was this: One of our factory superintendents asked Mr. Heaton if it would be violating any company policy if he sent a little typed note to all the workers in another section thanking them for their coöperation during the month! "Imagine a thing like that--a superintendent wanting to thank workers in an other section for coöperation! You know how things generally are in a plant. There's never any thanking for coöperation, but there's an everlasting lot of bawling out for lack of it. "Mr. Heaton told the superintendent to send the note. And all but two of the men replied in some way or other-some by acknowledging the note in a letter of their own, and thanking the send spies into the homes of their employees! "In our recent efforts to get personality into the plant we have felt that it might be a good plan to let the workers see just what relation their position has to the other positions in the plant, and to the plant's completed products. By doing this, we felt that the worker would be getting a better perspective on his job, too. So we have been, for some time, conducting tours through the plant and the offices on the company's time, during which we have had personal escorts for certain groups of workers and have explained everything connected with the business to these workers. HESE tours have been exceedingly in superintendent for his cooperation, others by teresting. And they brought out some personal word. "I'm firmly convinced that this thing of injecting personality is the biggest thing in present-day industry. But I am also convinced that it will be some little time before some of the workers really understand that the company is interested in them as individuals, not as a mere collection of numbers who should and must turn out a certain amount of work each day. "As an illustration of this fact, I might tell about a case we had where a worker's wife became ill. We have a regularly employed nurse who calls on families in which there is sickness, and aids them without charge. This is one of our services in which we take the greatest pride, and it has made quite a hit with a lot of our workers. "B" OUT with this particular worker, it didn't make the least hit. Usually when there is sickness in a family and the worker wants the services of the nurse, he files an application with his foreman. But this particular man failed to file an application. We heard of the sickness in his family in a roundabout way. But though he had failed to file an application, we sent the nurse. And then the fun began "At first the worker refused to let the nurse into his home. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of conversation in which the nurse told him over and over again that there was no charge and that the company was sending her, he permitted her to enter the home. All during the time that she was in the house, the worker watched her closely, staying away from his job to do so. Finally, thanks to the nurse, the worker's wife recovered and the nurse departed. And then came the climax of this incident-the worker quit his job, saying that he was going to work for some firm that didn't things which showed conclusively just how little we had done toward giving the workers the right perspectives and toward making them feel wholly at home in their positions. "For instance, we found that some of the workers who had been employed by us for periods ranging from five to ten years, had never once set foot in our office building! "Now, I take it, that is a condition of which we could not feel proud. There is no earthly reason, as I see it, why the offices should be sacred ground on which the heel of the factory worker must never set. And I, personally, felt ashamed of this condition of affairs. "On one of these tours, a certain worker stood in fascination watching an addingmachine operator. "What is that girl doing?' the worker asked The Menace What would happen if the blue laws now being agitated, How could they benefit the people of the United States? To answer these questions we need only to consider what occurred during the blue-law regime of the early American colonies. You will find that answer in this article W By FRANK WINSLOW E have heard of the yellow peril, the red peril, and perils of other descriptions and colors; but it is only recently that we have become aware of the most deadly menace of all-the blue peril. For we are threatened with a recurrence of those blue laws which afflicted the early settlers of New England, and apparently served no good purpose except to provide amusement for future generations. Most of us are inclined to think vaguely of the blue laws as of the black plague or other scourges of the past; we are inclined to assume that they have died a natural death, and that that gladness is sinful, while the Almighty, in his kindness, delights to see sorrow. The Puritans, therefore, were careful to make the day of worship one of mournfulness, and they succeeded to an extent that might have made the most optimistic gloomy. As Brooks Adams well remarks