomic changes, and have made more complex all 44 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION our social relations. To-day, when the general manager of a corporation in one city decreases his output, a machinist employed by another corporation three thousand miles away may be thrown out of work, his wife may be driven into industry, his new born babe may die from mal- nutrition, and his fourteen year old boy may go to the reform school for juvenile delinquency. The manufacturer thought (when he stopped to think) that the invention of machinery would increase wealth and improve living conditions. It is agreed that it has increased wealth ; it is doubtful if it has improved living conditions. The modern city has suddenly sprung up with its overcrowded populations, its armies of the un- employed, its crime, disease and poverty, and with its fabulous wealth, its luxury, and its debauchery. For hundreds and thousands of years man lived a simple life; now, a complex civilization has developed which man does not understand. Mod- ern civilization has been likened to a huge intricate machine which society has created almost over night and which threatens to wreck its construc- tor.^^ Blind forces are at work which make thoughtful people uneasy. Greece, Rome, and other civilizations rose to MORE ENEMIES 45 eminence, endured for three to five hundred years, and then succumbed to decay from within and to their enemies from without. Our nation is only a hundred and fifty years old. Will it endure.^ Disease, crime, poverty, in their many manifesta- tions threaten our survival. They are working insidiously. They are the nation's most dangerous enemies.®^ CHAPTER IV SHALL THE YOUTH ENLIST? The young man will reflect upon the conditions that have been enumerated, if he is thoughtful and courageous. He will ask, why must there be so much suffering? What can be done to stop it? Can not the government do something? The most important question for liini to ask is — "What am / going to do about it?" "What shall be my attitude towards disease, crime and poverty, — the three great enemies of the nation? ^Mien I choose my career for life, what shall be my relation to those in distress? Shall I ignore the great social evils, or shall I enlist, in one capacity or ancjtlicr, in the warfare against them?" Of all questions Ijefore youth to-day, these are among the most important. In facing the problem of a life occupation, the youth may assume one of four attitudes. First, he may frankly say to himself: My purpose in life shall be to make money; money will buy anything, all the pleasures of the world; and I will get all of it I can. Secondly, he may say: In these days of 40 SHALL THE YOUTH ENLIST? 47 competition when it is difficult to get desirable employment, my main purpose shall be to make a decent living. If I can make enough to enable me to live with a fair degree of comfort, this is all I ask. In the third place he may say: What I want is to get into something interesting. There is so much drudgery in industry, so many who do one irksome task from morning to night; if I can get into a line of work I can enjoy, I shall be satisfied. Finally, he may say: My purpose in choosing a life work shall be to find an occupation in which I may in some way and in some degree reduce human misery. I shall have to make a living, of course, in order to do efficient work; but with proper training, I shall have no trouble in doing that. My main purpose shall be to do some- thing to aid in bringing to a successful conclusion one or more of the great campaigns against dis- ease, crime, and poverty. Of these four possible attitudes which one should the youth adopt? Let us examine them further. 1. Should an ambition to get rich he the controlling motive in life? A young man devoted his life to making money, and he succeeded. He became the richest man in Philadelphia, and when he died in 1831, 48 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION he had amassed a fortune of ten million dollars. He married a woman who subsequently lost her reason. He had no children; he was cold in manner and was disliked by his neighbors. His surroundings were mean and sordid; his great wealth brought him little comfort. Having no family when he died, he bequeathed his money to various public and charitable institutes, to serv- ants and relatives, but while he was alive, charity seems to have had no place in his life.^^ No thoughtful, mature person believes for a mo- ment that this man was any happier than thou- sands of men to-day who are able to make a com- fortable living on an income of fifteen hundred dollars a year. A man with an income of $600 a year can multiply his comforts beyond all calcula- tions by doubling his income. A man with a $1,200 per year income can increase his comfort by doubl- ing the amount. As the income grows larger, how- ever, a point is soon reached, after which the in- crease of comfort grows less. A point is often reached at which the victim is satiated with every- thing that money can buy. To expect him to enjoy increased income is like expecting a boy in a candy store to enjoy more candy after he has made himself sick by eating too much.^^ SHALL THE YOUTH ENLIST? 49 The money made by this Philadelphia man was useful after he died, but the methods he used in acquiring it were questionable; and it is doubtful if the net effect of his life was beneficial to society. Of course, there have been men of unquestioned integrity who have become rich and who have done wonderful good with their money. Often, however, the qualities of character which have en- abled them to acquire wealth have, at the same time, so w^arped and shrivelled their natures as to make it impossible for them to be generous. Wealthy men have confessed that, while they have had impulses to do good with their money, they have found it impossible to bring themselves to the point of actually parting with it. A boy may aim to acquire wealth for the power to do good that it will bring him, but in adopting such an aim, he assumes a risk. Furthermore, the good that money will do prob- ably has been exaggerated. Leaving one's children any large amount is a doubtful favor. F. H. Goff, President of the Cleveland Trust Company, found that many wealthy men in making their wills, have difficulty in deciding what they will do with their money.^^ William H. Baldwin, Junior, who was President of the Long Island Railroad, ob- 50 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION served that rich men seemed unable to spend wisely large sums of money. He got this straight from men who had tried it.^^ What men want is justice, not charity. Workers are beginning to suspect the motives of employers who build club houses for their employees and conduct so-called welfare work, if, at the same time, they are un- willing to pay a wage that will enable the worker to support his family in comfort. 2. Should a desire to make an honest living be one's chief purpose? The young man who is now in college or high school began his school life ten or more years ago. Out of perhaps thirty-five or forty boys who en- tered, there are only a few left. One had to leave school to help support his family; another preferred work to study and got employment in an office; another took up carpentering with his father. In all probability only five or six of the original thirty-five or forty are now in school anywhere. Taking the country as a whole, of those who enter the elementary school, only fifteen per cent remain to graduate from high school," and a still smaller proportion enter college. College men and upperclassmen in high school constitute a select group. They are far better edu- SHALL THE YOUTH ENLIST? 51 cated than the large majority. If the aim of the untrained man is simply to make a living, should not the college and high school youth with su- perior educational advantages, aim to do more? Many young men who have not been able to get a high school education are making up their minds to do more in the world than simply to make an honest living. 3. Should one's chief aim be to find a life work one will enjoy? A young man of eighteen or twenty years desires to become a civil engineer. As a boy of seven, he laid many feet of track, built bridges and tunnels in his back yard and never was so happy as when playing with his engines and cars. He liked the game. Now, as he faces the problem of a life work, he desires to play the same game on a larger scale, because he enjoys it. Another youth desires to go into a retail business. As a boy he enjoyed buying and selling samples of merchandise he collected. It was a pleasure to handle even toy money. Now he wishes to buy and sell on a larger scale, because he enjoys the game. In each case it is the game which fascinates — the game of the child, dignified by larger equipment and generally rendered more serious by the neces- 52 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION sity of getting out of the game a living wage — yet it is the game, primarily, which absorbs the atten- tion and which sometimes becomes the center of a man's existence. There is nothing dishonorable in playing this larger game in the business world. It is entirely legitimate to want to avoid drudgery and find in- teresting work. If to play this larger game is one's main purpose in life, however, has one passed very far beyond the interests and ideals of childhood? 4. Should an ambition to aid in the fight against social evils be one's chief purpose in life? Behind the necessity of making a living, behind enjoyment in work, in the lives of a considerable number of men there is a larger purpose. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, a student of fifteen years at Har- row, England, when strolling down a hill near the school, encountered a staggering, noisy set of men, carrying a cofiin which they bumped about and finally dropped. They were burying a pauper. The incident marked a deciding point in his life. He then and there made up his mind to link his life with the lives of the poor and to strike some blow for better living conditions among his fellow men. At twenty-one he took his degree at Oxford. He travelled on the continent observing closely i-*i % 'ii: .A /j^iL SHALL THE YOUTH ENLIST? 53 the living conditions of the poor. Then he went to London. At that time London was sordid with poverty. Said Thomas Arnold of Rugby to Cooper, after he had seen those sections of the city where vice and crime flourished and after he had observed the awful conditions of the poor, "These classes form the riddle of our civilization, and may yet destroy us as did the Vandals of old." Cooper gave his attention particularly to the street boys of London. He was a member of the House of Commons and, later, of the House of Lords. There he worked for the poor. He suc- ceeded in getting George Peabody, the banker, to give large sums of money to improve living con- ditions. Cooper is now known as Lord Shaftes- bury. He was a true soldier in England's warfare against poverty.^^ Lord Shaftesbury and others, who will be men- tioned later, have had the larger life-purpose. They have thrown their energies, in one way or another, into the warfare against human misery. In business, in medicine, in law, in engineering and in every vocation the youth will find oppor- tunities to enlist in the warfare against the evils that threaten the nation. In every vocation, he 54 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION will find vigorous and courageous men defending the nation against these social evils. If he is awake to his surroundings, he must inevitably face the problems of disease, crime and poverty. If he be a coward, after one look he will turn aside. He will be careful not to come in contact with human misery again, for misery is not pleasant. If he is courageous, he will enlist in the fight. CHAPTER V CHOOSING A LIFE WORK Suppose, then, that a young man decides that he will find an occupation in which he can in some way and in some degree check or prevent the social evils which threaten the nation. "That is settled," he says; "what should I do next?" He should, of course, seek information regarding various vocations which interest him, with the purpose of determining in what occupation or oc- cupations he can render the most efficient service. He will likely find that social evils manifest them- selves in almost every kind of life work, and that, in almost every field, a man must choose between two attitudes towards them. He must fight them or become a factor, thoughtlessly or otherwise, in their perpetuation. The important thing, therefore, for the young man to do next is to consider to what extent he is likely to come into contact with crime, disease and poverty in the vocations in which he is interested; and to consider just what he will be able to do in 65 5Q THE YOUTH AND THE NATION these vocations to check or prevent these evils. These are the social considerations to guide the youth in his choice of a vocation. Social Considerations in Various Vocations. — Suppose that a boy goes to a medical college and becomes a physician. A call comes from a home in the factory district. He drives in his automo- bile through the congested streets, he passes crowded tenements, little children playing on the pavements, and great motor trucks. He stops and enters a worn out dwelling. He passes through dark halls and up a flight of stairs. Here in this room is the sick woman he has come to see. Three little children are in one corner of the room making paper flowers for which they will receive a few cents at the factory round the corner. He asks a few questions. He quickly diagnoses the case. The woman's illness is due to lack of good food and fresh air. What will he prescribe.'^ A good beefsteak every day.'* A little exercise in the coun- try.^ A nurse and a quiet, well ventilated room.^^ What irony! The income from making paper flowers will not buy beefsteak — not if the rent is paid.^^ Will he turn aside from such baffling situa- tions or will he seek to discover how physicians may improve these conditions.'^ CHOOSING A LIFE WORK 57 Suppose the youth enters the law. He becomes the attorney for a landowner. Hard times have come, and a tenant, out of work, is unable to pay his rent. His client, the landowner, asks him to evict the tenant. What will he do about that.^^ Later he may become a police justice. What will he do with the poor drunks, the prostitutes, the petty thieves who come before him.'