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Title: Creative Impulse in Industry AProposition for Educators

Author: Helen Marot

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Language: English

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CREATIVE IMPULSE IN INDUSTRY

A Proposition for Educators

BY

HELEN MAROT

1918

OF THE GROWTH PROCESSES IN INDUSTRIAL AND ADULT LIFE.

The Bureau of Educational Experiments is

a group of men, and women who are trying

to face the modern problems of education

in a scientific spirit They are conductingand helping others to conduct experimentswhich hold promise of finding out moreabout children as well as how to set upschool environments which shall providefor the children's growth From these

experiments they hope eventually mayevolve a laboratory school

Among their surveys the past year, one byHelen Marot has resulted in this timely

and significant book The experimentwhich is outlined at the close seems to theBureau to be of real moment,—one ofwhich both education and industry shouldtake heed They earnestly hope it may betried immediately In that event, the

Bureau hopes to work with Miss Marot inbringing her experiment to completion

THE BUREAU OF EDUCATIONALEXPERIMENTS, 16 West Eighth Street,New York

City

CHAPTER

I PRODUCTION AND CREATIVE EFFORT

II ADAPTING PEOPLE TO INDUSTRY THE AMERICAN WAY

III ADAPTING PEOPLE TO INDUSTRY THE GERMAN WAY

IV EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRY AND

ASSOCIATED ENTERPRISE

CREATIVE IMPULSE

IN INDUSTRY

difficult to accept new ideas when yourmind is filled with ideas which are

institutional The ideas which come out offormal education, out of the schools, out ofbooks, are ideas which have been stamped

as the true and important ones; many ofthem are, as they have proved their worth

in service But as they represent authority,they pass into a people's mind with the fullweight of an accepted fact The schools,the colleges, and the books are not

responsible primarily for the fixed ideas;every established institution contributesfixed ideas as well as fixed customs andrules of action The schools and collegescirculate and interpret them The

movement for industrial education in theUnited States is an illustration of this

The ideas which we find there have notsprung from schools or colleges but fromindustry The institution of industry, ratherthan the institution of education, dominatesthought in industrial education courses It

is the institution of industry as it has

affected the life of every man, woman andchild, which has inhibited educationalthought in conjunction with schemes forindustrial schools No established system

of education or none proposed is morecircumscribed by institutionalized thoughtthan the vocational and industrial schoolmovement

Educators have opposed the desire ofbusiness to attach the schools to the

industrial enterprise They have rightlyopposed it because industry under theinfluence of business prostitutes effort.Nevertheless, hand in hand with industry,the schools must function; unattached tothe human hive they are denied

participation in life Promoters of

industrial education are hung up betweenthis fact of prostituted industry and theirdesire to establish the children's

connection with life They have tried tomeet opposing interests; they have notrecognized all the facts because the factswere conflicting, and their minds as well

as their interests, institutionally speaking,were committed to both

This was the impasse we had apparentlyreached when the war occurred; it iswhere we still are But ahead of us,sometime, the war will end and we shall

be called then to face a period of

reconstruction The reconstruction willcenter around industry The efficiencywith which a worker serves industry will

be the test of his patriotic fervor, as his

service in the army is made the test duringthis time of war All institutions will beexamined and called upon to reorganize insuch ways as will contribute to the

enterprise of raising industrial processes

to the standard of greatest efficiency

The standard of mechanical efficiency as

it was set by Germany was one of refinedbrutality During the progress of the war,the significance of that standard is beinggrafted into the consciousness of the

common people of those nations whichhave opposed Germany in arms It is theindustrial efficiency of Germany,

uninhibited by a sense of human

development that has made her victoriespossible It is that efficiency which haskept a large part of the world on the

defensive for over three and a half years.Germany's military strategy is, in the main,her industrial strategy; it represents herefficiency in turning technology to theaccount of an imperial purpose.

