The National Social Science Series Edited by Frank L. McVey, Ph.D., LL.D., President of the University of North Dakota Now Ready; Each, Fifty Cents Net PROPERTY AND SOCIETY. A. A. BRUCE, Asso- ciate Justice Supreme Court, North Dakota, Com- missioner on Uniform State Laws, etc. WOMEN WORKERS AND SOCIETY. ANNIE M. MACLEAN, Assistant Professor of Sociology, The University of Chicago. SOCIOLOGY. JOHN M. GILLETTE, Professor of Soci- ology, The University of North Dakota. THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY. JOHN M. GILLETTE, THE AMERICAN CITY. HENRY C WRIGHT, First Deputy Commissioner Department of Public Chari- ties, New York City. GOVERNMENT FINANCE IN THE UNITED STATES. CARL C. PLEHN, Professor of Finance, The University of California. THE COST OF LIVING. WALTER E. CLARK, Pro- fessor and Head of the Department of Political Science, The College of the City of New York. TRUSTS AND COMPETITION. JOHN F. CROWELL, Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. MONEY. WILLIAM A. SCOTT, Director of the Course in Commerce, and Professor of Political Economy, The University of Wisconsin. BANKING. WILLIAM A. SCOTT. TAXATION. C. B. FILLEBROWN, President Massa- chusetts Single Tax League. THE CAUSE AND CURE OF CRIME. CHARLES R. HENDERSON, late Professor of Sociology, The Uni- versity of Chicago. THE STATE AND GOVERNMENT. JEREMIAH S. YOUNG, Professor of Political Science, The University of Minnesota. The National Social Science Series SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT. G. R. DAVIES, Assistant Professor of History and Sociology, The University of North Dakota. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CITIZENSHIP. ARLAND D. WEEKS, Professor of Education, North Dakota Agri- cultural College. In Preparation THE MONROE DOCTRINE. A. B. HALL, Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin. THE NEWSPAPER AS A SOCIAL FACTOR. ALLAN D. ALBERT, Former Editor Minneapolis Trib- une, President International Association of Rotary Clubs. THE STRUGGLE FOR LAND IN AMERICA. CHARLES W. HOLMAN, Editorial writer, Expert of United States Industrial Commission, Secretary of National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits. MODERN PHILANTHROPY. EUGENE T. LIES, Gen- eral Superintendent, Chicago United Charities, Lec- turer Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, Di- rector Illinois Commission on Social Legislation. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LEGISLATION. JERE- MIAH S. YOUNG. POPULATION. E. DANA DURAND, Former Director United States Census, Professor of Statistics, The University of Minnesota. COOPERATION. L. D. H. WELD, Professor of Busi- ness Administration, Yale University. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS A SOCIAL FACTOR. W. D. JOHNSTON, Librarian of the St. Paul Public Library, author of History of the Library of Congress. A. C McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO The Psychology of Citizenship By ARLAND D. WEEKS % Professor of Education in the North Dakota Agricultural College; author of "The Education of Tomorrow," "Play Days On Plum Blossom Creek," and "The Avoidance of Fires." CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1917 Copyright A. C. McClurg & Co. 1917 Published March, 1917 Copyrighted in Great Britain W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO PREFACE GOVERNMENT in this land of ours suffers continually because its machinery is not familiar to the average citizen. We have taken it for granted that every resident knows how his town is governed, but as a matter of fact he is not well posted. The same statement can be made regarding federal and state government. Professor Weeks raises some interesting points about the need of publicity in government. To him the social order is largely a product of sug- gestion, and the problem of how to make the people understand good government is based, first, upon a knowledge of the mind of the citizen, and, second, upon the greatest of publicity about government. This book is full of rich suggestion that ought to have some influence in opening a new approach to the ideals of government. F. L. M. 415273 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 'TVHIS book is a study of the psychology of JL our relations to civic affairs and deals with mental traits affecting the quality of citizenship. The voter is a psychological study in himself, for indeed about all there is of any of us, beyond anatomy, is psychology. In order to relate effort for public welfare more fully to laws of mind, it is profitable to view our mental nature as it shows up against a background of civic and economic questions. A series of articles which appeared in the American Journal of Sociology is the basis of the book, the material being abridged and revised for the present volume. AELAND D. WEEKS. Fargo, North Dakota. CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I. Civic Demands Upon Intelligence . . ~t 1. Social Problems Complex 1 2. Limits of Eeasoning Ability 4 3. Civic Issues Requires Imagination ... 6 4. Study of Civic Problems Necessary' ... 8 5. New Type of Education for Citizenship . . 10 Chapter H. Social Inertia 18 1. Environment Affects Views 18 2. Habit and Custom 20 3. Servile Emotions 23 4. The Law of Shock 28 Chapter III. The Limits of Attention 36 1. Inheritance of Type of Attention .... 36 2. Need of Effective Publicity 38 Chapter IV. Forms of Distraction 42 1. Brain Work vs. Physical Labor 42 2. Energy Given to Sports 45 3. Excess Sex Interests 47 4. Women and Dress . 51 5. Other Interests 52 Chapter V. The Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 55 1. Leisure Possible 55 2. Machinery May Stimulate Thought ... 56 3. How Machinery Affects Operatives ... 59 4. Routine Employments General 66 5. The Fool-Proof Machine 69 Chapter VI. The Spirit of Labor 72 1. Recognition of the Worker's Interests . . 73 2. Motivation in the Factory 75 3. Pleasure in Work 80 4. Fear as Motive 82 5. Self -Government in Industry 83 Contents PAGE Chapter VII. The Control of Suggestion ... 85 1. Inheritance of Ideas 85 2. Influence of Literature 88 3. Advertising Good Examples 91 4. Use of Pictures 93 5. The Slogan 96 Chapter Vni. Civic Publicity and the Voter . . 99 1. Eeports Upon Public Affairs 99 2. The Uninformed Voter 102 3. Is an Educational Test Feasible? .... 104 Chapter IX. The Legal Mind 109 1. The Eule of Precedent 109 2. Lawyers and Society 112 3. Experimental Legislation 116 Chapter X. Views of Property 120 1. Exclusive Ownership 120 2. Ownership and Social Viewpoint .... 123 3. Thrift 126 4. Great Expectations 128 5. Attitude Toward Taxes 129 6. Competition and Character 132 Chapter XI. A Sense of Humanity 1. Instinctive Basis of War 139 2. Desire to Travel 140 3. Better Use of Fighting Tendency . . . .143 Index . . 147 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CITIZENSHIP THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CITIZENSHIP CHAPTER I CIVIC DEMANDS UPON INTELLIGENCE ONE of the most used words is "problem." There are the problems of city government, of taxation, of immigration, of pure food, of education, of the liquor traffic, of the judiciary, of direct legislation, and many others. Modern civilization presents a snarl of problems. 1. Social Problems Complex There must have been plenty of problems of old, but people did not always define them. Many issues have been hatched by modern con- ditions, such as changes in industry and trans- portation and growth of population. Moreover, with greater general enlightenment society has become self-conscious, for intelligence has a revealing power. The discovery is made that social relationships are not all they should be, and reform is undertaken. Making the world over is new business and difficult. We can scarcely say that people are prepared for it, for a large part of the develop- ment of society has heretofore been as free from 1 The Psychology of Citizenship foresight and conscious direction as has the evo- lution of the society of bees and beavers. Much of our present order has been brought about by mere force of circumstances, by an impromptu unwinding of events which men have barely understood, let alone directed. There has been little anticipation of social outcomes or attempt to substitute planning in place of evolution. Society has arrived at its present organization largely without knowing why or electing aims; it has gone forward in some such way as the indi- vidual grows up, his vital processes taking place in the absence of intention or understanding. But this is changing. Society consciously seeks social ends as truly as the individual seeks personal ends. Conditions have so changed that the individual, in order to get what he wants, must combine his efforts with those of others. A revolution in economic, industrial, and com- mercial relationships compels the individual to make common cause with others, leads him to look at life from a social viewpoint, and causes social questions to demand the expenditure of more and more mental energy. The social machine is complex. Physical force will not operate it. The man who got along in the twelfth century by using his fists now has to use his head. Thought rules, and it is only by study that social ideals may be realized or that individuals or groups may protect themselves in Civic Demands Upon Intelligence 8 a noiseless warfare in which the most dangerous enemies and devouring opponents may be as invisible as germs. To accomplish ends through social machinery is a real intellectual feat. Political and social science as a branch of learning is not easy to grasp. There is perhaps no kind of subject- matter which taxes the mind more severely. A high degree of culture is required to enable one to understand the movements and issues of the times. The intellectual requirements for capable citizenship, for ideal citizenship, are exacting. Now the mind which is available for the con- scious direction of society was shaped under a different set of conditions from those prevailing in the modern world. Hence we find individuals who would be highly effective in a physical strug- gle or in contesting with nature for subsistence but who are at a loss in an environment so new to the race. Everywhere there is evidence of a bewilderment. There is little agreement among specialists in political science. Social engineer- ing tests the capabilities of the human intellect. A singular confession of weakness is that repre- sented by the action of the Senate at Washing- ton in voting to reject the annual contribution of $250,000 from the Rockefeller General Education Board, which had been used for farm demonstration work and the extermination of the boll weevil. A senator declared that the money 4 The Psychology of Citizenship was covered with "the blood of women and children shot down in the Colorado strike." This incident brings out in strong relief the short- comings of legislation, for it should have been possible long ago to curtail centralized wealth to which such abuses are ascribed. Legislators appear strangely limp in dealing with conditions whose evil results are denounced on every hand. Of thirty-two acts of parliament, Herbert Spen- cer found that twenty-nine produced effects oppo- site from those intended. The utterly diverse views of public men indicate that social admin- istration is a problem outtopping the average of ability. #. Limits of Reasoning Ability In the last analysis the reasoning capacity of the individual is called in question. Ours is not a race of supermen, and mental limitations enhance the difficulty of making headway. Con- sider the fact that we have to " study " to under- stand. If a novice could sit down with Euclid and in an evening know geometry ! It takes weeks and months of painful concentration to master a branch of learning represented by books which could be read through in a few days, so narrow is the gateway to understanding. Man is a reasoning animal, so it is said, though in dis- cussions regarding the power of animals to rea- son some scientists hold that not only do animals Civic Demands Upon Intelligence 5 not reason but that very few human beings rea- son. Men reason not from choice but from neces- sity. Reasoning occurs when a situation cannot be successfully dealt with in some other way, as by imitation, habit, or memory, or by getting someone else to do it. But oftentimes the pinch of a situation, instead of evoking reasoning, will call forth a futile deluge of emotion, and the citizen will swear. We hate to think ; we avoid it if possible ; we think only under pressure, and not always then. The reasoning faculty in its fulness develops late in the individual, and on the other hand may disintegrate in the closing years of life; it is first to be disturbed by alcohol, sickness, or fatigue. The freshest hours of the day are re- quired for work that involves the nice balance of logic. We hesitate to attack problems, and gladly defer consideration to the next day of those matters that call for vigor of thought. Frequently people will exhaust every means of dealing with a difficulty except that of reason- ing, and persistently try to flank a situation that might be resolved by direct mental exertion. The tendency is to rely upon the lower mental processes. Concepts and principles, with which reason deals, are products for which the mind has less affinity than for objects. The vastly greater appeal of the objective is attested by a thousand 6 The Psychology of Citizenship evidences. The concrete is popular, while the abstract is synonymous with dryness and diffi- culty. A speculative exposition or a dissertation on principles repels all but a few, while satiating and repetitious concreteness attracts a multi- tude. But it is the concept and the principle that are of chief significance, for they represent meanings. Thinkers are characterized by grip of abstractions and the ability to pursue a gen- eralization, undisturbed by the swollen floods of concreteness. In reasoning, meanings rather than images engage consciousness and for it Plato held that but few- were fitted by nature. 3. Civic Issues Require Imagination A good imagination is the basis of reasoning and a trait of infinite significance for social betterment. But what of its prevalence? The mere restoration of a past experience is common enough ; vivid recollection of something actually experienced is indeed characteristic of children, and " narrative old age " employs the almost photographic images of earlier years, but a con- structive, original, penetrating, and interpreting turn of mind is a different matter. Otherwise it would not take a third of a century to secure even partial realization of the trust issue or of the meaning of watered stock. Many evidences of the failure to see the sig- nificance of facts will occur to one: the young Civic Demands Upon Intelligence 7 married woman who laughs at the spectacle of a drunken man on the street; the teacher who uses uncomplainingly a textbook containing a picture of a rooster on a cannon ; the working- class mother who is pleased when her son joins the national guard; the farmer who does not distinguish between his labor income and the income derived from his money investment, who " buys a job "; or the young English woman who expects to tour the United States in three days, not thinking it so " frightfully large." And is it not usually the case that one is much more concerned about the loss of a shirt stud than of a hundred dollars abstracted from the family in- come by invisible but real tentacles? The absence of ideal conditions is little noted if the familiar is found in place. If the man lower down had the gift of vision would there not be new chapters in history ? Here and there are those who image the advantages of other status or penetrate mentally into the monstrous mushroomism of privilege or follow with the mind's eye the play of social and economic forces, but can it be assumed that actual realization of harmful conditions is at all usual? Is not in- visible evil effectually protected by lack of vi- sion ? It is still vastly more heinous, because more objective, to steal a horse than to steal a fran- chise. The fact that the mind tends to adhere to objects of direct acquaintance, making a lit- 8 The Psychology of Citizenship tie world out of the materials within the sweep of the eye and less frequently rising to a stage from which the larger world may be surveyed, is fateful with reference to the rational ordering of a better civilization. Constituents are proudly triumphant when their representatives force through a bill compelling railroads to bulletin the time of arrival and departure of trains, but are not particularly curious as to the relation of freight rates to the cost of living; women highly, if not well, educated oppose suffrage from inability to represent to themselves the various situations in which a voter's power affects their interests; politicians find that temporizing often wins over statesmanship ; omission and in- efficiency make far less impression than the un- important overt act ; a scientific management and the avoidance of waste are long delayed. Ever the tangible reality of the moment rather than the greater reality of the ideal moves men. 4. Study of Civic Problems Necessary Indisposition to think and the circumscribed field of imagination are significant, for in social administration the power of generalization and logical sequence is much engaged. The usual sciences are actually more simple than the knowl- edge with which the voter, ballot in hand, is pre- sumed to be acquainted, the science and philoso- phy of society. In fact the belated development Civic Demands Upon Intelligence 9 of sociology and allied subjects may be taken to mean that social phenomena are reduced to sys- tem only with unusual difficulty. Anthropology, social psychology, civic theory, and economics deal with elusive and thought-taxing materials. Govermental issues cannot be wisely dealt with on the spur of the moment. To know the nature of the task of imposing intelligence upon the social order is to recog- nize the need of I a more intensive stu^y thah i common. Serious discussion, one subject 'by* this group, club, or coterie, and another tbpic by others, is neede^feabh to arrive at a degree of expertness, each*td contribute to a common fund of thought? The absence of insistent inquiry andvdiscussion among the people is a source of political weakness, for men elected to office re- flect the common attitude and are circumscribed by prevailing conditions of insight and interest. The average voter needs to be convinced that unless he studies issues he will be unprepared to deal with them; he needs to study his lesson. Government is a matter requiring downright application on the part of citizens. Political./ questions must be framed for discussion, terms' defined, and time devoted to the study of princi- ples. Civic welfare cannot be achieved with a general avoidance of strenuous mental effort, and with a spatter of attention and a lust for amusement to fill every free hour. 10 The Psychology of Citizenship The faulty management of public business raises a question in some minds as to the possi- bility of successful collective enterprise. It is doubted whether the people are capable of sus- taining consciously a far higher social organiza- tion. When one tyranny is overthrown, it is argued, another will rise in its place. There is implied in many quarters the view that the people collectively are inadequate for perfect self-government and for achieving a genuine community welfare. "Things will not be any better than they were before " is the melancholy comment on programs of reform. 5. New Type of Education for Citizenship The answer is education, an education that centers on thinking. And as one cannot think unless he has materials with which to think, it is important that there be provided specific thought-materials bearing upon the evolution of the state. There is need of a subject-matter compounded of biological, historical, scientific, and evolutionary data the upshot of which would be a grasp of underlying social principles. More need an acquaintance with the kind of material found, for example, in the works of Spencer, John Fiske, David Starr Jordan, Metchnikoff, Haeckel, Karl Marx, Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Henry George, Lester F. Ward, and Prince Kropotkin. Civic Demands Upon Intelligence 11 The culture required for social ends receives too little attention, owing in part to the prevailing enthusiasm for training for salaried employments. As a result there are engineers and chemical experts who are not interested in politics. Tech- nological preparation is often a mechanizing process which in adapting for a necessary func- tion widely deflects consciousness from social issues. Nor is the student of ancient history and literature, of the time-honored classics, neces- sarily well equipped for the coming nation. He possesses, indeed, the advantage of contact with the best minds of the past; he has associated, not with groundlings and slaves, but with mas- ters Caesar, Xenophon, Marcus Aurelius. A certain aristocracy of associations is thus estab- lished, and it is not to be wondered at that the early American clergyman, lawyer, and public man approached life from a high plane and carried a dignity derived from the stately and poised spirit of classical letters, essays, and orations. Horace and Cicero were good consumers, and slavishness did not infect the underfed and impecunious student of early Dartmouth or Am- herst. Fresh from the uppercaste associations of Virgil or Lysias, the early American college student was keyed high and was notably rich in historical ideals, though perhaps walking the The Psychology of Citizenship streets of cities in poverty without the collateral of skill. But the very fascinations of the classics lead to a certain disqualification; the view is back- ward, and the enthusiasm of youth becomes attached to a gloried past. And the mind nour- ished on prescientific literature cannot take quick offense against pseudo-science. Not that the Apollo myth or the prowess of Beowulf are really credited, but there exists a haze not conducive to realism. The classical scholar tends to be but partially scientific, from the permeating in- fluence of ancient misconceptions. The need of instruction actually clarifying mental processes even the need of educating the educated may be inferred from the fact that " sucker lists " are compiled from college catalogs. 