Concluding Note Daniel Bell and S . M. Lipset

Although much of the material in this number has been primarily descriptive, certain points, some implicit, some explicit, have a wider relevance for social theory. These will be noted schematically. 1. The positive role of authority. The discussion by Sexton of the positive intervening role of the union has its counterpart in the debate on law versus the mores (a point discussed by Myrdal in appendix two of “An American Dilemma). That laws cannot change mores, is the old saw; yet law, reflecting a fundamental value of the society, can play a positive innovat- ing role and in itself become an educational force. Similarly, the moral authority of the union, like the moral authority of law, shifts the weight of the sanctions against the disapproved act and robs it of its folk source.

2. Conflict as a force for solidarity. A simple yet neglected truism of older morale studies is demonstrated here by Becker’s report. The existence of a hated common enemy can fuse a group and override previous distinctions. 3. Generational status. Both the Herberg and Sheppard articles highlight a problem that has been neglected for fifteen years, that is, since “the youth problem” faded from American consciousness. But the conflict between generations, their adherence to different values and different modes of looking at the world is an important source of strain and conflict.

4. Structural context. In recent years, the conceptual focus on different atti- tudes within the single person has utilized the term of roles. The emphasis by Reitzes of the different organizational structuring of roles is an important sociological counterpart and corrective to the heavy psychological emphasis of the role itself without reference to source. The Reitzes article illustrates that variations in “structural context” (a term used by Lazarsfeld and Merton) create sharply opposed yet rationalized attitudes within the same person. 5 . The organizution as an end iiz itself. As various studies by Seltnick, following Michels, have illustrated, the organization’s own need for survival becomes a factor which enters into the calculi of action. Kornhauser’s article is a neat example of how, in the conflict of interests and ideology, organiza- tional criteria becomes in many cases a decisive factor.

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The Editors

Daniel Bell is labor editor of Fortune magazine and a lecturer in sociology at Colum- bi.1 University. H e was formerly an instructor in social sciences in the College of the University of Chicago and the managing editor of the magazines The N e w Leader and Common Sense. For the past six years he has been research and program consult, ant for the Jewish Labor Committee in its race relations work with trade unions. s.' M. Lipset is assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University, and a re- search associate in the Bureau of Applied Social Research where he is completing an extensive study of the typographical union. H e received his Ph.D. at Columbia, and has taught at the University of Toronto and the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the research advisory committee of the Jewish Labor Com- mittee.

Other Contributors Brenddn Sexton has had a long career in the labor movement. H e was a leader of the unemployed movement in New York in the mid-thirties, was an organizer for the C.I.O. Steelworkers, and after working in the shop was elected president of the Wil- low Run Ford Local 50. H e has been for the last four years nationa1,educational director of the C.I.O. United Auto Workers, a frequent speaker on radio and educa- tional forums, and editor of Ammunition, the lively monthly for shop stewards and plant committeemen, issued by the U.A.W. W i l l Herberg has long been recognized as one of the most thoughtful commentators on the labor and social scene. Educated at Columbia, and in the thirties, editor of the radical Workers' Age , he became educational director of Local 2 2 of the Interna- tional Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1940. Under the influence of Reinhold Niebuhr, Herberg became interested in the religious and moral cohtent of social issues and has achieved a notable reputation in that field. H e has lectured at the Jew- ish Theological Seminary and other schools and is the author of Judaism for Mod- ers Man. Ai t /old Rose, Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, has contributed widely to sociological journals. A collaborator of Gunnar Mvrdal in An American Dilemma, he is the author of several other books, notably The Negro in America, and Union Solidarity, on which the present report is based.

Will iam Becker, educated at New College, Columbia University, was labor secre- tary of the Socialist Party from 1943 to 1948 and for the last five years has been Cal- ifornia organizer for the A. F. of L. National Farm Labor Union.

John Hope, IZ is a member of the race relations laboratory at Fisk University, and was director of the Packinghouse Workers self-survey reported here.

Dietrirh Reizes is assistant professor of sociology at Indiana University (Calumet Center). H e received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His dissertation, a study of a work and community situation, is the basis of the present article.

Harold Sheppard is assistant professor of Sociology at Wayne University, Detroit. H e took his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin with a dissertation on the managerial sociology of Elton Mayo. He has done a number of studies on workers attitudes in the Detroit area. His article is part of a larger project on union members' attitude that was sponsored by the Jewish Labor Committee.

William Kornhauser is instructor in sociology at the University .of California at Berk- ley. He took his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and has taught at Columbia.

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