The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1868-03-06
LOafing and Laboring.

better division. The loafers were ever
undoing what the Others did. To the
laborers was due civilization; to the
loafers almost every i'll In every
| sphere Of life, the loafer was the great
disorganizer. Woe to that nation where
imbeciles and idlers were in power.
! But even if the idlers were not in
| power, they we've still ready for mis-
chief. They were ever a curse to
others. No man could be that without
at the same time being one to himself
| Imbecility of viii, feebleness of person
Atty, was the sole cause Of loaferism.
There was something inspiring in every
example Of the power of the force Of
will. .ECoLLW - -
| Man might be defined as a person
ality served by intelligence. All which
indiYidualized a person, made him a
lhborer. The indolent surrender of
purpose, aud disposition to drift with
events, dehumanized man. 1t was only
hard to be laborer because it was
hard to be a man. Yet the fatigue of
oyerwork was not as hard as the list
lessness of laziness. The practical fall
of man was from worker to an idler.
Yet how many men, farmers and others,
who labored vigorously, looking forward
to the time when they or their children
could loaf. Paradise was often coz
ceived of as state Of pious laziness.
But man being essentially au active
being, should find activity, Joy and
duty. Labor, too, was its own great
reward. 1t was sanatory both to body
and mind. The moment the first in
disposition to labor was overcome, the
| power grew into a habit. The man
possessed his appetites, and was not
possessed by them. He obtained the
manifest of all feelings, that Of personal
possession. He might mot win great
wealth, but it secured him an integrity
of character. Let man start with the
idea that labor was good in itself, and
be would not repine, though neither
wealth nor fame came to him.
The saddest failures were those where
no effort was made to succeed. Where
one had tried and not won, it could
hardly be called failure. Of all nations
the United States should be the most
hospitable to laborers. 1t needed them.
1t presented a grand field for them. Its
mission was to educate men to work,
not to idle. 1t should never be said
that this was loafing nation. g..
Where loaing prevailed the nation
was worthless. India was held BY a
handful Of English. Turkey was an
other loafng nation-the sick man of
European diplomacy. Spain was
nation ruled by a series of loafing
tyrants and prime ministers. Its
remnants of political life We're shown
but in fruitless revolts. Southern poor
whites had always hated work. 1t had
been feared that the negroes would do
the same; but happy experience had
shown that it was not the case.
In strong contrast to the loaGng, we're
the laboriDg nations. Compare Turkey
with Holland and Belgium. Holland,
won from the sea, supported large
population. Belgium, with an area of
little over $4,000 square miles, was
little more than sand bank, transform
ed by labor into smiling meadows. The
Turkish Empire was over 100000
square miles in extent. The soil was
ricn, and yet it would not support \
seventh part of the number to the
square mile that Holland did. 90
While there was little Danger that
this country would sinh as low as Spain.
Holland could teach it much. Luckily.
here population did not press on sub.
sistence as it did abroad. The natural
resources Of America were unlimited.
Then, too, this was an age particularly
distinguished for theinYention Of labor
saving machines, which never loafed.
Yet they were still in the infancy of
machine power. Labor, working iD
harmony with capital, would enable
them to accumulate such surplus of
wealth that the compensation Of the
laborer would steadily increase, and his
would acquire competence. The
trouble of Great Britain was its limited
area and her crowded population. The >
England of Elizabeth contained five
millions of inhabitants. In 1891 Clere
were nine millions. In 1860 there
were twenty millions. 1t was the labor
and inventive genius Of the English
people which enabled them TO support
such population.
But that increase was not duo 10
statesmen and Generals, but to the
genius OF inventors ond engineers, who
created wealth faster than others could
destroy it. All wonder at mechanical
marvels had departed. They had now
become common. In olden times. in
ventors were ever consecrated among
the gods. All those inventors added
to England an amount of mechanical
power equivalent to the labor of five
hundred millions of men. The result
was that England came out of her
French war richer than when she went
in. She spent five thousand millions
of dollars in that war. Yet her labor
producing machines made wealth faster
than it could be wasted. Much as had
been said, too, Of the misery of English
working classes, it should be remember
ed that the twenty millions of today
were better oil than the nine millions
of 1901. The trouble with them wa,
their moral defects. fsas EE
Therein was the great advantage of
the American laborer The time
would come when machines would do
all the dirty work of the country. Here.
then, unsklllad labor was better Teuun..
Grated than the skilled labor of Europe
and skilled labor here was better psid
than the majority Of clergymen. law
yers and doctors Still there should be
constant effort to elevate the standard
of labor. Millions were now lost to the
country by the shiftlessness Of emDlov..s. 81
1t might be taken fog granted that
there would always remain in sons
hands portion Of the products of Ia
Dor not devoted TO labor. How was
that to- be disposed Of? Some men
had not learned that it required as
much talent TO spend money as to-
make 1t. An artistic taste should nuiI,,
the expenditure of surplus income
1t should go in the statues book