The Effect of Psychology 
 On Americanism 
 
 GEORGE EAMES BARSTOW 
 
 ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 
 
 THE LITERARY DIGEST 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 1920 
 
t 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/effectofpsycholoOObars 
 

 Compliments of 
 
 George Eames Barstow 
 
 Barstow, Texas 
 
The Effect of Psychology 
 On Americanism 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE EAMES BARSTOW 
 
 (Ex- President, International Irrigation Congress) 
 
 ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 
 THE LITERARY DIGEST 
 
 FOR 
 
 7L$t fe)0Cl£t£ Ot P0gcl)01002 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 1920 
 
Copyright, 1920 , by 
 
 THE SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 
 [Printed in the United States of America] 
 
 Copyright Under the Articles of the Copyright Convention 
 of the Pan-American Republics and the 
 United States, August 11, 1910. 
 

 n k 
 
 The Effect of Psychology 
 On Americanism 
 
 \ 
 
 f 
 
 T his vital subject is of more than 
 
 passing importance to every cit¬ 
 izen of the United States. Not 
 only does it gravely concern 
 college professors and pedagogs in their 
 studies and class-rooms, statesmen in shaping 
 the destinies of the world, commanders of 
 armies in marshalling their mighty and de¬ 
 structive forces on the field of action, and the 
 master minds of industry and finance in the 
 building up of a vast system of world-wide 
 credits, but it is also of incalculable import¬ 
 ance to each and every artizan, mechanic, 
 farmer, clerk, or other worker with head or 
 hands in every home, factory, and business 
 
 office in the land. Indeed all Americans who 
 
 3 
 
 ; 
 
 V 
 
 
are in any wise engaged in political, judicial, 
 occupational, philanthropic, or religious serv¬ 
 ice must needs employ psychology to attain 
 their ends or fall short of the success for which 
 they hope. We should lay especial emphasis 
 upon those who are occupied with the cares of 
 domestic life, than which there is no career 
 more calculated to demand the highest mental 
 and moral qualities if one is to make good, 
 paradoxical as this may seem at the first 
 glance. 
 
 The question does not lie as to whether an 
 American has one or more talents, for in any 
 event he should improve what he has, be it 
 great or small. That is his duty as well as 
 his privilege. For we Americans not only 
 have certain well-known constitutional rights, 
 which we all highly prize; but each one of 
 us has also certain obligations as respects the 
 home and the state, which he can not afford 
 to ignore for his own sake and that of his 
 country. 
 
 Do all Americans recognize this vital truth? 
 Are they, if they recognize the principle, em¬ 
 ploying the right brand of psychology in per¬ 
 forming that service? I trow not! 
 
 There is an old-world maxim, “ Know thy¬ 
 self,” which contains a very solid substratum 
 
 4 
 
of truth. Unless they obey this wise injunc¬ 
 tion, modern Americans can not fully and 
 efficiently perform their living part toward 
 the promotion of the common weal, socially, 
 politically, or industrially. If you or I are 
 called upon to operate any given machine, of 
 whose workings we possess no accurate knowl¬ 
 edge, our efforts will probably be not only 
 fruitless but, as likely as not, destructive. If, 
 on the other hand, we possess the required 
 knowledge, we enjoy capital, and if such is 
 our good fortune, power also descends upon 
 us, for, as Bacon observed, “ knowledge is 
 power.” 
 
 The knowledge here spoken of is, remem¬ 
 ber, not of a superficial or perfunctory kind; 
 but implies, rather, an understanding of each 
 and every complex part of one’s being, mental 
 and spiritual, so that the highest efficiency 
 may obtain. 
 
 Many a one of us, if he cheerfully and un¬ 
 selfishly makes a keen and constant analysis 
 of himself, will be surprized to discover that 
 he possesses undreamed of latent powers 
 of mind and soul. He will be surprized 
 not alone at the unexpected virtues that he 
 has unearthed but also more especially at 
 
 the faults and weaknesses that his self-exami- 
 
 5 . 
 
nation brings to light. Just as an able phy¬ 
 sician diagnoses all parts of a given case be¬ 
 fore he prescribes a remedy, so we must view 
 our inner selves carefully from all angles in 
 order to know how best to correct what needs 
 correction and to foster what calls for devel¬ 
 opment. If a mental disease is discovered in 
 embryo and a prompt remedy applied there 
 is much greater likelihood that the mind so 
 attacked will approximate to the well-rounded 
 type whose powers will eventuate for indivi- 
 ■* dual and public good. 
 
