THE WAR GARDEN VICTORIOUS 65 



ment in this side occupation of gardening, their release 

 from the narrowing and confining work in which they 

 often are engaged, it is appropriate to quote from an 

 article by Professor Irving Fisher of Yale University, a 

 member of the Commission, in which he says: 



A laboring man sees his work sweep by him, a peg in 

 a shoe, a bolt in an automobile, and since he is not able 

 to visualize his part in the product, his work ceases to 

 be interesting and becomes drudgery. He wants to 

 shorten his hours; and the employer, whose work is 

 interesting, whose work is his life, cannot understand 

 why the employe is always trying to shirk, whereas he 

 himself is willing to work twelve or sixteen hours a day. 

 The reason is that in one case the instinct of workman- 

 ship is satisfied and in the other case it is not. 



Here we have summarized in a telling way one of the 

 best possible arguments in favor of the upbuilding, the 

 strengthening, and the continuation of war gardening 

 among the employes of mills, factories and shops. 

 The tasks they are performing in most cases do not 

 satisfy their "instinct of workmanship." They do not 

 finish their day's labor and go home with the feeling 

 that they have taken a step forward, that they have 

 accomplished something which will add to their value 

 to themselves, their families, the community and the 

 country. 



A man who is a cog in a vast machine cannot put 

 individuality into the driving of continuous pegs into 

 a shoe; but when he gets outside the walls of the factory 

 into the little forty by sixty vegetable plot he is cul- 



