18 TWENTY-FIRST REPORT. 



of mental alertness. A change in industrial methods, in the workshop condi- 

 tions, in the incentives to activity may likewise work marvelous changes in 

 the activities and the attitude of workers. "Primitive man, like his animal 

 ancestors, expended tremendous strength and, having won his fight, rehipsed 

 into inaction, revelling in the fruits of victory.'"* The man in the factory, the 

 mine or the store is capable of extraordinary activity on occasion, — note his 

 activity when witnessing a close base-ball game, when on a strike or in case 

 of an emergency such as a fire. The vocation of the mass of wage workers 

 today offers very little to fire the workers or to arouse their latent energy or 

 talents ; there are few or no episodes which stir the blood and call for tem- 

 poi'ary, excessive or invigorating expenditure of effort. As a consequence the 

 average worker soon exhibits the all too familiar "tendency to minimum 

 effort." In modern industry, except for a small group, "improvement stimulus" 

 is practically lacking. The great mass of unstimulated workers become unin- 

 terested and inefficient workers ; they do not feel those incentives which stir 

 human beings into activity. Yet, business comi)etition can be made to offer 

 opportunities for potent stimuli. One force, group or gang may become inter- 

 ested in its performance as compared with that of another or with its preced- 

 ing pei'formance. But, unless the workers have some very definite voice in 

 determining the conditions of rivalry, in sharing in its benefits, it is presently 

 looked upon as a scheme on the part of the employer to increase profits, — and 

 too often with excellent reasons for such conclusion. 



The situation in American industry — a skilled staff of mental workers and 

 a mass of routine workers without any voice in the management of the 

 industry in which they work — runs directly counter to the ideals of American 

 political democracy and to the fundamental principles upon which the Amer- 

 ican public school rests. The schools of Germany "were organized upon the 

 servility of the people" ; but those of the United States on the ideal of indi- 

 vidual initiative and equality of opportunity. Unfortmiately, in this country 

 industry and, too frequently, the school as well are destroying the plasticity, 

 the initiative and the self-reliance of the youth ; and the much-lauded systems 

 of scientific management seem to constitute a further step in the same 

 direction. 



The effect of routine in industry is to divide the army of unskilled and 

 semi-skilled workers in this country into two classes: (1) those who are 

 becoming more and more lethargic, and (2) those who rebel against the 

 autocracy of business and the monotony of the work thus augmenting the 

 ranks of the migratory workers. The trend in industry is to redtice the rela- 

 tive demand for skilled men and to add to the relative number of unskilled 

 workers. The future of the workers in the occupations requiring little skill is, 

 consequently, becoming of increasing significance. The great mass of laborers 

 have little opportunity for self-expression, self-assertion and self-direction. 