 We often speak of certain Americans who 
 have well-balanced minds. What do we 
 mean? Why, simply that their judgment is 
 not swayed by passion or prejudice or hatred. 
 A well-balanced mind is one that in the per¬ 
 formance of its functions is calm and judicial, 
 that is at all times under masterful control, 
 and that retains its poise under all the ebb 
 and flow of the tides of man’s experiences. 
 To such a mind all Americans pay due re¬ 
 spect and homage and gladly recognize its 
 leadership. We are often told that, because 
 of the individuality of Americans, each one 
 is fitted to become a leader. But, sad to re¬ 
 late, this statement is by no means true and 
 for the reason that so many Americans fail to 
 
possess the qualities that we have just enum¬ 
 erated. 
 
 Why is it that to-day in many departments 
 of the leadership of Americans in all the ave¬ 
 nues of our functioning there are to be found 
 men who are entirely unworthy of the con¬ 
 fidence of the people? Because, to lay the 
 axe directly at the root of the tree, of the grave 
 lack of even a rudimentary knowledge of 
 psychology displayed by these men in all their 
 dealings with their fellows, of their lamenta¬ 
 ble inability to do the right thing at the right 
 time or to say the right thing in the right 
 place. All the people do some thinking, of 
 course, but there is nevertheless a marked ab¬ 
 sence of sound and straight reasoning. Some 
 few of us are guided wholly by real intelli¬ 
 gence and by rational deductions in our con¬ 
 duct of our daily affairs, but the people en 
 masse are carried along by appeals to their 
 selfish interests and prejudices. Hence we dis¬ 
 cover the cardinal importance of the complete 
 functioning of the psychology of the soul, the 
 living influence of which will clarify and 
 stabilize the powers of the intellect and the 
 lack of which, deplorably common, alas, in 
 these individualistic days, spells the dwarfing 
 
 and narrowing of the minds of America. 
 
 7 
 
The World War has taught at least a minor¬ 
 ity, and I hope a large majority, of Americans 
 that “ no man liveth to himself,” and has 
 brought home to them that greatest lesson of 
 human sacrifice that 
 
 “ The fittest place for man to die 
 Is where he dies for man.” 
 
 Life is far more than a play-day—a thing 
 to be idled away—prodigiously more than 
 vain tinsel and cheap display and the satisfy¬ 
 ing of one’s lusts and vanities in all their va¬ 
 ried forms. In such selfish and careless satis¬ 
 faction lie the seeds of dissolution and decay. 
 From these possibilities of disruption America 
 is no more immune than other peoples and 
 nations, save only in so far as she learns to 
 understand her own psychology and persist¬ 
 ently exercises her great powers to buttress 
 herself against the forces of evil that are so 
 rampant within her. 
 
 Life should be and is joyful and gladsome 
 if meaning to each one of us the accomplish¬ 
 ment of the noblest and best that lies within 
 our minds and souls! And because some of 
 us have not been so fortunate as to obtain a 
 
 college education, or to receive a post-grad- 
 
 8 
 
uate training in the universities abroad or 
 even a full common-school course at home, can 
 we plead an excuse? Most assuredly not. In 
 the parable of the marriage supper we are told 
 how they “ all went about to make excuse,” 
 how these people, failing in that hour to grasp 
 the opportunity so generously offered to them, 
 suffered an irretrievable loss in morale and 
 power. When the test came to them, when 
 their common sense and common gratitude 
 were put to the proof, they failed lamentably 
 to grasp “ the skirts of happy chance.” 
 