1 A type of education which would avoid the i The following clipping from the Chicago Record- Herald, of February 11, 1913, speaks for itself : " SUCKERS " ALL COLLEGE MEN Hawthorne Case Witness Tells Where He Got 700,000 Names NEW YORK, February 10 The so-ealled " sucker list" of mining companies promoted by Julian Haw- thorne, Josiah Quincy, Albert Freeman, and Dr. William J. Morton, who are on trial for alleged fraudulent use of the mails, was compiled from 400 college catalogues and contained 700,000 names. Freeman so testified today under cross-examination by government counsel. He identified a check for $20,000.00 as one of his own and said it was drawn to cover the expense of making the list of names of persons to whom literature was sent. Civic Demands Upon Intelligence 13 dubious qualities in classical subject-matter and the isolating and mechanizing effects of occupa- tional instruction is needed. The ideal society cannot be formed of men whose interests are no wider than money-making, nor of men whose in- struction has incorporated into their outlook a mythological squint which exposes them to the patent medicine vendor or causes them to look upon nations as big personalities, rather than, as Chancellor Jordan remarks, jurisdictions. What tendencies to exaggerate, to hope unduly, to misread evidence, to exalt intuition, to obtrude emotions, to idealize animals, and to personify property or cities are not bound up with an in- tellectual nurture based on the age of fable! When the small boy says that the luck has gone out of a trinket which he carries about with him, and when in a single day in Chicago 25,000 people gather about a miraculous shin bone, the need of intellectual reorganization is evident. Clarifying and disillusioning instruction is needed with regard to social organization. Un- due veneration for constitutions implies a mis- guided study of history ; for the men who framed constitutions, so far as not merely responsive Testifying as to the cost of printing circular letters sent out, Freeman said : "I did not care how much I paid if the letter was perfect. But the trouble was to get the different names put into the letters in such a way as to make those who received them think they were personal letters from Hawthorne and not mere circulars. I sent out fully 700,000 of those letters. ' ' 14 The Psychology of Citizenship to special interests, were attempting no more than the people of today attempt in dealing to the best of ability with the problems of the hour, and that any particular authority attended the deliberations of early publicists, in excess of that attributable to the latest session of a legislature, is no more credible than that the impressions of today should be imposed on the public of a century hence. The educational system suffers an underdevel- opment, for it is responsive rather than dominat- ing. Institutions of learning tend to conform rather than to form, and the seal of approval is placed on unregenerate ambitions and the ethics of disorderly competition. Young men who should be in a spiritual kindergarten, whose con- versations are crude and gossipy, and whose reactions to quality are wonderingly skeptical, are released at graduation certificated if not re- fined. The vices of the street " clamorous, in- sincere advertisement, push, and adulteration " may possess the graduate as well as the entrant, and the aim of a department may be colored to the purpose of the crafty student who would equip himself to make " a heap of money " by overcapitalizing electric-lighting plants in small towns which should be taught how to manage their own public utilities. Within the total body of knowledge there exists an enormous quantity of material which is C'vvic Demands Upon Intelligence 15 inert or irrelevant. It is a serious dissipation of energy that youth should devote years to a relatively inconsequential learning. The good general repute of knowledge has thrown the mantle of approval over types of learning which, considered from the point of view of a dynamic society, represent a deadening load upon the factors making for progress. Often one hears it said that a given person or a certain class is " well educated," there being no distinction made between highly educated and well educated; whereas there is all the difference in the world between the two conditions. Many great scholars have been very highly, and at the same time very poorly, educated, when regard is had to mental content. Certainly no very extensive im- provement in brain capacity has occurred since the Middle Ages or the days of Diocletian, and whatever of human weal has been achieved for the present as against former periods is to be referred to mental content rather than to increase of brain cells and spread of cortex. Too much emphasis can hardly be placed upon the actual character of the information which society permits to cir- culate or deliberately diffuses through agencies under state control. The substitution of valid) materials for those not meeting the most search- ing tests of value must occupy the foreground of effort for social betterment. If there is a wide range of values in real knowl- 16 The Psychology of Citizenship edge, how significant becomes the toleration of pseudo-science. Error obtains widely, and in- deed a certain conventional respectability at- taches to quantities of traditional material which any scientist knows could not bear scrutiny. Much of this is so knit up with emotion that scholars plow around it rather than risk the consequences which a too fearless opposition would entail. Hence it is that verified knowledge and pseudo- science may achieve a considerable circulation in the same community, the one to a degree un- doing the work of the other, but with no joining of issue and thorough enlightenment. There is an immense circulation of worthless reading mat- ter, ranging from dream-books and drugstore almanacs to pulpy fiction. The church would do well to inspect closely the materials which are placed before millions, often as their almost sole mental food, and should not be unaware of the possibility of benumbing intelligence by forever dealing with points of doctrine or the minutiae of Jewish history. One may listen attentively yet unprofitably. The practice of systematically misinforming children cannot be too strongly condemned. Parents allow their children to be taught matter known to be misleading. The presentation of myths and attractive falsifications befogs the child's mind and contributes to the permanence of a public expecting to meet with the fountain Civic Demands Upon Intelligence 17 of youth in the decoction sold for "a dollar a bottle." The strange case of mythology and actual science in the same mind may be due to the duplicity of the make-believe literature on which children are nourished far into the age of rea- soning. A great gain will have been made when there is a more general realization of the importance of building up an effective civic mind. The social outcomes of various types of cultural ma- terial and of training deserve consideration. Especially is it important that there should be convictions regarding the scientific character of social questions. A function logically requiring the highest devotion and insight government is too often given over to men who are not grounded in appropriate learning, and the citizen himself too often lightly dismisses civic obliga- tions which should set him to burning midnight oil. CHAPTER II SOCIAL INERTIA "PROGRESSIVE movements are held severely JL in check by habits and customs. As one grows older he becomes, unless under unusual conditions, firmly set in feelings and views. Habits tend to grow into the very constitution, and represent a force whose power is experienced whenever a new idea is introduced in the world. Repetition of movements and of thoughts results in fixed arrangements of the brain cells. The grooves of thought become deeply worn, and the mind comes at last to resemble in definiteness of character and permanence of structure the physi- cal body which supports it. It is the exceptional person who keeps green at the top, and who remains in sympathy with dynamic phases of society. 1. Environment Affects Views The paths of thought are greatly influenced by one's surroundings. Not without cause do we wish to know where the individual came from, who his parents were, where he went to school, and what his occupation is, and our curiosity ex- 18 Social Inertia 19 tends to his wife and children. The ethical atmosphere which one has known, combining elements from many sources, essentially deter- mines interests, outlook, and opinions. The indi- vidual is to a great extent a composite of the ideas which environment has forced upon his attention. Differences in native ability are ap- parently less determinative than those resulting from the complex of suggestions associated with one's place of residence, acquaintanceship, and social contacts. The to us strangely inverted views and practices of alien peoples, ancient or modern, are none other than we ourselves, trans- ferred to other environment, would have ap- proved. The culture materials of the Kentucky mountains and those of a northern city are re- spectively instrumental in creating most diverse types. One cannot escape the pressure of envi- ronment. Even the greatest minds are a reflex of their age, sharing in contemporary attitudes and errors: Pascal believed in French miracles and Sir Matthew Hale in witches. Especially do first impressions last. The im- portance of a fifty-cent jackknife to a boy sinks deep into the emotional nature, and men of means will flinch at the expense of a new pocket- knife in unconscious revival of emotions of child- hood. Stamped with the forms of religion, language, or manners, as a child, one can jiever be fully freed from either their good or bad The Psychology of Citizenship features. The Negro who was invited to sit with his white employer at a dinner in the South, but at the table trembled with fear, gave evidence that legal emancipation did not carry with it emancipation from the psychology of slavery. Pronounced radicals exhibit on occasion the awe which undemocratic centuries have bred into the emotional life. One brought up to refrain from gladness on Sunday may convince himself of the acceptability of tennis on that day, but may experience difficulty in bringing his feelings into accord. Not readily do sentiments and preju- dices, reverences and submissions disappear. How rare it is for a community to change its feelings to correspond with the development of one of its gifted sons or daughters; hence a prophet is given scant honor at home. For which reason discerning youths go to new parts where there is exemption from the levity of reminiscence. 2. Habit and Custom The persistence of habit and the inertia of custom are everywhere to be discerned. Sudden transformations are rare. Though terms change, realities abide, as witness pagan gods succeeded by saints as numerous, feudalism transferred to industry, and the fetishism of the elk tooth. Writing of the Incas, James Bryce notes that the Spaniards abolished human sacrifices and burned heretics. "Social Inertia Without special efforts to change habits, or the supplying of conditions which enforce new ways, the probability of considerable changes in social orderings is slight. People will go on in the same old ways, and it is the next generation that is the principal hope of those who strive for change. Laws influence society but slowly; they are rather the reflex of states of mind than actually agencies of social transformation, and it is to educative factors that attention should especially be given in reform. A weakness of the older socialism was its disregard of the per- sistence of habit, showing in the ten thousand en- meshing sentiments of the static multitude. Writers still imply the possibility of a sudden redirection suggestive of the "conversion" of the religious revival, which itself is far from being a comprehensive change. Inertia is an outstanding trait of primitive peoples, whose characteristics obtain in no small portion of modern society, and a trait, as well, to be reckoned with in individuals more advanced. The threat of revolution can never be more than partly executed, for in the greater number of relations the individual will continue to be as he was before. Those who have been servile will continue to be servile. Under the older system of family discipline the youth looked for- ward to becoming of age, only to find when he arrived at that time that both docility and au- 22 The Psychology of Citizenship thority persisted. In fact, the only social revo- lution which seems possible in view of the tenacity of habit is one which slowly proceeds under the pressure of conditions and is directed by strong leadership. There was never yet a revolution or emancipation which was true to the full vigor of the term. For sharp social advances, shock and surprise and the dislocation of environment are required. If psychology has a message for progress it is that efforts must be focused upon the disorganization of old and, in turn, the estab- lishment of new habits. Actual contentment under unfair conditions may exist through the spell of environment. One becomes so used to things as they are that the prospect of change is unpleasant. The farmer's mortgage becomes part of his cosmos. Conditions which would appear most singular from a fresh point of view come under the principle of habitu- ation and scarcely attract attention. Improve- ment means change and confusion, the rupture of accustomed ways and adjustment to a new order, and it is bewildering to face new condi- tions, even if theoretically better; hence the in- evitable reaction which follows a mood of reform and the slight immediate response made by the mass of mankind to idealistic appeals. Privi- lege and exploitation, parasitism and humbug, are relatively safe when rooted in the old order. To look at such in a new light would be their 'Social Inertia extermination, but it is not usual to look at things in a new light. 3. Servile Emotions A popular weakness is susceptibility to un- democratic emotional attitudes. It is a well- known fact that one's reason and emotions may not agree perfectly, and that feelings are likely to be the deciding factor. Our feelings have been gathering force since early childhood, while our arguments may be of recent acquisition. A substantial fund of emotion comes down to us by tradition from far absolutist regimes ; we are early infiltrated with archaic sentiments from a thousand points of cultural contact. As a result democratic attitudes are less prevalent than demo- cratic opinions. " And your petitioners will forever pray . . . ." these words appearing at the close of a legal paper are redolent of history. While phrases of courtesy have a place not to be lightly surren- dered, this form points to a former social order in which power did not flow from the people to officials but on the contrary favors were from the rulers "vouchsafed unto us." The awe which does liedge about "his honor" is perhaps not so much an expression of respect for the law for laws are abstractions nor deference to one's self, the voter who elects judges and builds courthouses, but more likely a mood which comes 24 The Psychology of Citizenship to us by relayed example from the days when civic humility worshiped at the feet of kings. We believe that our officials derive their powers from the consent of the governed help thou our unbelief! For while we believe we may yet feel otherwise. One dictates to a stenographer a letter to his servant, the congressman, and finds that the dictated formal close, "Yours very truly," has come under the pervasive influence of inherited deference to office and reads instead " Very respectfully," which is indeed better than "Your obedient servant." Of course it is the congressman who should address the voter, by whose consent he exists, with the prostration of phrase which creeps into the voter's letter to him. Men of toil come upon the campus of a state university, their institution by right of taxes, hat in hand, instead of in the consciousness of owning the place. Truly, for lack of what meat does the citizen remain so small ! The timidity of the public in pressing claims against corporations seems to be founded on tra- ditions of servility. It seems almost like inter- fering with the course of the planets to compel a railroad company to stop a long train at a mere county seat, and when a citizen tells the presi- dent of the road a few human facts staid residents get their heads together in a certain consterna- tion. Walt Whitman in a memorable poem justi- fies man to the bigness of material things, like Social Inertia great machinery and buildings, trampling them under foot of a forced accession of self-respect. But it requires no little temerity to lay the ghost of mere bigness, and the lowly spirit of the peasant uncovered before authority still lives to a degree. Yet men desire to be as good as other men or a little better and if defeated and humbled by others' huge success, resort may be had to the theory of compensation. So-and-so is rich, but his home is childless ; he visits Europe, but he has arteriosclerosis ; he has a beautiful residence, but he is not happy. Social evolution would move more swiftly if once for all the supposed com- pensations of misfortune were subjected to actual observation, and the fact frankly recognized that some conditions of life are better, immeasurably better, than others. A fatalistic doctrine of com- pensation disposes one to bear those ills which under a different philosophy he would flee or fight. When one secures a benefit he does not thereby release the lever of a correlated misfor- tune. Possibly the conventional doctrine of com- pensation is related to limitations of experience. Habituated to salt and potatoes, the individual denies the advantage of mutton chops. The bene- fits of travel come to be seen obliquely, because travel cannot be afforded. The grin-and-bear-it attitude becomes confirmed into a religious devo- 26 The Psychology of Citizenship tion to hardship. Misfortunes thus undergo an apotheosis into blessings, and happiness is ex- pected not to last; there are "terrors of cloud- less noon." Moreover, the great mass of man- kind have had meager experience as consumers, and therefore the upper ranges of life are seen in false perspective, which fact gives color to compensation. The development of suitable wants throughout populations is accordingly pre- liminary to democracy. In fact, not until mere maintenance ceases to absorb the major portion of one's efforts may the possibilities of human nature be realized. At the very basis of social inequality is an ancient cringing spirit and a time-honored glorification of suffering. A vast kingdom of inherited fears and defer- ences, of shadowy evasiveness yet substantial reality, prevails, especially in older societies. The error of not "knowing one's place" thus be- comes obnoxious, and the particular merit of the great English public schools, regarded from the aristocratic point of view, has been that through " fagging " the boy was taught to know his place, a subtle social system of distinctions thus being fortified by training. The shocking nakedness of communication in the western states implies by contrast the traditional deference which exists in older communities for academic, political, or economic status. Prevailing sentiments of defer- ence are very often inappropriate, and a rational Social Inertia 27 skepticism of conventional attitudes is warranted. Lack of intelligent unrest and challenge lies at the basis of backward conditions. As one meas- ures himself so is it meted out to him. Develop-j ment toward democracy requires a stimulation of personality and the charging of individuals with ideals of larger attainments. To preserve fairly even conditions in a population requires watch- fulness against an invidious conventionality. Oftentimes conventional attitudes are singu- larly at war with what facts warrant. Consider the social prejudice against basic productional occupations. The honor accorded arms is some- thing of an anachronism when the world is held back from peace only by false ideals. The most toilsome and necessary labor is not recognized as meriting special approbation, while preda- ceous wealth is never without distinction. All degrees of respectability prevail in modern em- ployments, to a large extent based upon inap- propriate considerations. All necessary forms of work should be held alike worthy, and the performance of disagreeable and dangerous tasks deserves special commendation. Traditional conceptions as to who deserve credit for wealth production, coupled with a certain obtuseness with reference to the fact that society overtly or tacitly fixes incomes, give rise to astounding overpayment and underpayment, to a most unscientific scale of remuneration. A 8 The Psychology of Citizenship degree of imagination is required to see things in their true light, in default of which nothing appears surprising. Social conditions are so largely a reflex of prevailing states of conscious- ness that to change conditions is first to change minds. The cherishing of economic tradition by those who would most profit by a new outlook, the possession of the " capitalist mind " by the expropriated, is a singular obstruction, only to be accounted for by the static condition of intel- ligence which prevails when not guarded against the domination of custom and an excess of habit. 4. The Law of Shock A consideration of the force of environment gives a clue to the extreme significance of new surroundings ; change of environment provides a multitude of suggestions resulting in new meth- ods and ideals, but is especially important in compelling, through the rupture of habit, the reasoning reaction. Men's minds tend to con- form to their immediate surroundings as truly as the color of the fur of a prairie dog to the dun expanse of its semiarid habitat ; there is thus an underlying quality in the intellectual pro- cesses which relates homo sapiens to the birds in the tree and the imitatively colored larvae which coat its leaves. As the inherited powers and instincts of man are in a large way the reflex of the requirements made upon him through un- Social Inertia measured prehistoric time, so the thought of the individual of today is in direct response to the features of his environment. If environment is easy, little mental effort will be exerted, but if the individual is placed under exacting condi- tions whose demands cannot be met by memory, habit, or impulse, then activity is forced upon the reasoning powers. To supply the conditions which compel devel- opment new environment is effective. One is rarely acquainted with his own capabilities until he is thrown upon his own resources through some dislocation of his habitual setting. We are full of surprises to ourselves, the tug of effort to effect a new adjustment being the prerequisite of disclosure. One may believe that he is making the most of himself in a given place in the world, but upon being subjected to fresh demands he may feel with the character in Mark Twain's A Double-Barreled Detective Story: "Duffers like us don't know what real thought is." To suitably precipitate upon one thought-provoking requirements, the importing of new elements into one's daily order, or the bodily transference of the individual to different surroundings, is necessary. Evidence of the part played by change of surroundings in stimulating intelligence may be gathered from various historical occurrences. The England of Shakespeare was convulsed with 30 The Psychology of Citizenship the realization of a new world imagine what would be our reaction if communication were established with a race on another planet ! Under the law of shock new intellectual manifestations appeared in the Age of Elizabeth, of which an invigorated drama and an unwonted buoyancy of phrase were a normal expression. Unfortu- nate the age that has no new worlds to discover or no thrilling vision to provoke the creative spirit. The shock of the frontier resulted, in the case of the American people, in a remarkable burst of initiative, resourcefulness, and idealism. The patent office at Washington, which bears witness to an inventiveness unique in the history of the race, is evidence of the stimulating effects of a new environment. In New Zealand, likewise, where within memory the cannibal Maori feasted on " long pig," the response to new demands is to be read in laws which are wisely imitated in older countries. It is ever the emergency-meeting race or indi- vidual that generates progress ; static conditions tend to reduce mankind to a set of fixed reactions, whose insidious approach may be noted in the unprogressiveness of old communities where the leading citizens have hung their hats on the same hooks for forty years. Likewise in the iron environment of cities, where, especially among clerical and commercial employees, may be found Social Inertia 31 signal provincialism, there is ample illustration of the dangers of routine. To one who has not the means to travel, to occupy the same house or apartment for a long time is unfortunate, and occupations which have a migratory character contribute in no small way to the yeast of civili- zation. The automatism of fixed conditions and the approach to a moribund zone were unwit- tingly illustrated in the reply of a denizen of a torpid village when asked if he expected to be buried in the local cemetery ; he replied, " Yes, if I live " ! The tendrils of sentiment twine more closely indeed about the familiar, and there is a tragic note in the snapping of ties, but the law of human evolution reads that only by the advent of the strange may welfare be won, and the pains of readjustment are less to be feared than the corruption of habit. Any Utopia which left no channels free for the forces which break habit and thrust upon society the urgent need of solv- ing new problems would, after the first fruits of system were garnered, tend toward stagnation. With the passing of frontiers and the rapid filling in of the inhabitable empty areas of the earth, with the question of habitability still pend- ing as regards the enormous and fertile selvas of Brazil, and parts of Africa, the problem of environment takes the form of other means to insure the individual such thought-taxing situa- tions as will result in progressive mentality. In 32 The Psychology of Citizenship some phases of modern life there seems to be a letting down of insistent requirements. It should not be necessary to return to the primitive in order to stimulate initiative and circumspection. It should be permissible to turn a tap rather than wade through snow to a pump for water, but unless there be requirements which fairly equate with the pricking rigors of a less conventional- ized life we need have no doubt as to the results degeneracy will appear. Notwithstanding the complexity of life today it is doubtful if it represents, so far as the sep- arate individual is concerned, the complexity of demand of earlier conditions. The total social mass is complex, but the individual may in- deed, typically does find that his daily require- ments, especially in urban employments, entail but slight resort to constructive ideas. " All you have to do " in many positions consists of a narrow range of mechanized tasks apportioned under a business system which makes independ- ence impertinent. vThe great mass of employees today are following orders, with not enough participation in the problems of the occupation to provoke thoughtij It is a misfortune to be connected with an enterprise where the individual is not weighted with all the perplexities necessary to tax the association centers of his cerebrum. A single day of camping out will perhaps raise more problems than months of routine occupation. Social Inertia 33 In individual cases the transforming effects of a change of place or occupation are often to be observed. An elderly east Tennessee farmer moves his family to western Washington and takes up a different type of agriculture, with the result that by a decade later he has " renewed his youth," gained an evident adaptability, and multiplied his interests. The arrival of the first baby of middle-aged parents results in a rejuve- nation and development directly traceable to dealing with the enigmatical creature. If the Supreme Court were never to hold two sessions in the same room, a more modern atmosphere would no doubt attach to its deliberations. Even a change of clothes has its developmental aspects. The misfortune of failing of a shift in asso- ciations is to be noted in the cosmic quality of views and feelings characteristic of classes that but slightly change environment, being rooted to place, as in the case, historically, of the peas- ants of the Old World. In the recent revolution in Portugal, from which ancient kingdom the late monarch left " without leaving his address," it was the agricultural classes that opposed the change. And indeed in America, among the stationary farming class, there has been at times the political apathy which is likely to appear wherever movement and new surroundings are least experienced. The equivalent of the stimulating effects of 34 The Psychology of Citizenship new scenes may largely be duplicated by import- ing into one's usual environment new elements. The progress of recent years has coincided with the growth of reading habits and the break-up of static local conditions; at first, to considerable degree, by the advent of the bicycle, and later by the trolley, rural free delivery of mail, and the automobile. A steady influence making for adaptability is represented in the social center in both city and country, where an exchange of ideas results in the formation of fresh opinions. Education, reading, conversation, the theater, marriage, and sickness are meaningful variations of environment. But especially among the agencies to which we must look for establishing adaptability and resourcefulness are those which bring about change of residence. Travel has an important function to this end. The traveled person is tol- erant. Race hatred grew up in the days of the pack mule and the ox cart and of the water-tight compartments of mountainous regions where every peak meant a different language. An American public man, it is said, once begged that he be not introduced to an enemy, for he said he could not hate anybody with whom he became acquainted. The flood of ideas which is brought against preconceptions through travel represents a thought-compelling situation of the greatest significance. The acceleration of prog- Social Inertia ress which this age witnesses is in no small degree the outcome of the fact that of late, for the first time since history dawned, men have been able freely to visit new scenes and far countries. Indi- vidual travel should by all means be made uni- versally possible through the widest opening of the gates of transportation. CHAPTER III THE LIMITS OF ATTENTION PSYCHOLOGISTS have demonstrated the fact, which anyone may verify, that atten- tion may be focused upon a given point for but a few seconds. Let the mind be directed to a given object, and it is found that actual atten- tion plays over a multitude of minor aspects or darts away to remote considerations, to return perhaps in a twinkling; but at no time does attention really stick to a given phase of the object for more than a few seconds. When we say that we give perfect attention for an hour, it is not to be inferred that our attention has been unvarying, but it is rather the case that our thoughts have been directed to one large subject with its associated details. 