The union Democrat., 1870-07-23
The Dl.a.e of Manual Labor.

4
dignity of manual labor. Wherever the Eng
iish language is current there are not want
ing those who devote much Of their energy tC
depicting the ennohling pleasures which flow
from life of muscular toll An occupation
in which bread can alone be earned by the
use of the muscles, and the sweat of the brow,
has become idyllic. The lyric Of all modern
labor movements consists in an eternal pean
of enduring dignity and perennial pleasures
of physical labor.
But the plain fact is that this is all cant
Since the time when, if the scriptural record
of mans origin is of value, the cerse of divin.
ity was laid upon the labor of mans hands.
and the sweat Of his brow. from the results oil
physical toll, was declared to be q symbol OF
divine displeasure, man, everywhere, has,
practically. looked upon msnual labor as de-
grading. How much the praises OF ditch dig
ging may be sung, if ditoh-digger can send
his son to college, or to the counting-room,
he is sure to do so. Our theory in this re-
spect is very different from that of the ancient
world. Our practice is much the same. In
feudal times toll with the hands vas only fit
for fefs, while system of chivalric thievery
and knavery occupied the attention of tie
superior classes To work with the muscles
| for livelihood was to be slave, and q slave
for life, since social progress was then impos-
sible. This extreme theory was modified be-
fore the world starved to death. and more
conservative view of manual labor, inspired
by phyical necessities, was adopted. The re-
action in theory has been even greater than
the change of practice. In truth, we are
taught by the schools, the churches, and the
state, that manual labor is one of the noblest
and most independent of human pursuits.
The average clergyman does not neglect to
deliver annually an hour or two of antiquat-
e6 platitudes designed to impress the con-
consness of his hearers with this peculiar
theory of labor. With the first feeble begin
nings of consciousness we are told that the
proper means of prolongine and eunobling
our existence is to become hardened sons of
toll. BY reason of such teachings as these
manual laborers have assumed dignity and,
by reason of their numbers, have become such
a power in this country as they are nowhere
else.
But for all that, the goal of every ambition
is to attain such a competence that liveli-
hood may be assured without the necessity of
mere brute toll. However ideal such q life
may be made to appear from the pulpit ur
the platform, it is condition into which few
wish to enter and from which most desire to
highest praises are persons, who in no sense
are working men-since from thoir viewpoint
none are workingmen but hewers of wood and
drawers of water-and, if they ever have
been such, have been so merely from necessi.
ty, and as a means to what seemed to them
| higher ends. Lawyers and editors become
celebrated for their championship the cause
| of manual labor, who would much dislike to
nr IN eypn ha OF
is truth that may not be gainsaid that pure
manual labor, and by that we do not mean SC
much labor as is performed for exercise or
recreation. is very rarely engaged in from
unadulterated love of it. Whether this may
be explained from the curse of the Lord that
follows it, from pride, or from the innate lazi-
ness of the human animal, it is unnecessary
to determine.
And there are good reasons for the great
diversity in the theory and practice of man.
kind. All men must work. but they arc per-
mitted choice of labor. The great law of
the universe in unity and unity
in diversity-applies as well to the work of
mans hands az to the laws which govern his
being. It is necessary that some should work
in the fields and bitches, and there are enough
that must do it, but it is more necessary that
there should be workers in the field of intel
lect. What we understand by civilization.
so far as it is human product, is work of
the brain. All the great schemes for the
amelioration of man. for his social progress,
for his intellectual improvement, have been
originated, and executed, by brain workers.
Those whom the world calls great have not
given their lives to muscular toll, but to oc-
cupations to which an excess of physical ex-
ertioD is antagonistic. Indeed the constant
use of the physical powers tend TO render
blunt and obtuse those faculties by the unim-
PEELED exercise of which great achievements
are alone possible.