The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-07-06

BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

The organization of wo%rkingmen to Sc
cure themselves from the absolute and sell
fish eantrol of capitalists has in it an ele-
meut both of justice and Of wisdom. But
there is one tendency which it is liable to
beget, which. if established and made COM
mon, would be ruinous to the prospects OF
thousands. If a poor man means to get
the better of poverty, to accumulate a
property, and to bring up his children re-
specially and to give them a better chance
than he had himself, he will need to put in
every moment of time that can be used
without damaging his health and strength.
Time, valuable to all men, is most precious
to the poor. A rich man can afford to be
idle in a ~pecuniary sense. A poor man
cannot. Every moment should be pro-
ductive.
When prices rule low, great manufacture
lpS companies make their expenses and
tn, eir profits by rigorous economy in small
thin.-s They stop all leaks, curtail every
expensc, run every wheel as economically
as possibl aud aim to produce the greatest
amount 18th the least expenditure. Now,
prices always rule low with a poor man.
it is not enough for hila to work in regula-
ton time. Ii his wages during regular
hours are just enough to supply him, he
will never get a step ahead unless ,Ne works
extra hours. A man who eats up bus
wages every week will never get on. IF It
be but a sixpence, he should earn more
than he spends. lie should spend the least
possible but, chiefly, he should use up
every particle of his capital, that is, his
time, in a productive manner.
If the strife for fewer hours of labor be-
GOT, -, I,,o +h, ilao that fhnu do NOT mad
to labor all their available time, it will,
thrall Of capital, lead him into bondage to
an unspeakably worse despotism-that of
Incidence.
In saying this, | would not be under
stood as forgetting the claims of education
among loboring men. An hour a day Tor
reading will raise q mans value in the
market. Intelligence is q paying quality,
lgnorent workmen get low wages, not be-
cause they are cheated, but because the
quality of work which ignorent men per-
form will never have the market value of
the work performed by intelligence.
This is putting the case on its very low
est ground. A man should keep himself
agoing in intelligence by reading and re-
Election, not merely because it will pay in
money. EQuCdllOH IuihtS SOou iueH out
of poor ones. 1t works up the raw staple
of nature into forms of value. But every
man must get the time for reading day by
day, by a more economical use of his hours.
There are few laboring men in New York
who might not work two or three hours a
day more than they now do, and yet save
out time enough to read every day from
one to two hours. The fact is, men squan-
der almost all the fractional portions of
hours.
1t is the five minutes and the ten minutes
that are thrown away. What if a man
should be skillful in using dollars, but was
careless of all the fractional parts of a dol
lar could he thrive? The minute here and
the minute there-the ten minutes before
breakfast, and the half hour after dinner,
the hour at evening and the whole of Sun
day-these are the golden sands which
might be collected, and transmitted into in
telligence and knowledge.
Our fathers believed in hard work, and a
good deal oft. In this respect their chill
dren were not wiser than their parents
were, we believe that, in the end, that will
be a curse to w~orkingmen which leads them
to put III one hour less a day than their
systems will bear without damage to health.
More work, better work, by better men,
with more intelligence and more moral ex-
cellence-that is what the times need.