 Think, on the other hand, of such a daunt¬ 
 less soul as Abraham Lincoln, than whom no 
 man, dead or living, is more revered the world 
 around to-day. Consider his early environ¬ 
 ment, his exceptional limitations, the almost 
 utter hopelessness of his position as a strug¬ 
 gling young lawyer. Yet he was in no wise 
 dismayed. He found the courage to “ breast 
 the blows of circumstance,” and hence, and 
 doubtless largely because of those very draw¬ 
 backs that he surmounted so successfully and 
 with such unexampled spirit, he rose to be¬ 
 come one of the little company of the world’s 
 preeminent apostles of a genuine, not a hypo¬ 
 critical democracy. 
 
 One of the wisest sayings that has come 
 
 9 ' 
 
down to us from the civilization of ancient 
 Athens is embodied in the proverb, “ Many 
 meet the gods but few salute them.” No col¬ 
 lege education, no great social or intellectual 
 ability is required to detect the one moment 
 that is divine among the millions that are 
 commonplace, to seize upon it and its freight¬ 
 age of hope with avidity and to make it eter¬ 
 nally your own. All that one needs to do this 
 successfully is to be alert, to be confident, to 
 be unafraid, and to have a normal endowment 
 of mother wit. Thousands of Americans with 
 no more to help them than this have risen to 
 the very pinnacle of success. 
 
 The principle just laid down in our inquiry 
 is a matter of psychological condition, of soul 
 purpose. Its realization involves the essence 
 of self-abnegation and connotes the adoption 
 of the most lofty and elevated ideals. And 
 let us remember that by and through such 
 ideals alone can men and women develop the 
 power to attain the rarer altitudes of thought 
 and action. 
 
 Hence our manifest duty not only to our¬ 
 selves, both as individuals and as forward- 
 looking citizens of this great Republic, but 
 also to the country that we love and would 
 
 see endure, is to cultivate every possible means 
 
 10 
 
of knowing our own personalities, of gaging 
 our deficiencies and our advantages, to the 
 end that we may overcome the former, so far 
 as is humanly possible, and encourage the 
 growth of the latter day by day, month by 
 month, and year by year. A rigid and im¬ 
 partial stock-taking of our inner selves, con¬ 
 ducted in this way, can not fail to lead to 
 ultimate self-knowledge, to complete famil¬ 
 iarity with the mechanism that has been given 
 us wherewith to confront and successfully 
 overcome the various vicissitudes and adven¬ 
 tures of life. 
 
 And, being once familiar with this mechan¬ 
 ism—this wonderful and delicate structure of 
 brain and brawn, of muscle and nerve, this 
 marvelously balanced composite of instinct 
 and intelligence, of crude desire and culti¬ 
 vated taste, this age-old battle-ground for the 
 contending forces of good and evil—we can 
 learn to control and guide its powers with 
 ever-growing skill into the road that leads to 
 success, to full fruition, and to rich attain¬ 
 ment. Knowing the weak places we can favor 
 them until they, in time, grow strong, and 
 realizing the power of our strength, we can 
 drive always forward and upward, being con¬ 
 fident that every demand will be honored, 
 
every strain safely met and finally vanquished. 
 We shall learn, as the years go by, more and 
 more of the tremendous potentialities of that 
 subconscious that lies dormant within us, 
 ready to respond instantly to the right stim¬ 
 ulus, whose powers of accomplishment are 
 limited only by the will and the courage of 
 the mind that directs them. We shall find 
 in this never-failing reservoir of stored energy 
 strength enough, and more than enough, to 
 perform the most seemingly impossible task, 
 to carry through to victory the most appar¬ 
 ently unequal contest. All this and more will 
 surely accrue to each one of us if he or she 
 practises diligently the study of self and the 
 possibilities of self with a view to utilizing to 
 the full the powers that are thus discovered. 
 
 It will, perhaps, be contended that environ¬ 
 ment is an enormous factor in human progress 
 or in human downfall. It must be admitted 
 that environment plays an important part in 
 our failures and successes. With all humans, 
 life is a struggle from the cradle to the grave, 
 yet multitudes of men and women who have 
 passed on, and a large throng now upon life’s 
 stage, have proved to the world that the most 
 severe and trying environments have not been 
 strong enough to defeat them in the battle. 
 
