Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/30

 1 6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

by other and more satisfactory forms of expression. But their success has been exactly proportionate to the measure in which they demanded the conscious activity of their members. Trade unions have raised many forms of manual work to the dignity of professions, in which their members are brought to a very lively consciousness of the social value of their labor, and are imbued with a real enthusiasm for it. In less successful ways special forms of political and social agitation have com- manded the attention of men, and in the same degree have proven formidable rivals of the saloon. In many instances the enthusiasm of religion has been communicated, producing the same result. Every form af organization which calls forth and expresses vital interests is an enemy to the saloon. But, alas, of the multitude of organizations created for this purpose most have been failures. Splendid schemes they are, many of them, to impress men, but not to express them.

The justification of the arts and crafts movement is to be found here. Its demand is that the hand shall serve the brain, at least in a small part of its work. Its wholesale condemnation of all forms of machine labor, and its apotheosis of the unaided hand, are hardly necessary corollaries. Shorn of gratuitous sentimentalism, the reform which it seeks to effect is to be accomplished by substituting a better habit for a bad one, and this is the only way in which the bad one can be rooted out. When psychology was no farther advanced than in the time of Plato, it was possible to consider the functions proper for the largest part of society as manual alone. At the present time, however, when the differences among men are not commonly regarded as qualitative, Plato's social distinctions will no longer hold. The hand-worker is also a brain-worker ; at least he has a brain which cannot well be prevented from working, and must have opportunity.

It is sometimes the bane of reformers to be too easily satis- fied with their own plans of saving men. The public mind is full of reasonless causes for, and profitless methods of, treating this problem. We are told that drinking is a "search for unearned pleasure," whereas, in the strict sense, there can be no