in his work on "The Emancipation of Massachusetts," "The sad countenance, the Biblical speech, the sombre garb... and above all the unfailing deference paid to themselves, were the marks of sanctification by which the elders knew the saints on earth." fortunately we live in a more enlightened age; SINCE they conceived of their Sabbath as slumber to find his house convulsed by an earthquake, we are aroused abruptly to discover that our security is only imaginary, and that we are confronted with an era of blueness rivaling that of Puritan days. What would happen if the blue laws were to pass? What changes would they make in our lives? What would be the benefits, if any? What the disadvantages? To answer these questions, we need only consider what occurred in the early American colonies. W a lieved in having plenty of it; consequently, they made it begin at sunset on Saturday evening, and, thereafter, all were forbidden to “walk uncivilly in the streets or fields,” “to be in any house of public entertainment," or "to sport or otherwise misspend their precious time." This prohibition was aimed especially at the young; and we can imagine youths and maidens being apprehended for the ignominious crime of walking on a Sunday, much as they might now be arrested for drunkenness or disorderly conduct. This, however, was only one of the milder restrictions of the Sabbath day. Not only were people precluded from all dis THE MASTERY OF TIME ITH blue laws there should be no halfway measures. That seemed to be the opinion of the Puritan fathers. Accordingly, they set about diligently to make the blueness thorough; they passed laws against every color except blue; they strove with skill and energy to abolish all trace of joy from life, apparently acting on the theory O By Rose Trumbull THOU To-morrow whom I feared, I grapple thee, I pluck thy beard, graceful occupations, such as enjoying themselves, but they were compelled by law to join in the public task of attending church. Absence was made punishable by a fine or imprisonment; but evidently not even this requirement was efficacious, for a detective system to apprehend offenders came into effect, and Massachusetts, in 1671, passed a law ordering the town selectmen to appoint one inspector to every ten families, with the power to arrest and imprison the Sabbath breakers. F OR the purpose of holding the culprits, cages were to be erected in the market places. Not even the children escaped the severity of these laws, for the parents and governors of children over seven years old were admonished in case their charges showed disrespect to the Sabbath; and for repeated offenses, the penalties were fines and whipping. Not a very happy place for the young, when boys and girls of seven had to assume the gravity of gray-beards! But this was only another instance of Puritan consistency. For whatever may be said against the blue laws, it must be admitted that their blueness was thorough. Even more flagrant cases are recorded. Daniel Wait Howe, in his volume on "The Puritan Republic," declares that such was the respect for the Sabbath that "some ministers seem to have THE more typical example is that of the sea captain who returned on a Sunday after a three-year cruise, and finding his wife awaiting him at their doorstep, forgot himself to the extent of publicly kissing her. But he escaped rather easily, considering the grossness of his offense. He received two hours in the stocks "for his lewd and unseemly behavior." One wonders what the Puritans conceived of as proper conduct under the circumstances. Probably the sea captain would have been obeying the law had he greeted his wife by gazing at her mournfully, and saying, “How do you do, Mary? This is the Sabbath Day, and I will not be so unholy as to kiss you. But wait till to-morrow, and then I will do it." The blue laws were not confined to enact HE next time you are in trouble, or feel discouraged and think you are a failure, just try the experiment of affirming vigorously, persistently, that all that is real must be good, for God made all that is, and whatever doesn't seem to be good is not like its Creator, can not be real. Persist in this affirmation. You will be surprised to see how unfortunate suggestions and adverse conditions will melt away. had doubts as to whether it was lawful to be born on that day." One very conscientious minister, the author recounts, refused to baptize children "which were so irreverent as to be born on the Sabbath." However, this conscientious objector was a bachelor. Had he not been, he might have suffered the fate of a fellow parson with similar scruples, who "was effectually cured by having twins born to his wife on the Sabbath." Perhaps there were those who regarded it as wicked to die on the Sabbath, and who believed that a suitable punishment for such an offense was a few million ages of torture. If there were any such, their record, unfortunately, has been lost; but such views are entirely consistent with the Puritan spirit. It is recorded by the