THE MEANING OF OUR WORK TO THE COMMUNITY

The pleasure and effectiveness of any work, however, are increased if its importance to the community or to the world is clearly understood; for all productive work is important.  There is no more terrible work than that of the soldier in the trenches.  No man would voluntarily choose it for his own pleasure.  But millions of men have gone into it joyfully because of the results to be attained for their country and the world.  Other millions of men and women, and even children, on the farms, in the mines, in the shops, and in the homes, worked and sacrificed during the war with Germany as they had never worked and sacrificed before, produced results such as had never been produced before, and doubtless experienced a satisfaction in their toil that they had never experienced before, because each one saw more definitely than before the relation of his work to the great national and world purpose.  An understanding of the meaning of our work in its relation to community welfare goes a long way toward “transmuting days of dreary work into happier lives.”

FREEDOM, EQUALITY AND JUSTICE

The opportunity to choose one’s calling, to decide what service one will fit himself for, the right of “self-determination” with regard to what one’s work shall be—­this is what “freedom” means.  This is why men are happier when they are free.  The “equality” and “justice” that all men want mean equality of opportunity to choose that which they like to do, and an equal chance to make A living, or to obtain compensation for their labor or enterprise.  It is for these things more than for anything else that people have left old-world conditions and come to America.  The ability to make a living under conditions of freedom and justice depends in part upon the common wants of the community, and upon the willingness of members of the community to pay for the satisfaction of their wants enough to enable those who perform service for them also to satisfy theirs.  But it also depends upon the ability of the individual to make a choice, and upon his willingness to spend years in preparation, if need be, to enable him to offer a service of the kind he likes to render, and for which others are glad to pay well.

A DAY OF SPECIALISTS

We are living in a day of specialists.  The very nature of our interdependent life makes it necessary for each worker to do one thing and to do it exceedingly well.  Even farming is broken up to a considerable extent into special kinds of farming.  Moreover, since the worker must be a specialist, requiring long, special training, it is more difficult than it used to be for him to change from one occupation to another after he has once started.  Each person, therefore, owes it both to himself and to the community to choose his vocation carefully, so far as he has opportunity to make a choice.  The schools are more and more making it their business to give boys and girls the knowledge and the experience that will enable them to choose wisely their mode of earning a living.