Communications

(The Crimson invites all men in the University to submit signed communicati9ons of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication should be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Division of labor is approaching its climax; now we live in a day of division of brains.

The laboring man has had, in one generation, his demand and ability narrowed down to a very small point. Time, speed and competition have forced him to confine his efforts to one part of a production in order to sell him labor. In the days of the Romans, there were twenty or so occupati9ons for the laboring man, now there are thirty seven thousand or more occupations or divisions of labor and each requires concentration on small part in order the succeed and be of ordinary demand.

As it has been with labor, so it is becoming with the educated man. The old time doctor who was everything from a horse-doctor to a surgeon or what-not; the general practitioner now within almost one generation, is becoming divided into many special fields. We have a specialist for this and a specialist for that; a corporation lawyer, a criminal lawyer, and the civil and electrical engineer, etc. Knowledge and education is forced to become in itself less broad. The work of the brain is becoming divided, just as the work of the hand has become divided.

The point that I have tried to illustrated can also be applied to the farmer. At the time of the Revolution, ninety percent of the American population were farmers now only thirty percent; and I venture to predict that in 1970 there will be only fifteen percent. This means that on the farm where the brain works as much as the hand, the work to be done is becoming specialised. It requires that the farmer concentrate on one line and take advantage of his position in a field where competition is decreasing and demand for a perfect product is increasing.

If I may be allowed to prophesy again, I predict that the farmer in 1970 will hold the position of foremost among mankind. JOHN SUMMER WOOD '25 November 13, 1922.