The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 30, 1898, Page 18

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 189S. ‘WHAT*SNALL* The changes in social and industrial 3 ake it each year, conditions Wil B harder for cthe untrained man to | DAVID STARR find profitable employment. At| JORDAN. the same time! —_— — there never was | a time when a young man sober, indus- trious and trained to do things was 80| much in demand. : The time is coming when the un-/ skilled laborer will have no place of | any kind in the industrial system. A bucket of coal and a bucket of water | will do his work and do it better. The | laborer must put brains into his work, | and brains will always be in demand. | There cannot be too much . .education, even among laborers, if it be education in the direction of effectiveness, and an | effective man will never find the world | overcrowded. | 8o far as vocations are concerned | there is room encugh in almost any of them if one is ready to do the best work he can. But there is no vocation which will keep a man in whisky very long, and there is none that will give him leisure to do poor work or to do it in a dishonest fashion. The tighten- | ing lines of social development make it harder and harder to keep step for the man who doesn't try. | o (i This Is an important question, for it | opens up the vast field of modern eco- | 7 nomic and in-| | | dustrial changes. | WILLIAM H. MILLS, | 1t cannot be | fully answered in short space, nor - can one give an adequate presentation of the problems involved without reference to the en- tire question of production and distri- bution, with some thoughts on co-oper- ative profit-sharing as a remedy which will finally be brought about as a re- action from trusts, | LAND AGENT | It may be said that wealth is dle!-1 tributed when it is created, and that | the tendency in this country and age is | for the instrumentalities of accumula- tion to go into the hands of fewer and fewer persons. There are relatively oyers than there were in the s a result we have pam- pered arroga on the one side and pauperized r on the other. This becomes bad for the independence of the Amer citi who is warped from his independent sovereignty by reason of the struggle for a livelihood, desiring to favor the cdpital, corpora- tions and trusts for which he labor: As the trust restricts profits to the f it has a the S0 bad influence over many. the tendency is toward the aggregation of wealth in relatively few hands. it stands to reason that the boy star g out in the world has a smaller nce to become an employer and original tradesman. Whereas he once had something like one chance in three, I doubt whether he now has one chance In twenty to become an em- ployer of other men. It is by specula- ting in and controlling °T men’s ;nlmr that wealth is produced for a ew. It is well to note that the silent ag- | gressions of the trust and the wild cry | of the anarchist lead practically to the | same ultimate misfortune—the inse- curity of property, and, as a corollary to the insecurity of human life and the destruction of the general welfare. | While it is true that the general con- dition of labor has been vastly im- proved and that there was never a time when the successful man had so much to make life comfortable, it is also true that there is more produced than can be consumed under present conditions. This leads to the growth of an unnecessary class of men out of | employment. Let me illustrate: One | man has forty thousand acres and' lives on it with his family. It is un- necessary to say that there is but one woman on that tract who can buy a piano and the general accompaniments of culture. But if you were to divide that land among two hundred thrifty people behold how enormously you would multiply the power of consump- | fon, how you would extend the call for labor, and how the blessings of wealth would be distributed over a wider area of country and to a larger | proportion of the population. A general and thorough education is in a v a remedy, but when it comes to solving the direct question, “What shall I do with my boy?” it becomes a knotty problem, for his chances are not what they were before the present sys- tem. There is no reason for a pess mistic outlook, but there will be suffer- ing during the working out of th remedy by readjustments and co-o) eration on some equitable basis. C operation is the goal of labor. Trusts engender other trusts and the | tendency of all trusts is to minimize | the number of employvers and augment the number of emplo; . How far the tendency in<this direction can go with- out creating such estrangement be- tween the classes as to produce the | danger of collision I am not prepared 10 say. Great wealth as an incident to pros- perity is tolerable; but great wealth ! supervening upon a general condition of adversity and the impoverishment of the masses, or the common life of the country, is dangerous in the ex- treme. It is a menace to the repose of free institutions. % But the reactionary point from the condition of a trust relation of all la- bor and the tendency which such trusts have is to co-operation of labor. Co-operation