Community Civics and Rural Life Part 19

He then appealed directly to every kind of worker in the country, and to the farmers he said:

The supreme need of our own nation and of the nations with which we are cooperating is an abundance of supplies, and especially of foodstuffs. ... Without abundant food ... the whole great enterprise upon which we have embarked will break down and fail ...

Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, in large measure, rests the fate of the war and the fate of nations. Let me suggest, also, that every one who creates or cultivates a garden helps, and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of the nations; and that every housewife who practices strict economy puts herself in the ranks of those who serve the nation.

The nation needs the productive work of each citizen in time of peace as truly as in time of war, although when it is not fighting for its very life it is more tolerant of those who do not contribute efficiently by their work to the common good. It carries them along somehow. But such members of the community are a burden and a source of weakness at all times. Therefore, for example, there are in most of our communities laws against vagrancy; that is, against willful and habitual idlers "without visible means of support," such as beggars and tramps.

PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED

There are times when many men are "out of work." In times of business depression the number may become very great, while in prosperous times the number dwindles; but always there are some.

It is often through no fault of their own; it is another result of the imperfect adjustment of our community life. It often happens that while large numbers of men are unable to find work in industrial centers, the farmers may be suffering for want of help.

This may be merely because there is no way by which to let workmen know where they are needed, or of distributing them to meet the need. Or, many of the unemployed may be unskilled, while the demand is for skilled workmen; or they may be skilled in one line, while the demand is in another line. Whatever the causes, the "problem of the unemployed" is one of the most serious that the community has to deal with. During the war the national government sought to overcome these difficulties by the organization of an employment service in the Department of Labor, and state and local communities established employment bureaus.

Who have been some of the builders of your own community by reason of their business life? Explain.

So far as you have observed, what boys have been most successful after leaving school--those who make it a practice to do all they can for their employers, or those who have tried to do the least possible?

Is it true in your community that the most useful citizens are those who care more about the excellence of their work than about what they receive for it?

Are there many vagrants in your community? Are there laws against vagrancy? If so, what are they?

Are there often many men out of work in your community? If so, why is it?

Is it ever difficult to get farm labor in your locality? If so, how do the farmers explain it?

What experience have the farmers of your locality had during and since the war in getting labor when it was needed? Did the government help them at that time? How?

It is of the greatest importance both to the individual and to the community that every citizen: (1) should be continuously employed in a useful occupation, (2) should be free and able to choose the occupation for which he is best fitted, and in which he will be happiest, and (3) should be thoroughly efficient in his work, whatever it is.

THE RIGHT OF THE COMMUNITY TO INDUSTRY

(1) The community has a right to expect every citizen to be industrious and productive, for only in this way can he be self- sustaining and at the same time contribute his share to the well- being of the community. Doubtless all who read this chapter are desirous of doing useful work. At the same time, it is easy for any of us to fall into the habit of thinking more about what we can GET than about what we can GIVE. There ARE people who habitually seek to do as little as possible for what they receive, or to get all they can for the least possible service. This applies not only to idlers who live entirely off the community without any service on their part, but also to those who have employment, but who seek to evade, by "time-serving" and otherwise "slacking," the full responsibility of service. We sometimes hear complaint in regard to public officials who draw good salaries without rendering adequate or honest public service in return, and to such we frequently apply the term of "grafter." But the principle is exactly the same when any person who has undertaken to do a piece of work fritters away his time or "loafs on the job."

SATISFACTION IN SERVICE

After all, the chief return that we get for our work is not the wages or the profits, important as they are to us, but the satisfaction of doing something that is worthwhile. If this pleasure is absent from the work we do, no amount of money returns can compensate us for it. The happy man is a busy man, an industrious man; and his happiness is more in the doing than in the mere fact of money returns.

IMPORTANCE OF A RIGHT CHOICE

(2) The value of our work to the community and the pleasure that we derive from it both depend to a large extent upon our fitness for it. It is important to choose our work carefully. There are four important considerations in choosing a vocation: (a) its usefulness to the community, (b) one's own fitness for it, (c) one's happiness in it, and (d) whether it offers an adequate living to one's self and dependents. The last of these is, of course, a most important consideration. What a person receives for his work ought to be determined by the first two considerations, i.e. the usefulness of the work to the community and one's fitness for it. We have seen that this is not always true. In such cases it often becomes necessary to make a further choice--a choice between working primarily for one's own profit and working primarily for the satisfaction that comes from important service well rendered. It is not always easy to make this choice; but there are many people who have sacrificed large incomes for the sake of doing work that the community needs and for which they consider themselves well fitted.

A CHOICE OF VOCATION IS INEVITABLE

Many people seem to have little choice in the matter of vocation.

The farmer's boy has to work on the farm whether he wants to or not; and many a man is a farmer apparently for no other reason than that he was raised on the farm and has seen no opportunity to do anything else. Other people seem to be forced into other occupations by circ.u.mstances or drift into them by chance. But even in these cases there is something of a choice. The farmer's boy "chooses" to remain on the farm rather than to take the chances involved in running away, or because he would rather be at home than in a strange city. The discontented farmer might have chosen to be a lawyer if he had been willing to make enough sacrifices to get ready for it; and even now he "chooses" to remain on the farm in spite of his dislike for it because to do otherwise would mean sacrifice of some kind or other that he is unwilling to make.