1. Inheritance of Type of Attention Why we possess a nerve apparatus which func- tions in this type of attention is evident upon a moment's consideration. In the ceaseless war of the lower world the animal that was not alert to every significant stimulus was likely to lose its life. The eye became trained to flit to every point from which danger might arise, and the The Limits of Attention 37 mind followed the eye. Attention is a mental trait whose character is derived from the nature of the surroundings which have pressed upon the organism during the clockless depths of time. Every quivering leaf in heated jungles now con- verted into coal, every prowling beast stirring the reeds, every dancing gnat, every rush of wings tended to break into bits the consciousness of our prehuman forbears, and through inher- itance to give the average mind a power of attention somewhere between the inconsequential zigzag of the phrase talker and the philosopher's stuck-fast consciousness, miscalled absent-mind- edness, but on the whole a distinctly unstable type of attention. Now the fact that the power of human atten- tion, even in its highest development, is selective, partial, variable, and hopelessly and forever short of that simultaneous and comprehensive consciousness of all events present and past which has been imputed only to deity, has a multitude of bearings upon the affairs of civilized society and especially must be reckoned with in laying the foundations for achieving social welfare. How frail a remedy, for example, against the " malefactors of great wealth " would be the pro- posed remedy of publicity taking the form of social ostracism. Attention flags, and our griev- ances are short-lived. Even the drama has re- tired the delayed-retribution motive and no longer 38 The Psychology of Citizenship asks the audience to follow a character who bides his time for a quarter of a century and brings his enmity rank to the tragedy just before the curtain falls. Attention shifted so rapidly at the close of the Civil War that the wind went out of the sails of revenge. 0. Need of Effective Publicity In the first place we simply cannot give our attention to a wide range of matters, past or present, and any exhortation to the public to give its attention beyond the normal stretch is futile. Governmental complexities soon must pass beyond the unaided attention of the great majority of citizens; if a vast deal more atten- tion must be given by the citizen to details of government while engrossed in his personal af- fairs, then we have come to about the end of the rope. The limitations of memory and attention must be acknowledged with scientific frankness and efforts to prod our millions into an abnormal attitude of mental strain abandoned, and in their place must be substituted schemes by which the rational ordering of society for general better- ment may be brought about in conformity with the laws of the human mind. When aroused by flagrant abuses or shocking imposition the citi- zen and the reformer feel that such will never occur again; the affair is burning-white in the center of aroused attention, but, as it is said, the The Limits of Attention people soon " go to sleep," which, indeed, is per- fectly natural. And within a month the gas company is again selling air, and the food manu- facturer, while perhaps removing benzoate of soda, puts his goods in smaller containers at a higher price. The public cannot give its atten- tion in detail to all its public affairs, and plans of social improvement that rest on such assump- tion simply delay the sort of progress that rests on human factors. We have seen public atten- tion swing ponderously in recent years from one issue to another, and while one evil was under attack others were escaping. The public, like the individual, frequently thinks it is giving its attention more fully than is really the case. Let one try to recall what he had for dinner yesterday or try to list his ex- penses for the past week; the events that one does remember give a fallacious sense of the ful- ness of recollection, but upon close investiga- tion it is found that thousands and thousands of items and incidents have gone down with scarce a bubble on the surface. Indeed the nor- mal feeling is that one who is consistently attentive, as to the single tax or the physical valuation of railroads, is a crank he is a person of " one idea." The popular mind shows the same kind of variability exhibited in the individual who is absorbed in one topic this week and in another 40 The Psychology of Citizenship the next. Today it is the Dayton flood or a Billy Sunday revival and tomorrow oil wells or the Poughkeepsie regatta, but always a singu- larly piecemeal consciousness. Even a three-ring circus is too much for any one patron. When one's business expands one is sure to neglect some part of it. The press reflects the fickleness of attention. For a period a piece of big news throws its shadow across many columns, then to be succeeded by another equally engrossing sub- ject. The influential criminal wins delays, and when his case is finally disposed of the echoes of the former outcry have died away. Congress attacks its problems seriatim. Immigration, the parcel post, rate regulation, rural credits, the trust question, all have their day and cease to be ; one waits on another, and all wait on the tariff the tariff has been a colossal sponge licking up the consciousness of the public for a third of a century while hundreds of issues have waited to be heard. There are cases where issues have been raised to divert the public mind on the principle enunciated by Josh Billings: "Tight boots make a man forget all his other troubles." In appraising, then, the mental factors which must be employed in social reconstruction, it is well to recognize these limits. In private affairs the individual is likely to develop a system for jogging his memory; he may tie a string in a buttonhole, or place a pencil in his left shoe the The Limits of Attention 41 night before ; he knows his frailty, and perhaps thinks other people are not so but they are. There is need of a system of memory -jogging for the public with reference to public business. At any rate let note be taken of the limits of attention as a fact to be considered when public welfare is sought to be promoted. This feature of mentality should be recognized in a far more effective system of publicity for governmental affairs and the utilization of special agencies by which the variable consciousness of the public may be brought back again and again to matters of import. A flitting attention has its chief function in bearing to consciousness information needed to keep one in adjustment to physical surround- ings. One must notice a drop in temperature, the smell of escaping gas, and a thousand stimuli which are significant for personal safety. But the inherited and confirmed tendency rapidly to shift the mental eye is a fundamental disqualifi- cation for concentrating thought upon abstruse problems, while the completeness with which one idea dispossesses another and one topic forces another out of mind suggests that special meth- ods of publicity be employed for marshaling thought for civic ends. CHAPTER IV FORMS OF DISTRACTION A FACT which has a bearing upon the im- provability of society is that the individual has only a certain amount of energy and that if this is drained for physical purposes there is a shortage for mental processes. Mental and motor activity are, of course, closely joined; without motor expression mentality is not clearly defined; thought is generated and quickened by demands upon the muscles, and physical and mental training have much in common. But nevertheless the balance between typically phys- ical and mental activities is easily disturbed, and the outlook for a higher civilization is in no slight measure concerned with the extent to which motor expression unnecessarily obtrudes and consumes energies otherwise more effectively employed. 1. Brain Work vs. Physical Labor That there is a conflict between intellectual and physical employments is evident. The house- wife, busy with a wide range of manual activities, not only often does not find time to read, but even when time is found discovers that her mental Forms of Distraction 43 grasp is disappointing. Days of toil in the field dispose rather to torpor and slumber than to thought. At Brook Farm the author of The Bliihedale Romance learned that there is an inconsistency between meditation and hoeing corn. So protected must be the easily blown-out flame of attention and thought that, with many, mere sense stimulations, as a rattling window, a fly buzzing in the pane, the infrequent beating of a distant door, or street sounds quite interrupt these processes ; for which considerations, per- haps, philosophers are associated with the desert and divers authors " take to the woods." The splendor of the intellectual life of England has been ascribed to the existence of a leisure class. The leisure represented by the school is the very foundation of civilization. The evolution away from big bodies and small brains, of the age of the Dinotherium and the mammoth, is presumably paralleled in mankind by an evolution away from mere muscle and toward rational attainments. Accordingly, the^ shortening of hours of labor, the providing of vacations universally, the substitution of ma- chinery, and the guarding of the years of youth and of leisure in maturity are of the utmost meaning for progress. Under slave and factory conditions the absorption of energy in motor uses is often so complete that mentality can hardly appear, and even in the intelligent farm- 44 The Psychology of Citizenship ing class interminable hours of work and " chores " so sop up the nervous forces that few in this occupation have been found with the mental activity required for the leadership of country life. We properly distinguish between brain work and other work, and only by holding down physical labor to a moderate maximum may there exist generally throughout society the alert mentality which the social vision requires. The great majority of people do not regularly find time to read and think, and so when an unex- pected leisure occurs there is little preparation for making the most of it. As a result the phys- ical laborer is likely to spend his odd hours sharpening his pocketknife or wandering aim- lessly about in the woods or fields, subject only to the minimum stimulations of raw nature. The political sagacity of a people who in the majority spend nearly all their time in physical activities is sure to be disappointing. The slave- owner of the South opposed the teaching of slaves to read, realizing its stimulating effects. But "free" labor may be so arduous that the benefits of reading are but slightly realized. Probably the immense majority of adults in the United States do not read a book a year, and many who take papers do not find time to read them. Included in the non-reading public are five and one-half million persons in the United States, over ten years of age, who are illiterates. Forms of Distraction 45 In double line of march, at intervals of three feet, these 5,516,163 illiterate persons would ex- tend over a distance of 1,567 miles. Marching at the rate of twenty-five miles a day, it would require more than two months for them to pass a given point. 1 It is indeed a wonder that political progress is making so rapidly when so few have opportu- nity for intellectual development and the obtain- ing of appropriate information. The factory hand who reaches home tired late in the day is in no condition to weigh political theories or fol- low the lines of thought in the more profitable articles of the day. A more just division of time between physical and intellectual exercises must be attained. Democracy implies a reasonable universal leisure. 0. Energy Given to Sports But leisure does not insure against a dispro- portionate devotion of energy to the physical. While health, recreation, and valuable social training are promoted by participation in sports and games, athletic activities may become an obsession and displace other important interests. Athletic training finds its warrant in developing a good body as a basis for moral and intellectual possibilities. Knobby muscles and Herculean 1 U. 8. Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 20, 1913. 46 The Psychology of Citizenship physique are unwisely exalted when standards are set up which in effect discriminate against mentality in favor of "beef." It is indeed a confession of the impotence of the intellectual appeal of universities when it is argued that without militant football the energies of the stu- dent body would turn to vice, for which the pig- skin is a prophylactic. The absorption of energy in motor interests takes a peculiarly degenerate turn in the riotous abandon of enthusiasm displayed on the " bleach- ers," where neither the benefit of actual exercise nor the stimulus of mental effort is experienced. The significant term, "rooting," represents a phase of American life of more than passing im- portance. When 30,000 people "go wild" at a ball game which settles no issues and involves no uplift, and when " f annism " is the principal avocation of multitudes of voters whose vocations are in many cases those of office routine or are narrowly mechanical, it is to be doubted whether commercialized sports are an unmixed blessing. Divided thus between vocation and avocation, is it any wonder that it has taken the people of the United States a quarter of a century to secure a pure-food law, and that the people's Con- gress is styled by H. G. Wells as the "feeblest, least accessible, and most inefficient central government of any civilized nation west of Russia." Forms of Distraction 47 Any interest may acquire an abnormal devel- opment, and physical expression not rarely passes moderate bounds, and consumes nerve forces which would otherwise be available for grappling with the problems of the age. Atten- tion may be deflected from social issues by athletic propaganda, as witness the promotion by the Russian government of sports and games with a view to counteracting radical tendencies among young people. One cannot attend to several things at the same time, and if a youth is " base- ball crazy" he is not likely to worry over the evils of absolutism. One has only to listen to conversation to be convinced that the procession of athletic topics throughout the year, chroni- cled in acres of print, has a tremendous diverting effect upon public intelligence. The reader will be able to call to mind cases of individuals whose mentality is perpetually dissipated through at- tention to this ever-recurring sensationalism. 3. Excess Sex Interests Passing to a different phase of life, the domi- nance of the sex interest must be recognized. Of all the innate interests sex is the dominant one, radiating through the whole social structure the heat and light of a primal force. The aim of life, biologically, is reproduction. There is a sex element, accordingly, in all activities and rela- tionships. Mating-psychology looms large in 48 The Psychology of Citizenship human nature and is an element to be reckoned with in appraising the forces available for the im- provement of society. Robert Burns wrote many songs, but the socially reconstructive "A man's a man for a' that" stands alone; more charac- teristic is, Oh, my hive's like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June. The mating instinct influences the rate of progress, especially as it may acquire abnormal recognition and represent an undue absorption of attention. While it would not be well to join too heartily in deploring with the poet "the time I've lost in wooing," yet one is impressed with the immense deflection of thought from social issues which artificially stimulated sex interests entail. It is only under ideals of gos- sipy sensationalism and by means of modern facilities for diffusing ideas that the attention of millions could be almost exclusively fixed upon an unsavory criminal action or centered upon newspaper discussions of a dubious picture. If unsupplied with suitable culture materials and exposed to protean suggestions, the individual may attain a sensuality of outlook probably unparalleled in savagery. Society in its col- lective wisdom may well concern itself with the character of the channels through which men- Forms of Distraction 49 tality finds expression. What ideas enter the mind is of radical significance, for interests may be caused to grow or to wither. It is accordingly a vital question whether public attention is ex- cessively directed to sex. While the drama of human life extends vastly beyond early love affairs or the maladjustments of marriage, nevertheless mating is ingeniously exploited and made the central subject of popu- lar literature, as the " best sellers " bear witness. Despite the fact that millions of people have suitably adjusted their connubial relations, the printing presses are clogged with the literature of mating, and heads of families who venture betimes to the theater are regaled with eroticism. It is demonstrable that the post-adolescent years abound in an exhaustless supply of materials for novel and drama, but that themes from this frui- tion period of experience are effectually displaced is evident. Possibly the delayed age of marriage has much to do with the preponderant attractiveness of the mating theme and its consequent financial exploitation. Be this as it may, the problems of the years that follow the heyday of youth should not be unceremoniously put to rout, nor should the forces which might energize social betterment be dissipated in a promoted and pro- tracted absorption in sex themes. If the edge of revolution may be turned by the inspired circu- 50 The Psychology of Citizenship lation of pornographic literature, it is evident that there is loss in the obtrusion of sex senti- mentalism into thought-currents. J^The attention of thousands is consumed at popular entertain- ments where whole evenings are devoted to " num- bers," musical Or otherwise, in which the mating theme is worn to shreds, and not the slightest impulse is given to creative thought in any direc- tion. Time thus spent may be absolutely crossed off the records so far as progress is concerned. The biological impulsions to mating would hardly of themselves excresce into obstructions to progress were efforts not inspired by commer- cial motives to play upon sex inclination. Adver- tising seizes upon this interest, even to the distraction of thought from the merits of goods advertised. For example, a men's clothing ad- vertisement on a billboard represented a young woman dressed in a man's suit ; eight young men, the number interrogated, testified that they did not notice the brand of clothes advertised, their attention being given solely to the illustration. Society is familiar with the idea of commercial- ized vice, but there is also, from the viewpoint of energizing progress, a problem arising from the unrestrained commercial exploitation of sex in- terest through a multitude of appeals in adver- tisements of travel, personal belongings, beer, and cigarettes. An obsession of sex interest is readily developed, abetted by trade, the senti- Forms of Distraction 51 mental song, the problem play, and sensational journalism. 4> Woman and Dress A feature of mating whose social significance can hardly be exaggerated is dress. The burden placed upon woman, rather than upon man, of attracting the other sex in the lower animals a burden borne by the male is deplored by Mrs. C. P. Gilman. 1 In any case woman has largely assumed the load of sex ornament, and it is a heavy one. Not only during the mating age proper does the "sex vanity" of dress nearly monopolize attention, but as well quite commonly for a longer period, either because mating is not a closed incident or because of the vitality of a strong interest, transferred to rivalry in jewels, equipage, and pursuit of fashion. The volume of interest and intelligence thus prevented from being directly available, not only for the improve- ment of the status of woman, but for general social betterment, is enormous. Observe the thought-currents of the chance feminine group or of the tense Easter assemblage, and note how often hardly a rill of intellectuality flows out toward the world's wider movements. Great amounts of " crystallized labor," which is capital, are Moloched to fashion, and vast energies are thus lost to constructive social effort. The Man-made World. The Charlton Co., New York. 52 The Psychology of Citizenship An acceleration of progressive movements would doubtless follow the adoption of more uni- form dress, while such economic readjustments as would permit marriage at an earlier age in cer- tain classes would tend to enlist interests in the larger social issues. Surely commercialized sug- gestion merits disapproval. To build the ideal future requires the conservation of suitable ideas and a reasonable exaltation of other than sex topics. 5. Other Interests Whatever occupies the public mind to the undue exclusion of public affairs may be set down as retarding the solution of the issues which lie at the threshold of rational civilization. His- torically, the focusing of attention upon a future world, in which the evils of the present would disappear without human effort, proved an unwit- ting ally of temporal injustice. The expectation that the world would come to an end in the year 1000 had a paralyzing effect upon the energies of Europe. Wherever injustice has been pas- sively endured because of faith, injustice has become more firmly rooted. Hence the vast importance of the newer viewpoint which assumes that one is his brother's keeper and that the highest ideals of religion are to be exemplified in current human relationships. In the new drift of religious thought there is the promise of unprece- Forms of Distraction 53 dented social betterment, for an immense volume of feeling and will, at one time not so active a reform force, now supplies motive power for progress. The intellectual capital of the world consists largely of people's interests ; and these are sub- ject to modification; they may be enlarged or diminished, and new interests may be developed. It is highly important, this, what people are interested in, because there is no doubt but that people may readily become interested in the best things. While there is a substratum of perma- nent tendencies, one is nevertheless susceptible to extensive redirection. The interests which characterize the public today are often criticized as trivial and unworthy. A writer ventures the following as a truthful list of the great " interests " which make up Ameri- can life: (1) the ticker; (2) female apparel; (3) baseball bulletin; (4) the "movies"; (5) bridge whist; (6) turkey trotting; (7) yellow journal headlines and "funny" pages; (8) the prize fight. And the estimate is made that 100,- 000 Americans are genuinely interested in the foregoing matters to Apry 5,000 who are inter- ested in politics and^k every 1,000 who are interested in educations This list is not a hi^w creditable one, and it is not one that speaks tBefully of the ability of i The Independent, AprilBr, 1913. 