^ In later years, he may become a judge of the Superior Court. A man stands before him charged with murder; a psychologist testifies that the prisoner is feeble- minded. He learns, after the trial, that the man has five children, all of them feeble-minded. They are likely to become criminals. What will he do about it.f' Will he ignore the underlying causes of these various evils or will he seek to remedy them? Suppose he becomes a teacher. He becomes the principal of a high school in a small town. He finds that the boys are wasting their time and their energies in various forms of dissipation, and that sexual immorality is prevalent. They have been taught Latin, but little or nothing about the care of their own bodies and about the function of the sex instinct in human life. They have studied history, but they know little about the urgent problems of modern life. The school board is sus- 58 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION picious of new methods in education. Will he re- fuse to do anything to improve the curriculum for fear of losing his position, or will he take risks and make some changes regardless of consequences? Suppose the youth becomes an engineer. What will be his aim in life as an engineer.'^ Suppose he is offered an attractive position in the construction of a great water-power plant. A big manufactur- ing corporation needs more power to run its ma- chines; it proposes to take the water above a natural falls near their factory and divert it into turbines which will generate thousands of horse- power. The falls is one of the beauty spots of the state. There has been a loud protest from citizens of the state against its use, but the corporation has bought the rights and doesn't care about the protests from citizens. At the same time, the young man is offered another position in connec- tion with a great irrigation project, opening for cultivation a million acres of land which had pre- viously been useless. Which will he accept.'* Perhaps the youth will be a scientist. As a chemist, will he work towards the invention of a horrible explosive for use in war, or towards the invention of a less expensive fuel that will lighten the burdens of life for thousands of workers .f* CHOOSING A LIFE WORK 59 Suppose he becomes a farmer. Will he employ ignorant immigrants for long hours and pay them the lowest wages he can persuade them to accept? Will he ignore his neighbors and go in his auto- mobile to the nearby city for recreation? Or will he seek to improve the conditions of labor on the farm and to stimulate the social life of the com- munity? Suppose the youth goes into business. Suppose that he acquires a business of his own, and that he employs two salesgirls. What wages will he pay them? He faces a question, not of theory, but of hard cold facts. He is making little money. How much can he pay them? Only what the law requires? How many hours will he require them to work? Suppose that, in later life, he becomes the head of a large corporation. Suppose that he gets a salary of $10,000 a year as the company's presi- dent, will he also keep for himself all he can make in dividends? Or will he adopt a plan whereby he can share the profits with his employees, whose hard work has made his success possible? Will he require his employees to work in dark, ill-ventilated rooms, or will he provide light and fresh air and make their surroundings attractive? Will he use 60 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION dangerous machinery and employ skillful attorneys to protect him from damage suits when accidents occur; or will he use modern protective devices and, when unavoidable accidents happen, pay a liberal compensation to the men who are injured? Will he pay starvation wages or the wages he would wish his own son to get? The thoughtful youth must not only consider the question of attitude towards povert3% crime and disease, in the vocations which interest him; he must also understand that the different occu- pations have different social values. Suppose that it seems wise for a bo}^ to go to work at the end, or even before the end, of his high school course. Suppose he tries to find employ- ment, and an employment agency sends him to several business houses. At the end of a long search for work, two positions are offered him. One position is with a patent medicine firm. This com- pany makes a soothing syrup for babies which has been condemned by health officers on account of a harmful drug it contains, though the law does not forbid its manufacture. The offices of the company are in a fine new down-town office build- ing; the officers seem to be gentlemen; all the clerks and stenographers are bright, nice looking CHOOSING A LIFE WORK 61 young men and women; a new up-to-date business system lias recently been installed; the salary offered is $65 a month. The other position is with a large dairy company. It is trying to sell to the public pure rich milk at the same price that others charge for an inferior grade. The company's offices are on the outskirts of the city, a half mile from any car line. The officers and employees are plain, but enterprising men and women. The office equipment is some- what out of date; the company hopes to change it, but thus far has not been able to. The salary offered is $50 a month. Both positions have been definitely offered the youth, and there is little hope of other openings. ^Miich position should he take.'^ In case he likes business life and is successful, in which business would he like to grow up.'^ Every business has a social utility. The man who manufactures wholesome food, durable cloth- ing, substantial furniture, useful books, depend- able building material and honest tools for me- chanic, surgeon, or scientist is a constructive factor in the economic and social life of mankind. The manufacturer of whiskey, injurious medicine or adulterated food, and the promoter of fake mining 62 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION schemes and fraudulent real estate enterprises are destructive forces in human life. In any occupation, the youth may be, uncon- sciously or deliberately, an opponent of social progress, or he may be an effective fighter in the warfare against crime, disease and poverty. In every vocation, if he is alert, he will face perplexing problems such as have just been referred to. These problems will suggest to the youth oppor- tunities for service. As he sees in the court room the murderer whose parents are feeble-minded, as he contemplates the ravages of sex diseases, as he hears the cry of the children in factories and foul tenements, as he studies the many manifestations of crime, disease and poverty, there should come to him a conviction that here in this or that par- ticular field of work he will find his greatest op- portunity. Considerations of Special Fitness. — Before the youth decides finally upon a particular vocation, he must know that he possesses the essential qual- ities for success in that vocation. To discover for what occupation he is best fitted may take con- siderable time. A man cannot judge from the bumps on a boy's head that he is fitted for any particular vocation. No vocational expert will at- CHOOSING A LIFE WORK 63 tempt, after asking a young man only a few ques- tions, to advise him definitely regarding his life work. There is no short cut to a wise decision. To acquire the knowledge necessary to a judi- cious choice, the youth should proceed along three different lines of inquiry. In the first place, he should discuss with a num- ber of men actually engaged in the occupation he desires to enter, its opportunities, and difficulties, and the particular qualifications necessary. It would be well to make a list of the qualities which they agree are essential. Further aid may be had from a few good books on vocations.* Secondly, he should talk frankly with his par- ents, his teachers and other friends who know him well, in order to determine whether, in their opin- ion, he possesses these essential qualities. If the youth wishes to become an engineer and his friends agree that he has but little mathematical ability, he probably should drop engineering as a prospec- tive vocation, unless he can strengthen himself at this weak point. If his friends disagree regarding his qualifications, he may have to act as his own judge. * See book list on page 170 for a list of selected books on the choice of a vocation. 64 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION Finally, it is well for the young man to obtain, if possible, some actual experience in the occupa- tion of his choice before making a definite decision. If he wishes to enter business, let him work in several different commercial positions. If he wishes to become a physician, let him get some kind of a job in a physician's office or in a hospital, even though the pay is small. In case he wishes to enter the law, it would be profitable for him to get work in a lawyer's office for a few weeks, even though he were to receive no financial compensa- tion. If he wishes to become a civil engineer, he should endeavor to get work as a member of a surveying crew. In case he is considering agri- culture, he should have little or no difiiculty in getting farm work during a summer vacation. If the youth is considering several vocations, it would be useful for him to get some experience in all of them. Knowledge obtained through actual con- tact with a vocation places one in a much better position to make a wise choice, than does the reading of many books about that vocation. A testing out of this kind, however, need not be considered final. Even though the advice of friends and actual experience indicate that a boy lacks a certain quality necessary to success in a CHOOSING A LIFE WORK 65 particular vocation, perhaps that quaHty may be won. Most qualities may be achieved by earnest, persistent endeavor. If a youth is enthusiastic to enter some particular vocation, if he is willing to work and work hard to achieve his ambition, few obstacles will be great enough to turn him aside. The things which count most are these — a deep interest in the vocation chosen, hard work, and a determination to succeed. Friends may help a boy by calling his attention to various considerations in the choice of a voca- tion; but when the time for decision comes, no one can act for him; he must make his own choice. The boy who is unable to decide definitely regard- ing his life work after repeated efforts to reach a decision, should not worry. It sometimes takes years for important qualities to develop. In fact, if a boy can arrange to go to college and take a general course, he should deliberately refrain from making a final decision while in high school. If he selects his college studies wisely, he will acquire in college new ideas of life which will enable him to make a wiser choice than would otherwise be possible. In general, it is desirable for a youth to inform himself thoroughly and make at least a conditional 66 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION choice before the age of eighteen or twenty. He will then be able to concentrate his energies in preparing himself for a life work. To-day, thorough training is essential for the highest success, and it is well to begin training as early as possible. The engineer, the physician, the lawyer, the business man, the farmer, the worker in industry, the journalist, the minister, the scientist — all have opportunities to fight disease, crime and poverty. If the youth has decided that, regardless of consequences, he will aid in this warfare, he will choose the vocation in which he can fight most advantageously and for which he seems best fitted. He will test each vocation which appeals to him by this question — Precisely what good can I accomplish in this occupation.'^ The question calls for clear thinking. CHAPTER VI PREPARATION FOR LIFE WORK If the youth is to be an eflScient fighter in the war- fare against disease, crime and poverty, he must train and keep himself in condition. He must prepare himself thoroughly. If he is to stand the strain of strenuous endeavor, he must, of course, have a strong healthy body and if he is to render intelligent service, he must naturally have a trained mind. Both physical and mental preparation are necessary. Physical Preparation. — The youth should seek first to develop physical vigor. To be in training, to get the body into the best possible physical con- dition, to keep fit, is the ambition of most young men and boys. The human body is a marvelous organism. It is delicately adjusted, yet it will stand severe strain — a football game, a hard day's work, nervous tension in business emergencies, the stress of a strenuous political campaign, if it be kept in good condition. By intensive, specialized training a man may 67 68 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION become a record breaker in the quarter-mile run. But the custom of training a few months each year for some particular kind of athletics is short- sighted compared with the custom of training for manhood. A wiser way is to keep in the best possible condition all the time. The thing to be achieved is that excellent condition known as fitness — fitness for athletics, for work, for any task that a man may be called upon to perform.