would minimize the num- ber of employed and augment the number of profit sharers or employers. S It is hard to say what will be the trend of human vocations in the com- T P SRR [ - dicade or two. man’s J. W. REID, | view 1is greatly i ARCHITECT. circumseribed by | | his own experi- T L L TNt T cannit say that I regard the outlook for the average boy as very promising. I know that the tendency of business is to go into fewer and fewer lines, just | as the tendency is to limit houses to a | small area by building them very high. Take architecture as an example: It | is a fact that in this city as well as in | ® every other one a few architects do all the business. I suppose it is safe to say that there are a few hundred firms | of architects in every city of the size | of this in the United States, yet you can almost count the firms that do | the business on the fingers of one hand. Lawyers tell me it is the same. I find that a few firms in the law do all the business. When you come to medicine | it is the same. Out of all the doctors | in a given city it is a very small num- ber that do any business to speak of. | Now, if this is the tendency of all| lines of human industry, it is plain to be seen that while business was never | 80 good for the sucessful it was never 80 bad for the many who do not get it to do. The success of some and the failure of others from a monetary point of view is not due to a difference in their abllities either, for I know great architects who have failed, men who really knew their business in the most thorough manner. I can name a man who had money and ability and he was at one time the greatest of all the architects in Boston, yet he is to-day | the editor of a great weekly paper. It is hard to say why he failed in his chosen business. I think a boy has a splendid chance to succeed well {f he succeeds at all, but it seems to me that the number who are to succeed in a | given vocation is becoming smaller and smaller, Almost every trade and pro- fession is overcrowded. - . . The question of what a boy shall do =2 0000000000000 00O00O00000000O0 Cp000000000000000O000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 hat may be answered in a gen- | eral way by a W. T. HARRIS, | glance mr ;‘hu evolution of hu- {U. S. COMMISSIONER man~ - voeations | OF EDUCATION The more appli- 2 Snfiv en A ialion | of 'shas chinery the less laborers are needed in the departments where a narrow, spe- clal education will suffice, and the more the laborer is required to have a gen- eral and humane culture. This doc- trine contains the cheering gospel of final emancipation from drudgery. The only condition attached to it is that all shall be educated. This condition is the best part of the gospel. It makes it the business of society to see that all are educated. It becomes the interestof the selfilsh man as well as the ideal of en- | lightened philanthropy to have every member of society so intelligent that he can find his vocation in the higher order of human occupations. The history of industry goes back to a time when only one in a thousand of the able-bodied population could be spared for the creation of ornament or the ministry of culture. Great progress W.HM Rabbi Voorsanger Menry £ Highton. JW.Reid Jalius Kahn. AS the boy of to-day as good a chance of getting on in the world as his father had? Consider the question a moment and you will find it is becoming a very serious problem. wrought in every day life by machinery, ditions in professional life, and the new tions present an altogether different aspect of affairs than when you were a boy. At least so say a thinke President David Starr Jordan of Stanford University declares that “the time is coming when borer will have no place of any kind in the industrial sy tem. A bucket of coal and a bucket of work and do it better. hjs work, and brains will always be in Says Julius Kahn: capped. Intellectually and physically he ter equipped for the struggle than his pi the road to success is constantly narrowing. not so much the fault of the man; it is the fault of exist- o ing conditions. Rabbi Voorsanger: 1 do not believe industrial methods have made it harder had been made when one in a hundred | could be spared for such purpose. The United States and Great Britain have reached a point where five in a hundred laborers are actually pursuing voca- tions that have for their object the ad- dition of ornament to what is already useful. When the ratio is reversed and only five in a hundred are required to pro- vide the crude necessaries and the remnant of soclety may devote itself to the higher order of occupations the economic problem will be solved. Hence a constant readjustment of vo- cations is necessary, and all laborers who are mere “hands” work at a con- tinually growing disadvantage. « 0. It is unnecessary to success for a| boy to be too particular about the e —7*»7. choice of voca- tions. It he THOMAS J. CLUNIE, | can't get em- ) ployment to his ATRCHEEY taste, let him e turn his hand to any honest work until he can find a position through which success is as- The laborer must put br: The poor young man of the pres- ent generation starts In