“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.” FOREWORD A friend said to me this last week, “There are two things that I instinctively distrust, one is prophecy, the other is statistics. Now that the war has lengthened into the fourth year and America has taken her place by the side of the Allies, I find my gorge rising every time any one attempts a prophecy and quotes statistics. All prophecies have proved false and statistics are utterly unreliable. Even the clocks have been made to lie by official decree.” Granted that my friend is pessimistic, at the same time we must all sympathize with him in this feeling. In writing this book, I have tried to keep out of the realm of prophecy and have used just as few statistics as possible. Most of the facts were secured by investigations made prior to August, 1914. I have endeavored to check up every statement with all the reports I could secure from the Department of Labor at Washington, through the _Survey_ and the _New Republic_, and through other sources. I feel reasonably certain that all the statements concerning conditions will bear investigation and are substantially correct. If there are discrepancies, it will be found after making due allowance for the judgment of others, that they are due to changes brought about by unusual conditions in industry. The principles are unchanged and it is upon these that I have attempted to place the most emphasis. Concrete facts are but illustrative of the principle involved. Conditions affect cases but leave principles undisturbed. I am greatly indebted to the help in research given me by Miss Lucy Gardner, of Salem, Massachusetts. As far as possible I have given credit to the proper authorities for material used. If I have failed to do so I take this opportunity of acknowledging my indebtedness to all unknown authors and authorities who have contributed in any way. This book goes forth to the young people of America in the hope that they will find in it some small inspiration that will prove an incentive to them to give themselves to the cause of humanity, realizing that through service, and through service alone, can any one make the fullest contribution to his generation. “Men and Things,”--a nation is great only in its citizens. The great task before the church to-day is to help to readjust the conditions existing in all industries so that men and women may labor and enjoy the fruits of their labor and profit physically and spiritually in the wealth which they help to create. HENRY A. ATKINSON. New York, May, 1918. CHAPTER I THE WORLD OF WORK