The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-22 00:00:00

WHAT DO WE WORK FOR?

The question we desire briefly to discuss is not " Why
do we work?" but "What do we work for?" Some may
answer at once, "For money—wages or salaries." We do
not think this a f ull and correct reply to the question. Labour
may be the Adamite curse, but, if so, the innate desires of
man and his restlessness and ambition for improvement
have changed the curse to a positive blessing, and made
the earth—thorn and thistle cursed—to bloom and blossom
like the rose. We work partly because we need it. We
need it for health of mind as well as of body. Idleness
leads to decay, and decay to death. Ho who through years
of active exertion leaves his employment and "retires
from business" usually signs his death-warrant. lie vegl-
tates for a while in idleness and dies, unless ho has sense
enough to discover his mistake in time and return to the
paths of active usefulness. There are few more pitiable
objects than the man who after many years of active ser-
vice in business is deluded into a belief that happiness and
a reward for his labours are to be found in withdrawing
from all participation in the work of life. Old ago is an
excuse for idleness, but the possession of money is not.
We do not work for money alone. The mechanic who
would bo content to do the work of an apprentico merely
because ho could earn more wages would bo hardly worth
the name of a mechanic. The amount of wages or salary
is a recognition of ability and a standard of value for ser-
vices performed, but not the only incentive to exertion. A.
workman feels a pride in his work, in the results of his
skill, entirely unconnected with the amount of money re-
ceived for it. If he did not, one very strong motive for
improvement would be lacking. Almost every mechanic
will agree with us that ho has done jobs which afforded
him more gratification in their success than ho derived
from the possession of the pecuniary compensation there-
for. How often a man will undertake a job which he
knows beforehand will not. "pay" in cash what it costs,
but mainly for the pride of performing successfully. It is
true that "the labourer is worthy of his hire," but to agree
that the hire is the only, or even the principal, incentive
is unreasonable, not sustained by facts, and derogatory to
the "dignity of labour," a phrase often misused, but a per-
fectly correct ono. To be sure, if the efforts of the work-
man—and by this term we mean all who do—are not ap-
preciated by adequate compensation ho seeks other
employers who have a proper appreciation of his value.
Wo work for progress ; for progress individually and for
the progress of the race. One means to that progress is
the payment for services rendered, as it will enable the
skilful workman and the fuv ntive mechanic to carry for-
ward their plans of improvement in manual labour or iu
labour-saving machines. We work for the godlike pride
of creation. The machine which is an offspring of the
brain of the mechanic is as much, and more, his than that
of his loins. If ho is ill p tid for his labour, mental
or
physical, he has tho compensation of a satisfaction t
which
in his
success which cannot 1,,c assured by money only, bu
position as
must be felt in the knowledge that he has succeeded. where
improvement.
There oontheeorsf
tfnaieleit anneedrlsiafsn sethceugreradoneianrr
egrnb,
There are few pursuits which demand more hard work
—work of the brain—than that of the mechanic. In no
sense can he be considered an exemplar of Bunyan's
"Muckrake." Ile must live in order to work, but ho does
not work merely that he may live. Ho is always striving
to mount the next step on the ladder, and never does he
mount but that he ces with him tho living, moving
world. It is his pride carries
to excel : never satisfied with me-
diocrity, but always striving for superiority. From the
pi
sl oovf st ° tali em
perly; o
:-i
workman to the inventor is but a step--a long step it may
leer—lyY; and the ettiotbeyondhispowers ifhe
mechanic, employs
inventor, not a
depend-
ent on the mechanic for the success of iinprovement.—
Seietitffle American.