eminent historian mentioned above, Brooks Adams, that a Puritan cat was once so blasphemous as to catch a rat on a Sunday, and, on the following day, his master solemnly put him to death! Perhaps a ments regarding the Sabbath. The Puritans were not so narrow as to limit blueness to a single day. And so they discovered many methods of spreading it throughout the week. Some of these methods were adopted from England; some were original with the colonists. In many cases, they represented nothing more than the general spirit of the time. For example, their methods for the punishment of crime. were dyed with blueness to the core, yet we can clearly see in them the English influence. The death penalty was exceedingly popular in the colonies, as in the mother country; it was pronounced for idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, adultery, stealing, and other offenses, including the return of Quakers and Jesuits after banishment. For burglary-the first and second offense the penalty was the cutting off of the offender's ears; for vagabond Quakers and rogues the chastisement was branding; for defamation of the magistrates, or profanation of the Lord's Day, whipping was the punishment; and for the crime of lying, the reprimand varied from fines to whipping. But what was particularly infamous was the treatment of the "witches," of which thousands-sometimes the ordinary citizens, sometimes harmless though demented persons-were put to death in the name of justice. In accordance with the spirit of blueness, the Puritans showed little more tolerance towards M UCH the same spirit was manifested in the laws of Virginia and other colonies. An act of 1660, showed its judicial tolerance by beginning, "Whereas there is an unreasonable and turbulent sort of people, commonly called Quakers." The act not only forbade Quakers to arrive, but provided that those already present were to be imprisoned till they left, and that no person was to have anything to do with Quaker. Other laws made it a finable offense to attend a meeting of Quakers, or to entertain any member of that sect; and one statute specified that if a Quaker were unable to pay a fine imposed on him, it was to be collected from other Quakers or Separatists. This is much as if we were to have a law to-day providing that if a Presbyterian could not pay a fine, it should be collected from any other Presbyterian or Methodist. One might mention other Puritan enactments, such as the censorship of the press by a committee of clergymen, the statutory limitation of wages, the prohibition of short sleeves, and the ordinance requiring long garments, which, in 1653, resulted in the trial of a man for wearing boots. But enough has already been said to indicate the general nature of the Blue Laws. It should be apparent that they had two outstanding characteristics: first, already pointed out, that they were consistent; second, that they were laws against human nature. If there is anything that is natural, the Puritans seemed to believe, that thing is wrongful; the only rightful thing is what is unnatural; therefore what is unnatural is natural. And so they set about with thoroughgoing zeal to abolish everything spontaneous and normal. as Children liked to play on the Sabbath-let them be whipped for it! Young people desired to amuse themselves-let them be put in the stocks! Quakers and other heretics wished to have opinions-let them be banished or put to death! Man was a creature made for misery and sorrow-it was sacrilegious not to strive for one's full share of that sorrow and misery! Outside the robins would sing in the springtime-poor things, they did not know any better!-their souls were probably doomed to eternal torment! In the fields the hares would leap and sport on the Sabbath as on any other day-it was terrible to think of the Hereafter of torture that awaited them! And, on the Sabbath, even the sun would go about his regular business—it was lucky the sun was not a living thing, for then surely its soul would suffer the penalty! And while all the outside world-birds, beasts, flowers, trees, and sunwould be rejoicing, the Puritans would sit within for hour on hour on stiff wooden benches listening to interminable sermons on divine damnation. To be thorough, we should have to pass a law such as the following: I. The Sabbath shall commence at sundown on Saturday evening, and after that time no railroad train shall run, no vessel shall continue under way at sea, no telegraph, telephone, or wireless message shall be sent or taken, no street cars shall operate, or stores or places of amusement shall be open, no electric or gas lights shall be permitted, and any one caught twiddling his thumbs, winking, or otherwise impiously disporting himself, shall be given ten years at hard labor; and for the second offense, death shall be the penalty. II. Any one caught sneezing on the Sabbath shall be sent to the penitentiary for not less than a year nor longer than life. III. Laughter shall be strictly forbidden, and any one guilty of a