Like knowledge of the problems of sex, than which no department of life is more sacred, vital or deserving of full and ennobling instruction, an understanding of this subject is left to be acquired by experience, often costly or bitter, or through chance information, gleaned too frequently from ignorant and unreliable sources.
Just as the first of these two themes is coming to be taught sympathetically and helpfully in our schools and colleges, so I believe the second, the personal relation in industry, will eventually be regarded as an important part of those college courses which aim to fit men for business life.
After all, is it not the personal relations with one’s fellows which, when rightly entered into, bring joy and inspiration into our lives and lead to success, and which, on the other hand, if disregarded or wrongly interpreted, bring equally sorrow and discouragement and lead to failure?
Think what the ideal personal relation between a father and son may mean to both. Some of us have known such contact. Our lives have been fuller and richer as a result, freer from sin and sorrow. Others of us know from bitter experience what the absence of this relationship has involved.
How helpful to a student is such a friendly association with some professor who commands his confidence, respect and regard, and who is interested in his college work, not for itself alone, but quite as much because of its bearing on his future life’s usefulness.
What would college life be without the personal relationships which are formed during its happy days and often continued close and intimate through life?
Can you imagine a successful football team composed of strangers, having no points of contact, no sympathy with each other, no common cause inspiring them to strive for victory? Team play, the support of one player by another, would be well nigh impossible.
Even in the army, where formerly the man who had become the most perfect machine was regarded as the best soldier, it is coming to be accepted that in addition to being obedient and subject to discipline, the man who thinks, who is capable of acting on his judgment when occasion arises, who is bound to his fellow soldiers and his officers by personal friendliness, admiration and respect, is a far more efficient soldier.
And whereas formerly, particularly in the armies of Europe, privates were not allowed to have any personal association or contact with their officers, we learn that in the World War a spirit of comradeship was developed by the officers with their men off duty, which personal relationship was building up rather than weakening the morale of the armies.
What is true as to the relationships which I have mentioned is equally true in industrial relations, and personal contact is as vital and as necessary there as in any other department of life.