WORLD PROBLEMS.
Each locality has its questions of interest; each state has subjects
which arouse discussion; each nation has its issues of paramount
importance, and the world has its problems. There are transient
questions which come and go and questions which, like Tennyson's
brook, "go on forever." Each generation, in each country, meets
the issues presented by conditions, but all the nations of the
earth are constantly grappling with problems universal in their
scope and everlasting in duration. In his famous oration at
Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln spoke of an "unfinished work" which
those buried there had promoted and to which the living should
dedicate themselves. Every generation finds an unfinished work
when it enters upon life's stage and leaves the work unfinished
when it departs. The work of civilization is ever an unfinished
one for the reason that new problems present themselves as soon
as present ones have been solved. In our trip around the world we
have had an opportunity to note some of the problems which most
concern all peoples at all times. The first concerns the legitimate
sphere of government--what should the government, acting for all
the people, do, and what should be left to the individual? This
problem is under consideration in every civilized nation, and no two
nations have reached the same solution. At the two extremes stand
the individualist and the socialist--the former jealously guarding
the individual and opposing any encroachments upon his sphere of
action, the latter emphasizing the work of the state and seeking
to convert the work of production and the work of distribution
into state functions. Between these extremes stand the mass of the
people, governed more by the exigencies of each individual case
than by the theories put forward by individualist and socialist. In
some directions the governments of Europe and Asia have extended
the sphere of the state beyond anything known in the United States;
in some respects our government has enlarged the sphere of the
state beyond anything attempted in the old world, but everywhere
the tendency is to extend rather than to diminish the sphere of the
state's activities.
In the United States the public school is probably the best
illustration of extensive co-operation on the part of the public.
We regard the education of the people as a matter of public
importance--so vital a matter, in fact, that we no longer depend
upon the private school. The private school has its place, and its
establishment is encouraged by localities and regarded with favor
by the government, but the people, acting as a whole, insist that
the school door shall be open to every child born into the country.
In the last quarter of a century much advance has been made in
the establishment by the public of technical schools, such as law
schools, medical colleges, dentistry schools, industrial schools and
agricultural colleges. Probably the greatest comparative advance
has been made in the matter of agricultural colleges and experiment
stations. In Europe the public school system is spreading, more
rapidly in northern than in southern Europe, but not less surely in
southern Europe. In Asia the people are just beginning to recognize
education as a public function--a part of the state's work. In Japan
public instruction has for some years been modeled after the systems
employed in the United States and Europe. In Asia the public school
is more of a modern origin, but some idea of the rapidity with which
the public school is spreading in China may be known from the fact
that four thousand public schools have been established within five
years in the district of one of the viceroys.
Municipal ownership presents another phase of this subject; a
century ago comparatively few cities in this country or Europe
owned their own waterworks; now it is the exception that any city
of any size relies upon a private corporation for its water supply.
City lighting is having the same history, although municipalization
began later with lighting plants than with waterworks. Now comes the
question of street car lines, and, as the same principles apply, the
same inevitable trend toward municipal ownership is noticeable. The
experience of all the cities has been practically the same; first,
liberal franchises to induce the establishment of water, light or
street car plants; second, efforts at regulation and restriction,
made futile by the corrupt influence of the franchise companies;
third, municipal ownership as a protection to the people and as
a means of purifying politics. In the extent to which municipal
ownership has been carried Great Britain leads the world, although
in other countries some cities like Vienna have rivaled the cities
of Great Britain.
In nearly all of the countries of Europe and Asia the telegraph
lines are now owned by the government, and in most of the cities the
telephone system is also owned by the public. It is hardly necessary
to say that in all countries of any standing the mail service
is now in the hands of the government. There is very noticeable
growth in the government ownership of railroads. Many years ago the
government ownership of railroads was tested in various European
nations and the tendency toward the extension of government mileage
and the diminution of the mileage of privately owned roads has been
constant. In some countries there is still competition between the
government lines and the lines owned by private corporations, but
experience leaves no doubt that the lines owned by the government
will ultimately supplant the roads in private hands. Switzerland
has within four years purchased the main railroad system within her
territory; Japan has within a year extended the government railroads
by purchasing some of the roads formerly in private hands, and
the Indian government is planning to absorb more of the privately
owned lines. In France a number of the railroads hold fifty-year
charters, which have now more than half expired, and which provide
for the surrender of the lines to the government at the end of
that period--the government in the meantime guaranteeing a fixed
interest and an annual contribution to the sinking fund. It is
not fair to compare the government railroads of Europe with the
private railroads of America. The conditions are quite different.
