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- 
5 