the race of life heavily handi- E:DO*WITN>0UR:BOYS? | BY ills. David Jtarr Jordan WElatris - J.BMChesney - Thos.Clanie w.H.V.Raymond get along. children. The revolution the altered con- economic condi- great many deep Says Willlam H. direct question, What shall I do with my boy? it becomes a knotty problem, for his chances are not what they were the present system. There is no reason for a pessi- ic outlook, but there will be suffering during the work- ing out of the remedy of readjustment and co-operation on some equitable basis. the unskilled la- water will do his s into demand. J. W. Reid thinks is probably bet- redeces®ors, But Fallure is w. that the modern for our boys to this vital subject. sured. To accomplish this he must be honest, faithful to the interests of his employer and spe his lelsure mo- ments in study. He should cultivate a | taste for knowledge by reading news- papers and books. 17 his occupation is | such that he can’t go to school in the daytime, go at night. If there are no | night schools let him study by himself. Poor boys cannot always attend | schools and colleges, but with the prac- tical knowledge acquired in the strug- gle for bread, if they are studiously in- clined, they become equal if not su»‘ perior to the college-bred boy. It does seem to me that a poor man's | son has the best opportunity for suc- | cess if he conducts himseif on the lines suggested, as life is not only a strug- | gle, but a stern reality with him, and | there is every inducement, as well necessity, if he would better his cond tion to press onward and upward un- | til he reaches the goal of his ambition. | His lot being hard he will ask what | makes it so and what can be dore to make it easier. He will soon learn that | errorsg have crept Into the administes tion of what is supposed to be the| - #BASIS OF DR PRNNENENENERRSS = DR. EISEl . . ] & point of view. Biologically though, To mv mind Dr. Schenk’s theory is perfectly plausible from a physical The scientific study of animals 3 2858352&!8!3838883888!5&38!2;‘2 N'S VIEWS. 4 I it amounts to nothing, for the life be- gins long before the creation of the cell. nRRLNuLRLRNLuULRN OT since the discovery of the X-ray by Professor Roentgen, about two years ago, has any- thing so interested the scientific and medical men of San Fran- clsco as the announcement of Dr. Schenk of Vienna that he has discov- ered the secret of sex. Wherever two or more scientists or doctors chance to meet it is the one subject talked of, % | and theories and opinions are freely exchanged. The medical men as a rule do not put much faith in Dr. Schenk’'s statement, but rather incline to the belief that the success attending his experiments has been due to mere coincidence. The sci- entists, on the contrary, say that the idea is perfectly feasible, but think that the importance of the discovery, from a scientific point of view, has been greatly overrated. These men have gathered from the published state- ments of Dr. Schenk the impressjon that he held that he had made a most important blological discovery. This they deny and say that whatever he had discovered it only points to physi- cal facts, and has no bearing whatever on the theories of the origin of life. Although it is of greater importance to the world, it is no more a biologica! discovery than was the discovery that rukbing the body produced warmth. It | is simply the controlling of certain un- known forces to produce a certain de- sired effect. Like all theoretical subjects, this one Has many sides. There are many rea- sons why Dr. Schenk's theory is cor- rect. There are also many reasons why it is wrong. Some physicians cham- pion Dr. Schenk and say he is the | 8reatest man of the time, while others pooh-pooh his ideas and laugh at his assertlons. When learned men reach such opposite conclusions it is hard for the lay mind to comprehend the sub- Ject at all. Reasoning from Dr. Shenk's prem- ises his theory must be correct, but it so happens that he has stated as facts things which the scientific world has not yet accepted as such. He may be right, but proof of his assertions has not yet been forthcoming. 3 NN URRRNNS For instance, he has published over his own signature the statement that the animal embryo is sexless. This fact has not yet been proven. Because the modern micro- scopes will not re- veal differences in the embryo is no reason why such exist, and there is no telling what the instruments of to-morrow will show. Only about half a century ago the best micro- scope built showed the blood corpus- cles only as flat dlsks. Since then they have been separated into a thousand parts as the glasses were increased in strength. And the end is not yet. Dr. Schenk also cites the creation of queen bees as a fact to bear out his theories. As is well known to anybody with even a slight knowledge of nat- ural history, the queen bee is an undeveloped fe - male to begin with and the change in her condition is only a matter of fertilization. The bodily structure is all present in the first place and the feeling merely de- velops it. Some of the best biologists in the country state that the cre- DR. SCHENK, the ation of the queen