I heard it said that they no longer want work, and that
when they get it they do not do it well--a supposed effect of the
socialism which is supposed to have spoiled their manners. I heard it
said more intelligently, as I thought, that they are not easily
disciplined, and that they cannot be successfully associated in the
industries requiring workmen to toil in large bodies together; they will
not stand that. Also I heard it said, as I thought again rather
intelligently, that where work is given them to do after a certain
model, they will conform perfectly for the first three or four times;
then their fatal creativeness comes into play, and they begin to better
their instruction by trying to improve upon the patterns--that is, they
are artists, not artisans. They must please their fancy in their work or
they cannot do it well. From my own experience I cannot say whether this
is generally or only sometimes true, but I can affirm that where they
delayed or erred in their work they took their failure very amiably.
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