labor movement, including those which demand merely part-time work, may be listed the following:
Economic and engineering research and counsel,[1]
Publicity and editorial work,
Accountancy,
Labor law and bill drafting,
Labor banking,
Work in the cooperative movement,
Teaching in labor classes and schools,[2]
Labor health work.
Work like economic research, law and accountancy can only be done through professional connection with unions; some of the other occupations, such as teaching or lecturing may be done through extra-official agencies for labor education which have sprung up in various important centers.[3]
In any such work, the intellectual will do well to adhere to certain practical maxims of action, He must, of course, have a broad understanding of the movement and a large amount of sympathy with its aims. But he should not for a moment make the mistake of assuming, as a professional man, any of the duties or responsibilities of labor leadership.[4] The
- ↑ "The technique of administration has been worked out to a high degree by some of our corporations and in the British civil service, for example. I am deeply impressed not only by the need of union officials acquiring some of this technique, but also by the possibility of expert service being rendered them along this line. Some day the Labor Bureau will have such technicians as well as accountants on its staff."—A. J. Muste.
- ↑ Referring to the spirit with which the intellectual should enter the field of workers' education, Dr. H. W. L. Dana, one of the founders of the Boston Trade Union College, writes:
"The college graduate who wants to enter that field must go not in the spirit of a 'condescending saviour', but of one who puts himself at the service of the movement saying 'Here am I, use me'. He must not expect to direct the policies of the labor college where he is teaching. The officers and the majority of the board of control, I feel, should be appointed by the trade unions, though teachers should be represented on the board and the educational suggestions which they have to make should carry weight through their power to convince the other members of the board."
- ↑ For a fuller description of these opportunities, see Appendix.
Bruno Lasker states that "Perhaps one of the most valuable gifts the young intellectual might bring to the labor movement is friendship between individuals, fellowship among students and workers in which neither assumes a patronizing or a particularly self-abasing attitude."
- ↑ James H. Maurer, President of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, thus reinforces the author's point of view: "The intellectuals are not only welcome but needed. There are many things that they are better equipped to do than even the great majority of labor officials. Educators for our labor schools, research work, newspaper work, cooperative work, labor banking, credit unions, law, accounting, etc. When once they find their proper niche, the labor movement is bound to go forward not only more swiftly, but stronger and smoother. In the past, the great handicap of many has been that, because of their special training as college men and women, they aspired to leadership, instead of taking their places with the rank and file and leaving their worth to the movement to determine their rank."
Mr. Lasker feels that the warning against the assumption of political leadership by the intellectual requires a slight modificaion, "Often the lo-
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