A NEW DEMOCRACY.
A new social order and a new democracy has become established among us.
Not many years ago the manufacturer took his apprentice into his own family for a period of seven years. There was then but one democracy and one code of social ethics.
With the advent of mechanical power in place of handicraft, there came a new democracy and a new code of social ethics.
The community of interests between the employer and the employee ceases at the shop door when the day's work is done. The day's wage is the only bond of union, and that is frequently a basis of a disagreement. There has been much preaching against the spirit of commercialism, but commercialism has grown as though the seed were planted and rooted in the ground. There is absolutely no use of preaching to mechanical power. Other and more potent gospel must be prepared, not preached, for this new order of things. It is not the intention of the writer to suggest in this short paragraph what shall constitute this new gospel. It is sufficient if the one fact is made plain that there exist a new democracy and a new code of social ethics, when the present order of things is compared with the past.
The manufacturer has left his employee to choose for himself when the day's work was done, and that is where the employee wanted to be left. The employer and employee have each chosen separate amusements, they have each chosen separate mental occupations, and each selected separate ideas. Is it any wonder that they have diverged at right angles when separated at the shop door? Is it any wonder that they can only meet at the apex of the angle when they meet at the shop door to commence the day's work?
Here is the situation for both the employer and the employee to take into consideration. They have both drifted far apart without being conscious how it happened or without being conscious that it has happened.
The question for each to seriously ask himself is whether the day's wage is the only common ground they can occupy and get on together permanently.
Chas. A. Love.
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