M. A. C. ALUMNI REUNION. 443 



of its people it must do all in its power to promote the widest diffusion 

 of ediu-ation, especially among the youth. The money of" a people that 

 is spent in the establishment of public schools, colleges, uui\ersities 

 and free ijublic libraries is the best investment it makes of auy 

 character. 



Notwithstanding all our modern advantages, there are at work, in 

 our body jiolitic, infiuences having a tendency in the opinion of many 

 to dei)ress the virility of our people. 



^\'e are living in a progressive age. Individuality, apparently, is 

 becoming submerged in a general mass. The growth of the corporate 

 idea, which some call revolution and others evolution, has a strong 

 tendency to make man seem a part of a machine, rather than to 

 develop in him a dis'tiuct and separate existence. The invention of the 

 cotton gin, the loom, the application of steam to the means of public 

 transit, both on land and water, and to manufacturing generally, the 

 telegraph and the telephone, and the new and useful applications of 

 electricity to the comforts and luxuries of the people, together with all 

 the inventions for the cheapening of labor and lessening the cost of 

 the production of products of all kinds, has bi-ought about a change that 

 has tended to the blending of man into so small a jjart of our industrial 

 society that his individuality is well nigh submerged. The change is 

 certainly one of evolution, and a little comparison will show that we 

 are outstripping our ancestors in bringing within easy reach the sub- 

 stantial necessities, comforts and enjoyments of life, that they had to 

 struggle long and hard to obtain. If they can be more evenly distrib- 

 uted, so that more of our people may enjoy their benefits, all of these 

 signs will be hopeful and reassuring. 



But, as if to pre-empt for the use and profit of a few, all of these 

 things which should be the heritage of the man}^ a creature called a 

 corporation has come u])on the S(^ene and embraces the great properties 

 like railroads, te]egrai>hs, telephones, coal and oil fields, steamboat 

 lines, mining industries, and all of their kind down to the smallest ])ri- 

 vate enterprises. Our retail stores, bake shojis, shoemakers, ice 

 wagons, the i)ractice of law, even, in fact, almost every kind of business, 

 is now masking itself under corporate impersonality. 



Take the leather industry for an example. Instead of a nmn being 

 the maker of a whole boot, he will simply act perhaps as a pegger, 

 or a stitcher, or a tip maker, or a seam maker, and so on to every part 

 of a comi)Iete shoe. The trade of making a whole shoe is lost. A man 

 who does nothing but operate a peg driving machine all his life, utterly 

 unconscious of what was done before him and of what will follow, 

 certainly will have but little incentive to stimulate his feeling of inde- 

 penden<e and intei-cst in the Imsiness of his emjjioyer. He is simply an 

 automatum. And this same idea goes througli all the modern indus- 

 tries. 



Individual ambition under such influences is stunted, for there is no 

 field for its exercise. Such a nuiu's only object is to please his master 

 and this is the antithesis of a healthy personality. 



If it be true on the other hand, however, as it is asserted, that the 

 promotion of this class of corporate life and activity secures more 

 contentment, steadier emidoyment to the laborer and average business 

 man at regular wanes, slioi-ter hours and consequent ly more leisure for 

 rest, study or recreation, lower prices for what the people have to buy. 