^'' So to keep in condition necessitates careful atten- tion to exercise, air, rest, food and the sex life. Carelessness at any one of these points may be fatal. Only when the youth trains himself along these five lines will he achieve his maximum vigor. Exercise must be participated in; sitting in the grandstand will not help much in developing health and vigor. Hiking, baseball, rowing, canoeing and skating in the open air are excellent exercises. Swimming is excellent when used moderately. Football, basketball and track athletics are good when one trains carefully for them. For the sake of health, the time to stop exercising is when slightly tired, not when ex- hausted. After exercise, a quick shower bath should be taken, first with hot water and soap, then with cold water. A vigorous rubdown with PREPARATION FOR LIFE WORK 69 a coarse towel should follow. Exercise should be taken daily. Fresh air is one of the most beneficial gifts of nature; it is given freely; it is the one cure-all, more valuable than medicine and the skill of physicians, yet many of us shut it out of our houses. Every one should live as much out of doors as possible, keep the air indoors fresh, and sleep in the fresh air. SuflScient rest is essential to health and vigor. During the day's activities fatigue poisons are manufactured. These are cast off during sleep and the body recuperates. If sufficient sleep is not provided, these poisons may accumulate and cause sickness. Most youths between the ages of seven- teen and twenty-one need from eight to nine and one-half hours sleep each night. Wholesome food is^as necessary to the body as is good coal to a fine machine. The youth should avoid fads and eat plenty of wholesome food. He should eat chiefly fresh vegetables, cereals, bread and butter, eggs and fruit with a little meat or fish once a day. He should drink milk instead of coffee and other stimulants, and chew his food to a pulp. The control of the sex life is important to the 70 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION achievement of health and vigor. The sex glands manufacture an important secretion which is ab- sorbed by the blood. The blood takes this secre- tion to the muscle and the brain and to all parts of the body. It aids greatly in the development of muscular strength, energy, endurance and courage. Any interference with this work is a risk.* The sex instinct in human life is a source of strength and of richer and fuller life if it be con- trolled and directed into constructive channels. If it controls the man and makes a beast of him, if he indulges in vice, it will prove a destructive force, and may cause disease and suffering for him- self and for his wife and children. The sex in- stinct should not be suppressed, however. It should be controlled and directed into the service of mankind. Devotion and loyalty to a noble cause, effective service in the warfare against the enemies of man is possible in high degree for the man who lives clean and controls his sex life.f * Emissions at night, wliich begin at fifteen, sixteen or seventeen years of age, should not be confused with this work of building up the body. Emissions at night are natural, if they are not too frequent. t See list of books, page 170 for furtlier information upon physical training. PEEPARATION FOR LIFE WORK 71 Mental Preparation. — Not only should the youth so arrange his daily life as to provide for the de- velopment of his body, he should also turn his attention to his intellectual development. He should, of course, take a full course of study in high school, if this is possible, and make the most of his opportunities there. In addition, he should acquire more knowledge of human life than a high school boy usually gets in his regular course of study. True conceptions of life are not found in many popular novels. They may be found in the biographies of those who have lived close to hu- manity, and in great poems, novels and drama. The true facts of life may also be found in the social sciences. In the natural sciences — botany and zoology — we find that certain organisms, when exposed to light, will be repelled, and that other organisms will be attracted. We find that under a certain temperature, a certain degree of moisture, a cer- tain amount of light, an organism will grow rapidly. With the aid of chemicals and laboratory equip- ment, we discover how microscopic organisms behave in their environment. Experimentation and study of this kind is fascinating. Many believe that it is still more important to 72 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION study human life in a scientific manner. For this purpose, we have the social sciences — economics, politics and sociology. In economics, the student discovers the facts about wealth and income, and their distribution. In politics, he studies the science of government. In sociology, the social scientist finds that, under a certain degree of temperature, a certain degree of humidity, a cer- tain kind of food, and a certain quality of air, a thousand little babies weaken and die. He finds that a twelve year old boy in the city slum responds to his environment in a particular manner — he becomes a juvenile delinquent. In this manner, men have begun scientifically to study modern society — that great intricate machine which threatens to wreck itself. Books on politics, economics and sociology are not now popular among young men, but they easily can be obtained at libraries and book stores. If a young man is interested in any aspect of pov- erty, crime or disease, he usually can find con- siderable reading matter on the subject in books and also in magazines, if he knows where to look. Indexes of current magazine articles, such as are found in most libraries, of course, are useful; book- sellers and librarians usually are glad to be help- PREPARATION FOR LIFE WORK 73 ful.* The nation needs young men who will set themselves to the intellectual task of solving at least one modern social problem, even though it may not be one of the most important, — men who will stay with their task until they have thought it through, determined upon a plan of activity, and carried their plan into successful action. A greater need, however, in the warfare against man's enemies is leadership, and the youth who would become a leader will do well to continue his education in college. The subjects of the college curriculum — social science, history, literature, natural science, psychology and philosophy — will train him for more intelligent service and they will train him also for leadership. A business- college course may be completed in a few months; correspondence schools offer many brief courses; short cuts to an education are widely advertised. For careers of large usefulness, however, such training is manifestly inadequate. Whether or not a professional training is desired, if one is to be a leader, one should get an education in a college of Arts and Sciences. The leading schools of law and of medicine now make the degree of Bachelor * The titles of a few elementary books on economics and sociology can be found on page 169. 74 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION of Arts a requirement for admission. Training for leadership requires time. A baseball pitcher, as has been well said, ripens early, but a Supreme Court Justice is a more mature product.''^ To get the most useful education from a college career, the young man must choose his college carefully. Some institutions have not yet recog- nized the importance of the social sciences and fail to offer a wide range of courses in this field. Economics, sociology, history, psychology, social psychology and social philosophy are important for the man who would serve the nation in the warfare against modern social evils. If the youth will study the catalogs of various institutions, he should be able to find one in which he can get the kind of training he wants. There are not only advantages in spending four years in college; there are also dangers. There is the danger of becoming theoretical and academic and of losing contact with the world of reality. A man, to become really useful, should avoid the seclusion of college life. Sometimes it is best for a boy to work a year or more before entering college, in order that he may get into contact with the real problems of modern life. Always it is desirable that he take part during his college life PREPARATION FOR LIFE WORK 75 in activities outside of the institution. Social settlement work is helpful and is feasible for some young men. Employment in the industries of either city or country during vacations may be stimulating to one's intellectual development. And frequently, young men who are compelled through lack of funds to work during the college year make the best students and get the most from their education. There is also the danger of becoming shallow. In a large number of colleges and universities, many of the students live frivolous lives. They attend college largely to have a good time, and they create social standards which are pernicious. The bad habits which many learn during their first year in such institutions more than offset the good derived from their books and professors. There are too many men who go to college only for entertainment, who fritter away their time and their energies with shallow, useless activities, the playthings and the tinsel of college life. There are enough men who become students merely for the pleasure to be derived from the exercise of their mental faculties. Their aim in study is personal gratification; their motives are wholly selfish. We want men who can feel the zest of strenuous 76 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION mental effort, men who can say with Mrs. Brown- ing, "If heads that think must ache, perforce, then I choose headaches." But this is not sufficient. The need to-day is for students who have the cour- age to grapple with the intricate and baffling problems of human society, and who are brave enough to carry out in their own lives the con- clusions of their study. None but the serviceable man can rightfully be called successful. A college education is largely a gift from society. Students pay only a small proportion of its cost. The man who uses his college education for selfish ends, is not even play- ing fair. The most successful college men are those who go out from college to give their lives to the struggle against the social evils which threaten the nation. CHAPTER VII DEFENDERS OF THE NATION IN THE PROFESSIONS If a consideration of the perplexing problems which have been suggested leaves the youth dis- couraged, let him turn to the lives of the great men who have achieved success in the vocations in which he is interested. Every youth should know the men in such vocations who have been coura- geous and effective in fighting disease, crime and poverty. They need not be men whom he would imitate in every particular. They should be men who have loved humanity, who have stood for justice and honesty and who have fought with vigor and courage the social evils of modern civilization. The achievements of a few such men will be briefly related.* A Physician. — Walter Reed was graduated from the University of Virginia Medical School at the age of eighteen, and spent six years in New York in vari- ous hospitals. He obtained a position in the medi- " See list of books, page 169, for biographies of other useful men. 77 78 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION cal corps of the army and went to camp Apache, in Arizona, seven hundred miles from a railroad. There, he was called upon to attend settlers for many miles around. At one time, when he him- self was ill with fever, he insisted upon responding to all urgent calls. Not strong enough to dress himself without sitting down repeatedly, he would start out when the temperature was far below zero. He was devoted to his humblest patients. After thirteen years of western life, he returned to the East and continued his study, specializing in pathology and bacteriology. When in 1900, yellow fever appeared among the United States soldiers stationed at Havana, Cuba, Dr. Reed was appointed chairman of a committee to study this plague. At that time no one knew in what way it was transmitted. There were several theories — one, that the fever tainted the air, another, that it was conveyed by contact with a patient or with a patient's clothing and another, that the mosquito carried the germs. Dr. Reed accepted the appointment and went to Cuba to carry on the work. A series of ex- periments were carefully arranged. Privates John Kissinger and John Moran from the army volunteered their services. Reed carefully ex- DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 79 plained that the experiments would involve the risk of their lives. They refused any financial reward. When preparations were completed they entered a mosquito-infested house prepared for them, were bitten and contracted the disease. No less courageous were Dr. Cooke and Privates Folk and Jernigan who exposed themselves to soiled sheets and other articles which had been used by yellow fever patients. As far as they knew, such exposure constituted an even greater risk than being bitten by mosquitoes. Associated with Dr. Reed were Doctors James Carroll, Jesse Lazear and A. Agramonte. With more than the courage and devotion of soldiers, all risked their lives. Dr. Lazear died; the other survived. The experiments proved conclusively that yellow fever is spread solely by the bite of the "stego- myea" mosquito. With this knowledge, the United States has been able virtually to stamp out the plague. When Dr. Reed realized that his experiments were drawing to a successful close, he wrote to his wife that he could shout for very joy that Heaven had permitted him to make this discovery. Later he wrote, "The prayer that has been mine for twenty 80 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION years, that I might be permitted in some way or at some time to do something to alleviate suffer- ing, has been granted! " ^- Wilfred T. Grenfell, a young English physician, in looking for a field of usefulness, decided to go to Labrador. There he found the fisher-folk in destitution and misery. They were in the clutches of unscrupulous merchants and traders, education was virtually unknown, they had practically no religious guidance, and they were almost without medical aid. He found children bare-footed and almost naked in a zero temperature, and adults who had to borrow each other's clothes in order that they might come to him for treatment. Within fifteen years, he brought about wonder- ful changes. He clothed the naked, treated the sick, built hospitals, sawmills and workshops, in- stalled his own electricity, telegraphs and tel- ephones, and established co-operative stores, pro- viding much of the capital out of his private funds. Not only is he a physician, business man and educator. He is a minister, also, and preaches a doctrine of practical Christianity. Though Dr. Grenfell was knighted by King Edward and entertained by President Roosevelt and many other noted men, though Oxford honored DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 81 him with the only M. D. degree she had ever bestowed up to that time, he is modest and re- tiring. Devoted, earnest and self-sacrificing, he makes light of dangers and sees in obstacles only an incentive to greater effort. He loves his work. "It is a bully good thing to be up against a prob- lem," he says. The story is told of a woman who came to him after he had given a lecture on his work in Labrador. "Oh, Dr. Grenfell," she exclaimed, "how nobly you are sacrificing yourself for those poor people." Dr. Grenfell promptly replied, "Madame, you do not understand. I am having the time of my life in Labrador." \\Tiether or not the story is accurate, it expresses well the spirit of the man.