THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 5 



doing the reverse ; in no other country does the laborer 

 have so little pride in his calling, even among skilled 

 workmen, as in our own. Had our schools and col- 

 leges done as much to exalt mechanical skill and effi- 

 ciency as they have to develop football players, labor 

 conditions and labor sentiment would be entirely dif- 

 ferent; and the majority of those graduating from our 

 schools and colleges would not shrink from, nor feel 

 humiliated by, honest manual toil. 



Our high school graduates, and a very large propor- 

 tion of our college graduates, have been prepared for 

 nothing but to continue school; so that they find to 

 their surprise that they are fitted for nothing in par- 

 ticular; that there is no niche in every-day life that 

 their education has prepared them to fill. Nothing is 

 more discouraging and nothing leads to greater dis- 

 content and bitterness than for one to find that for 

 which he has labored, and esteemed of highest value, 

 worthless. 



So everywhere we are turning out malcontents 

 young men and women, unprepared for anything but 

 the most common manual labor, which they are 

 ashamed to do. The false glamour thrown about 

 great wealth makes their outlook dark. Observing 

 men, without rendering any adequate service to soci- 

 ety, accumulating colossal fortunes, they are over- 

 whelmed with a feeling of dependence which ever en- 

 genders misanthropy. Hence, many of these become 

 easy victims to the socialistic agitator, the demagogue 

 and other enemies of society. 



Our sister republics are all finding how to prepare 

 "the youth and immigrants for citizenship a perplexing 