54 The Psychology of Citizenship the people to inject intelligence into the social process and achieve reforms of government. As long as such interests dominate there can be but an imperfect base for democracy. But it may be that these interests are receiving a hothouse culture or that they represent but frivolous moods. There are solider elements in human nature, to which appeal may not be made in vain. CHAPTER V THE EFFECT OF MACHINERY UPON THE MIND THE most obvious aspect of the use of ma- chinery is that it frees muscle and shifts a tremendous burden from flesh and bone. An immense amount of heavy, grinding work has been transferred to inanimate forces and nerve- less matter. This is a great gain ; in the first place because of the increase of production. The average man today, through the use of machin- ery, produces twenty times as much as was pro- duced by the average man 250 years ago. 1. Leisure Possible When farmers cradled their wheat, bound it by hand, and threshed with flails, the operation re- quired for one bushel of wheat the labor of one man for an average time of 183 minutes. With labor-saving machinery, the modern farmer can do the same work in 10 minutes. Seventy-five years ago, 66 hours of labor were expended on an acre of oats, whereas the labor time is now but 7-3*5- hours. Modern civilization rests upon an increase of wealth traceable to the industrial revolution and a machine era. Li- braries, universities, assemblies, the press, and 55 56 The Psychology of Citizenship other agencies of enlightenment rest squarely upon the machine, which enables mankind to real- ize a higher culture. The educated and leisured classes owe their emancipation to an easier pro- duction of wealth. Time and energy are afforded for intellectual pursuits. Heavy physical labor is incompatible with mental exercise. A long working day leaves small energy for brain activity. When to feed, clothe, and provide shelter for the world re- quired unceasing toil, the masses could not be expected to develop a thought-life. A certain amount of physical activity conduces to mental development, but there is ample evidence that motor employments have an arresting effect. Larger and larger numbers enjoy the possibility of exemption from the deadening effects of se- vere physical toil, a fact which throws a most favorable light upon a machine age. There is a mental bondage where there is muscle bond- age. The long-continued existence of a near- slave status on the part of women finds a partial explanation in the fact that household labor has been hand labor and that it has been excessive. 2. Machinery May Stimulate Thought Not only is energy released for mental devel- opment, but efforts to provide new devices and improvements are distinctly stimulating, and a 'Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 57 remarkable intelligence appears in a limited class. Here is a field which has furnished large incen- tives for active intelligence ; not only in mechani- cal invention, but in repair and regulation, is a resourceful mind called for. A considerable body of men are employed in thus dealing intelli- gently with motor vehicles, power machinery, typesetting machines, and the like, and in the installation and regulation of all sorts of manu- facturing equipment. This sort of activity stimulates intelligence, though it must be conceded in all fairness that the mechanical genius or the expert repair man may be unlearned in philosophy, ignorant of political science, unacquainted with history, and destitute of an appreciation of poetry; but for all that, his intelligence is quickened and all he now needs is concrete instruction along other than mechanical lines. He has undergone cerebral stimulation ; he has learned how to think and to adapt himself; he can seize upon a problem. A dull person could not install dynamos or repair microscopes. The skilled mechanician may have his limitations in liberal culture and sociological insight, but he has real problems to face and he meets them successfully. The plumber who is called in consultation upon an inadequate heat- ing system is quite as professional for the time as the physician called to deal with sudden illness. The farmer who buys a new windmill, 58 The Psychology of Citizenship a wild-oats separator, or a milking machine is made to take a learning attitude. A piece of machinery that will not work may nearly if not quite duplicate the unparalleled educational situ- ation represented by a balky horse. No people can remain entirely uncivilized if visited by sales- men of modern appliances, subjected to the instruction of innumerable advertisements, circu- lars, and pamphlets, and impelled by the necessity of knowing how to operate the contrivance when once it has been purchased. Under certain conditions machinery has a stimulating effect upon intelligence. It presents problems to be solved; it necessitates a concen- tration of attention ; it constitutes a new world for mankind and represents a complexity which compels thought. To keep in proper adjustment to this mechanical environment requires a degree of mental alertness. There has been upreared on the earth an artificial environment which taxes attention and thought in a way no less real than in the case of nature. It is not to be inferred, however, that such effect of machinery is to edu- cate for civic or social relations. In estimating the general culture of the individual, it is quite fitting to look principally to his preparation for comprehensive social relationships, and while the skilled workman is often a highly intelligent citizen and voter, or perhaps a philosophizing socialist, yet various phases of intellectual life 'Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 59 are doubtless but indirectly if at all favorably affected by mechanical training. 3. How Machinery Affects Operatives But to turn to a very different class of people, a very large class, compared to whom the crea- tive mechanicians are but a drop in the bucket the operatives we find that machinery has its bad effects. The operative who performs but a mere repetition of movements is subjected to about the worst possible influence from the stand- point of mental development. It is true, of course, that motor activity, as in manual train- ing, has a stimulating effect, but just as soon as movements become habitual, mental development therefrom ceases. It is educative to learn to drive a nail, but when the driving of a nail is performed automatically as the result of practice it ceases to be thought-provoking. Manual training is an important adjunct of the educational system, viewed simply from the point of view of mental development; but when the exercises are fully learned the individual must pass on to new situa- tions or suffer arrest of development. Machine production tends toward a minute di- vision of labor and a specialization inconsistent with the mental welfare of the operative. There are over four hundred and fifty operations in making of the upper of a shoe and each of these is performed by a different man in a well-run 60 The Psychology of Citizenship shop. Such division of labor results in an in- tense monotony on the part of the workman. The whole manufacturing world is adjusted to such specialization, the peculiar value of which is that it tends toward increased production. No one has ever argued that the individual was bene- fited by doing work under the conditions of intense specialization and rigid routine. President Hibben, of Princeton, says : When mind becomes mechanical it is departing radically from its essential source as a living organism. It depends wholly upon the manner in which we treat the mind whether it retains its vital character or becomes a mere machine. Employers and employed unite in the view that routine is undesirable from the individual standpoint. Long subjected to unvarying em- ployment, the individual loses initiative, spirit, and will-power. His work is planned for him by someone else and a limited range of physical movements engrosses attention. Such conditions are inevitably stupefying. The operative be- comes a mere adjunct to his machine. All ex- cept the most elementary forms of reasoning are dispensed with. Consciousness sinks to a low level and the lower centers govern responses. Especially are the results harmful when there is speeding up and the individual is left with no surplus energy. Frederick W. Taylor, author of works on 'Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 61 scientific management, made the following state- ment before a special committee of the House of Representatives : I think this tendency of training toward special- izing the work is true of all managements, for the reason that a man becomes more productive when working at his specialty, and while it is deplorable in certain ways (there is no question about it, there are various elements in this specialization that are deplorable), still the prosperity of the world and the development of the world the fact that the average workman in this day lives as well as kings lived 250 years ago that fact is due to a certain extent to just this very specialization. This statement by the high priest of scientific management indicates that production, instead of the welfare of the workman, proceeds from mechanical specialization. A recent magazine interview with Henry Ford, of the Ford Motor Company, runs as follows : " You put the man at a machine, teach him to control it, and he stands there weeks and months and years mechanically producing one trifling thing. How does that affect him temperamentally ? " " It drives him crazy," said Ford, positively, as he had said everything else. " But we see to it that a man does not do one thing too long. We keep him moving through the shop." The effect which Ford deliberately seeks to avoid is one which prevails almost universally. The state of the machine-tender is authoritatively described 62 The Psychology of Citizenship by Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor. Gompers says : Wage-workers in factory occupations tend ma- chines, and by tending of such machines do not have the opportunity of making or completing any part of the whole, but only perform a minute and infinitesimal part of a part. As a consequence, the people who gain their livelihood by tending such machines become automata. They become part of a machine thoughtless and spiritless to such a degree that they are unable to do the slightest thing, or perform in any way to their own advantage, or to the advantage of their em- ployer, unless they have a prompter at their side in the shape of a planning master, a foreman, or a boss of some other title. It is the most pronounced in the textile industries silk, wool, cotton, cordage, jute, etc. the nov- elty industries watch making, furniture manu- facture, paper making, and many other of our basic industries. Some American employers have commenced to see what a dilemma they are facing for men and women capable of directing their departments and divisions of departments. They have brought down upon their own heads the alarming situation of working for profit to such an extent that they have neglected to train men and women to take responsible official positions of administrative capacity in their own factories, and such manufac- turers have at last commenced to appreciate the foresight of the American Federation of Labor in its efforts to establish vocational education and national trade training schools by federal aid in all of the states. Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 63 It stands to reason that, if men and women are reduced by force of circumstances, and through the folly of certain so-called efficiency systems promulgated in recent years by fanatics on that subject, like Messrs. Taylor, Gant, Emerson, Har- rington, and others, the workers in our industries will be deprived of all opportunities to develop mentally or physically, because when the aspira- tions of men and women are submerged and stunted they become dependent upon the whim, the will, the direction of a superior, and there is nothing left to them but merely to become docile, obedient, willing servants. Such a situation is not only degrading to the individual, but is a menace to society. Machine production is characterized not only by specialization and monotony, but by the cen- tralization of intelligence in officers and over- seers. There is a division of labor as between the physical and mental aspects of industry. The board of directors, the superintendent, and the boss largely monopolize the function of direc- tion, while the employee takes orders and follows rules. The logical result of this is the creation of intellectual classes. The worker loses his power to initiate and to think, while on the side of tbe management there is a signal development of ability. A parallel case is that of officers and men in the army. It is the officer who under- goes mental development; it is the private wbo becomes a machine. Military obedience results in physical and in mental traits which are to a 64 The Psychology of Citizenship high degree mechanical. It is only too true that the well-drilled company or regiment is a ma- chine ; that is a peculiar condemnation of a mili- tary system. Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. It may be a good investment from the stand- point of production that the superintendent should do the thinking, but looking at it from the social point of view, it is disastrous. Espe- cially in a democracy is the importance of widely diffused ability to solve problems to be empha- sized. The increasing automatism of modern industry has in itself a power to create castes based upon intellectual traits. Routine-afflicted operatives are dumb driven cattle before the political trickster and the domi- neering employer. The fact that after a cen- tury of factory conditions the successive gen- erations of workers have been unable effectively to propose political and economic remedies for appalling industrial conditions and must still employ the often self-defeating and shortsighted strike method is convincing evidence of a mental arrest which a factory dispensation encourages It is possible, of course, that the workman may be so privileged, as in the case of the Ford sys- tem, that the full force of a deadening routine 'Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 65 is avoided. The shortening of hours of labor, provision for recreation, avoidance of fatigue, and stimulating experiences outside of working hours ' might successfully be employed as an offset. But too often such human^jconsiderations enter but slightly into the wage relation in manufacturing enterprises. Not rarely employ- ers have desired workmen to be content under an injurious monotony. They have desired em- ployees who were tractable and mechanized. An eastern manufacturer complained to President Harvey, of the Stout School at Menominee, Wis- consin, that his experience with the graduates of certain industrial schools had been unsatisfac- tory. He said that boys whom he had employed from the schools were not contented when doing the kind of work he wanted done ; as soon as the boys mastered certain processes they were anx- ious to go to something else and to rise, whereas he wanted workmen to "stay put." President Harvey replied that it was not the purpose of his institution to train boys who would "stay put." Along with the enormous social justifica- tion for trade schools, there is without any doubt, in certain quarters, a desire to use these as a tail to a dividend kite. The importance of voca- tional education is indeed great, but it should be guarded from the designs of employers who are interested in the workman only as a producer. 66 The Psychology of Citizenship The boy educated as a workman should also be educated for rising in his calling, and receive instruction, which would make him capable of expressing himself effectively through govern- ment and of sharing in the fund of modern thought and culture. There is evidence that less and less intelligence is called for in certain industrial positions, and that the demand is for many unskilled or nar- rowly skilled and for only a few really intelligent workers. Glass making at one time required skill and intelligence; but machinery is being introduced which dispenses with these qualities. With the introduction of improved machinery, a lower grade of labor is utilized in steel making and in mining. The very perfection of machinery tends to lessen the importance of really capable workmen. It is an urgent problem of society to utilize to the full the vast benefits of machinery and to minimize the deadening effects of industrial service. In industry as now ordered mental welfare is unthought of. Per- sonal development remains to be promoted through labor-autonomy, the rotation of pro- cesses, and the recognition at every point of psychological factors. 4* Routine Employments General The effect of machinery, however, is not lim- ited to its influence upon the factory employee, ^Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 67 but has a bearing upon occupations in general. The machine era has resulted in the development of a very large number of employments which are in a high degree mechanized. A division of labor originating in factory conditions and based upon industrial concepts is carried out into practically all fields of enterprise. There result many occupations or jobs which are essentially as monotonous as that of watching a loom or pasting labels. Routine characterizes an increas- ing number of employments. Take, for example, the work of a railway postal clerk. On certain runs the names of as many as eight or nine thou- sand post-offices must be borne in mind, together with forenoon and afternoon connections. Con- stant diligence is required to maintain efficiency ; as a result, the postal clerk is thoroughly mech- anized. An intelligent man who recently left the service contributes some interesting informa- tion on the effects of the system upon the indi- vidual. He testifies that the service narrowly limits the range of one's mental activities. The subjects discussed in off-hours are likely to per- tain only to the technicalities of mail distribution. Conversation is confined to the details of the business. " Probably a man would know who was president of the United States," said he, "but that is about all." This occupation is merely typical; in many others similar tendencies are discernible. 68 The Psychology of Citizenship The sufficiency of one's intelligence comes to be popularly judged by its sufficiency in a rou- tine employment. One feels no humiliation in confessing ignorance in regard to a multitude of matters if they are not in his line. There is a possibility that such modesty may become alto- gether too widespread and confirmed. One who aspires to general information is old-fashioned. One may safely blink ignorantly at thousands of marvels provided he has the requisite in- formation pertaining to a specialty. It re- quires a syndicate to deal with any project having a variety of aspects. We insist upon having most of our thinking done by somebody else. The possible future development of this pecu- liarity of modern life constitutes a fascinating appeal to the imagination. Are we destined to evolve a society in which the individual will, first, be limited in range of information and in mental activity, and, secondly, become destitute of the power of self-direction and, like the fully autom- atized bee, as described by Maeterlinck, be absorbed in the spirit of the hive, whose organ- ization and nature are far beyond conscious intelligence? Is the complexity of our indus- trial and social structure passing beyond the possibilities of the individual mind? The field of information which is occupied by all in com- mon is narrowing and the apportionment of the Effect of Machinery Upon the Mind 69 intellectual world becomes more and more definite and minute. 5. The Fool-Proof Machine An interesting phase of modern environment is that represented by the fool-proof machine. A multitude of such appliances are put on the market. Consider, for example, the automobile. Most of these machines are run by people whose ideas of the essential parts are about as clear as they are of darkest Africa or of the nervous system of a starfish. A public official in a western state who had run a machine for years, upon seeing the chassis of a car in an engineering lab- oratory, was full of wonder and admitted that he knew nothing about how his machine was made. People ride in street cars who have but the most airy conception of a trolley system. How many cooks have an adequate understand- ing of the principles of the modern range ? The office-building elevator is accepted with that lack of wonder which Carlyle described in connection with a second rising of the sun. A modern city, with its telephone lines, its water supply, its sewer system, its electrical distribution, and its sub- ways, is seen in its mechanical wonderfulness only by a discerning few. Those who plan and organ- ize profit by an intellectual stimulation ; but those whose only interest is convenience, those out of respect for whom fool-proofing is done, go scot 70 The Psychology of Citizenship free of even the slightest cerebral excitement. A coffee percolator turns out a uniform product for one who can watch a clock; even the flame will be shut off at the proper time so that the user need exert himself only to the extent of stirring in the sugar. Prosperous young people and often their elders, too, for that matter, ex- hibit an innocent composure apparently never disturbed by any disposition to resolve the prob- lems of their mechanical environment or to go behind a luxurious adjustment to perfected conveniences. One may be made inquisitive, inventive, or in- different, dulled, and conventional, by environ- ment. The level of intelligence in society may be greatly raised or lowered according to culture conditions and of these conditions machinery represents one of the most potent. If in large sections of the population there is a demental- izing, this fact becomes of great importance, for the need of initiative and self-dependence is great. The social order should lend itself to the development and availability of the highest pos- sible intelligence. While the production of wealth is of fundamental importance, it is less important than the preservation of conditions favorable to the development of every individual, and indeed in the long run even the production of wealth must be guaranteed by preserving the most favorable conditions of individual develop- Effect of Machinery Upon the Mmd 71 ment. Society does not profit most by people who are routine slaves, dulled, regimented, and automatized. Democracy requires the develop- ment of the average man. Skilled craftsmanship or drudging labor may alike be divorced from general ability and vital knowledge and from those mental traits and habits which are neces- sary for the good of a people, while the spread of routine throughout all sorts of occupations and the slight demand for intelligence in the operation of perfected devices alike constitute a dementalizing circumstance. CHAPTER VI THE SPIRIT OF LABOR INTELLIGENCE may be judged by the con- ditions with which one is content. One may labor under conditions known to be unsatisfac- tory but over which one has little if any control. But if the conditions under which large numbers work are unjust the fact is an indictment of the collective intelligence which functions in govern- ment, for government determines, actively or passively, all social conditions not chargeable to nature itself. Are prevailing conditions of labor rational and acceptable? In a multitude of situations today the spirit of joyful accomplishment is absent. Freight cars are slammed together they belong to the " company." Workmen loiter, and the comings and goings of the boss are noted with extreme interest. The ticket agent who " damns " the railroad upon opening his envelope, containing in fact a slight advance in wages, reveals a state of mind. What of the inner strain and depres- sion of employees in factories when they look upon their employer as an aristocrat, their foreman as a slave driver, their machine as a tread- 72 The Spirit of Labor 73 mill, and the world at large as against them [and when] their faces are frozen in a perpetual grouch ? 