But those organizations of manufacturersand business politicians who believe thatthe same schemes of efficiency will

function in America will call upon thepeople after the war, it is safe to predict,

to emulate the methods which have givenGermany its untoward strength While it isthese methods which have made muchhated Germany a menace to the world andwhile the menace is felt by our own

people, the significance of the methods isbut vaguely realized It is probable thatafter the war it will be said that it was not

the German methods which were

objectionable, but that it was their use in

an international policy Before the time forreconstruction comes, I hope we shalldiscover how intrinsically false thosemethods are; and how untrue to the growthprocess is the sort of efficiency Germanyhas developed I hope also that we shallrealise that a policy of paternalism has noplace in the institutional life of our owncountry Before the war these Germanmethods bore the character of high

success, and they had a large following inthis country There are indeed many

thousands of men and women in the UnitedStates, who, while giving all they mostcare for, for the prosecution of the waragainst Germany still support industrialand political policies and dogmas which

are in spirit essentially Prussian Theprofessional Reformer here in America isnot even yet fully conscious that Germanpaternalism (a phase of German

efficiency) is the token of an enslavedpeople

The German educational system as much ifnot more than its other imperial schemeshas been instrumental in developing theGerman brand of industrial efficiency Theperfection in Germany of its technologicalprocesses is made possible as the youth ofthe country has been consecrated andsacrificed to the development of this

perfection in the early years of schooltraining Parents contribute their childrenfreely to an educational system which fitsthem into an industrial institution which

has an imperial destiny to fulfill Eachperson's place in the life of the nation ismade for him during his early years, like apredestined fact.

American business men before the warappreciated the educational system whichmade people over into workers withoutwill or purpose of their own But thesituation was embarrassing as these

business men were not in a position toinsist that the schools, supported by thepeople, should prepare the children toserve industry for the sake of the state,while industry was pursued solely forprivate interest Their embarrassment,however, will be less acute under theconditions of industrial reconstructionwhich will follow the war Then as

patriots, under the necessity of competingwith Germany industrially, they will feelfree to urge that the German scheme ofindustrial education, possibly under

another name, be extended here and

adopted as a national policy In otherwords as Germany has evolved its

methods of attaining industrial efficiency,and as the schools have played the leadingpart in the attainment, the German system

of industrial education, private businessmay argue, should be given for patrioticreasons full opportunity in the UnitedStates If the German system were

introduced here, of course it is not certainthat it could deliver wage workers moreready and servile, less single-purposed intheir industrial activity than they are now

It was in Germany a comparatively simple

matter for the schools to make over thechildren into effective and efficient

servants, for, as Professor Veblen

explains, the psychology of the Germanpeople was still feudal when the modernsystem of industry, with its own

characteristic enslavement, was imposed,ready-made, upon them; the German,people unlike the Anglo-Saxon had notexperienced the liberating effects of thepolitical philosophy which developedalong with modern technology in bothEngland and America.[A]

[Footnote A: Thorstein Veblen.—ImperialGermany and the Industrial

Revolution.]

First, then, it is not certain that the system

of German industrial education wouldsucceed; and, second, if it did succeed it

is not the sort of education that Americawants

America wants industrial efficiency, itmust have efficient workers if it holds itsplace among nations, and American

people will prove their efficiency or theirinefficiency as they are capable of usingthe heritage which industrial evolution hasgiven the world But what shall we usethis efficiency for? For the sake of theheritage? For the sake of business? For thesake of Empire?

Business knows very clearly why it wants

it, but as a rule most of us are not clearlyconscious that we need, for the sake of our

expansive existence, to be industriallyefficient We are not even conscious thatindustry is the great field for adventureand growth, because we use that field notfor the creative but for the exploitivepurpose.

It is the present duty of American

educators to realize these two points: thatindustry is the great field for adventureand growth; that as it is used now theopportunities for growth are inhibited inthe only field where productive

experience can be a common one Shortly

it will be the mission, of educators toshow that by opening up the field forcreative purpose, fervor for industrialenterprise and good workmanship may berealized; that only as the content of

industry in its administration as well as inthe technique of its processes is opened upfor experiment and first-hand experience,will a universal impulse for work beawakened It is for educators, togetherwith engineers and architects, to

demonstrate to the world that while theidea of service to a political state mayhave the power to accomplish large

results, all productive force is artificiallysustained which is not dependent on men'sdesire to do creative work A state as wehave seen, may invoke the idea of service

