Knowledge that Transforms

The conception of social life as an organic process has frequently invited the method of approach and the point of view in social studies that have long been used in the study of other organic processes. Recent years have seen in an increasing degree expres? sions of a functional viewpoint in social studies. The sociologists and political scientists speak of the functional point of view and discuss institutions in functional terms. " Psychologists have hitherto devoted the larger part of their energy to investigating the structure of the mind. Of late, however, there has been mani? fest a disposition to deal more fully with its functional and genetic phases."1 In economics we see such titles as " Marketing Func? tions and Mercantile Organization/'2 and "The Function of Produce Exchanges."3 Elaborate organizations of economic ma? terial in which a functional viewpoint is evident have appeared. W. H. Hamilton has organized economic data around the problems 1 James Rowland Angell, Psychology, Preface, p. iii. 2 See article by this title, L. D. H. Weld, American Economic Review, VII, No. 2, p306. 3 See, for example, "Cotton Exchanges and Their Economic Functions," by Arthur Richmond Marsh, also similar treatment of produce and mercantile exchanges, Annals, XXXVIII, 571.

The reports from the 1920 census have apprized everyone who was not already informed that the tremendous growth of the auto? motive industry has carried Detroit into fourth place in population rank. It was in the belief that such an industrial Mecca, which had drawn its multitudinous votaries from every section of the continent and even farther, would be an ideal place for an intensive study of the currents of opinion among workingmen and the pre? vailing conditions of labor in a progressive factory town that the writer spent several weeks during the past summer making a first? hand investigation of the labor situation there. He had numerous conferences with employment managers, industrial managers, chiefs of operation, and like officers having to do with personnel in a vari? ety of plants. For it should not be overlooked that there are other important industries besides automobile manufacture in the City of the Straits. It has several large stove and furnace works, some big pharmaceutical laboratories, and various sorts of machine shops. These have contributed not a little to the prosperity of the city, though the expanding production of motor cars trucks and tractors has been the chief factor, of course. In the main this article is concerned with conditions in this leading industry. In addition to these conferences with officials of many different firms, and thanks to their courtesy, the writer has gone into the shops and worked among the men. Dressing and speaking like the ordinary wage-earner he has been able to gain from them in the casual conversation along the bench or over the machine or on the window ledge at noon-hour, knowledge and information about the workingman's state of mind and his status in industry which could not have been acquired elsewhere. Incidentally it 1 There is no attempt in this article to set forth the current situation with regard to employment. In that respect there has been a great change since the paper was written, in the latter part of August. But this feature has so little bear? ing upon the broad outlines of labor policy treated herein that it has not been deemed advisable to make any modifications in the text on that account.