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Collectivism and Charles Steinmetz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

James B. Gilbert
James B. Gilbert
Affiliation:
Professor of History, University of Maryland
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Abstract

Professor Gilbert examines the impact of the corporate form of organization upon the utopian thinking of American intellectuals of the progressive era, using the ideas of Charles Steinmetz as an example of the way in which collectivist assumptions were brought to bear on descriptions of society.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , Winter 1974 , pp. 520 - 540
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1974

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References

1 Addams, Jane, “Discussion,” American Journal of Sociology, XIII (May, 1908), 771.Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Lasch, Christopher, The New Radicalism in America (New York, 1965)Google Scholar and Wiebe, Robert, The Search for Order (New York, 1967).Google Scholar

3 See, for example, Kolko, Gabriel, The Triumph of Conservatism (New York, 1963)Google Scholar and Weinstein, James, The Corporate Ideal in the Liberal State (Boston, 1968).Google Scholar

4 The concept of collectivism and its appearance at the turn of the century is more fully examined in Gilbert, James, Designing the Industrial State (Chicago, 1972).Google Scholar

5 Giddings, Franklin, Democracy and Empire, with Studies of Their Psychological, Economic, and Moral Foundations (New York, 1900), 344.Google Scholar

6 Patten, Simon, New Basis of Civilization (New York, 1907), 43.Google Scholar

7 Commons, John R., ed., Industrial Government (New York, 1921), viii.Google Scholar

8 See the Utopian novel by Harding, Ellison (Kelly, Edmond), The Demetrian (New York, 1907).Google Scholar Kelly explicitly uses the term collectivist to describe future society.

9 Ferguson, Charles, The Revolution Absolute (New York, 1918), 125.Google Scholar

10 On the widespread discussion of industrial democracy, see Joint Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Third Triennial Report (New York, 1919).Google Scholar

11 See, for example, the settlement of strikes in the New York garment industry that occurred after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.

12 Gilbert, Designing the Industrial State, passim.

13 Ibid., 109–110.

14 “Miscellaneous Notes,” Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society, X (Number 4, 1915), 5.

15 See the following biographies of Steinmetz: Levine, Sigmund A., Steinmetz, Maker of Lightning (New York, 1955)Google Scholar; Leonard, Jonathan Norton, Loki: The Life of Charles Proteus Steinmetz (Garden City, N.Y., 1929)Google Scholar; and Miller, John Anderson, Modern Jupiter (New York, 1958).Google Scholar

16 Elmer Rice, Jr., to Charles P. Steinmetz, New York, July 10, 1918. Charles Steinmetz Papers, Schenectady County Historical Society, Schenectady, New York.

17 “Miscellaneous Notes,” Transactions, 4–5.

18 Steinmetz, Charles, “The Scope of Illuminating Engineering,” Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society, XI (August, 1916), 626.Google Scholar

19 Charles Steinmetz, “The Place of Religion in Modern Scientific Law,” copy of a sermon delivered to the Unitarian Church of Schenectady, November 5, 1922, 1, 11, in Charles Steinmetz Papers, Union College, Schenectady, New York.

20 Steinmetz, Charles, America and the New Epoch (New York, 1916), 228.Google Scholar

21 Charles Steinmetz, “Effects of the European War on American Industries,” speech to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, shorthand report, October 25, 1916, Chicago, 25, from Steinmetz Papers, Union College.

22 Steinmetz, America and the New Epoch, 160.

23 Steinmetz, Charles, Industrial Co-Operation (New York, 1919), 8Google Scholar, from copy in Steinmetz Papers, Union College.

24 Steinmetz attempted to apply these ideas during his tenure as President of the Schenectady school board and as head of the parks and planning board during the first administration of Socialist Mayor George Lunn.

25 Charles Steinmetz, “Address” to the International Association of Engineers and National Electric Light Association, August 22, 1916, 4, from Steinmetz Papers, Union College.

26 Steinmetz, America and the New Epoch, 182, 228.

27 Ibid., 228.

28 The National Association of Corporation Schools was made up of some of the largest national industrial firms. Through a series of evolutions it eventually became devoted to personnel work, with the appropriate name, the American Management Association, selected in 1923. See Vanderlip, Frank A., Business and Education (New York, 1907)Google Scholar; Fisher, Berenice M., Industrial Education: American Ideals and Institutions (Madison, 1967), 111Google Scholar; “Commercial Education in New York State,” University of the State of New York Bulletin (Number 616, June 1, 1916); and Graham, Jessie, The Evolution of Business Education in the United States and Its Implications for Business-Teacher Education (Los Angeles: Southern California Education Monographs, number 2, 1933–1934).Google Scholar

29 “Testimony of Dr. Steinmetz,” Final Report and Testimony of the Commission on Industrial Relations, U. S. Senate, II (Washington, D.C., 1916), 1829–1830. Steinmetz's work on the Schenectady School Board was directed at what he called creating the “symmetrical” child, well-balanced physically and mentally. His theories were much in line with those put into practice in the Gary Schools of Gary, Indiana. These schools, in turn were much discussed by educational progressives and by the National Association of Corporation Schools, to which Steinmetz belonged.

30 W. H. Lange, “The American Management Association and Its Predecessors; Significant Evidence of Trends in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations,” Special Paper no. 17 (New York: American Management Association, 1928), 4–11. See also, Haynes, Benjamin R. and Jackson, Harry P., A History of Business Education in the United States (Cincinnati, 1935), 105–108.Google Scholar

31 Steinmetz, Charles, “Address” and “Response and Annual Address” in Proceedings of the National Association of Corporation Schools (New York, 1914), 54, 58–59.Google Scholar

32 Steinmetz, Charles, “Incentive and Initiative,” in Caldecott, Ernest and Alger, Philip L., eds., Steinmetz the Philosopher (Schenectady, 1965), 159.Google Scholar

33 Steinmetz, Charles, “Address,” Proceedings of the National Association of Corporation Schools (New York, 1915), 840.Google Scholar