^^ Walter Reed and Wilfred Grenfell are only two of many effective heroes in the field of medicine. Lord Lister discovered the value of antiseptics. He might have made himself wealthy by keeping his discovery a secret. But he gave it to the world. It has enabled physicians to save thousands of lives. In the medical profession no man is reputa- ble who patents any instrument, device or drug. He is expected to give what he discovers, as soon as its value is demonstrated, freely to the world. 82 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION Other physicians are developing plans enabling people to get the best medical service at the cost of a specified sum to be paid in small installments. These plans encourage persons to go to their doc- tor for the most trivial ailments, thus enabling the physician to strangle the disease before it makes headway in the system. In many house- holds, the father makes just enough to pay the daily running expenses. When sickness comes, the family falls behind financially and some- times never catches up. Thus, sickness is frequently an important cause of pauperism. Great gains in the warfare against disease and poverty may be made by extending these plans into industrial communities and throughout society.'^'* There are thousands of physicians in the United States, trying to make a living by treating people after they become sick. Society does not need any more physicians of this kind now. There is a need and an opportunity for men who have the courage and ability to promote preventive med- icine, to develop methods of teaching people how to keep well. Typhoid fever, tuberculosis, in- fantile paralysis and other diseases, as we have seen, cause a vast amount of suffering. Much of DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 83 this misery may be prevented by statesmanlike work in the field of medicine. A Teacher. — As a teacher at the University of Chicago, Charles R. Henderson was said to have been the man most beloved by the undergraduates. His classes for graduate students taxed the ca- pacities of the largest rooms. After thorough study in America and Germany, Mr. Henderson rose rapidly in the teaching pro- fession till he became full professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. He wrote many well- used volumes. He was President of the Chicago Social Hygiene Society, The United Charities of Chicago, and The National Prison Association; he was chairman of the Mayor's Commission of Unemployment, and held many similar offices. Dr. Henderson was courageous and effective in his work. Being a scientific investigator first, and a social reformer afterwards, he was careful to base reforms on facts. He was a man of invincible good- will. Breaking into glorious passion, as he de- nounced hypocrisy and greed, he would check himself by a reflection that there was some good in those whose weaknesses he was assailing. Professor Henderson was told by his physician in the fall of 1914, that he was in a precarious con- 84 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION dition physically and that he would have to drop all his work for a time. If he had thought only of himself, this is what he would have done. But at that time, the unemployed were crowding into Chicago and he felt that, as chairman of the Commission on Unemployment, he must remain at his post of duty. He worked tirelessly all winter, and sent his report to the printer. Then came a fatal apoplectic stroke. He died in the cause of humanity. At a time when many heroes in Europe were giving their lives in the work of destroying their fellow-men, Charles R. Henderson gave his life to the task of saving men.^^ It has been said that education is the most poorly paid and the most richly rewarded of pro- fessions. This is not always so, because a con- siderable number of educators receive large salaries. On the other hand, the rewards are some- times of doubtful value. Edward A. Ross was dismissed from Leland Stanford University, and Scott Nearing from the University of Pennsyl- vania because, having the courage of their con- victions, they taught beliefs that were considered too radical. William Wirt, of the Gary, Indiana, schools has rendered large service in the field of education, and his work has met with widespread DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 85 approval. Horace Mann's life was rich in expe- riences; he was a progressive and waged a success- ful fight for educational reform in Massachusetts. Because ignorance is one of the main causes of disease, vice, crime and poverty, the educator occupies a strategic position in the warfare against these evils. Education is now becoming a science. The United States is awakening to the wonderful possibilities in advanced methods of education. Men are wanted to develop vocational education; to devise ways of keeping children in schools after the law permits them to go to work, and to work out courses of study which will enable young people to understand better the vital problems of human life. In education there are great opportu- nities for men of initiative who have the courage of their convictions and who are willing to take risks in carrying out reforms. A Physical Director.— James H. McCurdy went to work in a machine shop after graduating from the high school of Princeton, Maine. He took up farming for a year and then blacksmithing. On his twenty-first birthday, he accepted a position in the Young Men's Christian Association as janitor, assistant secretary and physical director. Mc- Curdy saw that he needed more education; there- 86 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION fore he entered the Springfield Training School. He graduated from medical school and later won a Master's degree from Clark University. He is now Professor of Physical Education at the Young Men's Christian Association College in Spring- field, Massachusetts, and editor of the " American Physical Education Review." Though he was awkward and clumsy, though he was advised not to enter physical work. Dr. McCurdy, by persistent effort, has made his way to the top of his profession. There are many other men in physical education, who have rendered large service to mankind. J. Howard Crocker began his career by throwing out of his gymnasium bodily a group of rough members, thereby winning their deep respect. He became the leading Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation physical director in Canada. He was chosen by the Canadian Government as coach for the first Canadian Olympic team. About 1910, he went to China where he performed a remark- able service in bringing to that nation a system of modern physical education. ^^ The Director of Physical Education should be a trained gymnast and a leader. It is well, also, for him to be a coach. As a director of a gymna- sium or playground, he may have a helpful in- DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 87 fluence on the lives of thousands of boys and young men, by advising them regarding physical exercise, rest, sleep, foods and sex. The well trained direc- tor of physical education can do much to prevent disease, thus making himself more useful in a community than many practicing physicians, who seek merely to cure people after they be- come sick. Physical education is developing rapidly in high and elementary schools, and in municipal institutions. The demand for well trained men in gymnasium and playground work is greater than the supply. Training in physical education can now be had at Young Men's Christian Associa- tion Training Schools and other colleges of physical education. For the larger positions in this field, a man should have a medical education. A Lawyer. — Louis D. Brandeis was graduated from the Harvard Law School and before the age of thirty had a large practice in Boston. He soon de- termined to give himself to public life, and there- upon found large opportunities for useful service. He appeared before a Congressional tariff commit- tee and was ridiculed for the courageous stand he took in behalf of the public. He worked out a plan for the gas company in Boston which brought the 88 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION consumer lower rates and the company more money. Before the Supreme Court of the United States, Brandeis argued that it was constitutional to enact laws protecting women from overwork. Until then, questions of this kind were argued be- fore the courts as technical problems unrelated to real life. In this case, Brandeis brought to the Supreme Court for the first time the vital facts regarding modern industry. He reminded the Court that women are human beings, not mere machines, and showed that they are entitled to protection against exploitation. In 1910, Mr. Brandeis acted as an arbitrator in a bitter fight between the cloakmakers in New York and their employers. It was due to him that a settlement was reached. Mr. Brandeis is an authority in the fields of conservation, transporta- tion, public franchises and modern industrial problems. To these questions, he has brought a mind of extraordinary power and insight. In 1916, President Wilson appointed Mr. Brandeis a mem- ber of the Supreme Court of the United States. ^^ The profession of law is to-day overcrowded. There are too many lawyers who will take any kind of case for the sake of the money in it. There DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 89 is a need for men in the law, who, hke Brandeis, place service to one's fellow men above personal gain. Through the aid of such men, laws are being enacted which promise to do much in reducing human misery. Several states have made laws providing accident insurance and a minimum wage for women. State health insurance and old-age insurance prevent much poverty. They are in force in Germany and England, though not yet in the United States. Many promising reforms await vigorous men in law who are willing to enter the fight against selfish interests in behalf of the oppressed. But to be effective a man must be more than unselfish, he must be also a good lawyer. He must have a keen mind and be a hard worker, A Politician. — John M. Eshleman began life in California as an orange-picker and a railroad section-hand. He gave himself a high school edu- cation by lantern-light, and put himself through the law department of the state university, gradu- ating as one of the two prize students of his class. He became deputy labor commissioner for the state, city attorney of Berkeley and then a member of the legislature. Eshleman was one of the leaders of the reform minority in the legislature of 1907. He introduced 90 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION the first bill against race-track gambling and thereby incurred the hostility of the railroad machine, which was allied with the race-track machine. Eshleman was notified that, unless he withdrew his bill, no bill referred to his committee could pass, not even the University appropriation bills. He refused to compromise. The struggle which ensued was so long and so bitter that Eshleman's health broke under it. He never had another well day in his life, but he lived to see the race-track bill become a law and the railroad machine destroyed. A few years later he was elected a member of the railroad commission, and was made its president by the other members. With clearness and keen intellect, a constructive grasp of law and politics, a genius for hard work, unbending courage, and a sense of justice towards railroads and public alike, he made the commission a vital force. Its work attracted nation-wide attention. He was induced to run for lieutenant-governor, and was elected in 1914. Eshleman was in line for positions of large service when, in February, 19 IG, he died. This, in brief, is the career of a politician who never played politics for private gain; of an office- seeker who wanted nothing but an opportunity lT« .Si b: ?', a s > o BS U a O o; a _a _a r/1 rt -< 3 fc 6C o 7 o a & ^ V. 5S DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 91 to serve; of a railroad-machine destroyer who was so scrupulously just to the railroads that they never appealed from his decisions; of a student who never lost touch with the people; of a re- former who knew no cant; and of a big-souled man whom a whole state loved. "^ Many men used to enter politics for what they could get out of it. Fortunately better men now are entering public life. Brand Whitlock, re- cently the United States Ambassador in Belgium, was Mayor of Toledo for several terms. Writing was the vocation of his choice. But his training made him a valuable executive, and he was will- ing to serve."^ Charles E. Merriam, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, has had a training which peculiarly fits him for active work in city government. He became a member of the city council in Chicago because of the serv- ice he could render. Men of this kind are needed in public life. An Engineer. — Wlien President Roosevelt wanted a man to build the Panama Canal, he chose George W. Goethals. Goethals had graduated from West Point, standing second in a class of fifty -four. He had gained further experience under Colonel Merrill at Cincinnati. "The most unfortunate &2 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION thing about you," Colonel Merrill told him when he reported, ''is that you are a lieutenant of engineers. If you can subordinate that fact, you may succ-eed." So Goethals, though a graduate, started at the bottom as rodman. By loyalty to his work, by his sturdy dependableness, by his clearheadedness, and genius for hard work, Goethals won a reputation at Washington that led to his appointment at Panama. There had been many administrative changes, before Goethals took charge at the canal, and he found c-onsiderable unrest among the men. In a few months he had won their loyalty. Together they attacked the greatest engineering task in histon.'