activeness of industries is determined. The
administration, in taking burdens off one class of workers and adding
them to other classes, simply follows the fluctuations of opinion
among the workers themselves as indicated by the rate of
volunteering. The principle is that no man's work ought to be, on the
whole, harder for him than any other man's for him, the workers
themselves to be the judges. There are no limits to the application of
this rule. If any particular occupation is in itself so arduous or so
oppressive that, in order to induce volunteers, the day's work in it
had to be reduced to ten minutes, it would be done. If, even then, no
man was willing to do it, it would remain undone. But of course, in
point of fact, a moderate reduction in the hours of labor, or addition
of other privileges, suffices to secure all needed volunteers for any
occupation necessary to men. If, indeed, the unavoidable difficulties
and dangers of such a necessary pursuit were so great that no
inducement of compensating advantages would overcome men's repugnance
to it, the administration would only need to take it out of the common
order of occupations by declaring it 'extra hazardous,' and those who
pursued it especially worthy of the national gratitude, to be overrun
with volunteers. Our young men are very greedy of honor, and do not
let slip such opportunities. Of course you will see that dependence on
the purely voluntary choice of avocations involves the abolition in
all of anything like unhygienic conditions or special peril to life
and limb. Health and safety are conditions common to all industries.
The nation does not maim and slaughter its workmen by thousands, as
did the private capitalists and corporations of your day."

"When there are more who want to enter a particular trade than there
is room for, how do you decide between the applicants?" I inquired.

"Preference is given to those who have acquired the most knowledge of
the trade they wish to follow. No man, however, who through successive
years remains persistent in his desire to show what he can do at any
particular trade, is in the end denied an opportunity. Meanwhile, if a
man cannot at first win entrance into the business he prefers, he has
usually one or more alternative preferences, pursuits for which he has
some degree of aptitude, although not the highest. Every one, indeed,
is expected to study his aptitudes so as to have not only a first
choice as to occupati