has no bearing whatever on Dr. Schenk’s theory. Dr. Schenk's statement that scant feeding of the mother will produce male offspring is certainly borne out in the animal kingdom. This was proved many years ago and has long ceased to be new. Experiments were carried on in England in which frogs and tadpoles were used and the results left doubt as to the fact. Scant feeding produced males and luxurious feeding produced females. It is also a well- That Is a popular fallacy which is alded and stimulated by the shallow and one-sided education of our Some professions are overcrowded, while many industries are lagging behind because of an knowledge of their importance. to afford a living to all its sons and daughters; that is the very basis of law and order. ceed well if he succeeds at all, but it seem» o me that the number who are to succeed in a given vocaiton is becom- ing smaller and smaller. slon is overcrowded.” T. Harris: The man must rise above the machine and must learn to serve society so that no machine can throw him out of a situatfon. The above opinions show merely the drift of ideas on imperfect The earth is amply able . Mills: When it comes to solving the ..o “a boy has a splendid chance to suc- Almost every trade and profes- e B Pon . freest Government on earth, and lock about for the best way to correct them. His training will make him self-reliant. He will understand his rights and will be eaggressive enough to maintain them. a To my mind the opportunities for success are gréater and more unmerous now than when I was a boy. The great strides In progress we have made in the last quarter of a century have made it much easier to acquire knowledge, and have cheapened everything that ministers to the comfort of mankind. Change the laws, make it impossible for trusts or combinations to exist, for the purpose of controlling either the | output or the price of any commodity. All laws should be for the masses and not for the classes. The volume of cur- rency should be increased. All these reforms can be brought about by the people. Then industrial conditions will change, and the dawning of a brighter era not only for the present but the rising generation will be at hand. With proper laws controlling corporations and aggregate wealth coupled with our grand resources, I cannot feel with some that the outlook is gloomy. 0000000000000 00000000000! In my judgment no poor boy to-day has reason to regret that he was not born forty or fif- ty years earlier. f he has good stuff in him, he will win as’ the | older boys of that | kind have done: if not, he will fail as such boys have always failed. This I believe to be the rule. Of course, exceptions will occur as they have oc- curred. Though the environment may be harsher in some respects than it was fifty years ago, in others It |is kinder. If there is less unworked ter- ritory, if competition is keener, if the lines of business organization have been hardened, on the other hand there is more intellectual stimulus in the social atmosphere, and there are larger and more generous opportuni- ties for personal training and equip- ment. But it will not do to forget that these opportunities cannot safely be neglect- ed. It will not do now for the young man to risk his fortunes on the slender i intellectual outfit that formed per- W. H. V. RAYMOND, SUPERINTENDENT | POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL. | shows that the determination of the problem is largely due to nutriti known fact on the cattle ranges of the West that in the years of drought more males are borne to the cows and sheep than in the years of heavy rainfall and plenty of feed. But successful as some experiments have been in this line, others have been equally as great failures. The great Darwin attempted to experiment with pigeons to this end, but met with dis- mal failure and conciuded that there were some things even beyond “natural selection.” Successful as Dr. Schenk has been % a7 Austrian Scientist, Whose with his experiments, his theory will not hold good in the case of the Ameri- can Indians. These people, when they ran wild and almost starved for a cer- tain portion of each year, were blessed with an average number of sons and daughters. But since the white man has taken it upon himself to provide a plenty of provisions and the necessaries of life o that our noble red man and red woman really lead a life of luxury, compared to the old days, there has been an increase in the birth rate of Discovery Has Startled the World SCHENK'S THEORY OF SEX# n. aunuLLuLuLsy NBuBBLNN male infants. In fact, in some of the pueblos of New Mexico the scarcity of females is so great that the races are dying off. This is directly opposite to what should be, according to Dr. Schenk’s theory. But, of course, there may be other forces at work of which there is no knowledge. For in- stance, the women may not be as well treated as they were in the old days of savagery. Dr. Gustav Els- en, curator of mi- croscopy of the Academy of Sci- ences, is greatly interested in Dr. Schenck's theory, and thinks it very plausible. Dr. Eisen has given the best years of his life to the study of biolo- gy, and his