. Goethals believed in industrial welfare. He treated his men, not as machines, but as human beings. ''My chief interest at Panama is not in engineering, but in the men," he said. "The canal will build itself if we can handle the men." Special privilege was eliminated. Shoulder straps and brass buttons were kept out of sight, as was also Goethals' own uniform. They were there, he told the men, not for c-eremony, but to dig the canal. A jungle was to be penetrated, a mountain range was to be cut through, gigantic locks were to be built — these things took hold of the imagination DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 93 of the men. He aroused an irresistible spirit of enthusiasm among them. At one time, eight thousand were engaged at the Culebra Cut. Every night as much soil slid into the cut as could be taken out during the day. But there was not a sign of discouragement — the men enjoyed the fight. Colonel Goethals walked through the cut one morning after an extensive slide. The foreman had been on the job since mid- night. "Well, how is everything this morning, Mr. Hagen.^" asked Goethals. "Fine, Colonel, fine. It buried that steam shovel over there and tipped over two batteries of drills and covered all the tracks through the cut but one, but everything's fine. We're diggin'." Goethals seemed never to lose faith and courage; and he won the loyalty of his men by his sincerity of purpose and his democratic ways. The same high qualities of manhood exhibited in the charges of armies in times of war were seen in the attacks of Goethals' men upon Gold Hill at Panama. No sooner would his soldiers be beaten back than they would re-form, advance with batteries of drills and giant steam shovels and storm the works. Goethals has never sought publicity. He never makes a 94 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION speech if he can help it. He has always wanted to be judged by what he does, rather than by what he saj^s.^" During the past ten or twenty years the en- gineering schools of the country have been turning out hundreds and thousands of civil, mechanical and electrical engineers. Many have succeeded. Others have been greatly disappointed. Only rarely is a Goethals needed to dig a great canal. There is probably a danger of overcrowding this profession, if it is not overcrowded already. Men who have the courage to insist upon adequate sanitation, protection from dangerous machinery and fair wages for the men under their control are needed not only in the construction of great high- ways and railroads, but in the reclamation of arid lands and other new types of engineering directly in line with social progress. A Minister. — If Bishop Franklin S. Spaulding of Utah had been an Indian, he might have been called "Straight Tongue." He hated cant and sham, especially in religion. Because he honestly preached the truth as he understood it, the man- agers of the corporations that owned certain towns in Utah refused to sell him land for churches. They told him that they proposed to control the DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 95 preaching in their towns. Therefore Bishop Spaulding refused to build the churches. He was a friend of the workers, and would not betray them even for new churches. "No one could long be in his presence," said one who knew him, "without pronouncing his soul pure white, his mind clear and far-seeing, and his heart the clean, glad, responsive heart of a boy." Recently Bishop Spaulding made an address in the great Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City on "Christianity and Democracy," declared by one Boston woman to be the most un- compromising utterance she had ever heard from a pulpit. "We worship," he said, "in a great church like this, and it makes us forget the slums just over the way; we wear our holy vestments, and we forget the millions who have only rags to wear ... we discuss hymns and prayers and we forget that there are ten thousands of thousands whose hearts are too heavy to sing and whose faith is too weak to pray." He did not hesitate to speak just as fearlessly to a meeting of Socialists in Salt Lake City, though they jeered him and challenged his honesty. He died in September, 1914, and when his body lay in St. Mark's Church in Salt Lake Citv, thousands 96 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION of working people crowded the church from morn- ing until night.^^ There are many other ministers who have been effective fighters. H. Roswell Bates was pastor of the Spring Street Church in the great factory dis- trict of New York City. He established a Neigh- borhood House next to the church, which was crowded with men, women and children. A Kindergarten, a Day Nursery, a Free Dispensary, a troop of Boy Scouts, and clubs of many kinds were organized. Bates believed in taking his religion into every- day life. He found one mother starving to death with three little girls. A baby was in her arms, dead from starvation. She had come from Italy to America thinking it a land of promise. Bates took them to the Neighborhood House. The mother became a power for good in the community. The three daughters graduated from high school, and one went to college. Many times during his twelve years of ministry, he received calls to churches of great wealth and large menbership. He refused them all, because he believed that his work was among the neglected people of Spring Street. Here he worked for twelve years. And in those brief, strenuous years of serv- DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 97 ice, he wore himself out. He died a young man.^- There is a great need in the ministry for vigorous men who understand human hfe, and who have the courage to apply the teachings of their religion to the vital problems of life. The modern church requires men who are forceful speakers, sym- pathetic pastors, wise teachers, and able exec- utives. Few positions demand more of a man. Few positions offer greater opportunities to big, capable men who wish to make their lives count in the warfare against the enemies of justice and righteousness. A Missionary. — Arthur Jackson was an English boy and decided at the age of sixteen to spend his life in the foreign field. Shortly afterwards he de- cided to be a medical missionary. In preparatory school, Jackson was captain of the Swimming Club and in college he was the best oarsman of his day. He won a place on the soccer eleven during his first year, and excelled as a rugby player. He was active in debating and in the Christian Union. Jackson was graduated from the Cambridge Medical School at the head of his class, and continued his medical education after graduation until he left for Manchuria in China. 98 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION It had been decided to establish a medical school in connection with a prominent hospital in Man- churia. Dr. Jackson was appointed to be one of the two men who should start this school. Into this work he threw himself with enthusiasm. He had been at work only a few weeks, when a plague broke out. The authorities were alarmed. The Viceroy made an older medical missionary his special adviser and formed a Sanitary Board. It was decided to guard the railroad station at Muk- den in order to prevent infected persons from passing through the city. A medical man was needed to take charge of this work. Jackson volunteered. The plague was treacherous, and the position was extremely dangerous. He took every precaution, was vaccinated, and worked with a mask and hood that covered his face. He was even more careful with his assistants. "Stand back," he would say, "don't come too near, it's risky and there is no use of all of us running risks." He worked night and day, carrying on a vast amount of organization work. Only a man of wonderful endurance could have done it. On Monday, January 23, 1911, Dr. Jackson dis- charged sixty Chinese who owed their lives to his care, on Tuesday he became ill, and on Wednesday DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 99 he succumbed to the plague. China was saddened yet thrilled by the lavish offering of so fine a life in her behalf. A memorial service was arranged by the Viceroy in honor of the martyr, who be- lieved that he could best serve God by serving China.^^ While there is need for vigorous and capable preachers, teachers, and physicians at home, there is greater need in foreign fields. Especially in China and India are men needed. While in the United States there is a physician to every 691 persons,^^ in China there is only one to about 150,000 persons — the equivalent in the United States of one physician to a city the size of New Haven, Connecticut.^^ Missionary Boards want men trained in the colleges, the theological and the medical schools to go as teachers, ministers and physicians to foreign lands where social conditions are even worse than in the United States. Many who have gone have done wonderful service; some have sacrificed their lives. Many have been effect- ive in bringing about a feeling of friendship be- tween the United States and foreign nations, thus aiding in the prevention of war and the estab- lishing of a spirit of brotherhood among the na- tions of the world. 100 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION Three Men in the Field of Art. — Wilfred Wilson Gibson is a young English poet, whose early work was superficial and conventional. He saw that if he were to make his art real, he must know life intimately. Accordingly, he went into the mines and into the slums; he talked with men starving for lack of work and with wives and mothers whose husbands and sons had been lost at sea. He lived the vital throbbing life of humanity. In his later verses, Gibson shows us the miners, fishers, farm laborers, steel-workers, slum waifs and factory girls. They are people who, from morning till night, are concerned with the problem of getting enough bread to keep body and soul together. He knew their lives and could reveal them with power and pathos because he had lived among them. Persons who are familiar with the cold facts and the statistics of economics and sociology find in Gibson a poet who turns these cold facts into human flesh, tears and flowing blood.^® Ernest Poole was born in Chicago, attended Princeton University and then took up work at the University Settlement in New York. He was particularly interested in the boys of the street — messengers, newsboys and bootblacks. He mingled DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 101 with them, studied their life and helped them as he could. Out of this experience grew several mag- azine articles which had ^auch to do in focusing public attention on these neglected forms of child labor. Mr. Poole studied labor conditions care- fully. His book, "The Harbor" has done great good in calling the attention of people all over the country to the working and living conditions of unskilled laborers in the great cities.^^ Victor David Brenner was born in Russia and came to America at the age of nineteen. For sev- eral years he practiced his trade as a die-cutter. He then studied in Paris for five years and has come to be one of America's great sculptors. One of his plaques shows "The Immigrant led by America," and he is the man who designed the Lin- coln penny. He is trying to bring the love of beauty to the common people of America. Much of his work is symbolic of social achievement.^^ A Forester. — Overton W. Price pursued a special course in forestry in this country and in Germany and was for almost ten years Associate Forester in the Forest Service of the United States. During his term of office, attacks were made on the conserva- tion movement. This meant personal attacks on those who were guarding the nation's property. 102 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION The administration failed to support the foresters, and Mr. Pinchot, Mr. Price and their associates lost their positions. Mr. Price played his part with rare courage and disregard of personal in- terests. The result was costly. Unsparing of himself in work, he broke down in health and died in the early summer of 1914.^^ Mr. Price is only one of a number of men who have worked to con- serve the nation's natural resources. Several years ago President Van Hise of the University of Wisconsin called attention to the fact that our supply of coal, timber, oil, and other natural resources was limited, and that, if it were wasted, future generations would have to suffer. In business and in public life men are needed who, like Mr. Price, have the courage to fight against greed, in order to save for our successors, the wonderful gifts which nature has bestowed upon us. A Journalist. — Jacob K. Riis came to the United States from Denmark as a youth in his teens. He was not afraid of hard work and plunged into any- thing he could get to do. He worked in a coal mine, in a brick yard and on a truck farm. Later he got into newspaper work in New York and became a police reporter. DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 103 As a newspaper man, he discovered the city slum and all the evils it stood for. For Riis to see an evil meant for him to fight it. Many things and many people seemed against him. Then Theodore Roosevelt became Police Commissioner, and Riis found in him a staunch helper. Together they wiped out a dozen of the worse tenements in the city. Riis believed in the power of fact, and he be- lieved in the people — the great mass of common people. So he simply published photographs and told people what he saw. This method was effective. When he exposed the sources of New York's water supply, the people demanded pure water; and they got it at a cost of millions of dollars. He led Roose- velt to abolish police station lodging-houses which were little more than schools for crime. As a journalist, he worked against child labor; he ad- vocated more schools and playgrounds; he did ef- fective work in the transforming of foul city blocks into small parks. According to one great philanthropist, it is better to get a city to do things for itself than to give money and do things for a city. Riis cost New York millions of dollars. He was of greater service to the city than its greatest philanthropists. 104 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION Riis was a courageous fighter for all that was noble and good. Often he fought alone, nearly everyone else being wrong or indifferent; but because he was right and persisted he won out. He threw himself into the life of the people with zest and vigor. He was a mighty soldier of peace.