It might represent the productive interests

of a community if those interests sprangfrom the expansive experience of a people

in their creative adventures

In the reconstructive period educators may

have their opportunity to extend the

concept that the creative process is theeducative process, or as Professor Deweystates it, the educative process is the

process of growth The reconstructionperiod will be a time of formative thought;institutions will be attacked and on thedefensive; and out of the great need of thenations there may come change Educatorswill find their opportunity as they

discover conditions under which the greatenterprise of industry may be educationaland as they repudiate or oppose

institutions which exclude educationalfactors

It is for educators to realize first of all thatthere can be no social progress whilethere is antagonism between growth in

wealth (which is industry) and growth inindividuals (which is education); that thefundamental antagonisms which are

apparent in the current arrangement are notbetween industry and education but

between education and business Theymust know that as business regulates andcontrols industry for ulterior purposes,that is for other purposes than production

of goods, it thwarts the development ofindividual lives and the evolution of

society; that it values a worker not for hispotential productivity but for his

immediate contribution to the annual stockdividend; or if, as in Germany where hisproductive potentiality is valued in terms

of longer time, it is for the imperial

intention of the state and not for the growth

of the individual or the progress of

civilisation.

CREATIVE IMPULSE

IN INDUSTRY

CHAPTER I

PRODUCTION AND CREATIVE EFFORT

As a human experience, the act of

creating, the process of fabricating wealth,has been at different times as worthy ofcelebration as the possession of it Beforebusiness enterprise and machine

production discredited handwork, art forart's sake, work for the love of work,were conceivable human emotions But to-day, a Cezanne who paints pictures andleaves them in the field to perish is

considered by the general run of people,

in communities inured to modern

industrial enterprise, as being not quiteright in his head Their estimate is ofcourse more or less true But such

valuations are made without the help ofcreative inspiration, although the

functioning of a product has its creativesignificance The creative significance of

a product in use, as well as an

appreciation of the act of creating, would

be evident if modern production of

wealth, under the influence of businessenterprise and machine technology, hadnot fairly well extinguished the

appreciation and the joy of creativeexperience in countries where peoplehave fallen under its influence so

completely as in our own

It is usual in economic considerations to

credit the period of craftsmanship as atime in the evolution of wealth productionthat was rich in creative effort and

opportunity for the individual worker Thecraftsmanship period is valued in

retrospect for its educative influence.There was opportunity then as there is notnow for the worker to gain the valuableexperience of initiating an idea and

carrying the production of an article to itscompletion for use and sale in the market;there was the opportunity then also asthere is not now, for the worker to gain ahigh degree of technique and a valuation

of his workmanship It is characteristic ofworkmanship that its primary

consideration is serviceability or utility.The creative impulse and the creativeeffort may or may not express

workmanship or take it into account.

Workmanship in its consideration of

serviceability oftentimes arrives at beautyand classic production, when creativeimpulse without the spirit of workmanshipfails The craftsmanship period deservesrank, but the high rank which is given it isdue in part to its historical relation to thefactory era which followed and crushed it.While craftsmanship represented

expansive development in workmanship,

it is not generally recognized that theGuild organization of the crafts developedmodern business enterprise.[A] Business

is concerned wholly with utility, and notlike workmanship, with standards of

production, except as those standardscontain an increment of value in profits tothe owners of wealth It was during the

Guild period that business came to valueworkmanship because it contained thatincrement In spite of business interest,however, the standard of workmanshipwas set by skilled craftsmen, and theirstandards represented in a marked degreethe market value of the goods produced bythem.

[Footnote A: Thorstein Veblen; Instinct ofWorkmanship, pp 211-212.]