discov- ery in regard to the indepndence of the centrosomes of animal cells has given him a place in the front rank of the great scien- tists of the world. In speaking of the matter, Dr. Eisen said: “Dr. Schenk’s theory is perfectly plausible from a physical point of view. Bi- ologically, though, it amounts to noth- ing, for the life begzins long before the creation of the cell, and if therc is such a thing as sex in the embryo it must be in ex- istence from the beginning. “If Dr. Schenk's theory works it would be merely carrying out Dar- win’s idea of the survival of the strongest. By starving the mother it would appear that she could not fur- nish sufficient nourishment for a fe- male embryo, consequently there would be no fertilization in case chance led to that impregnation. The male em- bryo being the stronger, would be the BN NN NN NNNRRRRRRNNS WHAT DR. JORDAN THINKS. No one can sit in judgm=nt on such a discovery until it is made known. It is one thing to discover the law of sex and another to apply it success- fully for the production of d:finite results. B A A R R R T NRRLRRS more- likely to survive under scant nutrition. But even if this is so would it be good for the generation to come to have progeny struggle so for an ex- istence? “In regard to the sex of the embryo. I am not prepared to make any state- ments because nothing in regard to it has been proved: Hundreds of the best microscopes in the world are at work on this subject and new revelations may be expected at any day. The real state of the embryo might be any one of a dozen different theories. “The most generally accepted theory at present is that two germ cells, male and ferrale, unite at the moment of cleavage and eventually form one or- ganism. But this, while it makes Dr. Schenk’s theory plausible, is not an undisputed fact. President David Starr Jordan of Stan- ford University treats thematteras fol- lows: “No one can sit in judgment on such a discovery until it is made known. It is one thing to discover the law of sex and quite another to apply it success- fully for the production of definite re- sults. “It is fairly well established that the two germ cells, male and female, from which the new organism is produced, unite to form one organism, or cell, which is at first sexless, but capable of development along either of two lines, regardless of its hereditary quali- ties. These lines are the male or the female, and in most species the germ cell is so accurately balanced that it will turn in one direction just as readily as the other. A slight stimulus suf- fices to turn it. What this stimulus is, is still partly unknown. How to apply it in the higher forms is wholly unknown, unless Dr. Schenk has solved it. It is known that with cer- tain of the lower forms high feeding turns the germs to females; starvation to males. 1In other cases warmth turns the germs to masculinity; cold in- creases the percentage of females. Doubtless any force which may act on the germ cell at the right time after fecundation may be a stimulus affect- ing its sex development in the one di- rection or the other. ~“There is room for much more knowl- edge here, and Dr. Schenk may have contributed it. The art of producing sex at will in man and the higher ani- haps the capital of the father. True, that always, as now, the winning boy must be eager, open-eyed, determined, unconquerable. But added to these personal qualities our young man must know his subject ‘and its relations (whether.in theoretical or in practical flelds) in more complete detail than was formerly 'essential. Not only must equipment for voca- tion be more complete, but it must come to be recognized, as always it was true, that men are needed at all posts in life with an overplus of power for their work, and that of such men only can anything like success be pre- dicted. You cannot pour a man into an occupation as you can pour wheat into a half-bushel and make exact measure of him. If he does not round up he will be scant. If he is to win the trained man in him must overrun the outline of his occupation. From the scavenger to the college president the man must be superior to his calling. Success hinges on the mastery between the two. If the man Is measter he is safe. If the occupation is master the man fs lost. I believe that our boys have infin- itely less to fear from machinery and trusts than they have from failure ta percei that this truth is universal, despotic and relentless. If we were ta realize the splendid possibiiities wrap- ped up in the noble provision made in this State and in the United States for vocational training this principle can« not be too often asserted or too stron ly emphasized. 