THE MEANING OF OUR WORK TO THE COMMUNITY

The pleasure and effectiveness of ANY work, however, are increased if its importance to the community or to the world is clearly understood; for ALL productive work is important. There is no more terrible work than that of the soldier in the trenches. No man would voluntarily choose it for his own pleasure. But millions of men have gone into it joyfully because of the results to be attained for their country and the world. Other millions of men and women, and even children, on the farms, in the mines, in the shops, and in the homes, worked and sacrificed during the war with Germany as they had never worked and sacrificed before, produced results such as had never been produced before, and doubtless experienced a satisfaction in their toil that they had never experienced before, because each one saw more definitely than before the relation of his work to the great national and world purpose. An understanding of the meaning of our work in its relation to community welfare goes a long way toward "trans.m.u.ting days of dreary work into happier lives."

FREEDOM, EQUALITY AND JUSTICE

The opportunity to choose one's calling, to decide what service one will fit himself for, the right of "self-determination" with regard to what one's work shall be--this is what "freedom" means.

This is why men are happier when they are free. The "equality" and "justice" that all men want mean EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE that which they like to do, and AN EQUAL CHANCE TO MAKE A LIVING, or to obtain compensation for their labor or enterprise. It is for these things more than for anything else that people have left old-world conditions and come to America. The ability to make a living under conditions of freedom and justice depends in part upon the common wants of the community, and upon the willingness of members of the community to pay for the satisfaction of their wants enough to enable those who perform service for them also to satisfy theirs. But it also depends upon the ability of the individual to make a choice, and upon his willingness to spend years in preparation, if need be, to enable him to offer a service of the kind he likes to render, and for which others are glad to pay well.

A DAY OF SPECIALISTS

We are living in a day of specialists. The very nature of our interdependent life makes it necessary for each worker to do one thing and to do it exceedingly well. Even farming is broken up to a considerable extent into special kinds of farming. Moreover, since the worker must be a specialist, requiring long, special training, it is more difficult than it used to be for him to change from one occupation to another after he has once started.

Each person, therefore, owes it both to himself and to the community to choose his vocation carefully, so far as he has opportunity to make a choice. The schools are more and more making it their business to give boys and girls the knowledge and the experience that will enable them to choose wisely their mode of earning a living.

THE NECESSITY FOR TRAINING

(3) Whether a citizen follows a vocation of his own voluntary choice, or one into which he has fallen by chance or by force of circ.u.mstances, he is under obligation to the community as well as to himself to do his work well. In these days of specialization this inevitably means preparation, training. If the community expects the citizen to perform efficient service, it must afford him a fair opportunity for preparation. During the war the government made special provision for training, not only for military service, but also for the industrial occupations that the nation needed. Vocational training is now receiving great attention from the schools and from government.

HASTY ENTRANCE UPON VOCATIONAL LIFE

As in the choice of a vocation, so in preparation for it the individual has his share of responsibility. It is always a temptation for young people to get out into the active work of the world at the earliest possible moment. The desire to be independent, to earn one's own living, to "make money," is strong.

It leads many boys and girls to leave school even before they have finished their elementary education. In the great majority of cases this results in serious economic loss both to the boy or girl and to the community. The charts on page 137 furnish evidence of this.

PATRIOTISM IN VOCATIONAL LIFE

We call it patriotism when a man gives all that he has, even his life if necessary, for the good of his country, without stopping to consider whether or not he will receive an equal benefit in return. There is no higher type of patriotism than that which prompts a citizen to perform his best service for the community in his daily calling, not for what he can get for it, but for what he can give. This patriotism is shared by the young citizen who is willing to defer an apparent immediate gain to himself in order to prepare himself thoroughly for more effective service later.

If your father had his life to live over again, would he choose the same vocation that he is now following? Consult him as to his reasons.

What special kinds of farming exist in your locality? Is there a tendency in your community toward specialization in farming, or toward general farming? Reasons?

To what extent is "scientific farming" practiced in your locality?

What does it mean?

Make a study of the extent to which specialization is necessary in the industries of your town.

Does your school offer any vocational training or vocational guidance?

Is there a tendency in your school for boys and girls to quit before completing the course? At what grades do pupils begin to drop out in considerable numbers? Why do they leave? What sort of work do they do when they leave school?

At what ages does the law in your state permit boys and girls to go to work? Show how this restriction of freedom now increases freedom later on.

READINGS

In Lessons in Community and National Life:

Series A: Lesson 3, The cooperation of specialists in modern society.

Lesson 5, The human resources of a community.

Lesson 7, Organization.

Lesson 8, The rise of machine industry.

Lesson 9, Social control.

Lesson 10, Indirect costs.

Lesson 11, Education as encouraged by industry.

Lesson 23, The services of money.