Why? Not because of egotism and its daily 
 companion—vanity; but because of their hum¬ 
 ble, noble, and ever-determined purpose to 
 know themselves and to make the most of 
 nature’s endowment absolutely regardless of 
 their special environments. 
 
 Environment, if properly envisioned by the 
 human mind and wisely utilized in daily life, 
 assists us in reaching out for lofty ideals. But 
 environment alone can accomplish but little 
 for us. Indeed many a soul has failed utterly 
 to utilize the values of its surroundings and 
 retrograded, when had it but been also pos- 
 sest of stirring ideals, that soul would have 
 created out of what lay nearest to hand an 
 atmosphere of the highest beauty and benefit 
 both to itself and to the world at large. As 
 a case in point think for a moment of our 
 American people before they finally entered 
 the great World War. Was not their en¬ 
 vironment, apparently, about all that could 
 be desired? Yet were not the masses of the 
 people only too ready at first to listen to the 
 plea of puerile and selfish leaders who urged 
 them to preserve their peace and prosperity 
 by abstaining from taking a part in the world 
 struggle for liberty and democracy? But 
 when they finally entered the conflict was the 
 
desire for aggrandizement, in any form, the 
 motive power that drove them to arms? Far 
 from it! When once a definite vision of the 
 realities underlying the war had presented 
 itself to their minds, when they had once thor¬ 
 oughly grasped the fact that their great ideals 
 were endangered, they immediately forgot 
 themselves and arose as one man and bent 
 every energy they possest to that marvelous 
 crusade with mighty and irresistible power. 
 Thus we find that the principle we have dis- 
 cust holds good with nations as well as with 
 individuals. 
 
 To take another example, what a vivid il¬ 
 lustration we have presented to us in the ten¬ 
 acity and purpose that have been displayed, for 
 hundreds of years past, by the Poles, Czecho¬ 
 slovaks, and Serbs. Submerged as they were, 
 for all that time, by a harsh and cruel politi¬ 
 cal and economic environment, they never 
 lost the desire to realize their aspirations, 
 never abandoned their struggle for independ¬ 
 ence, a struggle which we now see in process 
 of being crowned with well-earned success. 
 Here the most adverse conditions, the most 
 seemingly hopeless environment, were pow¬ 
 erless to destroy the ideals and the efforts of 
 
 a stedfast and courageous people. And again, 
 
 14 
 
think of the history of our forebears and how, 
 worn by long years of persecution, that small 
 company of ardent souls arose in their moral 
 power, took to their little ships and, after 
 enduring all manner of difficulty and hard¬ 
 ship, landed on New England’s rocky coast 
 in order that full expression might be given 
 to the vital force resident within them. Con¬ 
 sider the fruitage born of such souls, the 
 legacy of high courage, of unselfish devotion 
 to an ideal that they have bequeathed to us, 
 their descendants. 
 
 Man is an animal and in essence like other 
 animals; but he differs from them greatly in 
 being endowed by the creator with a mind and 
 soul. The Darwinian theory, that man has 
 evolved from some ancestor common to him 
 and the apes and monkeys, may satisfy the 
 coldly scientific mind, but how much more 
 ennobling is the conception of the psalmist, 
 when he declares, in his inspired speaking of 
 the creator’s marvelous endowment of man: 
 
 “ Thou has made him a little lower than the 
 angels; 
 
 Thou has crowned him with glory and 
 honor.” 
 
 If each man is willing to accept this axiom 
 
 15 
 
wholeheartedly, he will have crossed the 
 threshold that bounds old experiences of bare 
 existence and entered upon the sure highway 
 of self-mastery and of really noble and valu¬ 
 able achievement, the possibilities of which 
 are only limited by his natural talents. Of 
 course, if any American deliberately forbids 
 light, air, and water to his being he need not 
 expect later to enjoy the flower and fruitage 
 that these would inevitably bring. If he thus 
 foolishly abandons his birthright he can not 
 hope to become a potential part in shaping 
 the lives of other Americans looking toward 
 the preserving and upholding of the funda¬ 
 mental and cardinal principles laid down by 
 our forefathers. 
 
