many men out of work. We have seen in our own
country although it is quite common in other coun-
tries mere children in competition with their own
parents for jobs. That is a most shameful condition.
So that if there are those employed who by right
ought to be in school or in the home, the placing of
them in their proper spheres would release a large
number of jobs for men to take.
But it ought to be evident that these methods, in-
cluding farm and labor colonies and other suggested
remedies, only touch the problem in spots.
The need is for something bigger and more de-
pendable. These other improvements ought to be
96
THE RIGHT OK A MAN TO HIS WORK
made also, of course, but in themselves they are not
sufficient to cure the whole evil. They ought to be
undertaken on grounds of simple human justice, re-
gardless of whether they really help to solve the prob-
lem of unemployment or not.
We have to begin to guarantee our national pros-
perity where it begins with the mass of workers.
We have got to be just at the bottom of the ladder
first, trusting that a policy of justice at the bottom
will result in justice at the top too. But we ought not
stop to speculate : we ought to begin to be just at the
beginning of things, regardless.
This is not asking charity for Labor. It is only
asking for Labor what has already been done for
Banks and Business a Method to realize on its
assets.
A man awakes in the morning. His chief asset
is his ability to perform a day's work. He ought to
be assured "of a chance to realize on that asset, just
as the business man was assisted to realize on a stock
of goods, or a bank on a stock of perfectly good notes.
Neither would this involve a policy of "making
work" giving the men something to do for the sake
of keeping them busy.
With the advance of inventive genius and with the
perfection of human methods of business management,
more and more jobs are going to be created and the
conditions of labor are going to be increasingly im-
proved. Here and there we see private employers
who are doing their full part to reduce the problem of
unemployment, and they are not doing it as a charity,
but because a busy world is a good world to do busi-
ness in it is a buying and selling world.
But the Government, which has the whole country
to oversee, has mountains of work that it ought to do
too. The United States in manv places resembles an
unkempt, undeveloped farm.
There are great campaigns of work needed be-
tore our country can compare with any European
country in the utilization of its advantages and re-
sources.
\\ e have arid lands to irrigate, deserts to fertilize,
water power to develop, national road systems to
97
FORD IDEALS
build, railroad and other transportation systems to
double and triple to take care of our needs ; we have
canals to build and reforestation projects to under-
take indeed, there is no end to the NECESSARY
and URGENT work to be done.
-If the United States undertook to do all that ought
to be done, it would drain private industry of its man-
power.
A Federal Industrial Reserve, established to take
up the slack in employment would be a great step
toward protecting in this country the Right of A Man
To A Job.
There are those who claim that a certain propor-
tion of unemployed men is desirable from the in-
dustrial standpoint. A crowd of men clamoring around
the factory gates for jobs helps keep the men inside
steady and helps keep wages down, they say.
That is a detestable philosophy. It is cold specu-
lation in flesh and blood and anxiety and hunger. We
don't want any condition that is dependent on un-
employment for its steadiness.
What we want are enough jobs to go around. And
just as there was enough wealth to do business, though
not enough money until the Federal Reserve System
got to work, so there is enough work for all, though it
is not as yet divided into jobs, but will be when we
tackle it in a big national way. When the People,
through the Government, become an employer on
great public projects, unemployment will become a
thing of the past.
The Fear of Change
VOICES on every side are counseling us to fill our-
selves with fear. Wherever you go, whatever you
read, the tones of calamity are strongly emphasized.
The proper aftermath of war does not seem to he a
sense of relief at all, nor a spirit of gratitude for the
deliverance, nor yet a hopeful view of the future.
Our loudest advisers would have us helieve that the
only proper feeling is one of dread for the dire events
that are expected to follow.
All this is very strange when you stop to consider
it, hecause it is not so many months ago when any-
one who forecasted the future in other than rosy hues
was denounced as a "calamity howler."
Today, however, Jeremiah is chief among the
prophets.
And when this occurs, it is a sign.
No stronger sign could he given that something has
been wrong and still is wrong in America than the
readiness of a certain class to accept this counsel of
fear.