1. Recognition of the Worker's Interests Of all wastes that of untapped or improperly tapped reservoirs of human energy should re- ceive first consideration. To align occupations with the currents of nerve force deserves the attention of science, not alone for increase of production, but especially out of regard for the increase of the sum total of happiness, for the whole world labors and too rarely happily. Dif- ferences in zest are not entirely peculiar to the individual; the eager employer and the lagging crew are fundamentally alike, as would be shown upon exchange of places. If the wheels of the world's work turn slowly, or if, when they turn, they revolve with the friction of joyless effort, it is no fault of original nature, for that nature is a dynamo of nerves and muscles whose very joy is exertion. Of course the world's work, at least some of it, gets done; but how? A large part of modern employment is an evident maladjustment to the worker. Due to technicalities and abnormalities of land owner- ship or transportation or profits, the factory worker too often suffers a wearing outrage of instincts by being confined in a species of arti- ficial inferno. The division of labor has com- mitted the toiler to a monotony of task which is 74 The Psychology of Citizenship absolutely without warrant in his psychological economy, for a natural environment affords a range of experiences and draws upon all parts of the organism rather than overtaxes a nerve cen- ter or set of muscles. The forced production represented by slave labor and the difficulty of getting people to work with spirit suggest that there has been historically and is today an almost complete neglect of the organization of industry with reference to natural incentives. People cannot be kept from working, provided employment corresponds to nervous organiza- tion. Need there be so complete a divorce be- tween spontaneity, preference, and play, and the job? It might seem difficult to introduce into a sys- tem of production a distinct recognition of the natural tendencies of experimentation, curiosity, sociability, leadership, and the like, but only by more fully conforming to natural interests may drudging labor be transformed into joyful ef- fort. For example, why should not employees occasionally travel, even if more goods could be made and sold by keeping for a lifetime one man on the road and another stationary? A larger recognition of natural interests and capacities in industrial organization would involve many changes, but it is beyond dispute that the demen- talizing of employees by monotony and the development of a sizzling animosity, the every- The Spirit of Labor 75 where observed discord between occupation and interest, the hating of the job, bode no good. The short answer, "Quit your kicking or get out," is hardly an appropriate one to the problem of irritating conditions. 2. Motivation in the Factory It is in connection with the sense of utility and remuneration that the problem of motivation becomes most acute. Not that the employee of a swollen trust sees no use in making window glass or steel billets; the social use of manufactured goods must appeal even to resentful labor bar- ring commodities of worthless or shoddy charac- ter but of what use is it to one to sow that another may reap? To the factory hand it is a sobering thought that for his cents others take dollars. "I should think your employees would strike," said an unsophisticated western lawyer to an old-time friend, the manager of a textile factory in New England, on being told that the profits of the concern were over 300 per cent the previous year. "They would, if they knew it," was the reply. A recent writer of conventional point of view naively remarks: "The size of the profit per unit of output is not generally known to the mechanical departments." 1 When compensation is limited, bearing no 1 Hartness, James, The Human Factor in Works Man- agement. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York. 76 The Psychology of Citizenship equitable relation to production of the worker, there is not the slightest incentive to labor with enthusiasm ; on the contrary, to a thinking per- son, there are strong motives not to. With emulation planted deep in the nature of man, implying an eternal struggle for equality, it can scarcely be expected that the process of shaking the bough for someone else to get the apple can be lastingly typical of production. The only peace in the industrial world that may exist under the wage system depends upon not letting the employees know what the profits are; hence the popularity of watered stock and the secrecy of business details. The suddenness of modern wealth-making has concurred with a miracle of inertia on the part of the general public to post- pone the day of reckoning, and the preposterous abortion of the present distribution of wealth is only recently producing its effects upon emotions. The current disposition to identify religion with the affairs of the day results in disinclina- tion to rely upon the righting of the balance in the hereafter through the difficulty with which the rich man enters heaven as compared with the welcome to the expropriated. The employee is willing to take his share of the world's goods now, and suffer the consequences, though the idea that poverty is a blessing has a longevity which is but slowly affected by actual evidence of its devastat- The Spirit of Labor 77 ing character, as shown in the operating rooms of hospitals, in stagnant farm homes, in the aged faces of child labor, in jaws made toothless from lack of a dentist's services, and in the dulness and bigotry of isolation and absence of books. The impecunious religious enthusiast of old looked forward to golden streets, in the mean- time being disdainful of his neighbor's higher economic status, but the theoretical ulterior ad- vantages of poverty are depreciated when the vital functioning of wealth for welfare appears at every turn. Indeed even not yet fully laid is the poor-student myth; that anyone should be- lieve that an undernourished youth dividing his daily energy between hard labor and studies should thus make sure of laurels is about as rea- sonable as to expect a horse from a laundry wagon to reach the wire ahead of a racer in the pink of condition. There should be proper and sufficient motiva- tion in industry. To work because one fears to lose a position is a low condition, and the dread of the displeasure of the boss reduces one to the status of dumb driven cattle. Even to spend a lifetime in labor for the sake of anticipating funeral expenses does not strike one as adequate motivation. There must be sizable returns or explicit approval ; there must be the feeling that one is getting somewhere, that he is getting something out of his work for himself, and that 78 The Psychology of Citizenship every stroke tells. To exhort one to love his work when he gets nothing out of it is unseemly. Our systemless compensation leaves the great bulk of population without effective incentive. True, the occasional person sees an opportunity for a "killing," and his community is afforded the spectacle of a man really in earnest, but the average workman, and, under present conditions, in many cases the governmental or civil service employee as well, suffers from lack of motive. The proprietor of a clothing store shows a real interest in selling goods ; but his clerks, especially in his absence, may greet the incomer with a look of glazed indifference; yet such will "yell their heads off " when the home baseball team scores. An argument for motivation may be drawn from the case of the small farmer. He directs his own labor and feeling that he is free is really little concerned with the measure of gain ; he is " independent," and the fact, which should be disconcerting, that he often throws in his labor to obtain such a return on his capital as, other- wise invested, he might secure with little or no labor, impresses him but slightly he is his own boss. Indeed, the hope of securing liberty with a few acres inspires a great many people in cities. Now to clamp a person into a position where he neither knows how much he produces, but is sure that his compensation will in any event be a minimum one, nor has a voice in the management The Spirit of Labor 79 of his employment, seems a peculiarly obnoxious affront to personality, and "industrial war" is a logical result. It is a scientific wonder that the gear of industry does not clog hopelessly under these conditions. Industry must sooner or later answer to each man his question, Of what use is it to me? To substantial, rational, and satisfying rewards, not complicated with gross advantage to others, the productional system must move forward, presumably through occupational au- tonomy, but in any case in conformity with the psychology of motive. Where there is a feeling of injustice in economic relations, where there is imperfect moti- vation for effort, a spirit of indifference and pro- test develops which results in a kind of sabotage. Sabotage is not new ; it is as old as the hills, if by it be meant injury to the quantity as well as the quality of the product. The difference in zeal between the man who has a stake in the out- come of an enterprise and one who believes he has none is so wide as not to have escaped atten- tion the world over. Soldiering and inefficiency are characteristic of millions today, who under a different industrial organization would be ener- getic and optimistic. A subtle sabotage may be discovered in a thousand quarters the waste of materials, neglect of tools and equipment, and manifold unwillingness to take pains. But how idle to expect the employee to take the same 80 The Psychology of Citizenship degree of interest as the employer, if the latter reaps preponderant benefits. 3. Pleasure in World It is a question of much importance whether real pleasure is taken in work. The actual mental attitudes prevailing among people working for wages and salaries are, if among the more elusive, yet among the most important conditions of society. If there is chronic discord between the man and his job, something is fundamentally wrong. Even in cases where irritation does not take the shape of open complaint, a seated sense of injustice deeply influences happiness on earth. Young men set out in high hopes, to become soured and careless upon being inoculated with the suspicion that a square deal in the economic system is out of the question. They see great rewards going to questionable beneficiaries ; they see the industrious exploited ; they come to fear that everything worth going after has been gob- bled up by the representatives of privilege and corporate influence. They ask if it is worth while to try to get ahead ; they believe the cards are stacked against them. The rewards which society should place before the individual should in one respect be like the penalties for crime they should be certain. The loosened moral fiber of great numbers, the flabby attack on difficulties, the disposition to go The Spirit of Labor 81 with the current, and the apparent passing away of a certain Spartan quality of perseverance are associated with a growing skepticism in regard to certainty of reward. There are a multitude of the so-called shiftless. The labor market is full of men who lack incen- tive ; is it solely their fault ? But shif tlessness is bound to increase with intelligence if there seems a lessening chance of success. Is the spirit of play, of adventure, of exploration, of wager, if you please, lacking in those who make up the army of the unemployed and of those who merely mark time? Tenant farmers and three-fifths of the farms of Illinois are operated by tenants are notoriously shiftless. Shif tlessness would lessen if they owned the land and did not expect to be robbed in the market. The tenant who is thought to make too much money for the land- lord may lose caste. It is less a wonder that so many people do so ill than that in the absence of appeal to effective motives so many do so well. It may be argued that conditions are no worse than in the past ; but it is really not by the past that the sufficiency of motivation should be judged. It is rather by the possibility of releas- ing energy and joy in work under more ideal conditions. Work has been a " curse," and even now the great majority, barring, among others, artists, Chautauqua lecturers, mothers, and dray drivers, who often seem to be enjoying life, seek 82 The Psychology of Citizenship their pleasures apart from the employments in which their lives are spent. It is commonly ac- cepted that there is to be little happiness during working hours ; some fleeting digression from occupation is looked forward to as the justifica- tion for industry, and vain amusements feebly fill a want which would better be supplied by pleasure in one's tasks. 4. Fear as Motive Fear is still a dominant motive; fear of dis- charge, of disgrace, of the gun man and the militia, of starvation. The masses are not really inspirited to labor ; they are driven and compelled under a fear system so rooted as to be respect- able. Insufficiency and uncertainty of reward are coupled with a lagging which only the threat of suffering may overcome. But fear is blasting in its effects, even if men are so wonted as not to be acutely conscious of it. The stimulation to effort is often a push instead of a pull, but the ideal incentives are those which enlist the individual gladly for the sake of an objective clearly seen and hopefully sought. Greater open- ness of opportunity to all comers ; less privilege and exploitation ; a fairer field and fewer favors ; more certainty of that social approval which consists of adequate income; better adjustment between desert and remuneration such condi- tions would put spirit and joy into occupations The Spirit of Labor 83 and would advance enterprise; such conditions would be a sufficient answer to time-honored com- plaints in regard to the lack of interest on the part of labor. If only the world's work sprang from its hopes and ideals rather than from its fears ! In view of the actual nature of people the springs of action one can hardly deny that modern industrialism represents maladjustment between work and the man. Occasional employ- ers pride themselves upon taking into account the welfare of employees, but our social and industrial standards are strangely inverted when the happiness of the worker is an afterthought. It is possible for an employee to labor effi- ciently for years without knowing for a certainty that his work is appreciated. What a state of affairs, when the very breath of our nostrils is praise. Consider the lack of honor for those who do dangerous and severe work; indifference if not contempt is often their portion. 5. Self -Government in Industry One of the requirements for a satisfying life is to have a voice in management. To have a voice in government is not more important than to have a voice in the business with which one is connected. But the autocratic principle prevails in industry. Democracy is yet to be extended to productive enterprises. The boss, the superin- 84? The Psychology of Citizenship tendent, and the proprietor have the same sort of relation to employees as autocrats to their subjects. The principle of self-government is as desirable in a factory as in a state. As great as is the unrest of labor it is far less than autocracized industry warrants. Those who protest are still in the minority. There are still numbers like Daudet's peasants and the simple British workingmen whose psychology is so clearly described by Robert Tressall. 1 There must be a wider dissatisfaction before economic democracy may be attained, and after dissatis- faction there are problems of reorganization fully as onerous and complex as those of political democracy now in process of solution. i The Eaffged-trousered Philanthropists. F. A. Stokes Co., New York. CHAPTER VII THE CONTROL OF SUGGESTION "PROGRESS is determined largely by the *. thought-materials which are brought to one's attention or which, imbedded in environment, press upon the individual and insensibly shape his outlook. If we could once get away from all that is undesirable in the thought-world and move over into a world affording only the best sugges- tions and ideals, civilization would leap forward. 1. Inheritance of Ideas Ideas govern action, even putting a clamp on the strongest inherited tendencies, as witness the vows of religious orders. If the modern world could be released from archaic ideas and false notions, and in their place installed the best thought and finest ideals, society would undergo swift transformation. The trouble is in clearing the decks and giving the newer thought a full opportunity. Explore the mind of the man on the seat by your side, and you will perhaps dis- cover a flinty prejudice which could be traced back through centuries a possession drawn out of that large fund of atavistic consciousness 85 86 The Psychology of Citizenship which science in all its pride has as yet but slightly overcome. This control by the past is through thought- materials which come down to us in unbroken succession. Early in life one becomes saturated with sentiments and opinions from former gen- erations. These adopted ideas govern conduct and establish types of citizenship ; they determine attitude with reference to industry, science, and the state ; they create deference for ancient insti- tutions, and sanctify imposition and caste. To secure a fresh civilization radically to change conventional ways would be to break with for- mer systems of thought and sets of concepts. The kind of ideas determines the kind of man. The reactionary is a reflex of a system of ideas dominant at an earlier period ; he, for ex- ample, looks at woman suffrage in the light of former periods and applies obsolescent concepts to international differences ; his concepts are sta- tionary while society is dynamic ; if the world could be turned back he would feel at home ; terms like labor, capital, patriotism, thrift, busi- ness, and woman have each a different meaning to reactionary and progressive. The basic method of changing conditions is to change ideas. The best views are often of recent origin, for the older thought was a reflex of an older social order; a new social order im- plies new thought. The Control of Suggestion 87 It is not easy to shake off tradition. As popu- lation has flowed down the ages, there has been a laying on of hands upon the young in more senses than one. The old order is forever indoctrinat- ing the young with old sets of ideas. Fortu- nately, youthful perversity leads to differences of opinion ; cloyed with imitation, the child does the opposite of his instructions just to see how it will seem. A certain development of new thought is inevitable. A slow-moving transformation of ideas takes place, but it would be well if tradition might be more effectually blocked and if progress-favor- ing ideas might be sent coursing through all the channels of intelligence. The controlling of ideas is the battle of progress the world over. Social reconstruction involves displacing certain ideas with others. It would be idle to expect to secure always quietly and peacefully a substitution of the new for the old, for personal advantage is derived from tradition. The man who is drawing divi- dends from the ignorance of others is not likely to be enthusiastic for enlightenment. Privilege on the part of the few requires a corresponding education to servility on the part of many. So in the case of various matters in dispute agree- ment is hopeless; only force or the threat of it can prevail. But outside the lines of eco- nomic warfare there may be general agreement 88 The Psychology of Citizenship to oppose pernicious and encourage salutary suggestion. In cases where what seems evil to some seems good to others social quarantine can hardly be attempted, and a multitude of differences of opinion appear in relation to values ; but assum- ing a real concurrence among the majority of thinking people with reference to thought- materials, the protection of society against unde- sirable suggestions is as logical as the isolation of smallpox. It is well known, for example, that the cheap novel which exploits the crudeness and crimes of desperadoes ifc, in the hands of boys, a most pernicious influence. Not infrequently astonishing crimes are directly traceable to the reading of accounts of brigandage, and the glori- fication of lawless adventurers. Society is war- ranted in defending itself against ideas that have notoriously unwholesome effects. 2. Influence of Literature The very reservoir of ideas inimical to an ideal civilization is literature. Writers of former gen- erations lend themselves unwittingly to the defeat of the visions of the hour. Poems are frequently a source of suggestions out of keeping with mod- ern aims. " The Charge of the Light Brigade " is an example. War is irresistibly sanctified by a type of literature which, false and misleading through omissions of circumstances, tends to The Control of Suggestion 89 attach the highest sentiments to a brutalizing folly. More consistent with the aims of peace are Walt Whitman's "A Night Battle," and the Matthew Brady photographs of the Civil War. The influence of the monarch-revering and laborer-despising Elizabethan play is a real force making for the persistence of states of mind not conducive to modern welfare. Early litera- ture and history are so impregnated with socially atavistic suggestions that a new literature must batter a way for truer democracy. The more impressive pre-modern literature is to one, the more unlikely is he to be found sympathetic with hopes of the hour. It is usual to side with the " lord of the vineyard " against the workers who objected to paying out of scale. It is important that the reactions of the youthful reader be care- fully observed when perusing material which consorts ill with fairness to the Jew or implies the unworthiness of those who do physi- cal work. In many cases the reader seems to react but slightly to such early thought-materials and would hardly admit that he was to any extent con- trolled by the suggestions received. But if not affected by prescientific ideas of the universe, debased conceptions of womankind, the theory of human depravity, the sanction of slavery, and race prejudice, is one affected by any other kind 90 The Psychology of Citizenship of suggestion? All suggestions rest upon the same psychological basis. The idea that is cen- tered in consciousness exerts its thrust in the direction of action and modifies the emotional life. At an earlier period vivid representations of future torment gave strength to the arm of persecution and resulted in peculiar horrors. If the body be thought of as, in the words of John Knox, a "wicked carcase," and if "every pros- pect pleases and only man is vile," why should there be any particular attention to sanitation? The immense and cherished literature of sacred song and story includes in its conglomerate a mass of materials strictly characteristic of the mental advancement of the peoples and times of their origin, and a process of sublimation and restatement, like that represented in the new prayers of Walter Rauschenbusch, is needed. Upon the extent to which outworn social con- cepts are supplanted in popular thought depends the rate of progress. Thus the shutting of the gates against a flood of undesirable tradition assumes large importance. English courts did not permit butchers to sit on juries in capital cases ; but the slaughterhouse is not the only source of suggestions tending to indurate sympathies and degrade conceptions of human nature. In this connection may be noted the activities of scholars who exploit the past or reconstruct The Control of Suggestion 91 former historical periods. That certain events have happened is not sufficient reason for calling universal attention to them. The world may very well forget a great deal that has occurred; we progress as we shift attention to forward-looking matters. Devotion to history, unless inspired by the desire to illuminate modern life, has but lim- ited social value. The historical student sees ob- jections to reforms which less informed men accomplish through unscholarly optimism. The predominance of historical elements in one's thought is of the nature of a disqualification for the attainment of newer ideals. If one reads the memoirs of a general of the Civil War one's mind will be given a reactionary set. Mark Twain believed that the South was greatly harmed by its admiration of the works of Sir Walter Scott. 3. Advertising Good Examples There is much of a positive character to be attempted in the utilizing of the force of sugges- tion. The best practices and the most significant steps taken for progress in any part of the world might well be systematically called to the atten- tion of the public. This type of constructive suggestion is illustrated in the practice of the United States Bureau of Education of sending out almost daily reports of educational progress from all parts of the nation and from abroad. The best ideas in effect anywhere are thus directed 98 The "Psychology of Citizenship to points of possible application, and an imita- tion instituted which may shorten the period required for a measure of advancement. Similar efforts in other fields would tend to do away with delays in the attainment of better conditions. The advertising of good examples and the dif- fusing of constructive ideas should be carried on effectively through system. The diffusion of constructive civic ideas is fundamental to social betterment. Limited rea- soning and lack of creative 'imagination, so far as they exist, make it necessary that means be provided to reach the intelligence which do not imply mental powers above the average. Social reform requires successful appeal to the millions in whose hands rest the ballot and the ratification of programs. Everywhere arises the problem of making people understand ; at this point reforms stumble and confusion begins. Kropotkin de- clared that the Russian peasant was capable of understanding any social principle or natural law, provided he was addressed in words of his vocabulary and the person making the explana- tion really knew what he was talking about. This testimony of revolutionist and scholar is indeed significant. However, it is common experience to meet with discouragement in attempts to pro- mote measures or to popularize unfamiliar top- ics, and a real association of ideas is not easily brought about. Booker T. Washington tells of The Control of Suggestion 93 a Negro who was convinced in conversation of the need of substituting other crops for cotton, but when finally asked what crop he would plant answered, " Cotton." Principles agreed upon by all who give them careful and disinterested thought are slow in finding popular acceptance. Ignorance and prejudice long hold their ground. Either there are many who are unequal to taking an intelligent part in social direction or means are yet to be devised by which latent intelligence may be generously set free for such purposes. The state of civilization reflects popular intelligence, but the full power of this rarely, if ever, is evoked. 