ioo8 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



December i. 1913. 



remarkable discovery made by ^h. 

 Levenstein was the influence exercised 

 on the weavers by the rhythmical move- 

 ments of the looms. This seemed to rule 

 and sway the brains of the weavers so 

 that all their thoughts tended to shape 

 themselves metrically. It was found 

 that most of their thinking was imagina- 

 tive rather than speculative, and not less 

 than 817 poems were submitted by mem- 

 bers of this group in answer to Mr. 

 Levenstein's questionings. 



That the machinery tended to release 

 mental forces became an inevitable con- 

 clusion as Mr. Levenstein's investiga- 

 tions proceeded. Unfortunately he was 

 also compelled to conclude that this re- 

 sult was caused by antipathetic rather 

 than sympathetic reactions : that is to 

 say, the thinking of the workmen was 

 forced on them as a means of mental 

 self-preservation. This was indicated 

 by the fact that so many of the answers 

 revealed undisguised dislike, or even 

 hatred, of the work in hand. And al- 

 most invariably monotony was given as 

 the reason of this feeling. The dislike 

 for their own form of work was 

 strongest among the textile workers, of 

 whom no less than 75 per cent, con- 

 fessed to it. It was least felt among the 

 metal workers, to whom a comparative!}' 

 high degree of initiative is granted, but 

 even among them 56 per cent, failed to 

 take any interest whatever in their work. 



Most characteristic were the answers 

 received in response to the question what 

 kind of work they preferred to do. 

 Only 10 per cent, of the weavers, and 

 a very little larger percentage of the 

 metal workers and coal miners, wanted 

 to continue the work already theirs. 

 Most of the detailed answers indicated 

 above everything else a desire for some 

 kind of work enabling the worker to 

 see the finished product of his toil. To 

 watch, day out and day in, the same 

 infinitesimal detail of a work that in its 

 entirety lay wholly without the ken of 

 the workman, had to many become a 

 source of acute .suffering. One man 

 wrote that his only w-ay of overcoming 

 this factor was to change employment 



ever}' few weeks. Another wrote that 

 through many years of soul-wearying 

 monotony he had been reduced to a state 

 of bestial contentment, wdiere he cared 

 for nothing but eating, drinking, and 

 sleeping. 



The investigation of the reading mat- 

 ter appealing to the different classes of 

 workers showed that scientific and other 

 informative literature w^as read by 27 

 per cent, of the metal workers, by 14 per 

 cent, of the weavers, and only by 1 1 per 

 cent of the coal miners. On the other 

 hand, only 7 per cent, of the metal 

 workers professed a liking for acknow- 

 ledged " trashy " literature, while not 

 less than 39 per cent, of the coal miners 

 indulged in this kind of mental relaxa- 

 tion. These figures do not include pro- 

 pagandist literature relating to Social- 

 ism or the trades union movement. 

 Literature of this latter kind was con- 

 stantl}^ being read by 43 per cent, of the 

 metal workers and 44 per cent, of the 

 weavers, hut only by 19 per cent, among 

 the coal miners. A tendency to a Uto- 

 pian faith in the future of the working- 

 class movement evidenced itself parti- 

 cularh' among the textile workers, one 

 of whom wrote : " I have faith, and my 

 faith in itself is a piece of millennium." 

 Equally striking, however, was the capa- 

 city for independent thinking shown by 

 individual workers — as, for instance, by 

 the one who wrote : " The final goal 

 must be man himself, and not any kind 

 of political organisation." 



Of special interest proved the charac- 

 ter of the reading chosen by those turn- 

 ing to serious literature. Schopenhauer 

 was found an unexpected favourite 

 among them. Schiller, Goethe, Kant, 

 and Lessing were others, while more 

 logically, the German materialistic 

 thinker, Briichner, had attracted a largt 

 number of readers among the socialis- 

 tically inclined workers. As a rule it 

 was found that the works exercising 

 most general attraction were those deal- 

 ing with the actual life of nature (not 

 geography), the spiritual (rather than 

 political) development of man, and the 

 orefanisation of the universe. 