 Now that man has definitely arrived at what 
 may be termed the psychological stage in the 
 course of his proper evolution the individual 
 who is alive to the possibilities within him 
 will almost unconsciously become a leader of 
 other men and will continue in power and 
 usefulness, if he has the resolution and the 
 foresight ever to sit on the foot-stool of humil¬ 
 ity. Too many men fall by the wayside and 
 are left behind in the swift onward march 
 of progress because they have foolishly over¬ 
 looked this vital principle. Becoming unduly 
 
 16 
 
self-contained, dwelling with overmuch pride 
 upon their own personal strength and ability, 
 they thereby dwarf their souls and narrow and 
 emasculate their truest selves. Take a swift 
 mental survey of our truly representative great 
 men—captains of industry, finance, and states¬ 
 manship—and the principle will stand forth 
 in high relief. 
 
 The attempt to contravene this basic law of 
 nature evolves, either in the individual or in 
 the mass, an insatiate egoism and intolerance. 
 No more complete or brutal illustration of 
 this axiomatic truth has been found in his¬ 
 tory than in the world’s recent experience with 
 the German people. The day is now happily 
 past when any nation can by force compel the 
 rest of mankind to adopt its political or ethi¬ 
 cal ideas. To-day those nations alone are held 
 to be great and are permitted to expand 
 which, having reached a broad and highly 
 potential psychological development, are will¬ 
 ing so to function as to lead other peoples and 
 nations to similar high standards of living 
 by the sheer force of a good and honorable 
 example. Tho a tendency to relapse into 
 the old bad ways is still to be detected once 
 in a while and not all international adjust¬ 
 ments, even now, are effected in strict confor- 
 
 17 
 
mity with the golden rule, nevertheless a grow¬ 
 ing realization of the principles we have enun¬ 
 ciated is compelling the leaders of the world 
 to adhere more and more closely to the path 
 of idealism and the time seems almost within 
 sight when the dread road of war shall be 
 green with the overgrowing herbage of peace. 
 
 To what then does all this lead? Is there 
 not of necessity more responsibility involved 
 on the higher plane of ethics and knowledge 
 to which the individual or the nation we are 
 considering has attained? Of those to whom 
 much is given is not much expected? Of a 
 surety, yes. The obligations of Americans do 
 not by any means cease when they have set 
 their feet firmly upon the highway of knowl¬ 
 edge. Rather are their duties multiplied. 
 And at this stage in our development the 
 cardinal question arises into what channels of 
 service are we to direct these ascertained pow¬ 
 ers. Now, we are daily and hourly confronted 
 with the warring forces of good and evil. 
 Clearly, if I am a sincerely patriotic Amer¬ 
 ican, I must align myself with and exercise 
 my powers on behalf of that side which will 
 contribute to the molding and establishing of 
 social order, which will inculcate the love of 
 
 law for its own sake, which will strive al¬ 
 ls 
 
ways for the confirming of the rights of pro¬ 
 tection to life and property, which, finally, 
 will best subserve the enjoyment of liberty and 
 the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 Americans are to-day confronted with the 
 powers of evil in most drastic forms. These 
 powers are the more dangerous because of the 
 fact that they pharisaically cloak themselves 
 in the garb of democracy. Presenting their 
 alluring plea with all the skill of Cleon of 
 Athens they seek to convince, and, alas! too 
 often do convince, the ignorant and unthink¬ 
 ing masses that they will lead them into the 
 promised land where there is no work to do 
 and where a bounteous store will be found 
 upon which to live. Such specious prophets 
 of the unattainable are merely twisting and 
 dwarfing the psychology of those who are so 
 foolish or so unfortunate as to heed their 
 mouthings; they are not laboring in any sense 
 for their broad uplift and for their best hap¬ 
 piness in life. 
 