The man whom you can reduce to a state of fear
by threats of retribution, is not reduced to such a
state bv your words, but by the corroboration of a
guiltv conscience within him.
One is justified by human experience in gauging
the degree of guilt bv the readiness of the fear. \Yhen
a spokesman arises and says, "Yes, \ve have a great
deal to fear," it is probably -true that he and those
he represents really have much to tear. Rut it does
not follow that everyone has.
Those whose conscience is clear, who know that
they have done their duly and have not denied theii
obligations to humanity, who have not thought them-
selves better or more deserving than their fellow-
creatures - these do not have to take' refuge in fears.
'1 hey are tree to scan the tuture and to greet what-
ever it max have in store.
FORD IDEALS
The accusing conscience, the life that knows it
has ignored the rights of others, is Fear's ally.
Well, what about the mysterious future? What
are its portents ? What is the outlook ? False prophets
always prophesy peace, and the reason their prophecy
is false is that there never is peace in the way they
mean it.
So, if this page were to begin on the note of
"Peace, peace," you could at once set it down as false.
As long as there is life there is Change. The peace
of stagnation is an attribute of death.
That, therefore, is one element we may expect in
the future the element of Change.
Whatever we may regret about it, the old world
as we knew it can never come back. It can never be
the same again. Even if every human being on the
globe devoted himself to reconstructing the old world
as it was, it could not be done.
And the reason for this is that we ourselves have
changed. We are not what we were. We can never
be the same again. Something has passed over us
and upon us that has rendered us different. We have
changed our angle of view. That which formerly
seemed all-important now occupies a lower place, and
that of which we seldom thought has been made the
chief interest of life. The world has really been
turned upside down as far as its thinking is concerned.
Of course, this is nothing new. It has always hap-
pened, though not always so suddenly and inclusively
as it has happened now. We are continually changing
and life is always changing for us and the world is
changing beneath and around us so why fear
Change ? ^
And yet there are people who really do fear it.
These are the people who are falling victims to the
propaganda of Fear today.
To shrink from a new situation is, in ordinary
times, a sign of weakness. When a man feels that he
is afraid to tackle anything out of the ordinary routine,
when circumstance throws an obstruction in his way
and it cows him instead of rousing him, then he has
lost his zest for real life.
Life is just one unexpected thing after another,
100
THK FEAR OF CHANGE
and if a man fails to appreciate the glory of the un-
expected, his pulse is slowing up. It is Change that
keeps men alive, just as it is the flow that keeps water
pure.
But aside from the fear which is a sign of weak-
ness, there is another fear which is a sign of selfish-
ness. It is that fear which has clutched a whole class
in America today.
We have been pretty calm and easygoing in
America. We have left a great many leaks which
shrewd men use to exploit for their personal gain.
We have unregulated power which unscrupulous men
use to entrench themselves at the expense of others.
And the whole posse of get-rich-quick thieves, and
the whole clique of get-richer-still blunders, and the
whole class of those who fatten on the productive
thought and labor of others, are the ones who fear
the specter of Change as it were an accusing spirit.
And in their case impending Change is an ac-
cusing spirit. For what can be changed to anyone's
hurt is wrong to begin with. The right system cannot
be changed. Even an improvement of the right sys-
tem injures no one, but helps all. But if Change
strikes the grafts of the idle rich class and hurts
them, it is a proof that their system is wrong and
harmful to others.
Anyone who has been living bv his productive
thought and labor, who has been mindful to bring
his fellow-men along with him. who has never thought
in terms of his own wealth and glory but always in
terms of the general good and prosperity, such a one
has nothing to fear from Change. He usually fore-
sees it and meets it half way. It is his friend and ally.
Why should it be so hard to get this thought into
men's minds, that Change can only hit those matters
which ought to be changed for the better?
If our rich idlers are made to work for their bread
and contribute something beside their ornamental
presence to the general good, will that be a disastrous
change ?
