Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/49

Rh ; Just as the social organization of the Middle Ages was adapted to the simple industrial conditions of that time. Henry Dyer's 'Evolution of Industry' traces this process of solution of these problems, so far as solved to date, in a most interesting way. His conclusion, that the mechanical development of the past century is a necessary element of the evolution of society, as well as of the industries, is as sound as is his deduction that the problems of the twentieth century should be solved in such manner as to insure a final evolution of an ideal, discreet, wise, prudent, pleasant and righteous life, which shall conform to the ideals of the scholar, the gentleman, the seer and the poet. On the organization of the mechanical industries largely depends the future of the world, and in this evolution of a finer and better life, through industrial and social evolution, the influence of one such man as Dolge, at Little Falls, N. Y., and of one such firm as the famous Patterson's at Dayton, Ohio, tells more powerfully than all polemic discussion.

Thus the organization of the workshop and the humanizing of the workman, as Ashbee denominates it, may be expected to proceed together.

The noble view of the Bishop of Durham, as expressed a few years ago, may well be taken as the enunciation of the problem and the purpose of the coming centuries:

"Manufactures, trade, commerce, agriculture, if once the thought of personal gain can be subordinated to the thought of public service, offer scope for the most chivalrous and enterprising and courageous. It can only be through some misapprehension that it seems nobler to lead a regiment to the battlefield than to inspire the workers in a factory with the enthusiasm of labor."

He anticipates, nevertheless, that the time is coming, surely if slowly, but possibly quickly, when the Great Industry will be "made to contribute to the material and moral elevation of all who are engaged in it, not as separate or conflicting units, but as parts of the social organism."

In his remarkable little book, Our Country,' Dr. Strong, fifteen years before its close, affirmed that the later years of the nineteenth century constitute a 'focal point' in history, and are second only in importance to "that which always must remain first, viz., the birth of Christ." He goes on to say in his introduction:

"Many are not aware that we live in extraordinary times. Few suppose that these years of peaceful prosperity, in which we are quietly developing a continent, are the pivot on which is turning the nation's future. And fewer still