 Then, too, there are others, well inten- 
 tioned, cultured, and so-called trained men, 
 who voice a multitude of theories that lead 
 their votaries far afield and get them no¬ 
 where, to the disquiet, if not to the actual dis¬ 
 ruption of organized society. Some of these 
 
 19 
 
men have preached a doctrine of democracy 
 in industry which the present writer has had 
 some hopes might ultimately prevail, when 
 worked out along sound and judicious lines. 
 The majority of them, however, have sowed 
 the wind broadcast and we, as a nation, are 
 now dangerously near reaping the whirlwind. 
 The labor unions all over the country seem 
 to be coming more and more under a radical 
 leadership which is openly defying our laws 
 and which is throwing out frequent hints as 
 to the imminence of one big union in control 
 of all local unions from coast to coast. If 
 this is their serious intention and not a mere 
 visionary bugaboo created for the purpose of 
 alarming the employing class, then we are 
 perilously near to autocracy in industry. 
 Now, in the name of common sense, if auto¬ 
 cracy must prevail in this land of present lib¬ 
 erty, let us choose a majority autocracy of 
 sound intelligence, rather than a minority 
 autocracy of ignorance, viciousness, and de¬ 
 struction. We have only to look at the present 
 deplorable condition of Russia to learn what 
 the results of such a rule would be. No real 
 American would for one moment desire to 
 see those conditions reproduced in our beloved 
 country. 
 
 20 
 
We have to-day the most urgent need for 
 a wider mutual understanding, a broader 
 human tolerance on the part of every citizen, 
 rich or poor, to the end that our civilization 
 may tend to the obliteration of widely diver¬ 
 gent social extremes and the gradual evolu¬ 
 tion of a moderately well-to-do class that shall 
 embrace practically the entire population. 
 From extremes of poverty and wealth, ever 
 growing more and more widely separated, are 
 bred the destroying demons of anarchy, of 
 Bolshevism, of hatred between man and man 
 —all the malevolent forces that seek to de¬ 
 stroy the splendid fabric that our fathers have 
 builded for us and that we are in duty bound 
 to embellish and improve. Given a reason¬ 
 able measure of sympathy between worker and 
 employer, a desire on the part of either to be 
 fair and just to the other, we can go forward 
 without fear. The answer to this, as to so 
 many other burning questions, social and civic, 
 lies in the application of psychology, the in¬ 
 troduction into the dispute of a little homely 
 common sense. No man, no class can expect to 
 enjoy all the benefits and evade all the respon¬ 
 sibilities. All classes must show a decent 
 willingness to unite together in sharing the 
 
 good and the ill, the rough and the smooth, 
 
 21 
 
 * 
 
for the common benefit and the common ad¬ 
 vancement. 
 
 Here we have two apparently opposing 
 forces, made so by the lack of diplomacy and 
 want of sweet reasonableness exhibited by 
 both sides—capital and labor. Capital, as 
 here referred to, embraces the bourgeoisie, the 
 employing class; labor, the proletariat, the 
 employed class. But these two classes, if they 
 will but comprehend what is for their own 
 highest good, must no longer be Opponents. 
 Their mutual advantage, their mutual well¬ 
 being demand that they shall be partners, fel¬ 
 low-laborers, if you will. All alike should 
 work, with head or hand, and that not simply 
 for the upbuilding of any group, or associa¬ 
 tion of groups, but for the general good, the 
 advantage of society as a whole. One of the 
 popular parties has to-day the motto, “ All 
 for one and one for all.” This can not be 
 bettered, but it must refer not to the members 
 of a single class or an isolated section, but 
 to all men and women equally all over this 
 broad land. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties to be over¬ 
 come in the adjustment of the present lack of 
 equilibrium in our social life, in the gradual 
 
 elimination of the top-heaviness at one end of 
 
 22 
 
the scale and the explosiveness at the other, 
 is the very human tendency on the part of 
 both sides to see the subject only from their 
 own point of view. This must, in some way, 
 by hook or by crook, be gradually eliminated, 
 if we are ever to enjoy that measure of social 
 and economic peace to which as a civilized 
 nation we are clearly entitled. Thus, the rad¬ 
 ical labor leader tells us loudly and insistently 
 that only by and through labor has capital 
 come into being. Granted; but does that de¬ 
 stroy the converse truth that capital makes 
 opportunity and provides living for labor? 
 Surely not. Does it justify the laboring 
 classes of to-day in seeking to create laws 
 whereby they may deprive the laboring classes 
 of yesterday of the wealth they have accumu¬ 
 lated by honest endeavor? What sensible man 
 will claim that it does? If these proposals, 
 which we hear very freely voiced on the part 
 of some of our radical friends, were ever to 
 become law, all initiative would inevitably be 
 destroyed and society at large—society which 
 includes both the rich and the poor—would 
 be the sufferer. Let Dives and Lazarus both 
 remember that they can live, be it in a palace 
 or a cottage, through reciprocity alone. Their 
 
 fortunes are inextricably bound together. 
 
