Page:George Soule - The Intellectual and the Labor Movement.djvu/14

 Yet a person who is unfamilar with the concrete machinery of trade-unionism, who has not wrestled with its problems at close range, and who has not understood the heavy responsibilities which rest upon the shoulders of a trade-union leader, is as venturesome in attempting to advise unionists about matters of policy as a raw college graduate would be in criticizing the technical aspects of management in a great industrial enterprise. No one who has not received a thorough education in the labor movement is fitted to assume any of the functions of technical trade union leadership. Any "intellectual" who attempts to do so is likely to meet with a warranted rebuff. If his talent for speaking or writing should gain him support in a section of the movement which is not itself experienced and has not developed its own leaders, he is likely soon to succumb to disaster, together with those who have followed him.

The intellectual, then, may expect of the labor movement a real significance in spite of all disappointments, and he may also expect of it, as of all significant institutions rooted in history, a tough fabric of custom and behavior to which the only fruitful approach is one of inquiring respect.

The trade union movement may help the sympathetic intellectual to fulfill his true function by abandoning a wholly negative attitude toward him. It ought to cease holding exaggerated expectation of his ability. It may be compelled to discourage his ill considered attempts at interference. But it ought also positively to make clear that in certain respects the intellectual may be of distinct assistance.

When a unionist wants plumbing or carpentry done, he goes to a plumber or carpenter, not to an official of his own union. He recognizes that the man who has a trade, whose skill is dependent on an apprenticeship in his craft, is the