While the exploitation of the skill of theworkman in the interest of the owners ofraw materials and manufactured goods,had its depressing and corrupting

influence on creative effort, the creativeimpulse found a stimulus in the respect acommunity still paid the skill and ability

of the worker It was not until machinestandards superseded craft standards anddiscredited them that the processes ofproduction, the acts of fabrication, losttheir standards of workmanship and theireducational value for the worker Thediscredits were psychological and

economic; they revolutionized the

intellectual and moral concepts of men inrelation to their work and the production

of wealth

As machine production superseded

craftsmanship the basis of fixing the price

of an article shifted from values fixed bythe standards of workers to standards ofmachines, Professor Veblen says to

standards of salesmen It is along theselines that mechanical science applied to

the production of wealth, has eliminatedthe personality of the workers A worker

is no longer reflected in goods on sale; hispersonality has passed into the machinewhich has met the requirements of massproduction

The logical development of factory

organisation has been the complete

coördination of all factors which areauxiliary to mechanical power and

devices The most important auxiliaryfactor is human labor A worker is a

perfected factory attachment as he

surrenders himself to the time and therhythm of the machine and its functioning;

as he supplements without loss whateverhuman faculties the machine lacks,

whatever imperfection hampers the

machine in the satisfaction of its needs If

it lacks eyes, he sees for it; he walks for

it, if it is without legs; and he pulls, drags,lifts, if it needs arms All of these thingsare done by the factory worker at the paceset by the machine and under its directionand command A worker's indulgence inhis personal desires or impulses hindersthe machine and lowers his attachmentvalue

This division of the workers into eyes,arms, fingers, legs, the plucking out ofsome one of his faculties and discardingthe rest of the man as valueless, has

seemed to be an organic requirement ofmachine evolution So commendable thescheme has been to business enterprisethat this division of labor has been carried

from the machine shop and the factory tothe scientific laboratories where

experiment and discovery in new

processes of technology are developed,and where, it is popularly supposed, ahigh order of intelligence is required Theorganization of technological laboratories,like the organization of construction shops

to which they are auxiliary, is based onthe breaking up of a problem which isbefore the laboratory for its solution Thechemists, physicists, machinists and

draftsmen are isolated as they work outtheir assigned tasks without specific

knowledge of what the general problem isand how it is being attacked Small

technological laboratories are still inexistence where the general problem inhand is presented as a whole to the whole

engineering staff, and is left to them as agroup for independent and associatedexperimentation But even in such casesthe technological content does not

necessarily supply the impulse to solvethe problem or secure a free and voluntaryparticipation in its solution Those whoare interested in its solution are inspired

by its economic value for them In alltechnological laboratories, either wherethe problem is broken up and its partsdistributed among the employees of thelaboratory, or where it is given to them as

a whole for solution, it is given not as asequence in the creative purpose of theindividuals who are at work on it, nor isits final solution necessarily determined

by its use and wont in a community

Problems brought to the laboratory are

tainted with the motive of industry which

is not creative, but exploitive

The tenure of each man employed in

production is finally determined not byany creative interest of his own or of hisemployer but by whether in the last

analysis, he conforms better than anotherman to the exigencies of profits If profitsand creative purpose happen to be one andthe same thing, his place in an industrialestablishment has some bearing on hisintrinsic worth Under such circumstanceshis interest in the creative purpose of theestablishment would have a foundation,and he himself could value better than heotherwise would his own part in the

enterprise

The economic organization of modernsociety though built on the common

people's productive energy has discounted

their creative potentiality We hold to the

theory that men are equal in their

opportunity to capture and own wealth;that their ability in that respect is proof oftheir ability to create it; a proof of theirinherent capacity It is a proof, as a matter

of fact, of their ability to compete in thegeneral scheme of capture; their ability toexploit wealth successfully While the

prevailing economic theory of production

takes for granted men's creative

potentiality there is no provision in our

industrial institution for the common run of

men to function creatively There is no

attempt in the general scheme for

trueing-up or estimating the creative ability of

workers In the market, where the value ofgoods is determined, a machine tender has

a better chance than a craftsman Thepopular belief is that the ability of

workers has native limitations, that theselimitations are absolute and that they arefixed at or before birth This belief is atenet among those who hold positions ofindustrial mastery Managers of industryfor instance who control a situation andcreate an environment, demand that thosewho serve them meet the requirementswhich they have fixed They do not

recognize that industrial ability dependslargely on the opportunity which an

individual has had to make adjustments tohis surroundings and on his opportunity tomaster them through experiment A factoryemployee is required to do a piece of