INDIVIDUALISM
ISAS
DEAD AS A
SMELI
tin*»*!*
We Mud It d ifficu lt to Htrike
Hit ; i l < g entirely new linen.
Tliofiin« Je ffe rs o n , in Ills ole] age.
n»iie i letter in whl<-h he s a id :—
Some im*n a*-rib«* to ¡he well of the
pr •Hiiog age m wisdom more thau
human, and wappoae what they did to
be heyoud 11 memliiient. I knew that
•gv | of the Ucvolution) well. 1 be-
longfd to it iiud labored with it. It
des erve«l well of ita country. It was
*ery like the preaent, but » itliont the
experience of the present; and forty
years of experience is worth a cen
tury of b<H>k reading; and this they
Would say themselves were they to
arise from the dead.
G ra a t C h a n g e . T ak in g ^ l a t . R ap id ly .
The ebauges that occurred from Ihe
close o f the R evolu tion s”y W ar to J e f
ferso n 's old age made a deep Inipres-
alou ou Ills m ind; yet as w e look back
George W. P e r k i n s ,
Chairman of the New
York City Committee
on Food Supply, Finds
That Science and In
vention Are Forcing
Revolutionary
Changes
in
the
World’s Industrial Re
lations, Whether We
Like It or Not.
-------------- +.
....
T A IJKI'ICXT pulilir licit ri it”
A
at them from this distance they seem
infinitesim al » h e n com pared with the
chanties that have taken place in the
world the last quarter ot a century and
the treuienduua chanKes taking pluee
now.
George W ashington was a representa
tive o f the best type of A m erican a
century ami a h alf ago. lit* w as a
scholar, u soldier and a statesm an, yet
he did not know as much about scleuce
as a young schoolboy o f to-day.
Thom as A Kittson typ ifies the «den
list o f our time, hut the gap between
the man o f the Kdlson type and Wash
ington is probably greater than the gap
com m unity, the act o f the Individual
E n terin g a New W orld.
When Abraham I.inroln u s * P resi
dent It took four d a y s or more fo r a
letter to travel from Ills home In Illi
nois to New York. It took him several
days to go from his home to W ashing
tled and most o f the people lived on
aided and alone, travelled In ti flyin g
m achine from C hicago to \c»v York in
Its southern end It would not have
m attered much had there been a ease
eight hours and fifty minutes
o f sinall|>oi at the north end.
W e are ju s t entering a'n ew e'ectrical
world, where everyth in g ts done, as It
tlent could have done pretty much as
were, on the Instant.
one else
R ut a case o f sm allpox In the north
Our fathers had none o f the modern
he pleased w ithout endangering an y
eru end o f M anhattan to-day m ust l»e
T h eir sons are w restlin g w ith the prob
quarantined
Im m ediately
to
protect
lem o f how to use these new methods
other people.
When I w as a boy there w as no So
of Intercom m unication and still, adhere
ciety fo r the Prevention o f C ru elty to
to the law s, the prec«*deuts and the
A n im als, nnd had an y one suggest,«!
book learning o f their fathers.
that a man could not w hip Ills bor«,* a s
T h is Is O C R great problem.
It Is a
much a s he pleased he would have 1«. n
d ifficu lt, com plicated problem and is
cau sin g a stru ggle of titanic propor
1 «ieu that a man had uot the right to
tions—a struggle
lo throw o ff In a
night, as It wer<*. the precedents o f an
old world for the realities o f a new.
Precedent m akes cow an!« of us all.
ridlcul«*!
Indeed. In those d ays the
heat his own child as be o'ease,
buggies there w as no speed lim it and
a
inventor have left us no • hope.
license to d rive a horse
We
must adjust our thought ami actio n 'to
ne« conditions
T h e Day of Individualism G one.
was
given little attention.
When w e w ere all d riv in g horse* and
Rut tile educator, the scientist and the
m an
did
not h ave to procure a
With the ad
vont o f the autom obile a license has
becom e a n ecessity. Tbe public must
know that the man who operates a.,
autom obile know s first bow to „penib*
near Trenton, V J ., said lo have lived
RIo.OOO yen i s ago
ically have licett great, yet
The nitvancea lu ad»*n< e. lnter«*om
m unicatioii am) In nnl’ e rsal educa
Ttie |,a-
m achinery with w hich social and busi
ness intercourse !s now carried ou.
whose hones wen* recently discovered
the
longer exist
w eeks ago a young woman, un
few
ye ars socially. Industrially and econom
ami
Is «Imply another expresalon fo r II
ceuse to do ijs one pleasese can no
•
When M anhattan w as sp arsely set
m ar
W ashington
therefore, tb at form o f freedom which
And yet only a
ton to he Inaugurated.