^° The newspaper probably does as much to in- fluence public opinion as do our public schools. Newspapers have elected bad men to public office and they have elected good men. Newspapers have ridiculed and defeated political and social reforms; they have also promoted and carried them forward. While often the opportunity of a reporter is limited, there is a distinct need for men in jour- nalism who understand the vital problems of modern society. Men of broad sjanpathies and journalistic ability may rise to positions in which they can exert, as did Riis, a wonderful influence for social betterment. We admire the brave men who go to war and die for their country. Should we admire less the men who die in the warfare against disease, crime and poverty? Many men in the professions risk their lives; a few die. Seldom are they applauded; often DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 105 they fight alone. So to struggle, so to endure re- quires courage of as high an order as does military warfare. There are heroes of war, there are also heroes of peace. CHAPTER VIII DEFENDERS OF THE NATION IN BUSINESS LIFE Much of the poverty, crime and disease of modern life, seems to be due to modern industrialism. Men have been so impatient to build up great business enterprises, that they have given but little attention to the damage done in the process of development. Now, however, thoughtful business men are beginning to understand the seriousness of present conditions. They are taking steps to reduce the evils of industry and make business contribute to the welfare of society. To the timid, these efforts seem radical; to others, they seem inadequate. It will be stimulating to consider briefly the careers of a few such business men. A Student of Economics who Became a Business Man. — William C. Proctor was a student at Prince- ton University, and there he made a special study of economics. His father was the head of a large soap company. After he was graduated, he went into his father's business, not at the top but at the bottom. He put on overalls and accepted a laborer's salary, 106 DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 107 determined to get the facts of life as a working- man sees them. He came from college with live ideas about economic life, but was willing to test out those ideas as a common laborer. Soon after he went to work the company was bothered by labor troubles. Young Mr. Proctor believed that the workers did not get a just share of the profits of the business, so he worked out a plan whereby the men were to get part of the dividends. Now hundreds of employees have acquired stock worth thousands of dollars. Many examples might be given to show the success of the plan. When Henry Brown went to work for the company he was almost a drunkard. The man who worked next to him had just come into full ow^iership of $1,000 worth of stock. He was enthusiastic about his newly acquired wealth and could talk of nothing else. Henry caught the spirit of the man. He straightened up and became a stockholder himself. Thomas Mason worked in the machine rooms, and in an accident lost an arm. Some firms would have discharged him or made him a night watch- man at a greatly reduced salary, even though he had a family. Through a pension fund, main- tained by the company, he was able to get his 108 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION regular wage of twenty-one dollars a week. In addition, by saving and entering the profit-sharing plan, he became owner of $12,000 worth of seven per cent stock.^^ This company is trying to give its employees a square deal. By putting into practice ideas re- garding industry gained at college, Mr. Proctor has become a force in the prevention of crime and poverty. A Business Man who Practiced the Golden Rule. — At seventeen, Charles M. Cox was handling barrels in Boston's produce market. He saved exactly one-half of all he earned and accumulated a thousand dollars. He found another man with a thousand dollars, and together they went into business. The partnership was not satisfactory to young Cox, however, and he bought out his part- ner. He established a one-man firm; he hired men and fired men; he bought grain and he sold grain. He was the owner and sole boss of the business. Cox worked hard and made money, but he paid the penalty for running a one-man business. His body broke, and he went to bed a nervous wreck. For weeks he lay in bed and watched his business go to pieces; he lost customers and he lost credit. He also did some thinking while he lay sick. He -5 1, DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 109 was a companion of Edward Bellamy. Perhaps Bellamy had influenced him; possibly Bellamy's book, "Looking Backward," vitalized him. He went back to his business with revolutionary busi- ness ideals. He called his employees together in his oflice, divided the business among them and organized a co-operative company in which every man held some stock. Under the new plan, no laborer was to have less than a week's vacation on pay each year, and no stenographer, bookkeeper, or oflBce boy was to have less than a month's vaca- tion on pay. The plan worked. The business became more efficient, and the co-operative corporation made money. Cox, himself, made money and used much of it for the community. He built for the children of Melrose Highlands, a suburb of Boston where he lives, a swimming pool. He supplied the ground for a playfield. He became the friend of everyone in the town. "Co-operation isn't charity," he says. "You've got to feel the joy of being friends with your employees. . . . The proud employer who looks down on his men will catch it if he doesn't watch out, even if he pays the best wages in the world. . . . The happy man is the efficient man. 110 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION If you want efficiency, make your men happy. Give them what you want yourself.'' ^- A Man ivho Gave his Business to his Employees. — N. 0. Nelson is a successful business man who has worked out numerous profit-sharing plans during the last thirty years. A few years ago, Mr. Nelson got the idea of establishing a series of co- operative grocery stores in New Orleans. In order to study the needs of the people, he lived in a tenement for several months. First, a small re- tail milk station was established to furnish the people with pure milk. Then the business grew; the Nelson Co-operative Association was organ- ized; and the business continued to grow until, in 1915, there were forty-seven stores selling honest wholesome food at low prices. The Association buys oranges, eggs, butter, potatoes and other foods by the carload and sells them for cash prices. Furthermore, customers are allowed to buy stock in the company. Thus prices for the consumer are kept at a minimum. When these stores, with other property, had reached a value of probably $500,000, Mr. Nelson gave the entire business to the men and women who worked for him, about three hundred in num- ber. Now they own all the stock, they receive DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 111 dividends as well as wages, and are free from the dread of poverty. Mr. Nelson has developed other plans for the benefit of his co-workers. Various provisions are made for recreation, and when an employee mar- ries, the Association contributes fifty dollars or more towards the new home to be established. Salaries continue during sickness and physicians' services are paid from an accumulated fund. Mr. Nelson says that if other large corporations would adopt this plan "all the people would get their dues, poverty would be impossible and our prisons would be practically empty, or they would empty themselves soon." ^^ A Corporation President who Promotes Welfare Work. — Cyrus H. McCormick is a vigorous, big- hearted man in the prime of life. He is president of a large corporation manufacturing farm machinery, and believes in recognizing the rights and interests of the men who work with him. This corporation subscribes fifty thousand dollars a year to a mu- tual benefit association to which three-fourths of its forty thousand employees now belong. It has established a pension system; it provides for the education of its grade school apprentices, and for medical inspection and treatment of all. 112 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION Particularly careful is the company to protect the men from accident. Said Mr. McCormick in an interview, so earnestly that there was little room for doubting him, "We do not contract for a machine without stipulating that it be made as safe as possible before it leaves the factory . . . we hold ourselves responsible not only for the safety of our employees but for their general health." "Suppose that you do your utmost to make this machine safe," he was asked, "and yet it goes on injuring men. You realize that the supremacy of your company in a certain field rests on your using this machine" — "That machine would go out of the works," he burst in. There seemed to be no question about it. This corporation has, in short, adopted a full program of welfare work. Mr. McCormick thinks that "welfare work" is an unfortunate name for it, because it suggests charity. "Wherever you find it mixed with charity you find it resulting in failure," he says; "no American wants charity." The welfare work of his company, he says, is co- operation, it is partnership.^"* Attitudes towards Profit Sharing and Welfare Work. — Numerous profit-sharing plans have failed DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 113 and have been abandoned. Profit-sharing has met with objections from both manager and worker. It should be remembered, however, that a large proportion of all business enterprises fail, a fact that men sometimes do not remember. So we nec- essarily should not be discouraged at occasional failures in profit-sharing schemes. Failures some- times stimulate men to try new methods.^^ Welfare work also has met with disapproval from both employers and employees. C. W. Post, a former president of the National Association of Manufacturers, says, "I am not a warm advocate of a lot of foolish, misapplied, maudlin sympathy that has paraded under the name of welfare work. . . . Workmen do not want to be sub- jected to a lot of gifts and charities that would place them under lasting servile obligations to their employer. . . . The American workman wants an honest, first-class price for his labor, and then he wants to be let alone to follow his own ideas as to his ways of life and the use of his money." Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, calls attention to the fact that, under the present industrial order, individuals have no control over the conditions of their em- 114 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION ployment, and are unable to furnish for themselves even such necessary things as pure water and fresh air. Much welfare work, in his opinion, is little more than common decency. Union men some- times are suspicious of the motives of employers; they vigorously oppose any attempt to substitute welfare work for the activities of the union. The positions of both Mr. Post and Mr. Gompers seem to be well taken. There must be no paternal- ism and no suggestion of charity in the relations between employer and employee. On the other hand, much can be done and much ought to be done by the employer as a matter of mere justice. Safety devices, proper ventilation, rest rooms, sanitary toilets, dining-rooms, baths, good drink- ing water and other similar provisions maj^ be, and, in many industries, ought to be established without reference to "welfare work." If, in addi- tion, employers will take a real interest in the wel- fare of the men who work with them, they may do much in helping the men themselves work out plans for the educational and social improvement of all.^^ To-day, it is ridiculous to assert that the manage- ment of a huge corporation, which affects the health and comfort of thousands of people, is a mere private affair. Society now says that a man DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 115 cannot run his business as he pleases. The state is demanding, through the acts of its legislatures, that industry pay a fair living wage and provide for the safety and health of its workers. The "cap- tain of industry" must assume the responsibility of an officer in command. In foreign lands the na- tion protects its citizens with its flag; it proposes to do as much to protect its citizens in industry.^^ Regardless of the failures of the past in profit- sharing and welfare work, if business men are sincere in wanting to share the profits of industry with the workers and to provide for their safety, health and comfort, they ought to be able to work out plans which will bring about a real co-operative spirit. If they cannot, they should be willing to step aside and turn over to the government the ownership and operation of their industries. It is true that government ownership might not be successful; but private ownership has not been successful either. If business men would unite and direct their energies in an effort to bring about better conditions, a much higher degree of justice might be attained. Poverty in industry could be largely eliminated. Men like Proctor, Cox, Nelson and McCormick, are needed, who place economic justice above private gain.