It those who live bv dickering instead of by labor-
ing are made to get down to business and earn their
living, will that be a change to be feared?
FORD IDEALS
If the whole mass of human spiders, financial,
professional and social, are hindered from spinning
their webs to catch hard-working human flies and
their earnings, is that a change to be dreaded?
If the dishonest, shrewd, scheming, gambling,
double-crossing tribe of shirkers are put out of their
feathered nests and made to pay their labor for their
living, will such a thing mean "the end of civilization"
as some of the fear-peddlers tell us?
Instead of bringing "the end of civilization," they
will constitute a very promising beginning along sadly
neglected lines.
It is a pretty safe method to follow, when you
hear a man raving about the danger there is to Civ-
ilization at the present moment, to ask him, "Which
of your grafts is in danger?"
You don't see people who do their daily work
honestly and well going about and spreading this fear.
You don't hear of the farmers calling mass-meet-
ings and warning each other to look out, that some-
thing is going to happen !
Why? Because these people are doing their duty
to mankind. They are producing their living. They
are not living off other people. Their conscience
doesn't accuse them.
This is very significant. It is so significant that
you had better consider it a moment.
The fear-peddlers of the present hour are the priv-
ileged class, the big grafter class, and its servants
and these servants are the reactionary politicians, and
the newspapers which seem to believe that all Change
and improvement is of the devil.
Observe and see if this is not true. Watch the
"voices of warning" and see if they do not issue from
those classes where the Guilty Conscience would
naturally become most active in times of threatened
Change.
Surveying the disorder in Europe, its cause would
appear to be the determination of the privileged
classes that the world shall go on in the old way, and
the utter impossibility of the world going on in the
old way. For we must remember that when kings
were dethroned. Private Privilege was not dethroned.
102
THE FEAR OK CHANGE
Kingship was always built upon the foundation of
class privilege, and it was possible for the head to
abdicate without breaking up the system. Kings were
useful to private privilege because they helped keep
the people's respect for high graft. But Privilege
can get along without kings if it can only control the
people by other means. Here in the United States we
have never had a king, yet we have a privileged aris-
tocracy which can be as sharply defined as the nobility
of England or the Junkers of Germany.
So, unless these privileged classes of yesterday
can start again on yesterday's plan, they will not start
at all, and that is at the bottom of the disorder of
Europe. They are trying to hold back the tide of
progress, which is impossible.
Europe has been the scene of endless war simply
because it has distrusted and feared Change.
The danger of Europe today is not that Progress
is knocking at her door, but that she will fear to open
the door, and will come to her senses only when the
door is broken down. Progress will pass, even though
it must batter down the barricades of selfishness and
prejudice. But it would rather pass peacefully through
the doorways of those who trust and welcome it.
Two thousand years of civilization have not taught
certain parts of Europe the primary lesson that no
nation or system is stronger than the strength and
privilege of its humblest member.
Things were coming to an end in Europe even if
the war had not intervened. \Yhcn men deliberately
invent a philosophy, print it in books and teach it in
schools, which pretends to prove that certain classes
are the destined slaves of other classes, the question of
privilege being a matter of caste or birth, it was sig-
nitirant that the end was near. Kor.no sooner do yon
formulate an erroneous philosophy than you inform
the world where to strike, and it strikes.
The teaching that anv class is good enough to rule
another class is the old theorv of the divine right of
kings revamped and applied to a privileged aristocracv.
\\lio is so foolish as to believe that the people ot
Europe, having rid themselves of autocrats, are going
103
FORD IDEALS
to turn around and submit to the same misuse from
aristocrats?
"But," say some of those aristocrats with an ex-
pression that would be comical were it not so pitiable,
"But, if this new thing comes, then my privileges and
my vast wealth and lands disappear !"
And why not? Why should not land be put to
productive use? Why should not wealth minister to
the good of all the people instead of the luxurious
tastes of the few?
The land cannot be destroyed, neither can the
wealth. It is just a taking of the useless thing and
making it useful. Surely that is civilized and right !
