LABOR AND PRODUCTION.

"He that by the plough would thrive

Himself must either hold or drive."

"Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening."

Ps. civ. 23.

"On bravely through the sunshine and the showers,
Time hath his work to do and we have ours."

"If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work."

EMERSON.

KING HENRY IV.

"Hear ye not the hum

Of mighty workings?"

KEATS.

"Human labor, through all its forms, from the sharpening of a stake to the construction of a city or an epic, is one immense illustration of the perfect compensation of the universe."

EMERSON.

V.

LABOR AND PRODUCTION.

LABOR is normal; idleness, abnormal. The physical, mental, and moral faculties of man were created for use, and it is only by their active training that they attain skill and excellence. That the active employment of the gifts and capabilities of man's nature was designed by the Creator is proved abundantly, both by analogy and experience. As all human happiness and perfection are reached by conformity to law, so a non-conformity brings misery and unhappiness. Labor is a blessing, and idleness a curse. Human powers must have occupation, else they become. withered and inharmonious. As man is constituted, it were better to give him the barren and sterile soil bringing forth weeds and thistles, to be transformed by the healthful activity of his energy into blooming gardens and fruitful fields, than to supply him with all these delightful and useful objects without effort and toil on his part.

The world is full of positive possibilities, and honest labor is, therefore, the most staple of all commodities. The mistake of thinking that only manual labor is labor is a very common one, while the fact is that every power of the body and mind requires exercise; and only by this activity can they fulfil their offices. Under primitive conditions, there was a general activity of body and mind, rather than special development in any one direction. The barbarian was his own tailor, carpenter, jeweller, farmer, and common carrier; and his products were few and poor. Under modern conditions, activity is greatly subdivided,

and education much more thorough. Thus we have farmers, carpenters, painters, engravers, masons, and numberless other craftsmen, each one of whom has a special technical training, and, as a result, decided superiority. Each, therefore, does not only his own particular kind of work for himself, but for all the others, because his production is far more perfect. So in the department of mental labor: the clergyman, lawyer, banker, scientist, historian, and states- all cultivate their powers in their several fields to a high state of efficiency; and each has his place in rounding out and completing the grand unit called society. In this consists the great superiority of the modern state, with its high degree of specialized education, over the barbarous governments and peoples of primitive conditions.

man

The scientist, historian, and bookkeeper are as truly laborers and producers as are they who handle a pick, plough, or loom. The popular use of the term "labor" as applied only to those who exercise muscle is erroneous. The brakeman in the employ of a railway company, by industry, energy, and ability, may rise to be its president, but he is no less a laborer than before, and as a man not necessarily any more worthy or noble.

While a normal amount of labor is in accord with law, and is necessary to healthful and harmonious development, an excess of exertion is harmful. It is also obvious to any close observer that, of the two, undue mental effort is more wearing in its results on the health and constitution than too much physical exertion. The care and responsibility incidental to mental occupations cause many to break down in health; and here again the popular idea is at fault that connects all hardship and suffering only with manual occupations. While, therefore, our sympathy goes out towards the laborer who uses a shovel for eight or ten hours in a day, we should not entirely overlook the weary bookkeeper or clerk, who often works much longer amidst unwholesome

conditions and impure air. The sleep of the man who exercises muscle is sweeter, his digestion more sure, and his vigor greater than that of the average mental laborer. The idea that manual labor is in itself degrading, and to be avoided so far as possible, is the delusion of the present time.

The ideal man is he whose physical, mental, and moral powers are all cultivated and harmoniously balanced. Idleness is a violation of natural law, and its companions in transgression are improvidence, degradation, intemperance, and decay. By inexorable law and logic each positive virtue has its corresponding negative condition of vice and

error.

As to the different varieties of labor, all are indispensable, the mental as well as the physical, each in its proper sphere. The steam in the locomotive is a more subtle and immaterial factor than the boiler and wheels, but no less necessary and important. So the mental worker, though in a more refined 'and nominally higher sphere, is only a component part of a general system, and in personality is not necessarily above his fellow laborer. The test of the excellency of a wheel in a machine is that it fills well its peculiar place and office.

Having found that work is natural, necessary, and in harmony with man's constitution, let us consider its object. In the economy of Natural Law, means are always in order to ends. Labor is the means; production the object. The finished building is as much the product of the architect as of the carpenter or mason; or, rather, it is the joint product of all. In the distinction made between mental and manual labor, it is evident that only the predominant element is referred to, for neither can be strictly pure. The simplest manual task must be accompanied by a mental process; and likewise, the scholar or scientist must do some physical labor with pen or apparatus.