^^ CHAPTER IX DEFENDERS OF THE NATION — IN AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY The production of wealth constitutes the found- ation of society. The men on the farm who produce the world's food, the men in mine and forest who take from the earth its natural re- sources, and the men in shop and factory who make our clothes and other necessities of life — these producers are essential to man's life as it is now organized. Without the farmer and without the industrial worker, our present civilization w^ould collapse. Fundamental to our welfare as are these two groups of citizens, they have been grossly mistreated. As we have seen, the condi- tions under which many of them work and live are degraded. While much has been done to improve conditions on the farm and in industry by those on the out- side, the best work, in some respects, is being done by the farmers and industrial workers themselves. Leaders have arisen in the ranks who have fought 116 DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 117 courageous and effective battles for better condi- tions. The achievements of a few of these leaders will be briefly related. From Farmer to Governor. — 'W. D. Hoard was raised as a butter and cheese maker in the State of New York. At the age of twenty-one, he went to Wisconsin. Disappointment met him, for there was scarcely a well-bred dairy cow in the state. But, while he could not work at his trade, there was plenty of farm work, and he was not idle. Soon after, in 1861, he enlisted for the Civil War. Upon his return from the war, he started a small county newspaper. He studied agricultural conditions in the state and found that the wheat crop was steadily dwindling. It had dropped to an average of eight bushels to the acre, largely because the farmers did not understand the prin- ciple of crop rotation. They were using the same land over and over for wheat and were then moving on to other states to ruin more land. Through his farm paper. Hoard began to preach dairying. He issued a call that resulted in the organization of the Wisconsin Dairyman's Association. By hard work against heavy odds, he and his friends developed a successful co-operative organization. He went into various school districts and held 118 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION meetings to interest the people in dairying. In three years, the annual production of cheese had reached 3,000,000 pounds, and the local market could not use it. At that time the freight rate on cheese from Wis- consin to New York City was $2.50 per hundred in ordinary freight cars. Mr. Hoard went to Chicago and called upon W. W. Chandler of the Star Union Refrigerating and Transportation Company. "I represent," said Mr. Hoard, "three million pounds of cheese seeking a safe, quick and cheap transportation to New York City. What are you going to do about it?" Mr. Chandler looked up slowly and asked," Who are you .5^" "I am W. D. Hoard, Secretary of the Wisconsin Dairyman's Association." "And what do you want.''" "I want you to send one of your cars to Water- town and come yourself and explain it. Our people are ignorant of your methods and need your help. Then I want you to make a rate of one dollar per one hundred pounds of cheese in iced cars from Wisconsin to New York, Boston and Philadel- phia." The audacity of the Wisconsin farmer-journalist DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 119 caught the business man's attention. He prom- ised to go and was as good as his word. The production of cheese increased by leaps and bounds. Wisconsin has become the largest cheese and butter producing state in the Union. In 1888, Mr. Hoard, who was then probably the best known man in the state, was elected governor. Later he was elected a member of the State Board of Regents and gave much time to the develop- ment of the Wisconsin Agricultural College.^^ Other Useful Farmers. — Dallas H. Gray was a young raisin grower in California. He had lost $15,000 in four years, and determined that he would try a new plan. He ordered a freight car, loaded into it five tons of raisins — all the wealth he pos- sessed in the world — and went with the car to Iowa. The car was switched off the train at Boone. A week later he had sold every raisin to the people of the town. Young Gray had been at the mercy of the com- mission man; he had had to accept any price the commission man offered. Now he was free. Gray had the courage to stake all he possessed on an experiment. It was successful and now others are profiting by his experience. ^°° Farmers are finding that, by co-operating, they can market 120 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION their products without the aid of commission men. Growers of wheat, raisin growers, almond and walnut growers, and citrus fruit growers have used the co-operative plan successfully. In co-operation lies the hope of the farmer. More farmers of initiative and organizing ability are needed in all kinds of farming to extend the plan. The farmer, himself, can do this more successfully than the outsider. The County Agent. — A few years ago, the County Farm Bureau movement began to develop. In 1915, the farmers of 313 counties in various states were organized for mutual aid with a salaried "county agent" or "farm adviser" at the head of each. In Kentucky, where the farmers of one county had lost in a year hogs valued at $225,000 from hog cholera, the county agent arranged for serum treatment. The next year the loss was re- duced to $150,000, and the following year to a bare $1,000. One county agent started seventeen community clubs in a district where the roads had been mainly a succession of mudholes. Co-operation soon resulted in a hundred miles of good roads. The agent induced one man to develop a lawn and DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 121 another to paint his house. Within a year every farmer along the road had a lawn and a painted house. In 1915, 156 county agents submitted reports to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, showing that their work had added $10,000 to the incomes of the farmers in each of their counties — and the work of most of them had just begun. ^"^ Social Usefulness in Farming. — There is im- mense wealth in the soil. The value of crops in the United States in 1915 was nearly $7,000,000,000. i°2 The wretchedness of farm life is due largely to an unjust distribution of the profits. The Ameri- can farmer is entitled to far more than he gets. Three reforms must be brought about. First, an adequate system of rural credits must be provided so that the farmer without large capital can properly finance his work. The National Rural Credits bill passed by Congress in 1916 may meet this need. In the opinion of some men it is not adequate. Secondly, co-operative methods in marketing must be developed in order that the farmer may be free from speculators and get a fairer profit. Finally, the farmer must be better educated; scientific agriculture and business man- agement must be taught; the college must be 122 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION taken to the farmer. If these reforms are devel- oped, others will follow. Good roads, telephones, modern farm machinery, automobiles, modern schools and churches, social life and opportunities for literature, music and art will be natural con- sequences. The success which a few farmers have achieved is possible for many others. There have been useful citizens in rural life besides ex-Governor Hoard. Fourteen men have gone from the farm to the Presidency of the United States. The inventor of the modern plow, Jethro Wood, was a farmer of New York State. McCormick built his first reaper in a barnyard. There are now probably twenty thousand graduates of agricul- tural colleges on the farms of the country. In the Department of Agriculture at Washington is employed the greatest body of farm scientists in the world. ^°^ Farming is coming into its own. There are wonderful opportunities for young men of initiative and organizing ability who will prepare themselves by getting a thorough course in an agricultural college. Trained men are needed on the farm, and they are needed by Federal and State governments for an increasing number of positions. DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 123 The farmer has the satisfaction which comes from honest toil in the open country and from the knowledge that he is a producer of wealth. To the farmer of to-day may come also the pleasure of co-operative effort, of working out with one's neighbors enterprises for the welfare of the entire community. Success in farming will go hand in hand with social usefulness. A Champion of Labor. — Joseph R. Buchanan as a youth was an all-round handy man in a small newspaper office in Louisiana. His preference was for type-setting and he became a good compositor. He moved to Denver, became a member of a Ty- pographical Union, and soon showed unusual quali- ties of leadership. At that time (about 1880) laboring men were not well organized. Although at present business men are beginning to recognize the right of laboring men to bargain collectively and to strike if the terms of employment are not satisfactory, at that time these rights generally were not recognized, there were no boards of arbitration, and laboring men had a harder time than they have now. In May, 1885, the shopmen and trackmen of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway decided that they would no longer stand treatment which they 124 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION considered tyrannical, and that a strike was neces- sary. They appealed to Buchanan for leadership. He pleaded with the men not to strike at that time, because he thought they could not win. But when the strike was voted, he stood by them. It was a bitter struggle. "The Rocky Moun- tain News" conducted a campaign of abuse against the strikers. Mr. Buchanan tried to pre- vent violence, but notwithstanding all he could do, dynamite was used. An engine was blown from the track and the situation grew critical. The "News" boldly announced that a committee had been formed to lynch Buchanan "immediately following the next explosion of dynamite in con- nection with the strike." Buchanan called at the oflBce of a skilled detec- tive. "I want to find out who is responsible for the dynamite outrages on the Rio Grande road ..." said Buchanan, "We want you to find the dyna- miters, whether they are our friends or our foes.^' The fee, the detective said, would be $500. Bu- chanan told him to go to work at once. The detective was unable to find any evidence indicating that the strikers had used dynamite. He found most of the explosions were due to the work of the railroad's hired guards. Apparently, DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 125 the railroad was endeavoring to develop public sentiment against the strikers. Threats against Buchanan's life continued and arrangements were made with the mayor and chief of the fire-department to ring the bell of the central fire-station in a peculiar way to call the lynchers together when the time came to string him up. Buchanan considered it best to accept protection and permitted twelve armed men to guard him at night. Three members of the Board of Trade called on him and requested him to leave the city. "Mr. T ," Buchanan said to the spokes- man, "you have known me ever since I have been in Colorado, about seven years. . . . Did you ever know me to commit a dishonest or unmanly act.?" Mr. T — repHed that he never had, but that he and his friends wished to avoid further violence. He admitted that, in his opinion, Buchanan was not responsible for the dynamiting. Buchanan advised them to go to the oflSce of the "News" for the cause of the agitation. "As for me," said Mr, Buchanan, "I stay right here. . . . All I have in this world is my good name among those who know me well, and the 126 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION respect and confidence of the laboring people of this city, state and country. The working men of Denver trust me and are standing by me; they, as well as I, are taking chances in this fight. I am not seeking martyrdom, and hanging is not the way I want to die; but I would rather be hanged forty times if that were possible, than to show the white flag of fear to the men who are battling by my side, or repay the trust and confidence re- posed in me by an act of cowardice. ... I can- not for a moment entertain your suggestion." Thus Joseph R. Buchanan fought for the men who had refused to take his advice. The men lost the strike, but, to the cause of labor, the defeat was only a temporary one. Buchanan has given his entire life to his fellow men. He has helped the unions win strikes and has served the cause in many ways.^""* A Leader of Miners. — John Mitchell was the son of a coal miner in Illinois. His mother died when he was less than three years old. When John was six, his father was brought home from the mine dead. At twelve, John was a breakerboy in the mines. At sixteen he was president of an athletic club of young miners. Down in the mines, he studied arithmetic while waiting for cars. He DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 127 joined debating societies, athletic associations, political reform clubs. While still a youth he be- came President of a Knights of Labor *' Local.'