Chapter 7
"It is after you have mustered your industrial army into service," Isaid, "that I should expect the chief difficulty to arise, for thereits analogy with a military army must cease. Soldiers have all the samething, and a very simple thing, to do, namely, to practice the manualof arms, to march and stand guard. But the industrial army must learnand follow two or three hundred diverse trades and avocations. Whatadministrative talent can be equal to determining wisely what trade orbusiness every individual in a great nation shall pursue?"
"The administration has nothing to do with determining that point."
"Who does determine it, then?" I asked.
"Every man for himself in accordance with his natural aptitude, theutmost pains being taken to enable him to find out what his naturalaptitude really is. The principle on which our industrial army isorganized is that a man's natural endowments, mental and physical,determine what he can work at most profitably to the nation and mostsatisfactorily to himself. While the obligation of service in some formis not to be evaded, voluntary election, subject only to necessaryregulation, is depended on to determine the particular sort of serviceevery man is to render. As an individual's satisfaction during his termof service depends on his having an occupation to his taste, parentsand teachers watch from early years for indications of specialaptitudes in children. A thorough study of the National industrialsystem, with the history and rudiments of all the great trades, is anessential part of our educational system. While manual training is notallowed to encroach on the general intellectual culture to which ourschools are devoted, it is carried far enough to give our youth, inaddition to their theoretical knowledge of the national industries,mechanical and agricultural, a certain familiarity with their tools andmethods. Our schools are constantly visiting our workshops, and oftenare taken on long excursions to inspect particular industrialenterprises. In your day a man was not ashamed to be grossly ignorantof all trades except his own, but such ignorance would not beconsistent with our idea of placing every one in a position to selectintelligently the occupation for which he has most taste. Usually longbefore he is mustered into service a young man has found out thepursuit he wants to follow, has acquired a great deal of knowledgeabout it, and is waiting impatiently the time when he can enlist in itsranks."
"Surely," I said, "it can hardly be that the number of volunteers forany trade is exactly the number needed in that trade. It must begenerally either under or over the demand."
"The supply of volunteers is always expected to fully equal thedemand," replied Dr. Leete. "It is the business of the administrationto see that this is the case. The rate of volunteering for each tradeis closely watched. If there be a noticeably greater excess ofvolunteers over men needed in any trade, it is inferred that the tradeoffers greater attractions than others. On the other hand, if thenumber of volunteers for a trade tends to drop below the demand, it isinferred that it is thought more arduous. It is the business of theadministration to seek constantly to equalize the attractions of thetrades, so far as the conditions of labor in them are concerned, sothat all trades shall be equally attractive to persons having naturaltastes for them. This is done by making the hours of labor in differenttrades to differ according to their arduousness. The lighter trades,prosecuted under the most agreeable circumstances, have in this way thelongest hours, while an arduous trade, such as mining, has very shorthours. There is no theory, no a priori rule, by which the respectiveattractiveness of industries is determined. The administration, intaking burdens off one class of workers and adding them to otherclasses, simply follows the fluctuations of opinion among the workersthemselves as indicated by the rate of volunteering. The principle isthat no man's work ought to be, on the whole, harder for him than anyother man's for him, the workers themselves to be the judges. There areno limits to the application of this rule. If any particular occupationis in itself so arduous or so oppressive that, in order to inducevolunteers, the day's work in it had to be reduced to ten minutes, itwould be done. If, even then, no man was willing to do it, it wouldremain undone. But of course, in point of fact, a moderate reduction inthe hours of labor, or addition of other privileges, suffices to secureall needed volunteers for any occupation necessary to men. If, indeed,the unavoidable difficulties and dangers of such a necessary pursuitwere so great that no inducement of compensating advantages wouldovercome men's repugnance to it, the administration would only need totake it out of the common order of occupations by declaring it 'extrahazardous,' and those who pursued it especially worthy of the nationalgratitude, to be overrun with volunteers. Our young men are very greedyof honor, and do not let slip such opportunities. Of course you willsee that dependence on the purely voluntary choice of avocationsinvolves the abolition in all of anything like unhygienic conditions orspecial peril to life and limb. Health and safety are conditions commonto all industries. The nation does not maim and slaughter its workmenby thousands, as did the private capitalists and corporations of yourday."
"When there are more who want to enter a particular trade than there isroom for, how do you decide between the applicants?" I inquired.
"Preference is given to those who have acquired the most knowledge ofthe trade they wish to follow. No man, however, who through successiveyears remains persistent in his desire to show what he can do at anyparticular trade, is in the end denied an opportunity. Meanwhile, if aman cannot at first win entrance into the business he prefers, he hasusually one or more alternative preferences, pursuits for which he hassome degree of aptitude, although not the highest. Every one, indeed,is expected to study his aptitudes so as to have not only a firstchoice as to occupation, but a second or third, so that if, either atthe outset of his career or subsequently, owing to the progress ofinvention or changes in demand, he is unable to follow his firstvocation, he can still find reasonably congenial employment. Thisprinciple of secondary choices as to occupation is quite important inour system. I should add, in reference to the counter-possibility ofsome sudden failure of volunteers in a particular trade, or some suddennecessity of an increased force, that the administration, whiledepending on the voluntary system for filling up the trades as a rule,holds always in reserve the power to call for special volunteers, ordraft any force needed from any quarter. Generally, however, all needsof this sort can be met by details from the class of unskilled orcommon laborers."
"How is this class of common laborers recruited?" I asked. "Surelynobody voluntarily enters that."
