The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1868-01-02
Educated Labor.

| TExtracts from an address of Hon.
Daniel Needham, of Groton. before the
Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Ag-
ricultural Society, at Northampton, Oct.
8, 1867
.'The. history of the world has estab
lished the startling fact, that labor with
| out education is mere brute force and
| that in proportion only as labor is edu
Gated, does civilization advance, and do
communities of men lift themselves
above the level of barbarism. Educated
labor is that labor into which thought,
observation and skill are introduced;
labor which combines the head and the
muscles labor which studies the ele-
ments, and taking them from their nor
rapid production of growth, or larger
and better production Of vegetable aad
animal substance.
''In our own country, and especially
in New England, one Of the most seri
Gus embarrassments to the education Of
labor, has arisen from the divisions of
society into classes, which have been
professional and industrial. The pro-
fessional has been almost exclusively
limited to medicine, law and theology;
while the industrial has embraced every
thing in agriculture, mechanics and COM
merce. The professional has trained its
minds in the school and universities for
particular departments, and years of
close study and observation have been
given by every man intending to adopt
. professional occupation. Nothing has
appeared to society more ridiculous
than an attempt to practice either law,
medicine or theology, without course
of trained systematic study. So strong
has been and still is this feeling, that
young man adopting either Of these pro-
fessions without this systematic training
is regarded as quack, and is excluded
from fellowship and recognition by those
who are filing professional callings.
In these learned professions, as they are
called, literature Of enormous extent
has grown out of each profession, and
SO distinctly individualized is this litera
ture, that the physicians would seldom
think of seeking entertainment in the Ii
brary of the lawyer, or the lawyer in the
library of the theologian, and the theo-
logian in the library Of either lawyer
or physician. Farther than this, even.
Each OF these professions has a nomen-
clature peculiar to itself. And the doc
tor puzzles the lawyer, and the legal
phrases of the lawyer are riddles to tue
doctor, whilst the clergyman often leaves
not only lawyer and doctor, but his
whole parish in a mist at the close of
some doctrinal discourse. This division
of knowledge has been successful in de-
great culture in the profess
sions; and so distinctly marked are the
men, that in no case could you fail in a
five minutes conversation to discover |
TO which, if either of the three, your
companion belongs. In fact,
It is no uncommon thing, to be able to
either profession in the gait
Or carriage of the man.
'May we not inquire, why is this
The members of the three professions
Who are successful, devote not only
youth and early manhood in prepara-
ion, but life time in the accomplish
ment Of a given purpose. But for the
education of those men who are produc
ers of the material wealth Of the coun
Try, where have been our schools ans
Where our text book
md systems of instruction. ?
"a farmer has son to whom he dc
sires that agriculture should be made
aud another son for who