The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1859-03-31

piey lc Adi uclOW any WOILuy CGuCtptlOH vi
human existence. We are, as a State,
great in our worldliness, pursuing materi-
al successes and temporary ambitions, to
the woeful neglect of the higher achieve
ments of life; more desirous of making
splendid demonstrations in our own day,
than of laying the deep foundations of an
enduring Republic. This popular notion
of life expresses itself in our Labor, which
is enslaved in every way that man or a
State is enslaved by a narrow and sensual
view of existence.
But let not our neighbors in the servile
States exult over our panics and danger
Gus classes in commercial cities, and gen.
eral shortcomings; great as our Difficult
ties are, they are such as these regions
are not yet capable of feeling, nor will be
lor century to come. Ours are the diff.
icuties that ennobIe State by stimulat-
ing its best mind and heart into great eff
fort, the struggles of millions of men, nom
inally free, to become spiritually emanci
pated not the desperate, sullen heavings
of brutal race to rise to ownership Of its
own bodies and roulS and the insolent and
cruel effort of a superior caste to keep
down the rising tide of human nature
Thus, while in half of our country Free
Labor eau hardly be attained except by
the very dissolution and Reorganization OF
society, in New York we need no anarchy
no overturn in social and political consti
tutions; but only better understanding
by our people of the dignity and relations
of labor, and persistent effort to elevate
the men ana women who compose our ar
mics OF industry
The first grand want of our present
system oflabor is intelligence. Ignorance
is slavery by the inevitable laws Of God
and whoever fatters ignorance anywhere
does it for the purpose of de potis,n. Oul
labor is not truly free in New York, be
cause it is not sufficiently cultivated
While thousands of farmers are prevented
bv their want of Information and preju
dice from adopting the myriad improve
ments Of modern scientific agriculture, aDC
other thousands of our mechanics anC
operatives know just enough to be tied te
one kind of secondary work all their lives
and our young men enter into mercantile
life SO i'll prepared that seventy per cent
fail, how can there be anything but q
practical enslavement of whole regions Of
society? Men and women thus qualified
are always at the mercy of the better in
structcd. Beyond limited circle of plod
ding toll, they are lost, aud must work as
they are forced by the few clever people
who organize the great machinery of labor
and appoint them their place therein
They are exposed to distress in every
great panic and are not able to avail them
selves of times of prosperity.
1t is vain for such laboring classes tc
protest against the injustice they suffer
Nobody disputes that they are practically
shut up in narrow place; but how came
they there? Chiefly because they have
preferred ignorance to intelligence. The
State makes provision for the instruction
of all, and the means of practical improv-
ment are open to whomsoevcr desires
them But if two hundred thousand
children are kept out of school by the
wlckedness of their parents, and other
hundreds of thousands Of young men and
women prefer the luxury of ignorance,
they are welcome to it but they will learn
that it is the most expensive luxury in
which they can indulge. No man or wo-
man is too old to learn, no girl or boy is
too young to be taught, that love for i'm
provement which is the great emancipa-
tor of the laboring man.
Especially let our youth of both sexes
resolve to be generally cultivated, and
whatever they undertake, learn to do in
the best way. The young laborer in the
household, in the shop or ou the land
who is informed concerning his profess.
ion as a science, knows it's central prnci
plies, its capacities for improvement, all
its labor r-saving machinery and its rela
tions to other professions, is clothed with
power that Will always defend him
against the tyranny Of his superior Who
ever resolves to have nothing to do with
sham worth, to put the best he know:
into all he does, and to learn the best
there is to be learned, will gravitate to {
higher position as he advances In skill
AID fidelity.
What garden would scientific farm
ing make of western New York and tho
valley of the Hudson; what hive of in
dustry could swarm in our mining dis
tricts; what wealth of manufacturing IN
dustry would higher intelligence anc
wise legislation develop along our rivel
banks what different thing were oul
commerce guided by body of cultivated
men and what new life would dawn il
our homes if the art of housekeeping, the
finest of all professions, were we'll known
and women were thoroughly instructed ii