The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-01-19
Attractive Industry, its Possibility,
and Ats Preliminary Conditions
NUMBER III.

dustry that human agency which creates
wealth or in other words, provides the
means Of gratifying human desires and ap-
petites,-is the basis of all collective hu-
man progress. This principle being estab-
lished, or at least being susceptible of
demonstration, it becomes an object of
capital Importance to discover by what
means the quantity of labor can be aug
mented and its efficiency increased, or, by
what laws and conditions industry can be
organized, 50 that its products shall be
multiplied to the required extent Of uni
versaI abundance for all. 1t is plain
enough, think, that the requisite abun-
dance can never be reached so long as
productive labor is Stunned by all who
can, by force or fraud, or superior cum
ming or tact, continue to escape it. It is
now Stunned because it is repulsive-re-
pulsive, il is true, in various degrees-bu
only in rare and exceptional cases, can it
be characterized as better than disagreeably
tedious or monotonous. Now, before IN
dustry can become that benefcent power
which the wants Of humanity so urgently
demand, it must be stripped of its repul-
sive character, at least so far that the mere
consideration of the value of what it pro-
duces to the laborer will be sufficient to
guarantee its voluntary prosecution. This
however is but a neutral stage Of PROCESS
through which humanity will pass, but at
which it will not pause, for after 50 much
is accomplished, it will speedily advance
further to the dignity Of ATTRAcTIvENEss,
so that it viii be engaged IN for its own
sake, and sought for with more avidity, as
has been already remarked, than amuse-
ments now usually are, simply because it
will be more highly enjoyed l..-.
| 1,~sl1 not ~ 1ic,,nfa1 that A MN
TIVE INDUSTRY, If it be possible, will Sc
cure the production of abundant wealth.
1t is obvious that if men will, by sponta-
neous choice, universally direct their fac
ulties, corporal and intellectual, to the
creation of useful products, such products
must soon become lncaleulably abundant.
What viii be disputed is, that industry
can be rendered thus attractive. Let US
| inquire what considerations can be brought
to bear upon the solution of this prob
| lem, that is, by what proofs the posslbih-
ty of attractive industry can be supported
The following proposition will hardly
be eontroverted, or, if eontroverted, can
be conclusively established.
Human happiness consists solely IN the
qualification OF human desires and appe-
tites, and productive industry Is the only
agency by which the means for such graf
ifcation can be multiplied; therefore pro
ductive industry is indispensable to hu-
man happiness"
l. Now If this be SO, and if industry Is es-
sentially and permanently Tepulave or
disagreeable, then Is nature IN contradie-
ton with itself, for it has made subver-
sive of happiness the Indispensable condi-
ton on W hieh happiness depends. If that
labor which is the only agency of produ-
icing the means Of enjoyment is necessar-
lily incompatible with enjoyment, case is
presented of conflicting laws operating to
defeat each other, or of conditions in mu-
tual and perpetual antagonism, and thus
nature Is convicted of incurable imperfec-
ton. .ttt-N' ~
fit be objected that this argument is
metaphysical / answer: If by this is
meant that the supposition does not i'm
phcate the organizing power of the uni
verse in an Ineligible absurdity, deny
that it is metaphysical No proposition
can really be more absurd than one which
imputes to creative wisdom either a fail.
ure or a mistake but as many minds can
not fully apprehend this kind of argu-
ment, so as to appreciate its proper force, dc
not propose to rely upon it, but invite at
tention,to the following considerations Il
which, think, no exceptions can be Ia
ken. @
FIRsr-Nan in a healthy and norma
state has no natural aversion to physlca
activity, but on the contrary, If not carrle'
: to excess, finds in 1t intense delight. In
deed the pleasure of muscular exercise
!, under favorable conditions, is perhap
more exquisite than any other which IS ca
pable of being equally prolonged. Wltnes
= the Sports of children, the athletic game
| e nd RhQG
: so eagerly engaged IN by monarchs an
! mobiles, and the dances of all the nation
/. and tribes of mankind.
SEcoND-History reveals to US a gradu
al and constant tendency to improvement
: in the motives which have impelled me
= to industry in the past, as the laborer ha
advanced from the condition of unqualiie
servitude, through the serfdom Of tn
middle ages, to the system of wages whic
has now become predominant in civlliza
ton. The stimulants to labor have bt
come progressively less gross and deba
sing, in proportion to the mental an
Z moral elevation Of the race, and labor b'
comes les repulsive land hence less d.
/, grading as the Incentives to its prosecJ
ie ton become less coarse and barbarous-
as This progress in the past points to furth,
and indefinite progress in the same dire,
ton in the future
4 THIRp-It is obvious that the presel
y aversion to productive industry is large
is : the result of adverse conditions, most
Of which can be favorably modified, an
some Of them entirely reversed. This col
sideration leads me to the explanaio
somewhat in detail, of the condition
SSss which attractive industry indispensab
q requires.
I. The first condition to which a
10 vert is that the laborer should enjoy, al
Z should feel conscious of enjoying the e
= tire product Of his labor.
The enjoyment of the product of labc
that is, the appropriation, as the labor
pleases, of the value or usefulness of tn
80 product which his labor has created, as
OF is an obvious dictate of justice, is also
legitimate incentive to productive indu
? try, and in the early stages of industr
IN organization, when the higher stimular
) can be but imperfectly applied, will pc
= haps be stronger and more universally Q
erative than any other. Indeed labor
re stripped of a great part of its repulsiT
- ness by the single condition that the
A borer feels sure that its fruit will be
Re- his own, and none of it another's, exec
by his consent; that neither force
fraud, or oppression or extortion, Whetl
y sanctioned or not by law or custom will {
prive him of that which his industry
= skill may have created.
This incentive, being, in one of its
n poets. nothing else than the love Of g
or the instinct of accumulation, Is p
dominantly a material one, and is
without shade of grossness. Thus vie
ed, it is sometimes stigrnatized as cupid
or avarice, and is that impulse which
= tuates especially, or. as it may rather
IN said, sltpnemelg, the commercial class
II the gamblers of the stock exchange, b
kers, specnlators and traders, amt
whom it often assumes the most base {
even disgusting forms, becoming a pass
70 which hesitates at no safg means Of
r. quiring wealth, and which is as heart
and odious as it is Unsuitable But,
. ali ouE lower appetites, it IS implanted
nature, and when restricted to the natI
feeling that we are entitled to whate
: useful product we, by the exercise of
faculties, have created, Is not only les
mate, but commendable This feeling
indead 90 radical that II cannot he on