Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/566

 552 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

not only for the child's unfitness for intelligent and conscious par- ticipation in industrial life, but also for the fact that "industry itself has fallen back into old habits and repeated traditional mis- takes." Educators are urged "to bring industry into 'the kingdom of the mind' and to pervade it with the human spirit."

The stories of girls and boys who have drifted into delinquency and repudiated their most sacred obligations in sheer revolt against work which made of them mere machines — "work detached from direct emotional incentive, and separated from family life and the public opinion of the community" — throw a strong light upon the hideous system under which we have grown so careless of both the "type" and "the single life." And we involuntarily contrast those fine old expressions of proletarian exuberance furnished by the marches of the guilds and craftsmen with "that long proces- sion of factory workers in which the young walk almost as wearily and listlessly as the old." Yet over against all this, to save us from utter gloom and discouragement, stand the vivid pictures of those high-spirited young people in whom the fire was not quenched — who "scorned delights and lived laborious days" in obedience to the urgings of art and beauty.

On every page of this book we find some suggestion of the writer's thesis that human nature has not changed throughout the ages, and that in these time-old stirrings and impulses of young hearts are to be found "the perpetual springs of life's self -renewal."

In her plea for our recognition of the impulse for joy, and for the provision of activities through which the emotions of our young people may be converted into permanent social values, we seem to hear again those high prophecies of an earlier day, when a great American educator previsioned a democracy whose con- fession of faith should be, "You can trust men if you will train them."

When the ardors and enthusiasms of youthful hearts have been "trained" into desire for justice in human affairs; when a clue has been given to these young zealots by which they may con- nect their lofty aims with daily living; when religious instruction is given validity because it is attached to conduct, then it may be easy to bring about certain social reforms so sorely needed in our industrial cities. This is Miss Addams' summing up of her faith in society's integrity, and her statement of the function of youth in the regenerating processes of life.