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THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT

hammered or woven and put through specialized processes and turned out at the end of a finished product. Unconsciously we have modeled our governmental efficiency on the efficiency which has characterized the nineteenth century, which is the efficient production of wealth, of goods; and of course goods have no memories, no hopes, no rights, no souls. See those highly complicated welfare activities threading their way among the people; see the unsconsciousness of the people as they are being operated upon by the truant officer, by employment agent, by protective devices of one kind or another; see their unsconsciousness as they are touched here and touched there by these highly efficient and high specialized ministrations of government, and see if the picture of the people as being mere passive material does not hold good. The people are not conscious of what the goverment is aiming at. The development of our centralized welfare work in government and private social service is being carried out on the machine patterns, and we must discover some way by which to bring all these purposes

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