Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/362

 344 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

committee appointed by the Civic Federation to consult with leading employers and capitalists in Chicago about calling a con- ference on the subject of arbitration. One of the most astonish- ing discoveries made by the committee was that a large number of prominent business men had not so much as heard that arbi- tration had ever been tried. They had never heard of the Massa- chusetts or the Pennsylvania experiment, still less of English, French, and Swiss plans. They thought arbitration was an off- hand invention of some Chicago enthusiasts, or at best a theory concocted by a few irresponsible college professors. These men were open to argument, they were willing to hear facts, and they finally furnished the money for the conference ; but if this pro- cess of education and persuasion had been omitted, they might have considered "arbitration" a pure theory to this day.

A well-known eastern expert in economics has long con- tended that the labor problem might be settled in the United States if we would reduce ourselves to the corn standard of food, at the same time holding on to the wheat standard of wages. As a mere proposition in arithmetic, that is a perfectly clear solution. The margin between the wheat and the corn standard of diet would save to the workers of the country enough for luxuries to absorb all the idle labor. No politics, no legislation, no revolution is called for in the programme. Why not solve the social problem by this easy device ? Simply because the stupid facts of human inertia and incredulity are in the way. A fact may come to light and be accepted by a few. It is quite another matter to persuade the multitude that it is a fact. Until they are persuaded, to all practical intents and purposes the fact might as well not exist. No matter what we may discover about better ways of living, until enough individuals accept the discovery as fact, agitations for action on the lines of the discovery are simply putting the cart before the horse. Next to discovery must come education. We must spread the news. We must make known the better ways of doing things. We must show that they have worked, and therefore will work in like circumstances again. Any social agitation which does not conform to this programme is bound to run amuck. The reason is that men's minds work