Page:George Soule - The Intellectual and the Labor Movement.djvu/11

 to support causes which might help them. And in the end he is likely to become as discouraged as in the beginning he was ardorous. Disillusionment and bitterness set in; he cannot find a way to be useful, the labor movement is slow and tortuous and he will have none of it. At the same time he may find himself incapable of making even the sacrifice involved in living from year to year on the same income as the average skilled wage-earner, to say nothing of losing his liberty and life in the Cause. Commenting on the manner in which many intellectuals approach the labor movement. Cedric Long, graduate of Union Theological Seminary, a former organizer for the Amalgamated Textile Workers says:

"Many young men and women have thrown themselves directly into the labor movement. Some of these have been animated chiefly by the scientific spirit; they have hoboed through the harvest fields and mining districts, worked in the ranks of unskilled labor in factory and mill,—trying to get the 'feel' of life and toil and union activities as the workers at the bottom find them. Others more emotionally sensitive to the injustices in our industrial order, repelled by the callousness and unconscious cruelty of the classes with which they are habitually associated, find themselves driven to cut loose and throw in their lot with the oppressed classes in society. A third group, mere adventurers, join the labor forces in search of new sensations or personal power.

"No man or woman should lightly make such a leap as this. Young people easily interpret a love of romance as 'social passion' or the 'scientific spirit'. The labor movement has nothing to give such people, nor can they give anything to the labor movement. However, many genuine leaders in various social and economic movements have first 'found themselves' by making such a plunge as this. Other men and women will get their start in a life of genuine service in the same manner.

"There are a few 'No Trespass' signs that such people must rigidly observe. Don't take another man's job, either in time of strike or when there are more men than jobs on the market; and do not accept wages that are below the standard wage for that particular class of work. Don't aspire to leadership in a union. When the toil among the rank and file of workers begins to grow monotonous and you feel you are 'fitted for greater spheres of usefulness', it is time to move on to another job or get back into the ranks of the intellectuals. Don't harbor the conviction that you are of great service to the labor movement. You are probably more of a drag than a help; you are merely getting the education which an impossible educational system denied you."

Naive members and officers of the unions sometimes have as exaggerated expectations of the intellectual as he has of them. Here is an educated man come to help them. He has been to college and hence knows everything. He knows what is the matter with the world. Give him power and he can do away in a jiffy with poverty and oppression. He has written for a newspaper, and so he can see that the newspapers at last print the workers' side of the case in full. His influential friends can bring pressure to bear on the employer and make him reasonable. They can contribute enormous sums of money for relief funds and benefits.

No intellectual can do these things, most intellectuals cannot do any part of one of them. Here is disillusionment also.