The changes o f the last tw enty fir e
between
can affect a large num ber o f people:
I b ii.v e
they are Infinitesim al compared to the
It and. second, to control It.
Society Is finding It n ecessary to take
a w a y niiicb o f w hat has hitherto been
called
freedom o f the Individual.”
|n
m y Judgm ent this process ts only In Its
Im ages that are coming
in fan cy.
Ihe
I Relieve these changes are going to
deal most largely with the relat 0:1-
shi|> o f man to man
In this country w e have been Jiv in g
necessity of co-op«*nition some one
in an ago of the utmost freedom !<* the
d „ as lie pleases is now being seriously
reinarkeil that the legislation was
individual
It has been the Ittdi» Idttnl-
iatic p«*riod. »»hen the order of the «lay
challen ged. uu,l I most heartily agree
has seemed to lie “ e v e ry fellow for him
said recently at C ornell U n iversity to
s e lf and the devil tak e th» hindmost
We have gloried in the fre«*dnm of
die individual and have practised this
tbe e ffe ct that one o f the c h ie f quail
ness concern Is rapidly com ing to he
Mr. I'erkins’ reasons for his he
freedom to a point when». In many
phases o f rttir lif<*. il has amounted t
ju s t d ifferen ces lietween cap italist and
are Mntlined in the following
llceiiHe to do alm ost anything that w*
laborer and to understand their rela
pleased
fancied renown, regardless o f Its effect
tlonship.
'
•
I'n tll recent ye ars little broad think
on one's fellow men.
in g w as given to tills problem aud dlf-
* on
certain
propone«!
foo«l
legislation whiclt Mr. IVrkins fnv
on,«l ami
which
ce«o^ni/.cil
a violation of the principle of
Individualism.
Mr. IVrkins retorted, “ Indlviil
oalism is as d«‘ad as a smelt."
lie f
article:— .
or
that
brought
profit
or
In the early days, when tnstuntunenu*
By G EO R G E W. PERKINS,
intercom m unication dl«l not exist, when
Food
tion these three gn*at factors account
for the stupendous progress this ootin-
education w as m eagre an«l science tin
Ois> rtf I hr area test stum bling block*
irv has made In the last tw en ty-five
te a rs
-
o f com paratively sm all consequence, for
C h a ir m a n
o l M a y o r M itc K a l'a
S u p p ly C o m m illa a .
In progress Is the hiinnin Inclination to
fcUow precedent and eld method* too
They have sw ept a w a y old prece
dents, old custom s, and they w ill even
developed, what the Individual did »vas
"might m akes r ig h t ”
A ll this is rap
idly « hanging and w e are entering •
perl,si o f uew industrial relatlonslii(«.
o f m aster and man. then tbe |>erlod o f
i>erlod
In m y Judgm ent w e are Ju st now en
teriug a
i>eriod of copartnership,
w here the tool user w ill be part tool
ow n er and wtiere < apltal and labor wiu
sh are more equ itably In the pro fits oi
taken a long stride tow ard success
It 1 « n«t m any ye ars since I w as a
lad. and ,e t at that time there w as no
the business In which they are Join tly
The tele
engaged
graph w as In very m eagre use: fast e i-
TbU advance la Inevitable because of
took
'•or educational system , which teaches
sd 'e ra l tvta'ks to * m s* the i> run, and
the w orkingm an to think fo r him self.
tin only flyin g machine we knew shout
G E O R G E W. PERKINS.
feretices » e r e settled on the basis o f
em ployer and em ploye, ea, b
being a decided step fo rw ard
matt who does comprehend It will have
w ss the much derided one |ste*,*Hsed
hy 1 1*rlus Green
the human q u ality and ab ility to a d
ow ner and slave, then cam e the period
la» som ewhat o f a failure, »vhtle the
It
ficatlon s fo r a m anager o f a large busi
did not nffect m any people
fu lly comprehend all this Is doomed to
press trains dhl not exist.
w ith w hat Mr. Jo h n D. R«»ckefeller. J r .
In the long ago the relationship be-
tweeen capital and labor w as that of
who does not
such thing as a telephone
The freedom o f the business man to
his d«»eds did not reach ve ry far and
tually sw eep a w a y m any o f the law s
now on our statute books.
The man o f to d a y
R elatio n o f C ap ital and L a b o r.
With
InfrrcommunlcHMon
draw ing
the ».-rid together In one centralized
It 1« Inevitable because Intercom m uni
cation has told the w orkingm an In on«
com m unity w hat the workingm an In
other com m unities a re strivin g fo r and
achievin g