The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-03-23
Intelligence and Labor.

The old delusion that education is I'M
| favorable to labor has almost past away.
| We no longer argue that the more a man
thinks the less he is inclined to work, nor
fear that the material interests of our
country will suffer through intellectual
cultivation. We acknowledge that a well
educated man may work as well as his
neighbor who can hardly sign his name
| and we even go step further, and admit
| that a certain amount of education is
necessary to secure the best kind of labor.
Yet we are still far from approaching the
full effect OF mental progress upon indus
| trial cmployments, or estimating the vast
| debt which the latter owe to the former.
Intellectual culture, so far from unfit
| ting men and women for exertion, actual
| ly eXcites them to it. Ignorance is the
chief cause of Incidence, and they are
rarely separated. Savage tribes know but
little Of the benefits that industry can
secure, and, having scarcely motive be-
You'd that Of appeasing hunger, are pro-
portionately idle. Educate them-show
| them the superiority of house to wig
wan, and of a comfortable dress to a
blanket-and the industry which can
secure these benefits Immediately begins
| to expand. Each fresh accession of civil
| lied life demands fresh accession of
| labor; and III proportion as the results of
industry become more and more APP
parent, industry itself will more and more
develop.
Education benefits industry, not alone
by exciting and increasing it. 1t has an
equally direct and powerful influence up
on it in raising and improving its quality
How is the soil made most productive !?
Not by an unthinking routine of drudgery
upon it, but rather by knowledge of its
nature and requirements; study of the
laws which govern vegetation a thought
full consideration of the relations which
subsist between human needs and the
powers of agriculture to supply them.
The success of manufactures is due al
most wholly to the busy thoughts that are
ever planning Improvements; making new
inventions; constructing machinery; COM
bining and regulating labor, and adapt
ing all the various means within reach to
the highest and most productive ends.
Commerce, too, owes its very existence to
the same source. The more forethought,
Judgment, discretion and knowledge the
merchant possesses, the more certain we
NAV he of his ultimate Sl1ccasS
The same is true of those occupations
which we are accustomed to consider
wholly manual. The mechanic or laborer
who thinks out the meaning of his work,
who enters into its spirit, who devises
improved plans for its execution, and
sends a thought with every stroke, has
tenfold the value of one who only be-
slows physical strength upon his work
In the province of domestic service, every
housekeeper knows that the great lack is
of mental, not bodily, power. There are
plenty of girls who have the requisite
muscle, but few who can furnish the judy
ment, care, forethought and economy
which are so ncedful in the kitchen and
the nursery. Each laborer, whatever be
his sphere of action, needs to understand
the laws which govern his department of
labor, and so to adapt his efforts as to con-
form with them. If he does not, his work
must be to that extent unproductive and
unsuccessful. These laws, however, are
so entwined with those of other branches,
and so dependent upon those of life in
general, that thorough education upon
broad basis is the best preparation for
any kind of labor, and continued mental
discipline the best safeguard for its sue
cess. No industry can afford to slight