Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/844

 828 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

demand is usually the outcome of supply in the first instance. Our needs are the fruit of past advantages, not merely the prophecy of future hunger. There is danger in the extinction of the arts, lest they should be wholly forgotten and undemanded.

While the technical schools thus render an inestimable service, I fear that their ends may be defeated to a considerable extent by commercialism. 3 It remains to be seen how far the movement can be carried with economic success; and while the "trade" has already been influenced by it, it is hardly to be hoped that there will never be a reciprocal detrimental effect. Such considerations will not, of course, prevent the work from being carried forward with zeal, and all who value the arts should lend their support. As Morris always insisted, in the long run it becomes a question of the freedom of the worker, and this is equally true in all fields of intellectual effort. It is here that the socialist and the individualist are one.

There is much outcry in certain quarters at the great increase of municipal debt. It is hardly necessary in this article to dis- cuss this question at length, but the following from Bernard Shaw is worth quoting:

According to the popular view, the thrifty course is to pay as you go, and not add to "the burden of municipal debt." The correct financial theory is undoubtedly the reverse: all expenditure on public works should be treated as capital expenditure. The capital should be raised in the cheapest market, and the rates used to pay the interest and sinking-fund. When a municipality which can borrow at less than 4 per cent, deliberately extorts capital for public works from tradesmen who have to raise it at from 10 to 40 per cent., or even more, it is clearly imposing the grossest unthrift on its unfortunate constituents. In practice everything depends on the duration of the work.

s Whether the influence comes directly from the masters or the men, its origin is the same. I read in the Bookbinding Trades Journal, 1904, p. 48, "The technical classes, as at present arranged, are not of much use to the apprentices of our trade, and the action of the London County Council in instituting classes to teach women bookbinding is likely to be resented by our union. Already the employers have moved in the matter, and a joint conference between the secretaries of the London societies of bookbinders and the committee of feder- ated employers has been held and adjourned. To my mind, nothing but strenu- ous resistance to the London County Council's plans, in conjunction with other trades, can avert a calamity. Arthur J. Carter.