The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-12-22
work and Pay.

What are you getting? This is the prime
question which all employed men talk about,
dream about, and make themselves happy
or discontinued over, as the case may be. II
one will stop and consider a moment, it will
be evident that in these avaricious times
there is altogether too much importance at
tached to this idea of money compensation.
To a certain extent it is all i'm
portant. Until the necessities and
reasonable demands of existence are sup
piled, that object stands at the front and
takes precedence of everything else. But
that man who measures the rewards of his
life and labor by the number of dollars he
receives in compensation for service, de-
grades himself and his work to the level of
a mental servitude. There can be no true
inspiration of labor which is per-
reward. Yet it seems as if
almost everything was narrowed down to
this base conception of life. The true re-
ward of work ought to consist primarily in
the consciousness of achievements, of hav-
ing performed a part of that service which
must be rendered by somebody to meet the
demands of society. When at the end OF a
week, a man can say truthfully, 1 have
fulfilled, according to my ability, the duties
of my post; 1 hav not been negligent nor
evasive in the duty which was before me,
1 nave done all 1 could in the best manner
l could, true to myself and to my obliga-
tons, he answers the vital questions which
involve the idea of success. He can not
know failure. 1t is of much consequence, no
doubt, that he be paid, and adequately paid
for faithful service. His personal necessi-
ties, the comforL of others may be depend
ent on this, but it is a bad measure of
life's results. Suppose a man does
efficient service and don't get paid for it.
Shall he count the labor lost? Not if he is a
wise philosopher. The simple fact that he
has done good service invests him with the
parasite, a load for somebody else to carry,
but a self supporter and a helper to the rest.
And this true view is independent of the
distinctions OF labor. 1t looks not at what
a man does, but how he does it.
There is a choice of positions and
a choice of labor, but there is no choice so
undesirable to a man as no work at all. No
matter whether rich or poor, the idea of per-
sonal achievement is absolutely essential to
true manly dignity. Separate the notion of
cash reward from work and all labor be-
comes ~ennobled, the humblest employment,
as a part of what must be done, is honorable
duty. These are exceedingly old, and,
it may be, trite principles. They
have been announced thousands of
years ago, yet to-day they are foreign from
the thoughts of the mass of men appa-
rently. Hence so much poor service, so
successful men in service. The idea of
large pay for small work is very enchant-
ing, but only to superficial, low and grovel-
ing minds. There is no good philosophy in
it. Wheu a mans enthusiasm is aroused to
do good work, with that idea in the
lead he rises instantly to a true no.
bility, and, in fact, gets upon the right
road for the collateral successes of large
compensation. But it is pretty sickening to
hear 80 much wrangling about high salaries.
Everybody talks about that. 1t may be
safely alleged that in a large majority of
cases, the high salary men derive no actual
advantage therefrom. "All paid in, and all
paid out" is a very simple but very unprotit-
sort of a business report. Take ten
men in this city to-day, whose sala-
RES are $3.50 per annum, raise their
pay to $1,000, and nine of them will in
stantly expand their current expenses in
greater ratio than the increase Of their in
come and be no better, perhaps worse off at
the end of next year than now. You will
hear men boast of their high pay, and talk