Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1874-11-14
HANDS VERSUS BRAINS
from the Chicago Inter Ocean

from the Chicago Inter Ocsan.
Nothing is perhaps becoming
more evident than the fact that
rude labor, requiring saly a esr-
tain amount of prscti. and dex-
terity, is now generally better paid
than what involves more or less
education, brain work and skill
In many places the ckork ia not
earning half of the income of the
carpenter. In short, al kinds of
manual labor, both skilled and un-
skilled, are at premium, while
all that 10 sedsntary and involves
chiefly, il not exclusively, the
work Of the brain, has become
drug on the market. Day labor
ers @rumble when receiving only
81 for eight hours work, while
clerks can he had by the hundreds
for IS or $40 q week, with hours of
almost any length. All the pro
fsssions are crowded The candi.
dates for sedentary work increase
at far more rapid rate than the de-
mand for them and hence is COM
ing round the strange anomely;
that education, instead of fitting
the young for earning higher wa
ges and getting on better in the
world, is actually becoming bar
to their progress, and c0ndemnipg
them to a lifelong course Of pinch
cry aad unremunerative struggle.
The fact is undoubted, whatever
may be its cause, and however So
ciety may seek toapply remedy.
The main cause of this unpleas-
ant state gof things is the foolish
notion that physical toll carries
with it. in one way Or another,
a certain amount of inferiority, if
not positive disgrace SO that in
order to be "genteel," it is thought
necessary to earn ones bread with
unsoiled fingers Mrs. Grundy has
settled it that Labor" Is not hon
orable, and therefore, in obedience
to her ruling, any and every de
vice is attempted to get young
men into "respectable," though
pinehed, ways of living. The re-
suit is manifest. Clerks of I'll
sorts and sizes swarm like flies in
Egypt, and jostle and underbid
each other for every small, ill-paid
vacancy that turns up; while me-
chanics can't get journeymen, and
day laborers turn up their nose at
what would be godsend to many
an educated gentlemen. So long
as the present State of feeling in
reference to labor prevails, matters
Will not only continue as they are,
but become always worse. Some !
mothers and sisters and wives are |
born aristecrats, and have more to I
do with this crying evil than they
might be ready to acknowledge.
To think OF any of their relatives
coming home AT night begrimed |
with "honest sweat" and dust !
would be jntolerable. The boy that !
hints at such thing for himself il
apt to be forthwith denounced az
person of low tastes, who is bent
on disgracing the family. While,
on the other hand, the prosperous I
mechanic or his wifi. dreams a.
once of getting his SON into sO1Ie- |
thing higher and better than that |
at which he himself has toiled.
Now, it is an increasing ques-
ton whether this evil will work
itself out like some others, by ul-
timateIy going to an extreme and
causing ii revision ? May it not
come, by and by, that labor shall
be all the rage and education look
ed on as a brand Of inferiorty, as
it WAS in days when knightly
hands were guiltless of the use of
the pen That would certainly be
a sad issue 10 all our civilization
and all our schemes OF popular in
struction. Fortunately, there is no
need for such return to c0mforta-
bic and prosperous ignorance side
by side with nervous, ill-paid
education and accomplishment
What is wanted is simply a more.
rational and more correct estimate
of the position and dignity of la
Dor; a conviction that manual and
mechanical toll does not necessari
~ imply either coarSeness of man
ners or barrenness of intellect. We
must Come understand that gen.
tleman may, without reproach,
have horny hands, and that the
dignity of a family is not COM
promised by any of its members
being a skilled carpenter or good
blacksmith.
The owners OF about one hum
dred and thirty cotton and wool