"It is the grade to which all new recruits belong for the first threeyears of their service. It is not till after this period, during whichhe is assignable to any work at the discretion of his superiors, thatthe young man is allowed to elect a special avocation. These threeyears of stringent discipline none are exempt from, and very glad ouryoung men are to pass from this severe school into the comparativeliberty of the trades. If a man were so stupid as to have no choice asto occupation, he would simply remain a common laborer; but such cases,as you may suppose, are not common."
"Having once elected and entered on a trade or occupation," I remarked,"I suppose he has to stick to it the rest of his life."
"Not necessarily," replied Dr. Leete; "while frequent and merelycapricious changes of occupation are not encouraged or even permitted,every worker is allowed, of course, under certain regulations and inaccordance with the exigencies of the service, to volunteer for anotherindustry which he thinks would suit him better than his first choice.In this case his application is received just as if he werevolunteering for the first time, and on the same terms. Not only this,but a worker may likewise, under suitable regulations and not toofrequently, obtain a transfer to an establishment of the same industryin another part of the country which for any reason he may prefer.Under your system a discontented man could indeed leave his work atwill, but he left his means of support at the same time, and took hischances as to future livelihood. We find that the number of men whowish to abandon an accustomed occupation for a new one, and old friendsand assoc
iations for strange ones, is small. It is only the poorer sortof workmen who desire to change even as frequently as our regulationspermit. Of course transfers or discharges, when health demands them,are always given."
"As an industrial system, I should think this might be extremelyefficient," I said, "but I don't see that it makes any provision forthe professional classes, the men who serve the nation with brainsinstead of hands. Of course you can't get along without thebrain-workers. How, then, are they selected from those who are to serveas farmers and mechanics? That must require a very delicate sort ofsifting process, I should say."
"So it does," replied Dr. Leete; "the most delicate possible test isneeded here, and so we leave the question whether a man shall be abrain or hand worker entirely to him to settle. At the end of the termof three years as a common laborer, which every man must serve, it isfor him to choose, in accordance to his natural tastes, whether he willfit himself for an art or profession, or be a farmer or mechanic. If hefeels that he can do better work with his brains than his muscles, hefinds every facility provided for testing the reality of his supposedbent, of cultivating it, and if fit of pursuing it as his avocation.The schools of technology, of medicine, of art, of music, ofhistrionics, and of higher liberal learning are always open toaspirants without condition."
"Are not the schools flooded with young men whose only motive is toavoid work?"
Dr. Leete smiled a little grimly.
"No one is at all likely to enter the professional schools for thepurpose of avoiding work, I assure you," he said. "They are intendedfor those with special aptitude for the branches they teach, and anyone without it would find it easier to do double hours at his tradethan try to keep up with the classes. Of course many honestly mistaketheir vocation, and, finding themselves unequal to the requirements ofthe schools, drop out and return to the industrial service; nodiscredit attaches to such persons, for the public policy is toencourage all to develop suspected talents which only actual tests canprove the reality of. The professional and scientific schools of yourday depended on the patronage of their pupils for support, and thepractice appears to have been common of giving diplomas to unfitpersons, who afterwards found their way into the professions. Ourschools are national institutions, and to have passed their tests is aproof of special abilities not to be questioned.
"This opportunity for a professional training," the doctor continued,"remains open to every man till the age of thirty is reached, afterwhich students are not received, as there would remain too brief aperiod before the age of discharge in which to serve the nation intheir professions. In your day young men had to choose theirprofessions very young, and therefore, in a large proportion ofinstances, wholly mistook their vocations. It is recognized nowadaysthat the natural aptitudes of some are later than those of others indeveloping, and therefore, while the choice of profession may be madeas early as twenty-four, it remains open for six years longer."
A question which had a dozen times before been on my lips now foundutterance, a question which touched upon what, in my time, had beenregarded the most vital difficulty in the way of any final settlementof the industrial problem. "It is an extraordinary thing," I said,"that you should not yet have said a word about the method of adjustingwages. Since the nation is the sole employer, the government must fixthe rate of wages and determine just how much everybody shall earn,from the doctors to the diggers. All I can say is, that this plan wouldnever have worked with us, and I don't see how it can now unless humannature has changed. In my day, nobody was satisfied with his wages orsalary. Even if he felt he received enough, he was sure his neighborhad too much, which was as bad. If the universal discontent on thissubject, instead of being dissipated in curses and strikes directedagainst innumerable employers, could have been concentrated upon one,and that the government, the strongest ever devised would not have seentwo pay days."
Dr. Leete laughed heartily.
"Very true, very true," he said, "a general strike would most probablyhave followed the first pay day, and a strike directed against agovernment is a revolution."
"How, then, do you avoid a revolution every pay day?" if demanded. "Hassome prodigious philosopher devised a new system of calculussatisfactory to all for determining the exact and comparative value ofall sorts of service, whether by brawn or brain, by hand or voice, byear or eye? Or has human nature itself changed, so that no man looksupon his own things but 'every man on the things of his neighbor'? Oneor the other of these events must be the explanation."
"Neither one nor the other, however, is," was my host's laughingresponse. "And now, Mr. West," he continued, "you must remember thatyou are my patient as well as my guest, and permit me to prescribesleep for you before we have any more conversation. It is after threeo'clock."
"The prescription is, no doubt, a wise one," I said; "I only hope itcan be filled."
"I will see to that," the doctor replied, and he did, for he gave me awineglass of something or other which sent me to sleep as soon as myhead touched the pillow.