4- Use of Pictures To secure popular response with the least ex- penditure of energy is a desideratum. The most open avenues of influence are to be found and used, the lines of least resistance followed. The prominence of vision among the senses offers a suggestion for directness of persuasion. The clinching evidence is that one "saw it with his own eyes." Now it is evident that the voter may not see with his own eyes the elusive brigandage of monopoly or witness the progress of a ten- million-dollar battleship from the tax collector's office to the junk heap, but by a far greater resort to pictorial methods a convincing knowledge can be imparted. Literature with its roundabout sym- 94 The Psychology of Citizenship holism is quite inferior for various purposes to the picture-writing which historically preceded it. Illustrations make a strong appeal. Could a more extensive educational picturature be developed as a substitute for verbal symbolism the response of the average mind would be greater. Many intelligent people do not care for books, never having acquired the racially recent taste for looking at queer marks on a page and trying to make out what they are all about. Where such callousness is encountered the resort to the picture would be the most effective alterna- tive in default of oral speech, to which likewise the picture is often superior. A picture of a case of "phossy jaw" arouses a larger response than any amount of verbal statement. The pub- lic will react to a suitable stimulus it cannot help it but the stimulus must be one which con- forms to mental laws. It would be well to photo- graph every social maladjustment by way of argument. Unfortunately, from some points of view, there are more authors than artists, and cameras cost more than pens and ink. A rogues' gallery of modern evils, supplemented by con- structive suggestions pictorially represented, would have possibilities. Indeed, extensive use is made of the pictorial, but a larger and more convenient presentation of this kind of material is feasible. There are limits to the effectiveness of pictures The Control of Suggestion 95 for social education, but it would appear that their possibilities have been overshadowed by the use of print. The picture method is vastly more elemental and forceful, and might be adapted to evoke popular responses for which the symbolism of type is ineffectual. True, no elaboration of the pictorial could ever carry the subtle and the associational so successfully as words, but the dis- tinction between the eye-minded and the thinker in abstractions and principles may well be taken into account. In fact, a stage may be reached where the illustration becomes even a slight im- pertinence, the statement of a principle carrying the highest degree of conviction ; but under the conditions of the day there is need of presenting truths in such telling form that efforts for social welfare be based as broadly as may be upon the consciousness of a public differing widely in mental content and capacity. The formal trea- tise and the philosophical exposition have their peculiar value, but the limited market for books that are " dry " is evidence of a rather permanent division in the interests of the reading public, while to the non-reading public the specific case and the visual argument are the principal re- course. The instant response of millions to the moving picture creates a suspicion that reform has quite too fully relied upon a relatively unpop- ular method that of printed or spoken argu- ments. The same forces of perception and emo- 96 The Psychology of Citizenship tion which now so often go to waste in attention given to distressingly weak subject-matter at the cheap-show place might, if applied to social ends, work in brief time advancement which otherwise would require centuries. A very extensive redi- rection of human forces, which so richly abound and which so often flow aimlessly to waste, is practicable. One is frequently surprised at the quickness with which a desirable thought will take effect. Control images, and civilization may be made to approximate any ideal. 5. The Slogan After the actual picture is the word-picture. The economy of brief statement and striking phrase is recognized in advertising, and the joy of discovering a suitable slogan is known to cam- paign managers. Brevity and imagery charac- terize the statement on which reliance is placed to secure results in dividends and votes. The spurty nature of the commercial and political war cry, while, like the "tiresome paradox," no source of lasting enjoyment, is adapted to a flickering attention and to the piecemeal and dis- continuous character of consciousness in modern life. Brevity is forceful, and headline logic must play an important role in social reconstruction. For example, " Idle lands for idle hands " per- haps could hardly be improved upon as crystal- lizing the arguments against the present land The Control of Suggestion 97 tenure in England, and " Votes for women " has a telling effect. To be sure, the slogan is not without its draw- backs ; for every slogan there may be a counter- slogan, and the reasoning process is by no means obviated; however, the succinct presentation of issues conduces to their profitable consideration, and indeed when a position is not susceptible of direct and simple statement it is possibly unten- able. A claim to privilege which might be made to seem reputable if glossed in two hours of oratory may be routed by a single "bombshell" of re- joinder or a clarifying characterization. The art of divesting an issue of irrelevancies and of presenting truth naked and unashamed is one of real respectability. There is economy in appealing in familiar terms. To bring about improvement by novel proposals is difficult, but when the new comes in familiar guise resistance is greatly lessened. The tendency is to adapt rather than invent, to modify rather than change abruptly. Merchants retain goodwill by leaving up their predecessors' sign- board or incorporating under a dead man's name. Labels must be satisfactory. Political leaders know the advantage of adapting old names to new organizations. New journeys must be made by seeming to follow old routes where familiar guide boards stand. It would be easier to arrive at federal banking through the postal savings 98 The Psychology of Citizenship bank than by a more direct route. To do away with private express companies by the gradual expansion of the parcel post would be more prac- ticable than to seek this result at a step. The free feeding of school children could hardly come before the free supplying of mental pabulum in the form of community-owned textbooks, and before that the community-paid instructor. The advance toward the ideal social state is a matter of slow campaigns. The thoroughgoing theorist cannot convince the public, for progress is made by short, tentative steps which do not require a high degree of vision, and by seeming to follow familiar paths. CHAPTER VIII CIVIC PUBLICITY AND THE VOTER OPPOSITION to experimentation and change in the social order has a cause in a sus- picion that things might be worse. The citizen often has little confidence, distrusting his own knowledge and that of others with regard to the social machine. Civic ignorance breeds a diffi- dence and a willingness to leave matters as they are. The fullest confidence is not reposed in public agents because so much of their work is not generally known. A better attitude would be established through civic publicity. 1. Reports upon Public Affairs Civic administration is work for the expert, but with the transfer of power to individuals there is the danger of the unobserved abuse of that power, and it becomes necessary to develop agencies which will have the effect of placing public servants on a platform of observation and in a light which leaves nothing to the darkness which evil loves. Such transparency of office can be secured by developing official publicity far be- yond its present stage. True, we have the reports of officials, as treasurers, commissioners, 99 100 The Psychology of Citizenship and boards, though, for example, the services of a congressman are not formally reported. Prob- ably ninety-nine constituents out of a hundred have but the faintest ideas of what their repre- sentatives actually do. This is due less to the incapacity of constituents to understand lan- guage than to the absence of authentic, skilful, and ample reporting. Moreover, the governmental report is often unduly difficult to comprehend, and, while its bulk may assure the citizen that his interests are amply protected, its obscure recesses discourage even the specialist. The art of reporting official acts to the general public is not much developed. Men are needed to tell of the work of the various offices, and thus lay a foundation for an under- standing of plans of improvement and of an appreciation of exemplary service. Even the laws are largely unknown by the public. While every citizen is presumed to know the law, no one believes that the citizen has more than an inkling of the laws under which he lives. To learn whether a city has a given ordinance may entail a visit to the city hall and exploration of a poorly arranged mass of legislation. Legis- latures ad j ourn after sending statutes to the pub- lic printer, with little concern as to making known to the citizen what laws have been enacted. The voting public is a board of directors, but could it be imagined that a successful private corpora- Civic Publicity and the Voter 101 tion would be so uninformed in regard to the activities of its agents as is the voting public? Every significant detail of social administration should be flashed upon the public mind through the perfection of agencies of civic publicity, and the limitations of attention should be recognized in ingenuity of reporting. It is idle to expect the citizen to be himself a competent collector of that information which he must possess in order to vote and legislate properly at the polls. The miscarriage of modern politics is probably due more to lack of civic publicity than to lack of mentality or character. Of special interest are the attempts at civic publicity represented by the municipal journals of Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, New York, and Tacoma. The voters' pamphlet in Oregon, and the project of a state journal of governmental information in that commonwealth show an awakening to the need of agencies of civic communication in excess of those represented by the private newspaper, whose aims and interests render it not the most useful or perfect medium of political intelligence. The universities should train men and women in the technique and ideals of civic journalism. Prob- ably most voters need only to know the sensible thing to do it, and only from lack of information vote incompetents into office or respond to dis- ingenuous appeals which result in legislation 102 The. Psychology of Citizenship deviously contradicting their most cherished interests. 0. The Uninformed Voter Much is said first or last or left unsaid in regard to the ignorant voter. With over five mil- lion illiterates in the United States, there is a vast amount of ignorance in regard to general sub- jects and an amount of ignorance in regard to civic matters which should be alarming. But the essential consideration is whether ignorance rep- resents mental incapacity in many cases or merely lack of information. It is probable that the gen- eral and civic ignorance of the illiterate and the civic ignorance prevailing among literates are but rarely due to lack of ordinary capacity. The average citizen would be found able to reach up to the point where the functions of the civic expert should begin. It is important that the special knowledge which functions in good citi- zenship be widely diffused and that there be actual preparation for civic responsibilities. The idea that ballots should be weighed rather than counted is likely to occur to one when in- stances of civic ignorance come under observa- tion. It is not pleasant to realize that the most judicious exercise of the ballot may be neutral- ized by the vote of the individual who would not appear at the polls except for the diversion of a free ride. The value of some ballots is vastly Civic Publicity and the Voter 108 greater than of others ; there are the widest dif- ferences in the actual qualifications of voters to make intelligent decisions. There are differences in age, experience, traditions, mentality, and specific information. Statutory equality by no means implies equivalence of fitness, and in fact the exclusion from the ballot of all below twenty- one years of age and of women would indicate that prevailing tests of fitness are far from exact. Who should vote? What qualifies a person to vote ? Evidently one should know the subject-matter of elections issues, candidates, measures, po- litical conditions, and the trend of society. One should have a preparation comparable to that which would warrant expressing an opinion on architecture, sanitation, engineering, agriculture, or poetry. If issues have been reduced to sim- plicity and there is a leadership in which confi- dence may justly be reposed, a minimum of social science may serve, by making use of the analyti- cal powers of others. A person who would fail in every test of specific information might vote right from intuition or by accident, but the test of information is one which is relied upon in judging the qualifications of physicians, pilots, chemists, and postal clerks, and it evidently should have exceptional weight in ascertaining fitness to fill the position of voting citizen. But how could a mental test be applied ? While 104 The Psychology of Citizenship there is a sentiment in favor of educational tests for voters, and in at least one state (North Dakota) the constitution enjoins upon the legis- lature the duty of establishing educational tests, practical difficulties interpose. Yet no one can question the need of distinguishing between fit- ness and unfitness. With constitutional amend- ments and measures in detail coming before the electorate, especially under direct legislation, it is reasonable that the civic board of directors, which is the collective body of voters, should be admitted to the exercise of their function only upon proof of competence. 3. Is an Educational Test Feasible? Fortunately an effectual educational test is within easy reach and indeed is in process of realization. The submission of specific measures l as under the initiative and referendum, tends to make voting difficult, requiring not only interest but attention and reasoning. Heretofore voting has required the barest minimum of information. But with a ballot containing matter which must be read with attention to be understood, and with the relegation of partisan and personal consid- erations, voting becomes a feat of slight appeal to any who are not conscious of the nature of public questions. A weeding out in the electorate accordingly results, as witness the diminishing vote of Wisconsin under direct primaries and Civic Publicity and the Voter 105 direct legislation. The relatively small vote usually cast upon constitutional amendments and city charters when submitted to the electorate is evidently not due to their unimportance but rather to the absence of an interest derived from knowledge. There is an inevitable mental test when measures are submitted to voters, and a diminished vote may be construed as meaning that a stimulus is being applied which should result in citizens studying more. The person who knows nothing about the merits of a proposal on his ballot will naturally not vote on it, thus becoming automatically disqualified by igno- rance. Mechanical voting, even for candidates, should be rendered unlikely or impossible. While perhaps sufficient difficulties are inherent in direct legislation, surely no predigestion of subject-matter should be attempted in behalf of those, no matter how large their numbers among rich or poor, male or female, who are indolent, careless, illiterate, or incompetent. The intelli- gent and thoughtful should rule, and civic incom- petence should not be afforded an opportunity to vote by means of a ballot so designed as to allow voting to be an unthinking process. Voting has been much too easy. The man who conscien- tiously follows political questions should not have his vote counteracted by that of one indif- ferent to public affairs. The inequitable charac- ter of easy balloting is evident, for the person 106 The Psychology of Citizenship who takes pains to inform himself is not rewarded by a larger measure of participation. With the ballot itself so devised as to be an educational test every citizen fitted to vote has the privilege, and disqualification may be removed by effort. Voting should necessitate reading and under- standing whatever might appear as an educa- tional test upon the ballot. Inasmuch as one's interest in a subject is closely related to his knowledge of it, the actual number of those voting upon a measure would approxi- mate the number of voters really prepared to vote, and the smallness of the number of votes cast should not be at all disconcerting. Such pro- vision of law, as that of the constitution of the state of Minnesota, which requires that a high percentage of the electorate must ballot upon proposed constitutional amendments for a valid decision, are of doubtful wisdom, especially if adequate provision is made for publicity with reference to pending measures. When once freely informed of issues, the individual who does not vote may wisely in most cases be thought to be lacking in those qualities which should count for most in elections, and the smallness of the number balloting be regarded as good evidence of its select character. Surely the right to vote should be contingent upon the correlated duty of knowing upon what one is voting ; it is a com- mon rule that one should know what he is doing. . Civic Publicity and ihe Voter 107 No educational test would work properly in the absence of stringent enforcement of corrupt- practices acts. The citizen who has so little in- terest and information as not to go to the polls of his own volition should not be solicited. That one should have to be urged to vote indicates that his ballot might safely be dispensed with. Im- proper solicitation of votes should be made im- possible, and the few worthy citizens who forget election days if not sent for might well be a sacrifice to the general cause. Under the fore- going conditions balloting would take on a char- acter of distinction, and the seriousness of an examination for the credentials of the profession would to a degree appear. The questions of Negro and woman suffrage would easily be resolved under the principle of mental fitness. Such Negroes and such women, and, as well, such present voters, as whose ca- pacity and information qualified them to vote, would realize the right. The line of separation between voters and non-voters would not be arti- ficially drawn, but would nearly coincide with actual fitness. Thus there would be every incen- tive to qualify, and no one would be excluded from voting except for reasons under his con- trol. The submission of propositions under direct legislation stimulates civic intelligence. If bal- loting be merely upon names, perhaps followed 108 The Psychology of Citizenship by party symbols to guide the uninformed, as in Massachusetts and New York, there is less incentive to study civic questions. Voting upon definite proposals encourages a study of govern- ment. The submission of question after question to the electorate, perhaps with greater frequency of votings during the year, would connect public opinion directly with government and result in a far higher level of civic intelligence. Incal- culable stimulus would result from balloting upon propositions for representatives to carry out rather than merely for representatives. To be limited to voting for candidates when there are scores of issues upon which many voters would like to express themselves dulls interest in public affairs. CHAPTER IX THE LEGAL MIND psychology of the bench and bar is espe- J- cially important because of the large part played by the courts in shaping civilization. The United States is in a sense under a commission form of government, the commission consisting of the federal Supreme Court, with its power over legislation. The power of the judiciary is immense and determinative. And when we group bar with bench the character of prevailing mental states becomes a matter of great importance. Attorneys are of a type with judges, and the legal mind has marked characteristics. 1. The Rule of Precedent Law represents a continuity with the past like that of few other occupations. The lawyer's training harks back to early English and Roman law. Of much influence is the study of cases, of varying antiquity or recency, from which points of view are derived and bearings estab- lished, and by which the mind is shaped into con- formity with legalistic ideals. The full force of legal tradition is brought to bear, both in schools of law and through association with the 109 110 The Psychology of Citizenship elders, upon the naked natures of young men and a distinct mentality results, characterized by logical structure, subtlety, and conservatism. Compare, for example, the training of the student of science with that of the law student. The former is led to believe that experimenta- tion is the key to truth, and the older a text- book the less authoritative is it regarded. Ideas are discarded with actual fervor, and stiff ortho- doxy is impossible. In scientific learning the spirit is that of progressive adjustment; in law this spirit is not dominant quite the reverse. Indeed, the weight of tradition in the law gives the legal mind a quality which tends to freeze society into static conditions. Emphasis upon the application of rules to social problems does not accord with forward-looking tendencies. The role of remembering how things have been done and of striving to apply possibly inappropriate rules to current affairs limits outlook. What is perfectly possible may be legally im- possible, and what is legal may to the layman appear unreasonable. Rules of evidence have wandered so far from rationality that young attorneys are advised not to try to see the rea- son for some of them but to remember them as they are. One must renounce the world as he knows it in order to attain the legal cosmos. The real world and the judicial world conflict the mo- ment one brings social and moral ideals into the The Legal Mind 111 atmosphere of the law ; a professor of law once remarked to his students, "You are here not to learn what the law ought to be but to find out what the law is." Possibly the root of such opposition of law to progress is in the attempt to reduce to settled con- cepts a social flux. The notion that law is a science in the sense in which physics or chem- istry is a science is misleading, and to apply the word science to a subject-matter consisting, under progressive conditions in society, of tran- sient expedients and adjustments and halfway places introduces error. Hydrogen, two parts, and oxygen, one part, form water ; but rage and a knife do not equate perfectly with fourteen years in a penitentiary. Seeming inconsistency is not incompatible with justice. Rules are prop- erly subordinate to discrimination. But it is objected that with discretion enthroned no one would know the law ; who knows it now ? The fixedness of the law is its undoing. It is not from an earlier social order that we should seek guidance for present relationships; more- over, various legal positions and doctrines have the dubious ancestry of privilege. Only such former decisions as are approved by modern thought have any authority and these merely through the accident of concurrence. Cases should be subjected to fresh thought and their disposition be made to square with present stand- The Psychology of Citizenship ards. The law is not more reputable than the circumstances of its origin, reflecting, it may be, the unjust power of lords of manors, holders of royal patents, owners of sailing vessels, mas- ters of servants and apprentices, and husbands. The discord between ethics and "what the law allows " is notorious. Even the ideal of one law for the poor and the rich is open to criticism. What fairness, for example, in applying the same anti-trust law to grimy and poverty-stricken coal miners and to a billion-dollar monopoly? Worthy judges are not rare; but to the extent of their excellence they dare excursions into the world of today and tomorrow. 