Practicable Socialism, New SeriesBarnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Religion
Practicable Socialism, New Series
Barnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class
The hope of the future lies obviously in the training of the children,
but the elder members of the community might also have more chances of
growth. Employers, for instance, might more generally substitute
holidays of weeks for holidays of days, and so encourage the workpeople
to plan their reasonable use. They might also enlarge their minds by
informing them about the material on which they work, whence it comes
and whither it goes. Miss Addams tells of a firm in Ohio where the hands
are gathered to hear the reports of the travellers as they return from
Constantinople, Italy, or China, and learn how the goods they have made
are used by strange people. In the same firm lantern lectures are given
on the countries with which the firm has dealings, and generally the
hands are made partners in the thoughts of the heads. “This,” as Miss
Addams says, “is a crude example of the way in which a larger framework
may be given to the worker’s mind,” and she adds, “as a poet bathes the
outer world for us in the hues of human feeling, so the workman needs
some one to bathe his surrounding with a human significance.” Employers
also, following the example of Messrs. Cadbury, might require their
young people not only to attend evening classes to make them fitter for
work, but also to attend one class which will fit them to ride hobbies,
which will carry them from the strain and routine of work into other and
recreating surroundings. Municipal bodies have in these latter days done
much in the right direction by opening playing fields, picture
galleries, and libraries, and by giving free performances of high-class
music. They might perhaps do more to break up the monotony of the
streets, introducing more of the country into town, and requiring
dignity as well as healthiness in the great buildings. Such variety adds
greatly to the joy of living, diverts the minds of weary workers, and
stimulates the admiration which is one-third of life.
But, after all, improvement starts from individuals, and it is the
action of individual men and women which will reform popular reaction.
They must, each one as if the reform depended on him alone, be morally
thoughtful about the amusements they encourage or patronize, and be
considerate in preparing for their own pleasure. Each one must develop
his own being, and stir up the faculties of his own mind. Each one must
practise the muscles of his mind as a racer practises the muscles of his
legs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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