PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRY NEED IMPARTIAL MIND

"It is absolutely essential for the college man who goes into industry, to have an open mind on the problems of industry today," declared Mr. Daniel Bloomfield '12, associate editor of "Industrial Relations," when interviewed recently by a CRIMSON reporter. Mr. Bloomfield is a partner in the Boston firm of Bloomfield and Bloomfield. consultants on industrial relations.

"The problems of industrial relations between labor and capital are uppermost in society today," he continued, "and if the college man wants to make a real contribution toward the solution of these problems, he must be fully equipped mentally. In other words, the man who goes into industry must have a broad, through preparation for his work.

Open Mindedness Essential

"The most important thing for him to have is a spirit of open-mindedness. He must not adopt any one side of a question until he has soon all the facts, and that is impossible until he has been engaged in an industry for at least two or three years. He must not take the side of the employer, nor of the employee, before he knows all the facts about both. It has often been said that there is nothing more illiberal than some liberals. The reason for this is that they have lost their open-mindedness, and become intolerant to all who do not agree with them. This attitude among both employers and employees is the cause of most of the trouble in industry today.

"That," he went on, "Is one reason why there is no such thing as real industrial democracy today. Intolerance has always been the enemy of all forms of democracy, and the fact applies equally well to industrial democracy. As long as the workers refuse to see the point of view of their employers, and the employers refuse to countenance anything that the employees say, any attempt to establish real democracy must fail.

"Industry needs the college man who can treat it with the impartial judgement of the scientist, who weighs all the facts which he can obtain, and then draws his conclusions. Prejudice is extremely hard to overcome, but the man who wants to go into industry must be big enough to cast prejudice aside, and weigh all the facts impartially. The man who can be truly open-minded can really accomplish something inn industry, but the one who cannot do this can contribute nothing to industrial progress."