2. Lawyers and Society The type of learning most needed in the ad- ministration of justice is that represented by the social sciences, especially those applications of sociology which deal with actual conditions among laborers, wives, children, and other classes. The recent recommendation of the American Bar Association that law students be required to pur- sue the study of psychology indicates an awaken- ing ; for the examination of witnesses is a matter rather for a psychological clinic than for de- nunciation and oratory. In fact, oratory and tradition have conspired to render the legal pro- fession, with its nearness to legislation, especially in the United States, an obstacle to public wel- The Legal Mmd 113 fare. The striking progress in government in New Zealand has been explained as being due in part to the almost total absence of lawyers from the parliament of that country. A fresh view of human possibilities is a high qualification for service in a legislature. To serve at impor- tant points in the administration of justice, would it not be well to seek men and women who should follow the advice of former Judge Gaynor to throw away law books for the reading of Brown- ing? The presence of " lay judges " to repre- sent the non-legal point of view provided such were to consist of eminent publicists, sociologists, educators, journalists, and social workers, men and women, would prove a corrective. Moreover, conditions prevailing in courts do not lend themselves happily to actual justice. Litigants are aggressive, and attorneys are not engaged to report after the manner of the scien- tific investigator. When ingenious and hardened advocates are fabulously financed to circumvent justice when necessary for private advantage, and when successful subterfuge reacts to the fame of the advocate, there is real confusion. Not thus are scientific issues resolved. The attorney should be a real officer or agent of court, paid by so- ciety. The pronounced forwardness on the part of retained attorneys is an impertinence. The German system of people's courts without law- yers represents a triumph of method, and the 114* The Psychology of Citizenship recently established lawyerless courts of Kansas afford profitable suggestions. Prejudiced advocacy, characteristic of the bar, is not confined to the courts, but in part through legal example perverts behavior elsewhere. Thus the college debating team elects as its aim, not the impartial revealing of the merits of an issue, but rather the adroit presentation of " one side " of a question, and to beat the opposing group of advocates is the prime consideration. In the course of such partisan strife the truth may be forced out but not for its own sake with the consent of either team. From the standpoint of veracity better that all such debates be banished, and in their place be discussions in which issues would not be treated speciously. To hold a brief is disreputable in scientific circles, for it does not conduce to the whole truth. In various ways the courts and the legal pro- fession are allied with reaction. Within their spheres of freedom the choices are usually in favor of things as they are. They oppose change. The preponderance of tradition, evi- denced in legal ideals, practice, and reasoning, presents an acute problem in the psychology of habit, and to the effective rupture of such bonds to an earlier social order the spirit of the age in some way must address itself. Courts may be dislodged, through the recall of judges or of decisions, from their positions of The Legal Mind 115 ultimate influence upon legislation and social wel- fare, or on the other hand a system of training judges and attorneys might be installed which would modify the obstructionistic nature of the law, doing away with antiquated concepts, sacred rituals, and deteriorated wisdom. The socializing of the lawyer's functions as in the public law office of New Zealand, where the citizen may secure legal advice from a state-paid official, is desirable. Today, under the system of fee- taking, the average citizen is not quite sure whether the lawyer is a curse or a blessing. The bulwarks of privilege and social atavism repre- sented by the legal mind deny the modern spirit free expression. The diversion and unworthy devotion of talents appearing in the retaining of a swarm of the keenest minds in the service of predatory wealth essentially in a battle against the poor represents an impressive miscarriage of a mentality which should be harnessed to social welfare, and creates a condition against which the more idealistic of the legal profession must rebel. Lawyers need a thoroughly modern education, which means that they should not study too much law. They need to get the biological or evolu- tionary point of view, to conceive of society as on the way to being different. The authoritative solemnity of the legalist needs to be mitigated; justice does not reside in the breasts of judges 116 The Psychology of Citizenship unless judges look upon life unfettered by tradi- tion. There is a better intelligence than that represented by the law. There is a valid idealism which is everywhere blocked by legalism. It is unfair to measure the intelligence of a people by their institutions provided a tradition-rever- ing type is in a position to apply a strangle- hold on new thought through power to interpret and to pass on the constitutionality of laws. With government thus subject to the legal mind, popu- lar intelligence cannot function happily. 3. Experimental Legislation The legal point of view is seen in the citizen who opposes experimental legislation. To ex- periment in affairs of state is regarded as ob- jectionable, and to style a measure an experiment is intended as an argument in opposition. From a scientific point of view this aversion is an anomaly. Why should there not be experimenta- tion in social administration? There is a sus- picion that objection is often from fear lest novelty should prove a success, to the abatement of privilege ; but quite aside from selfish strategy there is no doubt a real opposition or indifference with reference to the adoption of laboratory methods in civic affairs. To be sure, the subject-matter of society is less amenable to convenient experimental treat- ment than are acid soils or guinea pigs; even The Legal Mmd 117 so it should be possible to study social reactions under experimental conditions. Whenever an opportunity presents itself gratuitously for a study in government, be it the recall of judges in Arizona or the single tax in cities of the Canadian northwest, let the most be made of it. Indeed, let it be urged as a reason for proposals that they are experiments. That the light of the past should be the only guide is a confession which in the field of science would discredit the proclaimer; the light of theory and trial is also a strong light. A desire for repose and a settled order no doubt contributes to the feeling that there should be no tinkering with laws. New measures are adopted with hesitation, and a common attitude of mind is that a measure, once accepted, should remain unchanged. The proposal to limit legis- lative sessions to rare intervals seems quite op- posed to the spirit of experiment. A vast amount of futile talk would be dis- placed by the simple expedient of trying pro- posals for improvements in civic administration ; there would be less occasion to " view with alarm " if it were commonly accepted that in case an experiment turned out poorly there should be a return to practice. Does the abolition of capital punishment in one state increase murder therein as against another state in like circumstances? Let an experiment be tried to find out. It is 118 The Psychology of Citizenship better that a homicide should live than that doubt should exist. Is the commission form of government applicable to states? We should rejoice if a given state has the seeming temerity to try it. An experiment could not be less un- desirable than uncertainty. Would votes for women "ruin the home"? Observation should decide, not speculation. Is a two-cent rate on railroads impossible, or even a lower rate? The answer is, try it. Would the country go to the dogs if life insurance were offered by a com- monwealth? We should indeed be appreciative of the spirit which gains for Oregon, Wisconsin, and New Zealand the reputation of being experi- ment stations in government. It would be bet- ter that Congress should guarantee against want the owners of the steel trust than that doubt should remain as to the necessity of a duty to protect its products. Let us gather the facts even as truth is sought in the laboratories of the chemist and the bacteriologist. It is to be ex- pected that when benzoate of soda, under a pure- food law, becomes a political rather than a chemi- cal term, self-interest will oppose and confuse ; but there is no good reason why a few should be allowed to block attempts to find the best ways of doing things. Possibly the great advances in natural and physical science have come about so readily because of the negligibility of the cross fire to which scientists have been subjected. The Legal Mind 119 In case of governmental experimentation, how- ever, there is present the bad boy of big business to break the microscopes and spill the cultures of tentative reform. But the inductive method is a rock and refuge. The device of permissive laws is useful in in- troducing novelty. Let the people of a civil division be at liberty to experiment. The terms of a law may be made to apply at the discretion of those concerned. The spirit of experimentation characterizes some occupations rather than others, and the ad- vantage of having legislation, so far as it is conducted by chosen bodies, directed by men and women of known progressiveness occurs to one. The dead hand of tradition holds reins which should be held by individuals accustomed to methods of investigation and discovery and familiar with hypothesis. Indeed, a bureau of social engineers might well be established to make novel proposals, which, upon popular ratification, would promote welfare by demonstration. Ex- perimentation should be utilized in the field of social developments, for it is one of the strongest aids of mind. The scientific method may well be applied to government, and the spirit of the scientist and the seeker after truth be made to supplant the widely diffused mild horror of social experimentation. CHAPTER X VIEWS OF PROPERTY THE relation of wealth to welfare is so close that almost every social issue leads to a consideration of the distribution of wealth, which rests upon certain mental traits and states of opinion. 1. Exclusive Ownership In dealing with property psychology we meet first of all with the idea of exclusive possession, an idea that is fully as instinctive as rational, for in a multitude of cases the personal owner- ship of a utility is not important for its enjoy- ment. A concrete walk in front of one's house is of no more utility to the owner than is his neighbor's walk over which he passes ; of course as such walk would raise the value of his property and would therefore have an exchange value, there would be advantage in ownership. But for practical enjoyment a multitude of objects are perhaps even best owned by someone else. It was Thoreau who visited various farms, talked with their owners in regard to his purchase of them, and went away without buying, having absorbed, so he wrote, the real value in them from having Views of Property 121 clambered over their picturesque acres. He left to the farmer the burden of ownership while he stole away with the principal delights. Even the Great Man who talks for a dollar admission fee may deign to say a few words to the group at the railroad station, and anyhow his likeness is in the discarded magazine, and his remarks, even perhaps more inclusive than those actually made by him, may be found in a newspaper from the waste-paper basket. So many values become uncorked that the veriest hobo is not to be denied his share in a free wealth of society. Here and there are individuals who say they cannot really enjoy unless they own, but what difference does ownership make provided one has the use of a thing? It is only for use that ownership rests at all in reason rather than solely upon the acquisitive instinct. Uses can be enjoyed increasingly in common, and to this extent private ownership is growing to be an anachronism. Not by any means that great wealth has become more than faintly re- duced to common uses, but the tendency is mani- fest. The number of utilities in whose use the public may readily share is growing. Why should a man having boys buy them sets of tools when the city school has its equipment of ham- mers and saws ? Few private collections of books can equal those of a modest public library, and one's home may well be used for other purposes The Psychology of Citizenship than the storage of books not in active use. Free lectures are as inspiring as if paid for dearly, and they are numerous. The counsel of an expert of the United States Department of Agriculture is as valid as if he took fees for advice and one were to give him two-thirds of the first year's crop upon the contingency of a good yield. The public school returns one's child in as good condi- tion as if from the ministrations of a tutor, and the postman who delivers one's letters would not be complimented to be told that he has all the faithfulness of the expressman. But, to be sure, we all own a share in these governmental agencies we own them, but not as private owners. Joint ownership thus is not exclusive, and it carries with it a distinctly higher social sense. And this sense of common owner- ship is most desirable. Property sentiments may be transferred to public-owned utilities. The feeling in favor of exclusive ownership is mostly pride and prejudice. Really only a few things need be privately owned, these being utilities whose use could not be shared ; but in an increas- ing number of cases joint enjoyment is possible and tolerable. The things one w r ould not share with others belong especially to the sphere of food, clothes, physical maintenance, and imme- diate surroundings. The fruitlessness of the holding of wealth by the overrich is revealed by willingness to part with it for a slight considera- Views of Property 123 tion of repute, and the inability to make other than social use of great wealth is evident. The development of common wealth stores will fol- low the conviction that one need not own in exclusion in order to enjoy. With social ownership the sense of possession would simply be transferred to social types of property, and what is " mine " would include an undivided share in what society owns. One re- quires wealth only for its actual consumption or for the assurance of future income ; accordingly the primal instinct of self-preservation, which appears as the desire for possession, would be amply recognized in the common ownership of social utilities, which are legion, and especially in the guaranty by the state of an adequate in- come, resting upon individual contribution to the total production of society. 2. Ownership and Social Viewpoint The effect of social ownership upon the out- look of the citizen would be far-reaching. The government would be his business. The interest of the man of independent means is now often solely that there be no interference with his in- come ; he rarely feels a common cause. A social point of view can scarcely develop under domi- nant private ownership. Common ownership affords a basis for a brotherhood preached but not practiced. The antagonism between ethics The Psychology of Citizenship and business will continue until economic causes are removed. Not only may culture establish a sense of pub- lic property, but definite gratification may be developed with regard to the participation of others in all those utilities which might be made accessible through social ownership. Narrowly instinctive possession is accompanied by callous- ness with reference to the privations of others. At the present stage in the evolution of social sentiments striking indifference to the extent of others' deprivations unfortunately appears. The dealer in pianos is indifferent as to whether he sells one piano at a profit of a hundred dollars or two at a profit of fifty dollars each. In num- berless cases a far wider use of commodities would be made if the principle of maximum use were substituted for an indifference as to the number making purchases provided the profits are the same with a large or small number of sales. If the success of a railroad were judged by the num- ber of persons or tons of freight transported for a given annual net profit, rather than by profits alone, public welfare would be immensely furthered. Under social ownership the opening wide of the gates of transportation would be an ideal and the actual extent to which the public used railroads would be the test of efficient man- agement. The extent of consumption is the most acceptable criterion. The management of the Views of Property 125 telegraph should be judged by frequency of use. Today when a citizen of the United States re- ceives a telegram he fears someone has died. The public librarian counts success by the num- ber of volumes drawn for use. Consumption, not profit, is the true measure. Through the ownership of the means through which labor operates to produce wealth, namely, capital and tools, a few are enabled to exclude the many from utilities which might be caused to exist, and indeed bring it about that in a world where endless productivity is possible, with resulting welfare, the securing of a job, at mod- est compensation, becomes a goal of intense rivalry, to obtain which laborers not infrequently break one another's heads. The exclusion of people from work is, upon consideration, a re- markable fact; but as work is merely a means to a living, the real fact illustrated is the ex- clusion of people, sometimes in great numbers, from the privilege of securing goods whereby to live. When the producer creates more wealth than he can buy back with his wages he contributes to his own downfall, and is even denied the oppor- tunity of further employment, for " overproduc- tion" occurs and men are thrown out of work. Ownership results in the exclusion of would-be producers from tilling idle lands, and occasionally from working more than half-time at factories which turn out commodities which the public 126 The Psychology of Citizenship would be very pleased to consume if they had the money with which to buy. Joblessness is a strange feature of a system of production. Of all economic mysteries that of exclusion from productive labor is the most outstanding. It is possible so to order industry that production would not need to back-pedal lest there should be too much produced of things people really want. 3. Thrift A phase of privation to which even some honor is accorded is that of self -exclusion from enjoy- ing the utilities which one actually succeeds in securing the means to pay for. Thrift, so far as it inures to increased production, evidently has merits, but, so far as it implies a pinching of life, is distinctly opposed to a higher civiliza- tion. The effort to save up enough money with which to pay one's self a pension during old age often results in a life of meagerness, and a legacy. The recipient of a two-thousand-dollar income who saves half of it is a thousand-dollar man in the meantime, with the limits of experience and outlook which go with such expenditure. One must spend to grow; hence the doubtful virtue of strict economy. And such economy most often falls hardest upon the wife ; is this a reason why woman has been so long retarded in civic and intellectual development? The world is really Views of Property 127 relieved from the possibility of a desperate stag- nation by the person who spends money. Were saving governed by discretion as to choice among ways of spending money, an immense accelera- tion of progress would ensue from the develop- ment of new wants and a consequent broadening of experience and mentality. To save money so as to be able to buy desirable goods or serv- ices, resulting in personal development, is one thing; but to save to accumulate a fund the interest from which will support one in old age, in the meantime paring down life to meagerness, may be necessary under present conditions but should not be mistaken for an absolute virtue. Very likely the instinct to own would not appear in so extreme a form if it were not for the ever-present fear of not being well taken care of in old age. Impelled by this fear many find less than possible enjoyment in life year by year, and an unworthy obsession drives them to ac- cumulate more and more. When actual happi- ness comes to be given due consideration in the social economy the abolition of unnecessary con- cern about support in old age will receive atten- tion. The net result of this fear is to subtract from daily joy, without supplying the best set of motives for conduct and enterprise. The greed of property and the disputatiousness of bargain- ing rest to a large degree upon considerations of personal safety which might be more happily rec- The Psychology of Citizenship ognized in social assurance of care in disability and old age. Even the possession of large means does not dispel such fear, for one's property may be lost. 4- Great Expectations The tendency to private rather than social ownership arises partly from great expectations. The individual dreams of the golden fleece, of a lucky strike, of great good luck. A much-adver- tised success fires with the hope of individual aggrandizement and puts the virus of non- cooperative selfishness into the blood. With every man expecting that he will be the one to " strike oil," the prosaic certainty of fairly uniform mea- gerness of income has little chance of credence. To face the truth that under existing conditions the fate of the great majority is to remain below a certain economic level, and that personal ambi- tion can rarely avail if system is opposed, is less agreeable than to indulge hopes of special provi- dence. The most stupefying social inequalities therefore pass without challenge for tomorrow I may also be of the chosen. Under exceptional conditions, as in the industry and trade of pioneer communities, based on limitless natural resources, self-sufficiency has a degree of justification, but under more usual conditions the expectation of individual wealth lacks support. One of the first steps for economic democracy is to convince Views of Property 129 the individual of the fact that no bank has more than one president, and that the wealth of the world would not suffice to make every clerk a man of millions; upon which considerations a bristling assurance of not being as others are would suffer a certain eclipse. There is a kind of hope which delays the arrival of a rationally ordered economic society. The billions of organ- ized wealth in a few hands rest largely upon the obsession of money adventure which afflicts the miracle-loving and luck-expectant mind. 5. Attitude Toward T cures A state of mind which constitutes a real obstacle to progress is opposition to paying taxes. The dislike may be partly due to fear lest one should pay more than his share, but presumably is rather because the services and utilities which the state affords are not so clearly realized as are those bought individually. To the extent to which public money is raised inequitably or expended improperly the citizen may well resist, but only through civic nearsightedness could the collec- tive purchasing by society of schools, medical attendance, expert service, fire protection, parks, and transportation be opposed. A common play- ground renders it unnecessary for every family to own a private playground. One may see the ocean and reflect upon barnacle-incrusted rocks as fruitfully in the public park of a sea- 130 The Psychology of Citizenship port town as from any other vantage point, and one's contribution to the social purchase of utili- ties should be made with downright satisfaction. Far from grumbling upon payment to the state, the citizen should cultivate a satisfaction in social ownership. By contributing to the purchase of public libraries the citizen secures the vastness of literature for next to nothing. Under equi- table circumstances one should watch the mount- ing rate of taxation or the increase of income of socially owned enterprises with real satisfac- tion, not to say enthusiasm, and realize that the day of common wealth dawns. To be consistent in the dread of taxes the citizen should flinch as little from direct as from indirect payments ; but the atavistic nature of this fear is evident when one considers that a dollar paid out indirectly under the tariff is as really spent as if paid to the tax collector. The future psychologizing historian may well class among the monstrous incunabula of humbug the indirect tax and exclaim at its actual popularity in va- rious forms. What changes would follow the translation of every indirect tax into direct taxa- tion! Then the seemingly sourceless money so prodigally spent on battleships would seem to be dug out of the private purse, and peace would be popular. The fallacy of indirect payment appears like- wise in the reserve attending the compensation Views of Property 181 of public servants as contrasted with the prodi- gality of incomes paid indirectly. The com- munity which would cavil at paying a public servant three thousand dollars a year pays un- complainingly perhaps ten thousand dollars to the president of the local bank and beholds with equanimity the gathering in of the unearned increment on a township of land by a prominent citizen amounting to scores of thousands of dol- lars annually. In either case the public pays, but whether directly or indirectly, whether by formal act or merely in reality, makes a difference. The farmers of a state pay with acquiescence their contributions to individual commercial in- comes ranging upward to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but demur at the payment of more than meager living expenses to men em- ployed in state universities, who, if properly but- tressed financially, might declare an intellectual independence taking the shape of a more active espousal of the interests of citizens of small means. That the origin of wealth, under organized political and industrial society, is social is be- yond question, and the payment of incomes to individuals is as truly by society when in the form of dividends or profits as when voted by public boards and paid on warrants drawn by public officials. But the popular reaction to incomes paid directly differs widely from the re- action to indirect payment. Thus it comes about 132 The Psychology of Citizenship that while the man who markets a scientific product may receive an income of a hundred thou- sand dollars a year, the nation pays the director of a federal experiment station less than five, and that while a member of the cabinet whose work relates to manufacturing is paid twelve thousand dollars a year, a beneficiary of the steel trust is awarded by the same public an income which permits the easy gift of library edifices sufficient in number to serve as mileposts from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Providence, Rhode Island. 