1 see boys daily drift- ing hopelessly away from all chance of success, because of a feverish discon- tent at their failure to get what they want rather than a “divine discon- tent” with their unfitness for it. - I insist that a boy’s vocation or call- ing must be determined by his mental endowments, and RABBI JACOB few boys, after they have had | VOORSANGER. their schooling, are in doubt as R g, T 7 Sy to what should be their life’s calling. Mistakes of am- bition or judgment are numerous and excite failure, but they prove nothing. Let us have good elementary schools. Give us institutions where the boy and girl are taught that the head, heart and hand contain the faculties which insure success; which means schools in which physical, mental and manual education are received, and we will easily be able to tell which boys are fit for the shops, which for the trades and which for the intellectual walks of hfe. I do not believe that the iodern in- dustrial methods have made it harder for our boys to get along. That is a popular fallacy which is aided and stimulated by the shallow and one- sided education of our children. Some professions are overcrowded, while many industries are lagging be- hind because of an imperfect knowi- edge of their importance. The earth is amply able to afford a living to all its sons and daughters; that is the very basis of law and order. The question is how to distribute them so that they shall not be in each other’s way. That is a great question whick cannot be decided offhand. Let a boy’s elementary training be thor- ovgh and he will know what to do with himself. All vocations are prom- ising—for the pecuniary _standpoint cuts no figure in ethics. Whatever a man’'s hand reaches out to do, let him do it well, and he contributes to the peace of the world. The man who succeeds as a boot- black is as ¥ood a citizen as the most eloquent pleader at the bar. s el The poor young man of the present generation starts in the race of life — heavily handi- capped. Intei- JULIUS KAKN, lectually and physically he is TTORNEY. | ARIOHNE | probably better St etk equiniped foF the struggle than his predecessors. But the road to success is constantly nar- rowing. Failure is not so much the faultof theman; it is the fault of exist- ing conditions. Opportunities are becoming rarer. Competition is growing keener in every line of industry. Take the learned pro- fessions—they are overcrowded. The few succeed, the many simply exist. Take the skilled mechanic—he is con- stantly being supplanted by newly in- vented labor saving devices. Take the clerk—woman is rapidly invading his territory. Take the farmhand—he must retire before the advance of improved agricultural implements. Take the merchant—what chance has he with his limited resources against the mod- ern department store. with its immense capital and practically unlimited cred- it? Take the manufacturer, covered as he is by the Aegis of protection—even he succumbs to that power of aggre- gated capital, the “trust,” and retires from the field disheartened, broken, bankrupt. The last generation witnessed a struggle for wealth; this generation witnesses a struggle for existence. Salaries are decreasing—the cost of liv- ing increasing. Legislation is power- less to remedy the evil. It may delay the inevitable conflict between capital and labor, but sooner or later soclal revolution will come. The proper field for a young man to- day is in a new country. There lies his opportunity. England's statesmen have always recognized the advantages newly opened territory offers. For hun- dreds of years they have been found- ing colonies for British subjects in all quarters of the globe. The other Buro- pean nations are beginning to pattern after England. Africa is already well partitioned among them—Asia will be the next scene of colonial aggrandize- ment. On our own continent the gold flelds of the Klondike are just now the promised land, and within the next decade hundreds of young men to whom the future looks dark and for- bidding, pioneers in far, frozen Alaska, will become rich and successful be- cause of the opportunities offered in the development of that new country. PERRY S I think there are as good opportuni- ties for a boy to get a start in the — world now as | there were forty J. B. McCHESNEY, Rty ¢ yekin i PRINCIPAL ye:rs i ago. As HIGH SCHOOL, labor is more di- | versified and a | omuwo. | greater varfety of occupations is offered there should be better opportu- nities now than formerly. But compe- tition is severe, and if a young man would get on he must be alert and give his time and energies to whatever he undertakes” The law concerning the survival of the fittest applies to the young man in business as well as to the perpetuity of the plant or the ani- mal. I consider education, or, perhaps, to state my meaning more specifically, a well-trhined mind, more necessary to success now than yvears ago. All our industries are becoming more and more highly organized, their successful pur- suit requires a knowledge of a wider range of science and the more intricate laws of the materfal world. Conse- quently, brains will hereafter be a greater factor in suceess than brawn. While it is true that the introduction of machinery is constantly throwing men out of employment, it must be re= membered that at the same time {t opens new avenues of labor. Readjust- ment is the order of the day, and those who are quick to perceive and ready to adapt themselves to new conditions will mals is not necessarily an impossible one.. At the same time I believe that its acquisition lies far in the future.” be successful, The world will have no Foiin use for drones