The Iron Puddler | Page 5

words, the man is on the job before
the job is created. Which is nonsense.
Capital does not always mean employer. A Liberty Bond is capital but
it is not an employer; the Government is an employer but it is not
capital, and when any one is arguing a case for an employee against his
employer let him use the proper terms. The misuse of words can cause

a miscarriage of justice as the misuse of railway signals can send a train
into the ditch.
All my life I have been changing big words into little words so that the
employee can know what the employer is saying to him. The working
man handles things. The professional man plies words. I learned things
first and words afterward. Things can enrich a nation, and words can
impoverish it. The words of theorists have cost this nation billions
which must be paid for in things.
When I was planning a great school for the education of orphans, some
of my associates said: "Let us teach them to be pedagogues." I said:
"No, let us teach them the trades. A boy with a trade can do things. A
theorist can say things. Things done with the hands are wealth, things
said with the mouth are words. When the housing shortage is over and
we find the nation suffering from a shortage of words, we will close the
classes in carpentry and open a class in oratory."
This, then is the introduction to my views and to my policies. They are
now to have a fair trial, like that other iron worker in the Elwood police
court. I know what the word "previous" means. I can give an account of
myself. So, in the following pages I will tell "where I was before I
came here."
If my style seems rather flippant, it is because I have been trained as an
extemporaneous speaker and not as a writer. For fifteen years I traveled
over the country lecturing on the Mooseheart School. My task was to
interest men in the abstract problems of child education. A speaker
must entertain his hearers to the end or lose their attention. And so I
taxed my wit to make this subject simple and easy to listen to. At last I
evolved a style of address that brought my points home to the men I
was addressing.
After all these years I can not change my style. I talk more easily than I
write; therefore, in composing this book I have imagined myself facing
an audience, and I have told my story. I do not mention the names of
the loyal men who helped work out the plans of Mooseheart and gave
the money that established it, for their number is so great that their
names alone would fill three volumes as large as this.
J.J.D.
CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I THE HOME-MADE SUIT OF CLOTHES
II A TRAIT OF THE WELSH PEOPLE
III NO GIFT FROM THE FAIRIES
IV SHE SINGS TO HER NEST
V THE LOST FEATHER BED
VI HUNTING FOR LOST CHILDREN
VII HARD SLEDDING IN AMERICA
VIII MY FIRST REGULAR JOB
IX THE SCATTERED FAMILY
X MELODRAMA BECOMES COMEDY
XI KEEPING OPEN HOUSE
XII MY HAND TOUCHES IRON
XIII SCENE IN A ROLLING MILL
XIV BOILING DOWN THE PIGS
XV THE IRON BISCUITS
XVI WRESTING A PRIZE FROM NATURE'S HAND
XVII MAN IS IRON TOO
XVIII ON BEING A GOOD GUESSER
XIX I START ON MY TRAVELS

XX THE RED FLAG AND THE WATERMELONS
XXI ENVY IS THE SULPHUR IN HUMAN PIG-IRON
XXII LOADED DOWN WITH LITERATURE
XXIII THE PUDDLER HAS A VISION
XXIV JOE THE POOR BRAKEMAN
XXV A DROP IN THE BUCKET OF BLOOD
XXVI A GRUB REFORMER PUTS US OUT OF GRUB
XXVII THE PIE EATER'S PARADISE
XXVIII CAUGHT IN A SOUTHERN PEONAGE CAMP
XXIX A SICK, EMACIATED SOCIAL SYSTEM
XXX BREAKING INTO THE TIN INDUSTRY
XXXI UNACCUSTOMED AS I AM TO PUBLIC SPEAKING
XXXII LOGIC WINS IN THE STRETCH
XXXIII I MEET THE INDUSTRIAL CAPTAINS
XXXIV SHIRTS FOR TIN ROLLERS
XXXV AN UPLIFTER RULED BY ENVY
XXXVI GROWLING FOR THE BOSSES BLOOD
XXXVII FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE
XXXVIII THE EDITOR GETS MY GOAT
XXXIX PUTTING JAZZ INTO THE CAMPAIGN

XL FATHER TOOK ME SERIOUSLY
XLI A PAVING CONTRACTOR PUTS ME ON THE PAVING
XLII THE EVERLASTING MORALIZER
XLIII FROM TIN WORKER TO SMALL CAPITALIST
XLIV A CHANCE TO REALIZE A DREAM
XLV THE DREAM COMES TRUE
XLVI THE MOOSEHEART IDEA
XLVII LIFE'S PROBLEMS
XLVIII BUILDING A BETTER WORLD BY EDUCATION
XLIX CONCLUSION

THE IRON PUDDLER

CHAPTER I
THE HOME-MADE SUIT OF CLOTHES
A fight in the first chapter made a book interesting to me when I was a
boy. I said to myself, "The man who writes several chapters before the
fighting begins is like