Page:George Soule - The Intellectual and the Labor Movement.djvu/23

 from books may easily be acquired by reading in or out of college.

In conclusion it may be remembered that from any point of view the task of the intellectual—in the sense here defined—is mainly to discover truth and spread its understanding and application to human affairs. There are few problems more important to the modern community than those associated with industry and labor. Whether the intellectual has any close contacts with the labor movement or not, the opportunity always is before him to understand it as well as possible, and to spread that understanding in whatever society he happens to move. A scientific and broad approach to the struggles of labor, if it can be made to permeate those classes of the community who are usually fed with calculated misinformation and actuated by heated prejudice in the presence of strikes and other labor troubles, will do much to make possible intelligent progress toward a solution of the gravest of modern problems. As an outpost of intelligence, of good will, of enlightenment, the intellectual can render an invisible but a difficult and highly useful service. It is here, perhaps, that the majority of intellectuals with an interest in the labor movement will find their true function.

Those who do have an opportunity to work directly in the movement, will find it, in spite of all possible discouragement and disillusionment, at least as interesting and satisfactory as the usual professional or business career. It does not offer so large material rewards to the exceptionally successful, but the average worker is able to make a living init. He will gain besides an immense comfort from the knowledge that his work has a significance beyond the next meal and the next night's lodging.