Possessed of natural aptitudes, he usually passes by a process of
logical evolution, through the important committees and offices
of
his local into the wider sphere of the national union, where as
president or secretary, he assumes the leadership of his group.
Circumstances and conditions impose a heavy burden upon him, and
his tasks call for a variety of gifts. Because some particular
leader lacked tact or a sense of justice or some similar quality,
many a labor maneuver has failed, and many a labor organization
has suffered in the public esteem. No other class relies so much
upon wise leadership as does the laboring class. The average
wage-earner is without experience in confronting a new situation
or trained and superior minds. From his tasks he has learned only
the routine of his craft. When he is faced with the necessity of
prompt action, he is therefore obliged to depend upon his chosen
captains for results.
In America these leaders have risen from the rank and file of
labor. Their education is limited. The great majority have only a
primary schooling. Many have supplemented this meager stock of
learning by rather wide but desultory reading and by keen
observation. A few have read law, and some have attended night
schools. But all have graduated from the University of Life. Many
of them have passed through the bitterest poverty, and all have
been raised among toilers and from infancy have learned to
sympathize with the toiler's point of view.
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