 23 
 
Neither one can hope to survive or to accom¬ 
 plish any useful end without the other. 
 
 Let the laborer remember that because of 
 the initiative and the vision of such men as 
 Carnegie, Rockefeller, Edison, Hill, Ford, 
 and their kind, the foundations of ma¬ 
 terial prosperity for millions of human be¬ 
 ings have been laid in these United States. 
 Let the capitalist reflect that without the help 
 of the toiler no wheel would turn, no ship 
 sail, no freight move, no constructive work 
 of any kind be done through the length and 
 breadth of the land. Let them both realize 
 that theirs is a partnership, an obviously neces¬ 
 sary community of effort that is as old as the 
 world, very nearly, and that is based on fun¬ 
 damental natural laws. Not by seeking to 
 dissolve this partnership, out of and by means 
 of which has come all our greatness, all our 
 comfort and ease of to-day, can either hope 
 to succeed in even a temporary fashion, but 
 by cementing this association more closely, by 
 making its ties ever broader and stronger, and 
 by infusing into it the quickening life-blood 
 of mutual service and mutual regard. Here¬ 
 in lies the true psychology, the real Amer¬ 
 icanism that will lead us to the promised land 
 
 of social and industrial harmony. 
 
 24 
 
The sanction of public opinion in America 
 will always be accorded to the legitimate de¬ 
 sires of the laboring class, unionized or non- 
 unionized, so long as such desires are based 
 upon social justice and common equity. But 
 they can never expect to secure the country’s 
 approval when they undertake to accomplish 
 their ends by methods that make for or in¬ 
 volve injustice and disorder. The foundations 
 of this Republic were based upon the propo¬ 
 sition that all men everywhere are free and 
 equal, so far as opportunity of development 
 is concerned, and no movement that seeks to 
 take away from any section of the community 
 that equality of opportunity, or to make such 
 a section in anyway dependent upon the whim 
 or pleasure of another group, can ever hope 
 to enlist the permanent sympathies of our peo¬ 
 ple, even tho some part of our population 
 may be momentarily deluded into accepting 
 its doctrines by the eloquence of misguided 
 demagogs. 
 
 Public opinion will also be with the capital¬ 
 ist in his endeavors to promote the trade and 
 increase the wealth of the country while legi¬ 
 timately and fairly conducting his business en¬ 
 terprises, that is to say while he makes a rea¬ 
 sonable profit for himself out of his money 
 
 25 
 
and its use and at the same time pays to his 
 employees a good living wage and gives them 
 an opportunity to participate in the surplus 
 earnings of the industry. In a word, he will 
 always be sure of public sympathy and ap¬ 
 proval if he works toward cooperation in the 
 conduct of his business and away from auto¬ 
 cratic management. The thoughtful writers 
 on the problem of industrial direction are 
 to-day practically united in feeling that the 
 tendency of the times should be toward 
 giving to the workman responsibility and a 
 voice in those policies of a business that con¬ 
 cern him, toward the substitution of the hu¬ 
 man and personal note for the old idea of a 
 man as a number or a machine, and toward 
 the development in the employed of creative 
 instinct and of the feeling of craftsmanship. 
 No capitalist who is willing to work with his 
 men along such lines as these need fear the 
 future. 
 
 Let the organic law of association have full 
 sway. Let the leaven of psychology permeate 
 the masses of the people. Permit the spirit 
 of life and fellowship to enter the hearts of 
 capital and labor, and we shall find a solvent 
 of our social unrest, we shall discover a vital¬ 
 izing influence that will breathe health and 
 
 26 
 
vigor into all strata of society and contribute 
 graciously to the public welfare. Then will 
 all individual Americans come into their own 
 and the nation as a whole will have found its 
 soul. 
 
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