There are two evils we want to abolish from our
world : one of them is Poverty, the other is Privilege.
Now, how can we abolish Poverty? You do not ac-
complish it by destroying the poor. You accomplish
it by destroying the causes of Poverty.
Then how can we abolish Privilege? You do not
do it by standing the privileged class against stone
walls. You accomplish it by abolishing the causes of
Privilege. Privilege has just as definite causes as
Poverty, and they are just as easily controlled just
as easily.
No one will be hurt in the good Changes that may
be in store for this world. Not at all.
Even the idle nobleman who loses his luxury is
not going to be hurt- he will be a better man with-
out his idleness, his useless luxury and his expensive
vices.
They say that some of the princes of Europe are
going into business, becoming clerks and salesmen
and farmers. Well, have they been harmed? Not at
all. They are more princely now than they ever were
with the baubles of rank dangling from their narrow
chests.
Get the gambling aristocrats and the selfish capi-
talists to work for a year, and they would never go
back to the old life. They will come round and thank
the influences that made them get out and hustle and
become of some use.
If the poor will thank you for abolishing Poverty,
104
THE FKAR OF CHAXGK
the useless rich will thank you for abolishing Privilege.
Because a good Change works good all round.
That is why a man with a clear conscience need
never fear a Progressive Change. If he is a worker
now, he will be needed in the world whatever happens.
Nothing will ever happen that will dethrone the
worker. He is the one class whose place is secure
throughout all time. The man who produces by his
thought or his labor will always be in request and in
favor. He constitutes the continuing class he is the
hold-over through every change.
That is why the workers are not afraid.
If a moral were needed, this might do: to escape
fear and a guilty conscience, become a worker. And
this applies very directly to the wealthy idler whose
fears are very lively just now.
How Much Domestic Trouble
Is Preventable?
IT IS impossible to state the exact proportion of the
world's trouble which is preventable, but we are
well within the limit when we say that it approxi-
mates 75 per cent. We shall never be in a position
accurately to appraise mankind's earthly life until we
have exhausted our last experiment for that life's
betterment.
Most of the trouble that man is heir to, except
old age and death, is preventable ; a vast amount of
it is curable even after it occurs; and, taking life on
its practical side, it could be made much smoother
than it is.
In excepting old age and death as troubles which
are incurable, it is not intended to adopt a hopeless at-
titude toward them. Old age is not a trouble, rightly
speaking. It ought to be in many respects a man's
happiest period of life its golden sunset. And it
would be this if only other conditions were right. It
is when old age comes before its time as the result of
hard conditions or wrong methods of living, or when
it comes without any sunset glow, that it becomes a
burden and a trouble.
As for death in the economy of nature it is one
of the arrangements that make for progress. It lets
the generations come on. It allows new ideas to sweep
up on the shores of the world. Perhaps it also gives
great assistance to the human personality in its own
development.
But even as inevitable as death now is, inevitable as
perhaps it may remain throughout human history,
there is no need of its being the trouble we experience.
Ripe deaths are not grievous ; it is only the untimely
ones that leave scars upon our lives. \\hen the young
man dies with his future unfulfilled; when the young
father dies leaving his wife and brood of children;
Id6
HOW MUCH DOMESTIC TROUBLE IS PREVENTABLE?
when the strong men of the world drop off long be-
fore their natural time and from causes that were
clearly preventable, then death becomes unnatural
it becomes a great trouble.
So that even when we are compelled to make ex-
ceptions of old age and death from the list of pre-
ventable troubles, there is a sense in which the injury
they do is also preventable. When old age comes in
its time, when death comes as the harvest comes, at
the ripe end of a fruitful life, it is natural, often it is
even beautiful, and the wounds thus made are not the
unnatural ones which are made by untimely passings
and breakdowns.
Now, if these two great experiences can be so regu-
lated as to lose their terror and hurt, what is there
which we cannot say about the lesser troubles which
harass us?
Take domestic trouble, for example perhaps one
of the bitterest of troubles which afflict mankind to-
day.
