Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-11-20


forced to labor in some way to procure
their bread, and it is to this class that
the world has to look for its progress
and for its advancement The first SEN
tence passed upon man for crime com:
mitted was that of work and labor .ssIn
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread till thou return unto the ground. !"
Now, in order to make this punish
ment, it must be supposed that work is
not congenial with the disposition of
man and that he desires in his soul an
exemption from the burden cast upon
him to earn by his work the subsistence
that keeps him alive At the late Evan
gelical Alliance in New York, one of
the ablest divines present took occasion
to say that any person who does not
earn his own living, is psuper, and he
applied this even to. those who Inherited
sufficient property to support them
through life. lie argued that if a person
docs not support himself some one else
has to do it for him, and that this is es
sential pauperism. We have taken oc-
casion often to remark that every per
son owes it as duty to the community
that he or she should, as a part of their
education, prepare themselves for some
branch of human industry, so that in
case Of need, he or she could earn his or
her own living by useful labor, but this
learned doctor goes still farther and
holds that it is a manifest duty for every
person to work for his own maintenance
without regard to his pecuDiary standing.
Although there may be an inertia of
the human system, as well as all matter,
that it requires an effort to destroy, we
believe that constant activity of some
kind is essential to the happiness of all
intelligent human beings, and that all
men and all women must and viii be
constantly doing something, and that
this question of earning q living for
ourself, depends entirely upon whether
the vital energies of the human mind
and body are directed into channels to
be valuable to society, and through that
value to the world bring back a compen-
sation to the worker. There is a great
deal of human effort and labor that is
so poorly directed as to be wholly worth
less to the world, and such not being of
any value, cannot bring back any equiv
olent. In this country there ought
never to be any suffering from poverty.
There is work enough to do at fair rates,
and the amount of labor done or which
might be done by every healthy man and
woman, would support the whole nation
in comfort and with all the conyeniences
Of modern life. 1t is this unsystematic,
.unorganized, Improbable labor that does
no one any good and that brings no
compensation, that renders men poor,
nd,brings them to want. 1t is, therefore,
duty of every person when be labors
to do something that has or will have
value to the world, that will be a benefit
to the worker, or to others, and in that
beneficial labor the individual provides
for his own support and those DEEPEN
dent upon him, and is a public benefac-
tor.
In all ordinary cases every man,
whether rich or poor, owes to society and
the world as much productiveness of his
own labor as will cover his own main
tenance and those dependant upon him.
We are all called upon to do something
remunerative to the community. We
must all eat the food necessary to sus-
tain life, which some ones labor pro-
duces. We must all wear the clothes
and inhabit the buildings that human
labor have made for us. For these we
owe the world a recompense of available
productions of either brains or hands,
and it matters not that we have money
to pay for what we have. We are dead
weights upon society, unless we earn
what we have and enjoy. The wealth
of the world ISIS meaured by the work
that is done, that is available for the pur-
poses of life and civilization, and all that
is not so available forms no part of the
worlds wealth, but is dead waste OF
vital force, as reprehensible as squander-
ing the products of available labor. The
duty of labor is important, and the SEN
tence of Divine Justice with which we
commence this article prescribes mans
duty to society, as well as pronounces q
punishment for mans transgressions. A
high authority in civil economy, as well
as in some other things, has said, ''That
if any would not work he should not
eat" This surely includes all able-bod-
led, and many more. Eating the bread
of idleness is not wholesome for rich OF
poor.
Next after the duty of all to work is
the correlative duty of saving the pro-
auctions and compensations received fol-
work. The incendiary who applies his
match to the costly edifice, representing
thousands of days of mechanical labor
is great criminal, but the loss to the
wealthy owner of the costly edifice may
be but slight compared to The
destruction of the compensation re
ceived for a few days works, by
the poor laboring man, yet every
dollar squandered in useless extrava
gance or dissipation is a destruction OF
so much labor as it took to purchase the
money squandered, and rendersu useless tC
the laborer the ''sweat of his face il
which he should eat bread" Society
and revelation demands Of us that we
should work at some beneficial employ,
ment, and when we have done so, the
duty is reasonably plain that we should
be reasonably prudent with the compen.
sation we receive for our labor Coco
citizenship and good Christianity have
claims in this matter which demand &
thorough examination and an honest
compliance.
THE public doubtless read with feel
ings of relief the announcement, in Sat