The comparison should be made between the government and private in
the same country. Experience has shown that in the United States
municipal plants furnish better and cheaper service than private
plants.
While local considerations and local conditions have much to do
in the determination of each case, there is one general principle
which is becoming more and more clearly outlined as the question
of government ownership is discussed, namely, that when a monopoly
becomes necessary it must be a government monopoly and not a
monopoly in private hands. In other words, the principle now most
familiarly applied is, "competition where competition is possible;
government monopoly where competition is impossible." I have
not space for the discussion of details; many different methods
have been employed in different countries for the acquiring of
private plants by the city or state, and different methods have
been employed in different countries for the elimination of the
political element from public service. Those who have faith in the
intelligence and capacity of the people have confidence that they
will be able to reduce to a minimum any dangers attendant upon a
course which they believe to be necessary to their own welfare. The
fact that after more than a quarter of a century of experience no
retrograde movement is to be observed furnishes some proof that the
dangers anticipated have not been shown to be insurmountable.
Another world problem is to be found in the effort to fix woman's
place in the social economy. No one can travel around the world
without noting the wide difference that exists between the treatment
of woman in different countries. In the Orient she has, until
comparatively recent years, occupied a very inferior position. In
no respect has the influence of the west upon the east been more
marked than in the elevation of woman. Even in Japan, where for
half a century the ideas of America and Europe have found vigorous
growth, woman's position is not yet equal to man's. The education
of boys received attention before the education of the girls, but
the girls' schools are now multiplying in number and in attendance.
Traveling in the country one still sees the blackened teeth, it
formerly having been regarded as the proper thing for a woman to
make her teeth black after marriage, but among the young generation
the custom is unknown. In China woman has not only lagged behind
man in education, but she has been subjected to a torture known as
foot-binding which is to be found nowhere else. Societies are now
being formed to discourage the practice, but it is sad to learn
how slowly this reform has grown. In both Japan and China plural
marriage, or what has been equivalent to plural marriage, has been
common. The man has been allowed to take unto himself as many wives
as he could support without asking the consent of former wives--a
practice which seems strange to those who have been brought up to
regard the marriage vows as mutually binding and to consider man
and woman as standing upon an equal plane when entering upon the
relation of husband and wife.
In India child marriage is one of the worst customs that has
afflicted these unhappy people. Girls have been given in marriage
when only nine or ten years old, and a widow of twelve or thirteen
is not unusual. Remarriage of widows is not permitted under Hindu
custom, suttee, or the burning of the widow, formerly being regarded
as the proper thing. In both India and Arabia the women are still
veiled and excluded from the society of men. It is difficult
to estimate the loss that has come to society from the failure
to recognize the mutual stimulus which man and woman find in
co-operation in the work of civilization.
Even in Europe woman's position is not as good as it is in the
United States, although in the Christian countries her rights are
more respected and her good influence more appreciated. Max O'Rell,
the witty French lecturer, used to say that if he was going to be
born a woman he would pray to be born in the United States. It was
a happy expression, for surely there is no other country in which
so high an estimate is placed upon woman or where she more fully
shares in both the joys and responsibilities of life. For the
superiority of her position she has Christianity and education to
thank; Christianity has ever recognized woman's equality with man
and education has fitted her to be a real helpmate in life.
A third question which one meets everywhere is the labor question.
In Europe it is a question between labor and capital and the laborer
is organizing for the advancement of his welfare. The guild and
the labor organization have long sought to enlarge the laborer's
share of the joint profit of labor and capital and to improve
the conditions which form his environment. The efforts of these
societies have mainly been directed, first, toward the improvement
of sanitary conditions; second, toward the shortening of hours;
and, third, toward an increase in wages. It looks like a reflection
on mankind in general to say that laboring men should have to ask
legislation to protect their lives while at work. It would seem
that employers would of their own accord regard the safety and
the health of employes as of paramount importance, and yet it has
been necessary even in the United States to compel the building of
air-shafts in mines and to force the use of safety appliances on
railroads and street car lines, and in the operation of machinery.
Still more strange is it that it should be necessary to fix a
minimum age at which children can be employed. The very sight of
little boys and girls working in factories at the expense of their
physical growth and their mental development is so revolting that
one can hardly understand how such legislation can be necessary, and
yet throughout Europe and the United States laboring men through
their organizations have been compelled to fight for the protection
of the children of the poor. In Asia the inauguration of factories
has not yet been followed by the protection of the children.
