COPYRIGHT, 1925

BY EDGAR S. FURNISS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

Econ. Curr. Wahr 12-7-25 162639

PREFACE

THIS book is the result of many years of experiment in teaching the subject of Labor Problems in Yale College. Any attempt to cover this subject in a single comprehensive course of study presents a textbook problem of unusual difficulty. The field is a broad one, including many groups of problems which are more or less distinct from each other and more or less technical in character. During recent years, materials dealing with these special phases of the subject have multiplied rapidly, but chiefly in the form of technical monographs of limited scope which cannot be used as texts. The manuals which attempt to cover the entire field are too often superficial in many parts and leave important phases of the subject untouched. This book has been prepared in the belief that other teachers, like the authors, have found the existing materials unsatisfactory for classroom use.

The basis of this book is a collection of readings from the monographs which deal with special branches of the subject. It is the conviction of the authors that this material should be presented to the students since it represents the best work of technical experts. But in its present form it is not available for this purpose. Accordingly, the authors have attempted, through careful selection and editing, to bring its most useful parts together in compact form within the space of a single volume.

The book should be viewed, however, not as a collection of isolated excerpts from other writers, but as a textbook developing a continuous and connected course of study. All teachers are familiar with the faults of the ordinary collection of readings. It is too often scrappy and disjointed, confusing the student and leaving no coherent impression upon his mind. In this book, an effort has been made to avoid these errors. In the first place, the selections are all of considerable length, each a complete study in itself, and none duplicates of others. In many cases, a single selection will suffice for an ordinary class assignment. Where this is not true, the readings have been grouped together so that a given subject may be covered by a continuous series of selections.