* He has been the President or leading spirit of some progressive movement ever since. He quickly made friends and was rapidly promoted to posi- tions of trust. Before he was thirty, Mitchell was elected President of the United Mine Workers of America. Mr. Mitchell had been in office less than four years when he was called upon to conduct the greatest strike in the history of the labor move- ment. Believing that they were justly entitled to higher wages, 147,000 men and boys laid down their tools for an indefinite period. The supply of fuel for thousands of people was suddenly cut off. The strike was a long and hard one. There was much suffering. President Roosevelt decided to intervene and called together for a conference the railroad men who controlled the mines and the officers of the Mine Workers. An impassioned discussion followed. "There was only one man in the room who behaved like a gentleman," said Mr. Roosevelt, "and that man was not I." Everyone lost his temper except Mitchell. Though the most bit- 128 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION terly assailed, he was the quietest and most dignified man in the room. Unmoved by the attacks of his opponents, he cahuly offered to submit all questions in dispute to a commission to be appointed by the President, and to abide by the commission's decision, even if the miners were not granted a single concession. The public was eagerly awaiting developments. Mitchell won the people to his side by his fairness. The public forced arbitration. The miners won the strike. Mr. Mitchell is a keen, cool-headed, sympathetic advocate of the rights of the worker. He feels the sufferings of the class to which he belongs. He is scrupulously honest. The story is told of a man who went to see Mitchell, determined to bribe him regardless of what it might cost. He went to Mr. Mitchell's hotel with the money in a valise. They discussed the weather, and then the visitor left. Standing in the presence of John Mitchell, the man was unable to muster the courage to pro- pose his dishonorable scheme. When Mr. Mitchell became president of the United Mine Workers, the organization had 43,000 members. He built up the membership to 300,000 with a contingent support of 200,000 more. Though placed in a position which requires his DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 129 leadership in strikes, he is a peace-loving man. He is unfailingly courteous to all. No miner grimy with coal dust, no door boy, no mule feeder who comes to him fails to receive a pleasant greeting. When forced to fight, he fights in the open. As a speaker, he resorts to none of the tricks of the unscrupulous agitator. He is clear, logical and convincing. Though he believes thoroughly in short hours for his friends in the mines, he works long hours himself — usually nine to twelve hours a day. During the big strike, he generally worked fifteen hours a day. Only a vigorous man could stand the tremendous tasks he undertakes. Mr. Mitchell has no political ambitions. He is not a socialist. He is first and always a trade unionist and gives his life, without reserve, to the cause of his fellow workers. ^°^ It is beheved by many that most poverty and much crime and disease are due to an unjust dis- tribution of wealth and income. Laboring men are demanding more and more vigorously a larger share in the profits of industry and a larger share in its control. Economists agree that there is injustice and that laboring men are entitled to a larger share in the control and in the profits of industry. In order 130 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION to exercise larger control, laboring men must educate themselves and develop wise and unsel- fish leaders. Unions have been known to fall into the hands of unscrupulous labor leaders who are in the game for all the money they can get out of it. There is a pressing need for educated men in industry, — for more men like John Mitchell. Leaders are needed who have a knowledge of economics and sociology, and who can deal cour- teously and convincingly with employers and with legislatures. Men are needed who are able to develop educational work among labor unions, and who are able to extend unionism among un- organized laborers. The youth who masters a trade, who is honest, courageous and sympathetic and who has qualities of leadership may do much in safe-guarding the nation against decadence by working among his fellow men in industry. CHAPTER X DEFENDERS OF THE NATION — IN ORGANIZED SOCIAL WORK Certain men in business and professional life have been effective in the fight against disease, crime and poverty, first, by working independently in their vocations, and, secondly, by working with others in definitely organized movements. Charles R. Henderson, for instance, did valuable work as a teacher; and as president of The National Prison Association, he also played an important part in the prison reform movement. Louis D. Brandeis, as we have seen, did much for the cause of labor personally as a lawyer; he also rendered valuable service as the Legal Adviser of the National Con- sumers' League. Jacob Riis was primarily a journalist, but was also actively identified with social settlement work, playground work, and other organized movements. Other men have thrown all their energies into some particular phase of the warfare against social evils, as employed executive officers of 131 132 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION organized social movements and institutions. The work of a few such men will be briefly described. The Secretary of the National Child Labor Com- mittee. — Owen R. Lovejoy came from a family of good, plain people in Michigan. As a youth he learned what hard work means, and now bears the scar of an accident in a furniture factory. He ob- tained part of his training by getting a college education. During the big coal strike in 1902, he investigated conditions in the coal fields and learned much about child labor. When in 1904, the National Child Labor Com- mittee was organized, he was asked to investigate conditions further. He was ready and glad to accept. He wrote, "After I had seen those little boys day after day carrying their lunch-pails to the breakers every morning like grown men, bending all day over dusty coal chutes, sometimes suffering accidents in the chutes, and finally dragging them- selves home at night in the dark, I couldn't think of anything else. Sights like that cling to you. I dreamed about those boys." As an officer of the Committee, Mr. Lovejoy investigated glass factories, fish canneries and cotton mills, until he knew at first hand much about child labor. Then he became the general DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 133 secretary of the Committee. He has developed an effective organization with a corps of assistants and executive oflScers in New York City. Mr. Lovejoy is a hard worker and gives hun- dreds of talks and lectures. "We would have all America with us if we could only tell them all about it," he says. So he reaches all the people he can by his personal efforts on the lecture plat- form. He speaks to an audience of school children one day, to laboring men the next, club women the next, and business men the next. On the walls of Mr. Lovejoy's office are four maps showing the development of child labor legislation over the United States. There is a map to correspond with each of four important child labor laws. On these maps, the states that have the law show white, those that have not, black. Mr. Lovejoy's idea of a good map is a perfectly white one. Owen R. Lovejoy is a fighter. And he is the kind of fighter who can take defeat with courage. He may report at the end of a year of campaigning fifteen victories and ten defeats — or it may have been ten victories and fifteen defeats — then go right to work to turn the defeats into victories the next year. Largely through Mr. Lovejoy's 134 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION efforts, thousands of children have been rescued from industrial slavery and have been given a fairer chance in life.^°® A Prison Warden. — A few years ago, Thomas M. Osborne, a wealthy citizen of Auburn, New York, was made chairman of the State Commission on prison reform. Desiring to learn of conditions at first hand, he spent a week as a prisoner in the Auburn State Penitentiary, living in every respect like the other prisoners. He wore the prisoner's stripes; he lived in a small stone cell; he did his daily work for a cent and a half a day; he disobeyed the rules and was committed to a dark dungeon. Osborne discovered for himself some of the evils we have discussed here. He wrote a book describ- ing his experiences and aroused the attention of the public to the cruel methods of New York State Prisons. The Governor of the State appointed Mr. Os- borne warden of Sing Sing prison. Not needing the salary attached to the position, he paid it to an assistant. Osborne's purpose was to change the wretched conditions of the prison. He quickly won the confidence and co-operation of the men. A Mutual Welfare League was organized. In a short time, hundreds of prisoners who had been '-a S c d ■ - o ^ ja O .5 ^ J3 E- .2 DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 135 bitter and vengeful, were aiding him to keep the men decent and orderly. He took away the guards from the workshops, he permitted conversation during work hours, and increased the output of the workshops over fifty per cent. Under the old system, when a prisoner escaped there was great rejoicing; under Mr. Osborne's administration, the prisoners sought to prevent escapes. On one occasion, when a prisoner escaped, six of his fellow prisoners came to Mr. Osborne. "Can't we go out and hunt for that fellow?'* they asked. The spokesman had been in prison for eight years and had twelve more to serve. Osborne de- cided to let him go. Fifteen went out and hunted all night for the escaped convict. They were with officers, but there were opportunities to escape. Every man came back. Exercise was provided, a band was organized, educational classes were introduced, and the use of drugs was virtually stopped with the aid of the League. Best of all, men left the prison, deter- mined to live better lives. ^"^ Mr. Osborne had great difficulties in his work, not because of the prisoners, but because of selfish politicians who were profiting by the old methods. 136 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION In 1915, he was dismissed from oflBce. When tried, he was acquitted on every charge, and, in July, 1916, was reinstated, much to the disappoint- ment of the grafters. Later it seemed best for him to resign and to take up the work of prison reform in larger fields. When a man begins a fight that necessarily in- terferes with the financial interests of others, he must be so clean and so honest that he can say to the world: Make your charges and appoint your investigation committees, I have nothing in my life to conceal. For years, we have been maintaining prisons that have been turning out into the world men less able to cope with the problems of society and make an honest living than when they entered. Men trained in the science of government are needed to bring about changes in our prison laws. Men trained in psychology are needed to study crime scientifically and introduce new methods of treating those who have fallen in the struggle for existence. The Founder of the Adirondack Cottage Sanita- rium. — ^When Edward Livingston Trudeau was a young man, an elder brother was stricken with tuberculosis. Edward nursed him up to the hour of DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 137 his death six months later. He was graduated from the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons and practiced medicine in New York City. At the age of twenty-five, he himself was pronounced tuberculous and was ordered to leave New York. He went to the mountains and was then not ex- pected to live six months. While living in the mountains, Trudeau and his family were taking a short trip, and were caught in a blizzard. The horses fell exhausted and all were forced to remain in the snow for two days. Tru- deau seemed none the worse for this ordeal and began to consider the advisability of spending a winter in the bracing air of the Adirondacks. His medical advisers considered the proposal as a kind of suicidal mania, all except one of them and his wife. In those days the value of fresh air had not been recognized. Trudeau carried out the experi- ment and improved greatly in health. Soon he was able to practice medicine among the mountain people. Often he would travel forty miles a day; and he would go out in all sorts of weather. His sympathetic manner helped to make him success- ful. Half of his bills were never rendered; his pur- pose was to help those who needed him. Tears came into the eyes of many a woman when she saw 138 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION him in later years; and men called him "the be- loved physician." He lived the life of the people, often hunting and fishing in the wilderness. It is said that a local boxing champion once coaxed the doctor to put on the gloves with him. "I promise not to hurt ye," he said. When the "champion" picked himself up at the end of the bout, he said that "the doctor's the quickest thing with mitts I ever run up agin!" Four years after Dr. Trudeau left New York City, he had a few tuberculosis patients who had placed themselves in his care as a last hope of prolonged life or cure. At about this time, Tru- deau dreamed a dream. He saw the forest around him melt away and the whole mountain side be- come dotted with houses built inside out, as if the inhabitants lived on the outside. He made the dream come true. The Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium was started and soon became famous throughout the country. Trudeau's success in treating tuberculosis by the open-air and rest method attracted wide attention. Other sani- tariums sprang up. To-day there are fully five hundred in the United States and Canada. Ed- ward Trudeau taught the world the value of fresh air. DEFENDERS OF THE NATION 139 The Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium is a semi- charitable institution that treats patients at a sum that does not cover the cost of their board and lodging. The deficit is made up by contributions from public-spirited persons. Trudeau used to raise this deficit by what he called his "begging letters." Edward H. Harriman was a friend and admirer of Trudeau and his work for humanity. This railroad king would let great affairs hang fire as he listened to the doctor tell of the develop- ment of his work at the sanitarium. Trudeau drew no salary, but earned a small income from his private practice. Probably many failed to understand the wonder- ful spirit of the man. A doubter wrote : — "What sort of man is Trudeau? Is he what so many say he is, or just a clever doctor who has made a fortune out of the Adirondacks.'*" The great, generous spirit of Trudeau was always puzzled to know why people failed to un- derstand his work. He had his reward, however, in the satisfaction that comes to a man, who, though laboring against heavy odds, succeeds in bringing happiness and health to others. ^°^ A Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion. — John R. Mott attended Cornell University 140 THE YOUTH AND THE NATION about thirty years ago and distinguished himself as a student. Soon after graduating he became the head of the Student Department of the Young Men's Christian Association of North America. Now, he is General Secretary of the International Committee, the highest position in the Young Men's Christian Associations of the world. The work of this institution is the making of well balanced men — men strong in body, mind and spirit. Many men are going out from the Y. M. C. A. to assume positions of large useful- ness in campaigns against disease, crime and poverty. Mr. Mott has rare executive capacity. Al- though his responsibilities have grown immensely year by year, he is always ahead of his work. His capacity for steady work at high pressure is so great as to wear out any associate who tries to keep pace with him. Though he was ranked high as a student of philosophy in college, he is pri- marily a man of will and of action. He reads the biographies of great generals, whose strategy he tries to match in the field of organized religion. Mr. Mott's field of activity is the entire world. He has travelled around the world at least five 6C CO