Reforms advance in groups. It is seldom that one real reform is
achieved alone, so the limitation of hours of labor has, as a rule,
accompanied legislation for the protection of children and for the
improvement of sanitary conditions in mines and workshops. Those
who now enjoy an eight-hour day can remember the nine-hour day
and the ten-hour day, but can hardly recall the days of twelve or
fourteen hours. In the factories that are starting up in the Orient
long hours are the rule, and with long hours there is the attendant
degradation of the toiler. The demand for the eight-hour day is an
international one and the laboring man is gradually winning his
fight, partly by an appeal to conscience and partly by proof that
the highest efficiency is inconsistent with long hours.
In the raising of wages two factors have been at work--the labor
organization and the higher efficiency that has come with more
universal education. The educated workman can earn more than the
ignorant one and he soon demands a compensation commensurate with
his services.
The labor saving machine, too, has played no unimportant part in
increasing the workman's compensation. It has raised the quality
of the work done and has brought into use a higher grade of skill
than was formerly employed. While the labor saving machine is by
some regarded as antagonistic to the welfare of the laborer, no
farsighted observer can fail to note that it has increased rather
than diminished the number employed at the work into which it has
been introduced, while it has developed a higher skill which, in
turn, has secured a higher compensation. The handling of a railroad
locomotive requires more skill than the handling of a freight team,
and the engineer commands higher wages than the teamster. The
railroad by vastly increasing commerce has multiplied the number of
persons engaged in the handling of passengers and freight, and it
has at the same time improved the character of the work done and
raised the intellectual standard of those employed. The same result
has followed in other kinds of work. It might be stated thus: labor
saving machinery, as it is called--although it might more properly
be called labor-multiplying machinery--has created a demand for a
higher grade of labor; universal education has supplied this demand,
and the labor organization has secured for these higher grade
laborers larger compensation and more favorable conditions.
One thought has grown upon me as we have traveled, namely, the
dignity of labor. In no other country is so high an estimate placed
upon the wage-earner as in this country. In the Orient there was,
until the advent of western ideas, an impassable gulf between the
prince and his people, and there is even now in a large part of Asia
a gulf so wide that one who toils with his hands cannot look across
it. The royal families have lived by the sword and they have forced
from those beneath them a tribute sufficient to support themselves
and their armed retainers. The masses have been the prey of the
governing classes, no matter what tribe or family held the throne.
In Europe the extremes of society have been brought nearer together,
although there is still a gap between the aristocracy and the
masses. This gap, however, is constantly decreasing, education and
popular government being the most influential factors in bringing
about this result. With education now more and more within the reach
of all, the poor boy is forcing his way to the front in business,
and with his fortune thus acquired he is leveling rank. In the
political world, too, the champion of the weak and the oppressed is
making his influence felt and his political power is opening before
him doors which until recently were closed. In France deputies,
senators and even presidents have come up from the people, and in
England a labor leader, John Burns, has fought his way into the
cabinet. Who will say that the European laboring man is not making
progress when labor's foremost representative in Great Britain
becomes the guest of the king?
Yes, America leads the world in recognition of the true worth of
the man who toils, and yet even in America there is room for still
further advancement. Our national life is full of instances of men
who have risen from office boy to merchant prince, from plowman
to governor, congressman and senator; we have had a rail-splitter
made president--and no president ever bore himself better or served
amid more trying times--while another president could recall the
days when he followed the towpath on a canal. And yet, with these
illustrious examples of poverty overcome and great careers built
upon a foundation of manual labor, there is still much to be done
before the producer of wealth will receive the consideration which
he deserves. The dignity of labor will not be appreciated as it
ought to be until our young men are taught that it is more honorable
to contribute by labor to the sum of the world's wealth than to
spend in idleness the money that others have made.
Tolstoy contends that people cannot be kept in sympathy with each
other unless all perform some physical labor throughout their
lives; he says that contempt for those who do the drudgery of life
is natural if we put that drudgery upon others and reserve for
ourselves only intellectual pursuits. Whether this be true or not,
it is true that we cannot view labor in its proper relation to life
unless we measure life by a standard different from that which is
now ordinarily applied. So long as we measure life by its income
rather than by its outgo, we shall seek those occupations which
yield the largest pecuniary reward; when we measure life by what we
put into the world rather than what we take out of it, we shall seek
those occupations which offer the largest field of usefulness.
Enough has been said to indicate that the world's work is broad
enough to enlist all who are willing to work and that the variety is
sufficient to allow each to follow his taste and select his field,
provided only that he is actuated by a purpose to render to society
a service which will be more than an equivalent for all that society
has done for him.