New-York tribune., 1867-02-05
d" SOlfRTHJNG TO DO.p

SOMETHING to DO.'
Anna Dickinson will discourse on this topic
at Cooper Institute tonight, and we trust
thousands will be present to hear her; since
she is certain to speak to the point. But she
speaks for Woman, and we choose broader
field Why is it that so many are constantly
seeking, striving, begging, for something to dot
Why, in a world where almost every physical
necessary or comfort is supplied by labor, and
where want is so general, do so many shiver
and hunger who would gladly give work for
food, clothing, shelter? At every season,
but especially in Winter, and more especially
this Winter, our streets are thronged with the
needy, the suffering the desperate; and their
unvsrying petition
"The still. sad music of Humanity
is "Giye us Something TO Dow Must this
always beP What is the remedy? And, IL
there be no absolute cure now available, what
present mitigations are possiblef
We do not believe that Government or Poll
tcs can do very much in the premises.
good Protective Tariff trebling the number Of
our mills, factories, and furnaces and thus
bringing cash markets to the doors OF our tar
mers in every part of the country, would
greatly reduce the number Of those vainly
seeking employment. The Pacific Railroad,
when even half completed, will make work for
hundreds Of thousands in mining, building
farming, &c. on the Plains, in the Rocky
Mountains and the Great Basin beyond,
in addition to all that can be profitably
employed as yet and partial reparation OF
the waste and ravage of War will double the
present aggregate ST both planting and manu-
featuring at the South. Yet still there will be
thousands pacing the streets of this and OF
almost every city, anxiously seeking for Some
thing to Do.
We need here but glance at our fundamental
conviction that the evils To be vanquished are
rather Social than Political, and that they re-
quire for their cure an Organization of Industry
whereof the vital element is Cooperation mot
Communism in Industry, Trade. Education,
and Household Economy. We do not believe
every one will ever he constantly provided with
work 80 long as every man for himself" shall
continue to be the rule. But this side of the
great, comprehensive reform, several minor,
subsidiary reforms are urgently required.
Among these are
!. Industrial EducdtioR.-NO boy should be
allowed to grow up to manhood, no girl to
womanhO0d, without having become skilled in
some department of manual labor. No matter
how rich or how poor, no matter how learned
or how ignorant every one should know how
to earn subsistence by bona .fde hard work
Your lawyer, doctor, clergyman, heiress, music
teacher, actress, school-ma'am, may live to see
The day when he or she will not be wanted in
his or her chosen vocation, yet be in urgent need
A IL. 4, &C
have occurred this Wintcr-occur eueyy Winter.
Most of those who plead for Something to Do'
know not how TO do anything that others want.
" / am ,ciiljng to do dny thing they say but
they really know how to do nothing. II is
crime to rear child to such helplessness, though
he were to inherit the wealth of CrGsus. In
duStral training is-after daily bread-the most
urgent need of every human being
IL. To shun aud sllhk manual labor is the
almost universal desire. The sewing-girl who
staryes and shiycIs on her downward road to
ruin reyoits at the suggestion of house-wOrk;
the young man who is so eager for n clcrkship
viii not plow nor chop cOrd-woOd. He won
ders why he eau find nothing to do; when he
only seeks or wishes to do what nobody
wants. If he only could, and would do what
is needed, he would find work enough.
III. We cannot all live in cities, yet nearly
all seem determined to do so. Millions of
acres OF choice land solicit cultivation the
Government gives them away; every able
bodied man may be a farmer and live on his
own land, if he will yet hundreds of thou
sands reject this, and rush into the cities,
which are already crowded to excess and here
they stick and hang, looking for work where
work cannot be, eXhausting the scanty means
of relatives and friends by borrowing and
begging. All these complain-and most un-
reasoDably-that they can find nothing to do
Understand, once for all, that there is dlcdyS
a surplus of labor in this City---that Europe and
America vie with each other in filling our
streets with needy scramblers for employment
that, if you come here and get work, you must
crowd out some one else at least as needy and
not quite 50 helpful as yoursef--and that, if
yOu strike off into the broad, free West, aud
make yourself farm from Uncle Sans gen
erous' domain, you will crowd nobody, starve
nobody, and that neither yog nor youl children
need evcImOre beg f0r Something to Do.
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THE Ereaipg Post gave, in its own words, the
following as Prof. Peuy's admirable definition
of the Free Trade theory of the sphere of the