Other Remedies for Industrial Unrest.—Several other remedies for industrial unrest have been suggested, and some of them are being given a trial. The relations of labor to industry constitute a large and difficult problem, however, and cannot be made clear in a single paragraph. They are, in fact, of sufficient importance to have a chapter to themselves.
Industrial opportunities.
Industry and the Individual.—The opportunities for capable young men and women in industry were never greater than they are today. The operations of industry have become so complex that they afford openings for every type of individual skill and proficiency. The management of American business is no longer conducted by hit-or-miss methods; everything is worked out with scientific precision in buying materials, merchandising, manufacturing, marketing, and financing. American industry in all its branches is hiring brains as well as muscle.
The choice of a vocation
The success of the young man or woman who goes from school into industry depends in the first instance upon a wise selection at the start. Different types of industrial work call for altogether different tastes and abilities on the part of the individual. Some individuals are of a distinctly mechanical temperament; their interests run to machinery and the processes of working with material things. Others have no interest at all in that direction; but they may be tactful in dealing with other people, able to use their imaginations, with perhaps a penchant for figures. Others, again, have none of these qualities but are punctual, industrious, and can always be depended upon to carry out instructions to the letter. American industry has openings which exactly fit individuals of all temperaments and capacities; the big problem is to bring the man and the opportunity into touch with each other. A square peg will not go into a round hole; no amount of patience will put it there. But there are many square pegs trying to fit themselves into the round holes of industrial employment today because so many young men and women have taken the first job offered to them without reference to its real suitability. These first jobs very often lead up a blind alley. The time spent in them by thousands of young men and women is time wasted.
Vocational guidance.
It is to help eliminate this enormous waste of human effort that facilities for vocational guidance are now provided by a great many schools. But no vocational counsellor can properly plan the start in life without assistance from the boy or girl immediately concerned. It is the duty of everyone to make a personal study of the opportunities which the various forms of industry afford, to reflect upon his own tastes, abilities, and ambitions, and to look at the problem as one of supreme importance to himself. A right start is half the victory.[[177]]
General References
R. T. Ely, Outlines of Economics, pp. 26-62 (The New Industrial System);
W. Z. Ripley, Trusts, Pools, and Corporations, pp. 78-96; 703-734;