6. Competition and Character Emphasis upon private possession and failure to conceive the larger freedom of cooperation result in an unnecessarily severe subsistence com- petition, in which the aim is to get the most for one's self regardless of how others are affected. Tricks and cruelties of trade are inevitable under the conditions. It would be fortunate if conditions were ar- ranged to bring out the best in people. Human nature has its fundamental and abiding tenden- cies and also qualities which are simply reflections of environment. Whether a man becomes a prize fighter or a soldier of the Lord depends upon guiding influences. The channels of expression afforded by one's social setting lead to large consequences. A power of imagination which under right culture might issue in scientific hy- Views of Property 133 potheses may under a wrong culture qualify the consummate liar. Mere exhortations to integrity have but slight effect if the whole pressure and argument of daily circumstance are to the con- trary. The individual is responsive to conditions under which he must maintain himself, even to the disregard of ideals. The iniquity of circum- stances is as real as the depravity of men. If one manufacturer puts shoddy in his cloth others are likely to do the same or go out of business ; we are good or bad together. There is scarcely a lawyer who would not prefer to fight the battles of the poor if he could support his family as well. With physical maintenance assured, and in the absence of disproportionate private wealth, com- petition would assume forms now barely possible. Instead of being controlled by financial consid- erations, the individual would be relatively free to apply his energies to ideal tasks. There are millions today whose aptitudes for creating things in the spirit of art are stunted because of dog-eat-dog economic conditions. To com- pete in advancing the common good under a system permitting cooperation rather than result- ing in collision and the neutralization of efforts would amount to being civilized. The desire to excel may be enlisted for social purposes. It is a matter of social organization whether two re- tailers or physicians hate and envy or pull to- 134 The Psychology of Citizenship gether. People prefer to compete for good opinion but they have to live first. That an unpleasant competition for subsist- ence must prevail is a fallacy of the popular mind. Harmonious relationships and enterprise would be possible were there social provision for physical maintenance. For a higher civilization a minimum subsistence must be assured, that ener- gies may be set free for better forms of effort. There is about as much moral excellence in the world as there can be considering the stake in making money. Without a better economic order one can imagine the people of ten thou- sand years hence cheating, grafting, adulterat- ing, skinning jobs, hiring lawyers to find loop- holes in statutes, swearing off taxes, and gouging the helpless. A low form of subsistence compe- tition emphasizes these activities and gives the trader a foxy air. It is not to be argued, however, that what Stevenson calls a "strong sense of personal identity" is not a valuable social asset. Un- selfishness is pleasing, so let a word be spoken for selfishness. The preferring of others to one's self has bounds beyond which the results are harmful. Whenever^in^dividuals in a class are content with little they place a ball and chain upon others who have spirit and ambition. The school teacher who is willing to work for forty dollars a month, because of undeveloped wants, Views of Property 135 supplies an element which causes professional solidarity to crumble, and through a consequent weakening of education tends to defeat the very aims of civilization. The workingman who does not mind eating from the confines of a hot tin pail delays the arrival of an industrial com- missariat and the uplift of labor. The assertion of self is self-respect, and one cannot properly respect others until his own wants are positive. A willingness to be nothing is a crime against mankind. The amount of actual damage which the humble and contrite of spirit can inflict upon the class to which they belong, upon the coming generation, and upon relatives is equaled perhaps by nothing short of war and pestilence. To fail of self-assertion is to carry backward the hopes of others. But with selfishness discredited there must be offense, and for selfishness without imagination little that is good may be said. There is self- seeking in whose defense no one can speak. It is the altruistic variety of self-assertion which may be commended. Let us work for pure milk, for if others' children are safe mine will be. Here is the circle of considerations which en- lightened selfishness, more reputably known as altruism or social service, pursues. To be selfish in a large way is to help others. In seeking per- sonal ends with imagination advantages gained overflow to the general good. CHAPTER XI A SENSE OF HUMANITY A CALAMITY in any part of the world af- fects every other part. War and waste, flood and famine set up influences that reach far. The retardation of any nation, its ignorance and illiteracy, similarly menace other nations through diseases brought in at ports or through an immigration carrying with it low standards. A country cannot long maintain a civilization far above the average; no country can safely be insensible to conditions prevailing elsewhere. A highly cultivated family living among the igno- rance and dirt of neighbors is constantly menaced. So with a nation. It is important that there be no backward nations, for they are a drawback to civilization the world over. The evolution of the working class is hampered by the existence of serf states of mind in the farthest country on the map. To better one's own condition one must think in terms of fraternity. Brotherhood is dictated by economic considerations. It is necessary that parochialism and provincialism be done away with, and that a ruinous patriotism, out of which conflicts and hatreds rise, be dis- possessed by world consciousness. 136 A Sense of Humanity 137 This consciousness is appearing, to a large ex- tent arising from causes not deliberately set in motion. International commerce has developed a non-provincial point of view. To become friendly when there is mutual understanding is as inevitable as once to regard the stranger as a natural enemy to be defrauded, killed, or eaten. Acquaintance and communication make for a world sense. Hence the advantage of the con- vening of international congresses to consider scientific and other subjects not confined to na- tional boundaries. The interchange of instruc- tors among the schools of various countries is of promise, and the development of fraternalism represented by the international socialist move- ment, which binds together the working classes of the more developed peoples, is a contribution to world betterment whose importance can hardly be exaggerated. It is especially desirable that there be appeals to the emotions in behalf of internationalism. The man who thinks knows already that there is everything to gain by world concord, so it is the man governed by other people's ideas who needs to be reached, and he requires a train- ing of the emotions. An international flag would have possibilities an international emblem, al- ways to float above the flags of nations, which now stand in part for the concentrated prejudices 138 The Psychology of Citizenship and hatreds of centuries, fortifying evil moods by perpetual reminder. The emphasizing of the social rather than the national aspects of history weakens virulent patriotism and establishes a better outlook. Na- tional egotism is inflamed by attention to old- time military episodes and by the selection of historical materials which, as in Germany, may be designed rather to form willing recruits to the colors than to make intelligence impartial. While rational people usually claim recovery from early impressions received from textbooks in history, a recrudescence of juvenile prejudice perhaps awaits but the blare of the band, and Fourth of July oratory and reminiscence are not without saddening implications. Membership in clannish groups makes for anti- social states of mind. It is natural to form clans and groups, but it is important that the sense of kinship shall not be too limited. The mem- ber of a gang is unfitted for society because his world is too small. If his loyalty extended to the general public he would be a good citizen. The politician whose world is confined to his " friends " is, let us hope, to be superseded by the servant of the public whose devotions are not even con- fined to his "party." So the individual content to hurrah only for his city, college, baseball team, denomination, or country should be re- garded as having stages of development ahead of 'A Sense of Humanity 139 him. The highest attitude is expressed in the words, " The world is my country and to do good is my religion." 1. Instinctive Basis of War The chronic impediment to world fellowship is war, or the spirit which outcrops in war, a spirit whose basis is in instinct; for there is no reason, no logic, for war. It is an instinctive reaction to a situation. War does not improve a race ; it does not improve morals ; it does not in general help business; it does not add to happiness; it has not a single rational justifica- tion. On the other hand it combines evils so almost scientifically that it might be regarded as the masterpiece of diabolical intelligence. True, it intensifies national spirit and thus prepares for more wars. There is no well-reasoned and uninspired support of war, and it is the problem of dealing with its peculiar psychology that is today uppermost. It is instinctive to react to an affront by the most direct metho'd, to strike back. This native response, hardly exhibited at all in the shoot- ing of strangers in long-drawn-out campaigns, appeals especially to intelligence little prescient of results and impatient of reason. The physical rather than the mental resolution of a difficulty implies an absence of rationality. Worsted in 140 The Psychology of Citizenship debate, the undeveloped man may ejaculate, " Well, I can lick him anyhow " ; failing to re- pair a machine, he feels like smashing it ; unable to command the intelligence required to deal with child or horse, he " gives it a good thrashing " ; whenever intelligence fails to solve a problem, force is resorted to. To be sure, either party to a fight may alone be the undeveloped individual. But in every case a fight is a resort to instinctive rather than rational alternatives, and every con- flict implies either primitive mind or a bullying for unfair advantage. The psychology of war is primitive, and primi- tive mind is found in adolescents. The armies of the North in the Civil War were made up largely of boys virtually constituting a children's crusade. Boys like nothing better than war tales, this selection representing their sharing in the emotional life of primitive man; however, except in cases of a virtual arrest of development, sometimes even appearing in men of other- wise consistent maturity, youth is likely to outgrow the militaristic stage and acquire peace traits. #. Desire to Travel So far as wars represent the willing participa- tion of the private soldier, the motives are not far to seek. The travel impulse is a dominant one among adolescents, the desire to see new A Sense of Humanity 141 places being among the strongest of interests. 1 Enlistment has been a means of securing travel, which historically has been beyond the purse of the average youth. The appeal is made to young men to join the navy in order to "see the world." One can imagine the downright de- light of the adolescent in former periods, before the days of the locomotive, when a call to arms meant an excursion from England into France or from France to Ireland. During the period of chronic wars only the rich could travel, and the migratory instinct, of which the railroad today is the principal outlet, was corked up. Even the known dangers of arms presumably barely dampened the ardor for such seeing of new places. The time is now scarcely past when one who had been abroad was venerated and envied. The talk of the young men who volun- teered for the Spanish-American War was of seeing Cuba or the Philippines, while the dangers i Professor E. L. Thorndike in his Principles of Teach- ing, A. G. Seller, New York, p. 101, gives a list of ten interests; viz., being at a party; eating a good dinner; playing indoor games, such as games of cards; playing outdoor games, such as baseball, basket-ball, tennis; working with tools, as carpentering or gardening; hear- ing music, as at a concert; being present at a theater; reading a story; resting, such as lying in a hammock or on a couch; traveling or seeing new places. It is the experience of the present writer that when adolescents are asked to indicate their preferences in order among these interests the first choice falls to traveling or seeing new places, with hearing music in second place. The Psychology of Citizenship of war were appropriately minimized. In the time of the Civil War, few northerners knew much of the South, and the romance of a strange land, uniting with the music interest, swelled enlist- ments. Lacking such incentives, the call to arms, North or South, would have perhaps met with an indifference which would have dictated a rea- soned settlement of differences. Cheap travel accordingly tends to let the gas out of the bag of militarism. In view of the fact that the desire to see new places is so strong that life will be risked, the cheapening of trans- portation is important as a peace measure. The desire to liberate the Cuban reconcentrado might, as a result of intelligent travel to our great cities, have given way to an interest to deliver millions of Americans out of rotten slums. The peculiar susceptibility of adolescence, with its impulsions and ignorance, to militaristic expeditions suggests the wisdom of quarantining society as much as possible against such influence. The very fact of adolescence will permanently afford some basis of appeal which may be made use of by such interests as would keep the world armed, though we can hardly know how success- ful would be efforts to teach children from the first the advantages of peace. But if war were declared, not by monarchs, nor by Congress, which, while thought sometimes not to be suffi- ciently responsive to public opinion, is often A Sense of Humanity 143 unduly subservient to mere opinion, but by popu- lar election, to be participated in only by voters above the age of twenty five years, with cumula- tive voting by parents, the likelihood of war would be vastly diminished. Such voting would represent deliberation, which is always fatal to a fight. The spirit of youth is in league with militarism because of its adventure, its novelty, and its opportunities for heroic action and display. There is a subtle thread of sex interest. A youth will perform strange feats to win favor, and not only heroic actions but heroic appearance counts. Feminine admiration of the uniform has had its effect, but if every maid realized that every fruit- ful bullet appointed an unfruitful woman, femi- nine influence would be cast for civilization. Every man killed means an "old maid" or a widow. A woman's life is lost with every man's. 3. Better Use of Fighting Tendency But is there not a still deeper reason why men fight? Is it not a struggle for life? Nothing that is now meant by life can be as well secured by fighting as by united effort. Mutual help brings life. Life is to be had by cooperation, even as the cells of the body cooperate in health. Fighting is a luxury. The world cannot afford to fight. But the fighting tendency, directed to suit- 144 The Psychology of Citizenship able ends, is valuable, indispensable, for it sup- plies motive power. A substitute for fighting against people may be found in fighting against evils, with mankind enlisted under one banner. It is the condemnation of war that its targets are people. There is surely enough to fight pov- erty, disease, ignorance, ugliness, erosion, weeds, bad roads. We can fight for an economic system which would enable producers to consume as much as they produce, thus doing away with the prime cause of modern wars foreign markets. Let wars be made against evils, not against people. The fighting against people, when there are so many evils to fight, is dire waste. It is inconceivable that the intelligence of the world should not ultimately prove sufficient for the abolition of war, even though there is still war and preparation for war. But much of the keenest intelligence is aligned with private inter- ests which profit in some way from militarism. A great mass of people, the successors of vast slave, serf, and peasant populations, possess an outlook which exposes them to manipulation for > military purposes. War lives because there are millions who do not think on some subjects. Wars may be "pulled off" by the action of a few who are in a position to manipulate certain elements of population. But ignorance is lack of nurture, it is not necessarily incapacity ; there are relatively few feeble-minded. The teaching A Sense of Humanity 145 of peace is all that is lacking to make war im- possible. The suggestion may be caused to pre- vail that it is better to sign the inevitable treaty of peace before rather than at the close of hos- tilities, and that the interests of the workers of the world are one. * INDEX Advertising good examples, value of, 9193 Attention, the limits of, 36-41 ; source of diversion of, 36; forms of distraction, 4254 Brain work vs. physical labor, 4245 Character and competition, 132-135 Children, practice of misinforming, 16, 17; effect in later years of early training of, 19 Citizenship, new type of education for, 1017 Civic demands upon intelligence, 1-17 Civic ideas, necessity of diffusing constructive, 92 Civic ignorance, 102104 Civic issues require imagination, 6-8; study of them necessary, 8-10 Civic publicity and the voter, 99-108 Classics, the student of the, and the coming nation, 11, 12 College men and " sucker lists," 12, 13 ^ Competition and character, 132-135 Congress, how characterized by H. G. Wells, 46 ^ Constitutions, undue veneration, f or, 13 Contentment with working conditions, importance of, 72, 73 Courts, the, and actual justice, 113; without law- yers, 113, 114; allied with reaction, 114 Dead hand of old ideas, and progress, 85, 86 Democracy, new literature necessary for a truer, 89 Distraction, forms of, 4254 Dress and woman, 51, 52 Economic conditions, effect on achievement of, 133 * Economy, doubtful virtue of strict, 126 ^ 147 m * 148 Index Education, new type of, for citizenship, 10-17; system of, suffers an undevelopment, 1 41 6 Educational test, is such feasible? 104-108 Elizabethan play, a force not conducive to modern welfare, 89 Employees, unstimulated to thought, 32 Employments, 67; should be promoted by the social order, 70, 71 ; may be judged by the conditions with which one is content, 72, 73 Environment, affects views, 1820; force of, 28, 33ff. Expectations, great, of financial luck, 128-129 Fear as a motive, 82, 83 Feeling more influential than argument, 23 Fighting tendency, the, the better use for, 143-145 Ford, Henry, wise treatment of machine opera- tives, 61 Gompers, Samuel, on effect of machine tending, 62, 63 Government, should have the scientific method applied to it, 118, 119 Habit and custom, 18, 20-23 Humanity, a sense of, 136145 Ideals, importance of fine, 85 Ideas, inheritance of, 85-88 Illiteracy, in the United States, 44, 45; general and civic ignorance characterizes, 102 Imagination, required in civic issues, 68 Imagination, power of in character forming, 132, 133 Incomes, overpayment and underpayment in, 27 Individual, the development of the, 70 Index 149 Individual, the, responsive to conditions, 133 Industrial life, modern, represents maladjustment between work and man, 83 Industrial war, when a logical result, 78, 79 Industrial world, peace in the, and keeping labor ignorant of profits, 75, 76 Industry, self-government in, 83, 84 Injustice in industrial relations and sabotage, 79 Intelligence, stimulated by change of surroundings, 29, 30; and by machinery, 5658; when harmed by machine work, 59-66; less called for in cer- tain industries, 66; stunted by certain jobs, 67 Interests, which characterize the public today, 53 ; should be a larger recognition of the natural, 74; travel one of the strongest, 141 ; list of, 141 Internationalism, to be sought, 136, 137, 139 Journalism, civic, men and women should be trained to, 101 Joy, value of in work, but too often absent, 72, 73 ; possible to release, 81 ; and strict economy, 126, 127 Labor, shorter hours for, and progress, 43; and machine production, 59; the spirit of, 7284; value of contentment in, 7274; kept in igno- rance of profits, 75, 76; proper motivation nec- essary in, 77, 78 ; pleasure in, 80-82 Law, its static nature under tradition, 109, 112 Lawyers and society, 112-116; New Zealand's progress and absence of, 113; courts without, 113, 114; need modern education, 115 Legal mind, the, 109-119 Legislation, its shortcomings, 3, 4, 8, 46; experi- mental, 116-119 Leisure is possible, 55, 56 Literature, influence of on civilization, 8891 150 Index Machinery, effect of on the mind, 55-71; stimu- lates thought, 56-58; effect of on operatives, 59-66; the fool-proof, 69-71 Mating, literature concerning, 49 Motivation in the factory, 7580 New Zealand, striking progress and absence of lawyers, 113; legal advice in, from state-paid officials, 115 Novels, influence of the cheap, 88 Old age, economizing for, 126, 127 Operatives, effect on, of machinery, 5966; kept in ignorance of profits, 75, 76 Ownership, exclusive, of property, 120123; com- mon, 121, 122; and social viewpoint, 123-126 Patriotism, effect of a ruinous, 136-138 Peace, teaching of, all that is lacking to make war impossible, 145 People, and perfect self-government, 10 Physical activity and political sagacity, 44 Pictures, use of, and response to, for promoting social progress, 9396 Political progress and illiteracy, 45 Precedent, the rule of, 109-112 Progress, opposition of law to, 110, 111 Progress affected by thought, 85-88; attitude toward taxes an obstacle to, 129132 Property, views of, 120-135 Public affairs, value of reports on, 99-102 Publicity, need of effective, 38 Reasoning ability, limits of, 4-6 Religion, importance of newer views of, 52; and motivation in industries, 76, 77 Reports on public affairs, value of reports on to the voter, 99-102 Index 151 Rockefeller General Education Board, its contri- bution rejected by the Senate, 3 " Rooting," representative of a phase of American life, 46, 47 Routine employments are general, 6668 Sabotage, what it results from, 79 Self-assertion, necessary for the welfare of others, 135, 136 Self-government in industry, 83, 84 Self-respect, necessity of the assertion of, 135 Servile emotions, 2328 Sex interests and social progress, 4751 Shock, the law of, 28-35 Slogan, the, useful in promoting social progress, 96-98 Social, anti-, states of mind, 138 Social concepts, outworn, and the rate of progress, 90 Social inequality, what is at its basis, 25, 26 Social inertia, 18-35 Social order should develop intelligence, 70 Social problems, their complexity, 14 Social progress and experimental legislation, 116 119 Social reforms hindered by devotion to sports, 47; by sex over interest, 475 1 ; by fashion, 5 1 Social sciences, represent the type of learning needed, 112 Social viewpoint, and ownership, 123126 Society, how it has gone forward, 2; seeks social ends, 2 Solidarity of families and nations, 136 Specialization in machine work, bad and good effects of, 60-64 Sports, energy given to, 4547 152 Index Suffrage, desirable limitations of the, 105-108 Suggestion, the control of, 8598 Taxes, attitude toward, 129-132 Tenant farmers, shiftless, and why, 81 Thought-materials, importance to progress, 85ff., 89 Thrift, 126-128 Tradition, hard to shake off, 85-87, 89, 93 ; legal, 109ff. ; preponderance of in courts, 114; judges should not be fettered by, 116 Travel, desire to, 140-143 Utilities, right view regarding social purchase of, 129, 130 Voter, his ignorance of essentials, 8; his need of study, 9; and civic publicity, 99108; the un- informed, 102-104; limited ballot for the, 105 War, sanctified by false arid misleading literature, 88, 91; the instinctive basis of, 139-140; the effects of, 139, 140; and the desire to travel, 141; results of for women, 143; a better form of, 143145; private interests and, 144; and ignorance, 144 Wastes, what kind of, should receive first consid- eration, 73 Wealth, origin of, social, 131, 132; making, and moral excellence, 134 Woman and dress, 51, 52 Work, pleasure in, 80-82 Worker's interests, recognition of the, 73-75 Youth, the spirit of, in league with militarism, 143 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. 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