Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-09-18

I LABOR IN MASSACHUSETTS.
And the Opportunity Of the Laborer.

| eiio iuedl w Ill De TedllZeu, anu Wlen the
agriculture which should be developed in
a busy and thriving community like ours
will keep pace with its kindred arts and
not III here and there section, but
throughout the commonwealth, will ac-
complish all that is required of it. And
this desire not for crops alone, nor for
mere profit. Our lands of this common
wealth are available throughout almost its
entire length and breadth and they should
be.occupied by those who are employed in
the daily toll of our large towns and cities,
Every man has a natural desire for home
stead and here in New England the asso-
Citations and influences which go with ii
care of the land is to the physical well.
being. While we are endeavoring in
every way to instruct our young men in
our community by devotion to the business
of farming, may we not also secure in.
creased happiness and comfort for those
employed in daily labor, by tempting them
away from narrow streets into cheap and
attractive hOmes-into that best of all ma
| terial possessions, house and land. / al
lude to this form of occupying the land
with the more feeling, because know
that amidst all our changes of politics and
industries and enterprises and wealth,
amidst all the shifting scenes which diver
sify the face of American society, and from
which no man and no mans children are
excluded, there is one element which re-
mains fixed and unchangeable-and that
is a demand for Independent, aspiring, ed
ucatcd labor. Nine-tenths of our people,
perhaps more, are toiling, on the land or
| on tha in ba -, Al
fessons, in all educational institutions to
furnish themselves and their families with
subsistence, to create the material wealth
OF the community, and to elevate and re-
fine and organize and save society To
the productive and cutivating power of
these classes. everything stands second
airy. TO them every avenue is open.
From this great multitude spring in sue
ceeding generations, the foremost men,
who accomplish for us in every service the
great results. 1t is our laborers who be.
come our inventors, anxious to relieve the
burthens and quicken the capacity of toll.
1t is they who, step by step, advance from
the simplest details, and the commonest
services, up to the highest positions in all
the great enterprises which make up our
busy life. They build and organize, and
rise into control of our mills. They guide
our ships. They open the paths for the
capital they create. They fill our schools,
They apply their ingenuity to the soil.
They legislate for us. They rise into the
highest seats of power. The farmers boy,
to whom neither academy nor college was
ever opened spends his youth in clearing
the forests, and his manhood in guiding
the councils of his country through great
war, dying martyr to the cause of hu-
man freedom. A young village merchant
becomes Secretary of the Treasury, and
upon his integrity and sagacity the coun-
try implicitly relies. The highest judicial
officer of the land once labored on soil.
From our workshops and farms sprang the
heroes of the war. And all over the land
stand the tasteful and elegant abodes of
those who toled with their own hands to
lay the foundation of their prosperity
of those who have not forgotten to culti-
vate themselves as they have progressed,
and who remember literally the intellect
ual and moral and religious wants of the
rising generation. How the sons of our
workingmen strive for the highest places !!
| have not forgotten, and | shall never
forget that boy from the State of Maine,
whom found in my early lite on his way
to Boston, in search of labor and distinc-
ton. He had left his home, 200 miles
away, had dropped a tear as he took hia
last look at the old familiar spot, and hum
BILE, too, where were his father and moth
er, and his two brothers and sisters, as he
told me, and where were his few well
read books, to become Boston printer
because he learned from those books that
Benjamin Franklin was great man. He
was barefoot, and the miles had been long
but his courage had not failed and as
took him into the great city, and found
him occupation, learned the intelligence
and ambition and energy which inspire
the sons of New England labor.
1t is because labor thus lies at the foun-
dation of society. is the fountain from
which all life springs, and comes so close
home to us all, that we regard it in this
country with such tender care. To edu-
cate it, all the schools are open. To ele-
vate it, all the rights and privileges of cit
izenship are laid at his feet. In many of
the occupations its reward is ample, and
it should be SO in all. The laborers upon
the land in all the Northern States to-day
are well fed and housed, and share large
ly with the land-holders themselves the
profits of the soil and these laborers con-
stitute four-sevenths of the aggregate la.
Dor of the country The numerous per-
sons employed In domestic service, shar-
ing as they do, our dwellings with us, are
receiving a generous reward for their la
Dor. The savings banks in all our pros
porous manufacturing towns, are receiving
large deposits from the operatives--these
deposits increasing in our section, from
S34, 1884, 271 in 1860, to 800, l47 1921 in 1867 !;
and in another from $lS, 1872 ,820 in 1860,
to $3l, ,234, AGA in 1866. Mechanics and
artizans, working singly or in groups, in
many occupations find liberal compen-
sation. Here and there employers setting
noble example of cooperation, by shar-
ing with their employees percentage OF
the net profits of the business in which
they are mutually engaged. And while
in some branches of business the uncer
tainty of continuous labor, and inconstanl
and insufficient remuneration are a cause
OF great anxiety, the best mind of the
country is striving earnestly, and inces
sanity for the ameliroation of those trials
which, coming home to the family of the
laborer, give sting to his toll, to which