THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN: Short Stories, Novels, Poems & Essays. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
as miserably educated; false theories of industry everywhere — idiotic notions as to what work was ‘respectable’ and what wasn’t, more idiotic notions of payment; worst of all, most idiotic ideas that work was a curse . . . Might as well call digestion a curse! Dear! Dear! How benighted we were!
“Then there was ill-judged division of labor — almost universal; that evil. For instance, look at this one point; half the workers of the world, nearly, were restricted to one class of labor, and that in the lowest industrial grade.”
“He means women, in housework, John,” Nellie interpolated. “We never used to think of that as part of our economic problem.”
“It was a very serious part,” the professor continued, hastily forestalling the evident intention of Mr. Brown to strike in, “but there were many others. The obvious utility of natural specialization in labor seemed scarcely to occur to us. Our system of production was archaic in the extreme; practically no system was followed.”
“You must give credit to the work of the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Harkness,” urged Mr. Brown, “the introduction of new fruits, the improvement of stocks ”
“Yes, yes,” agreed Dr. Harkness, “the rudiments were there, of course; but no real grasp of organized productivity. And as to misuse of product — why, my dear Mr. Robertson, it is a wonder anybody had enough to live on in those days, in view of our criminal waste.
“The real turning point, Mr. Robertson, if we can put our finger on one, is where the majority of the people recognized the folly and evil of poverty — and saw it to be a thing of our own making. We saw that our worst poverty was poverty in the stock — that we raised a terrible percentage of poor people. Then we established a temporary Commission on Human Efficiency, away back in 1913 or 14 ”
“Thirteen,” put in Mr. Pike, who sat back listening to Dr. Harkness with an air of repressed superiority.
“Thank you,” said the eminent sociologist courteously. “These young fellows have it all at their fingers’ ends, Mr. Robertson. Better methods in education nowadays, far better! As I was saying, we established a Commission on Human Effi — ciency.”
“You will remember the dawning notions of ‘scientific management’ we began to have in the first decade of the new century,” Mrs. Allerton quietly suggested. “It occurred to us later to apply it to ourselves — and we did.”
“The Commission found that the majority of human beings were not properly reared,” Dr. Harkness resumed, “with a resultant low standard of efficiency — shockingly low; and that the loss was not merely to the individual but to the community. Then Society stretched out a long arm and took charge of the work of humaniculture — began to lift the human standard.
“I won’t burden you with details on that line at present; it touched but one cause of poverty after all. The false theory of industry was next to be changed. A few far-seeing persons were already writing and talking about work as an organic social function, but the sudden spread of it came through the new religion.”
“And the new voters, Dr. Harkness,” my sister added.
He smiled at her benevolently. A large, comfortable, full-bearded, rosy old gentleman was Dr. Harkness, and evidently in full enjoyment of his present task.
“Let us never forget the new voters, of course. They have ceased to be thought of as new, Mr. Robertson — so easily does the human mind accept established conditions. The new religion urged work — normal, well-adapted work — as the duty of life — as life itself; and the new voters accepted this idea as one woman.
“They were, as a class, used to doing their duty in patient industry, generally distasteful to them; and the opportunity of doing work they liked — with a sense of higher duty added — was universally welcomed.”
“I certainly remember a large class of women who practiced no industry at all — no duty, either, unless what they called ‘social duties.” I rather sourly remarked. Mrs. Allerton took me up with sudden heat:
“Yes, there were such, in large numbers, in our great cities particularly; but public opinion was rising against them even as far back as 1910. The more progressive women turned the light on them first, and then men took it up and began to see that this domestic pet was not only expensive and useless but injurious and absurd. I don’t suppose we can realize,” she continued meditatively,
“how complete the change in public opinion is — and how supremely important. In visible material progress we have only followed simple lines, quite natural and obvious, and accomplished what was perfectly possible at any time — if we had only thought so.”
“That’s the point!” Mr. Pike was unable to preserve his air of restraint any longer, and burst forth volubly.
“That was the greatest, the most sudden, the most vital of our changes, sir — the: change in the world’s thought! Ideas are the real things, sir! Brick and mortar? Bah! We can put brick and mortar in any shape we choose — but we have to choose first! What held the old world back was not facts — not conditions — not any material limitations, or psychic limitations either. We had every constituent of human happiness, sir — except the sense to use them. The channel of progress was obstructed with a deposit of prehistoric ideas. We choked up our children’s minds with this mental refuse as we choked our rivers and harbors with material refuse, sir.”
Dr. Harkness still smiled. “Mr. Pike was in my class ten years ago,” he observed amiably. “I always said he was the brightest young man I had. We are all very proud of Mr. Pike.”
Mr. Pike seemed not over pleased with this communication, and the old gentleman went on:
“He is entirely right. Our idiotic ideas and theories were the main causes of poverty after all. The new views on economics — true social economics, not the “dismal science’; with the blaze of the new religion to show what was right and wrong, and the sudden uprising of half the adult world — the new voters — to carry out the new ideas; these were what changed things! There you have it, Mr. Robertson, in a nutshell — rather a large nutshell, a pericarp, as it were — but I think that covers it.”
“We students used always to admire Dr. Harkness’ power of easy generalization,” said Mr. Pike, in a mild, subacid tone, “but if any ground of inquiry is left to you, Mr. Robertson, I could, perhaps, illuminate some special points.”
Dr. Harkness laughed in high good humor, and clapped his whilom pupil on the back.
“You have the floor, Mr. Pike — I shall listen to you with edification.”
The young man looked a little ashamed of his small irony, and continued more genially:
“Our first step — or one of our first steps, for we advanced like a strenuous centipede — was to check the birth of defectives and degenerates. Certain classes of criminals and perverts were rendered incapable of reproducing their kind. In the matter of those diseases most injurious to the young, very stringent measures were taken. It was made a felony to infect wife or child knowingly, and a misdemeanor if it were done unknowingly. Physicians were obliged to report all cases of infectious disease, and young girls were clearly taught the consequence of marriage with infected persons. The immediate result was, of course, a great decrease in marriage; but the increase in population was scarce checked at all because of the lowered death rate among children. It was checked a little; but for twenty years now, it has been recovering itself. We increase a little too fast now, but see every hope of a balanced population long before the resources of the world are exhausted.”
Mr. Brown seized upon a second moment’s pause to suggest that the world’s resources were vastly increased also — and still increasing.
“Let Pike rest a moment and get his breath,” he said, warming to the subject, “I want to tell Mr. Robertson that the productivity of the earth is gaining every year. Here’s this old earth feeding us all — laying golden eggs as it were; and we used to get those eggs by the Caesarian operation! We uniformly exhausted the soil — uniformly!