breach of decorum to the extent of smiling, shall be burned at the stake as a witch. IV. In order that the benefits of this law may be as great as possible, it shall be applied alike to every day in the week. H AVING duly abolished the United States Constitution, we may adopt this law and settle down to an era of blueness that would bring envy to the soul of even the bluest of the Puritan Fathers. The Fatalistic creeds of the East would surely find a lodging among us, and to help a man whose leg was broken or who had lost his eyesight, would be blasphemy, since whatever ill befell a man would be considered a punishment inflicted by the Almighty; and for men to interfere would be presumption amounting to profanation. And so we might have a law forbidding a man to do a service to any other man. In other words, we might become so good that goodness would cease to exist. The next measure, obviously, would be a law proclaiming that since everything in this life is for the sake of the life hereafter, anything done in order to gain pleasure or to avoid misery should receive the death penalty. Part II of the Gripping Serial of Romance and Achievement The Business Butterfly Proud Prudence Parker, Employed as Private Secretary, Suddenly Finds that Art and Business Do not Mix By PETER GRAY ILLUSTRATED BY JOANNA SHORTMEIER WHAT HAPPENED IN PART I PRUDENCE PARKER, at the age of twenty one years, finds herself facing the necessity of earning her own living after a life of luxury. Left alone by the death of her uncle, Enoch Tomlinson, with whom she had made her home, Prudence leaves the New England town of Cambridge, where she had been born and raised in the most exclusive circles, and comes to New York City. With a capital of $1500, all that was left of her former wealth, she takes up a commercial course. Putting behind her the memory of her past social life, she enters into her practical business career with zeal and determination. Her first position is secretary to Richard Babson Vandergrift, millionaire. In spite of the fact that he advertised for a man, she is given the position. In order to try her out, Vandergrift leaves her alone the first afternoon to see how she can manage his affairs. His daughter, Margaret, telephones a message for him to meet her in order that he may see an original Corot which she is very anxious to obtain regardless of the fabulous amount asked for it. Remembering the false originals by which her uncle had been defrauded of a fortune, Prudence telephones the agent to bring it to the office. Under protest he finally consents. Prue recognizes it as one of the worthless paintings owned by her uncle. Vandergrift resents her interference in such affairs and summarily discharges her. She refuses to leave until the authenticity of the picture is assured. P RUDENCE PARKER'S first battle of wits with a leader of big business was a dismal failure. Her stiffened-backbone decision that she would not leave Richard Vandergrift's office until she knew the history of the Corot, which she believed had either been a counterfeit or else a genuine masterpiece, sold to her own disadvantage, had only resulted in her discomfiture and humiliation. As she stood, with flashing eyes, on the threshold of her employer's office, declining to accept his dismissal, Charles Salmon Chase, an expert on old masters, entered and bowed to Vandergrift and his daughter, Margaret. "Let me see this little treasure, Miss Vandergrift," he said, and then he adjusted his glasses and, backing away, gave the canvas careful scrutiny. "Vandergrift," he said after a few moments, "how much are you going to give for this?" "Mr. Taranoff asks fifty thousand," Vandergrift replied. "What would you advise?" "Buy it!" announced Chase without hesitation. "It's real-and it's a bargain." There seemed nothing for Prudence to do. In the face of the expert's opinion, her attempt to prevent her employer obtaining a valuable painting at a low price, seemed a rank presumption. If this very canvas had been sold by her uncle's lawyers on the ground-either honestly or otherwise-that it was not an original, she had no proof of the fact. If Enoch Tomlinson's collection had been sold for a mere pittance, that did not interest Richard Vandergrift. If he was able to buy at a ridiculously low price and Prudence had been cheated out of a small fortune, he regarded that as her illluck and Vandergrift's gain. Yet somehow she suspected Taranoff, and her flashing eyes conveyed just that impression to the art dealer. However, unable to justify herself, she slipped quietly from the room and departed. As she was leaving the big office-building she almost collided with an apologetic, good-looking youth, who seemed to be keenly aware that she was exceedingly smart and attractive. With astonishment, he observed the traces of tears in her eyes and the evident nervousness of her manner. "Can't I be of some help?" he asked solicitously. "You seem to be in trouble." "No," she said, despite her desire to talk over the matter with someone. |