It is impossible for the man who is wrapped up in
his own happiness and who has no means of knowing
what is the exact condition among his fellow men, to
realize just how much domestic trouble exists in the
world. Get a few thousand men together and the
bulk of such trouble, past or present, which they rep-
resent is really appalling.
And yet it is mostly preventable. Perhaps it is
fair to say that it is all preventable. A little wisdom
exercised beforehand, a little forbearance afterward,
would be the cure of most domestic difficulties.
Most people marry in the delusion that they are
marrying Perfection. ( )f course they are not. But
at least they are marrying a possibility of happiness.
When two people believe that they think enough
of each other to marry, thev possess therein a possible
foundation for future happiness no matter how little
romance they mav have in their lives.
Domestic happiness is not so much a matter of
Love as ot Good Sense. Manv people who claim to
love each other, are unhappy together. Manv people
who smile at the mention of love are verv happv to-
gether, simply because they have good common sense.
107
FORD IDEALS
Those who say it is impossible to base domestic
happiness on good sense, mutual forbearance and
mutual respect are drawing their conclusions from
novels instead of life.
Many domestic disasters could be prevented by a
knowledge of the course which domestic life often
takes. Two young people marry as it is right they
should, and, other circumstances being favorable and
equal, they can hardly marry too young and they
fancy they will never, never change. Sometimes they
even swear to each other that they will never change.
But, they do. They cannot help it. They change
because they grow. He becomes more of a man, and
she more of a woman. He becomes more critical
not necessarily in his manner, but in his insight; she
opens her eyes also. If the truth were told it is prob-
ably the woman who comes to the balanced view of
matters first.
Dreams cannot last forever, and it would be a pity
if they should. For the realities are better.
But the passing of the dream is a dangerous period,
for it tends to make one or the other, sometimes both,
to feel that they have been tricked.
However, they have not been tricked. A hundred
to one they have not married unwisely. They are
simply going through a normal experience a moult-
ing period, as it were.
But there is the first danger, the suspicion that
they have married unwisely.
The second danger is more to be feared, namely,
the false belief that the first part of the married life
is the best, and that if that part disappoints, there is
nothing but misery waiting in the future.
Now the fact is that the first part of marriage is
not the best. It seems to be so at the time ; even out-
side beholders are betrayed into thinking it so ; but it
is not. It may be more ecstatic, more spring-like, more
ruled by the stormier emotions of joy.
But after all, there is no happiness like that of
Darby and Joan at their own firesides many, many
years after she not a bit deluded about him but
knowing him to be a true man, and he not a bit
deluded about her but knowing her to be a true woman,
108
HOW MUCH DOMESTIC TROUBI.K IS PREVENTABLE?
and both loving each other more deeply than they ever
did before, but perhaps not saying 50.
It should be incorporated into our marriage cere-
monies, so that young folks would not be deluded
when it arrives, that a time of change will come when
the fresh young affection will begin to make room for
something deeper and more enduring.
It should be impressed upon young men and women
that it is this latter time that they are really playing
for, that all sorts of inconveniences and disappoint-
ments in the readjustment period should be borne
wisely for the sake of the better understanding and
the better loyalty which is to come in later years.
In business, in education, in every other line of
life men play for the distant prize. In marriage the
prize is to be loyally understood 25 years from the
wedding day. It is worth everything to achieve that.
If this second danger, the danger of thinking the
first part the best, can be avoided, the course of do-
mestic life is usually safe.
All this, however, takes no account of those far
too many homes which have snagged on both rocks.
Because husband and wife think that the fading of
the early glamour is proof of their having made a
mistake, and because they mistakenly think that the
end must necessarily be grayer and gloomier than the
beginning, there is very, very much bitterness in the
world.
There is hardly any bitterness one can conceive that
approaches the bitterness of a married couple who
fancy they have made a mistake.
That is why our divorce courts are so busy.
But observe this: There arc more mistaken di-
vorces than there are mistaken marriages.
We don't need divorce courts in this country half