Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1879-01-29
Wages and Wants,


TO DO a burden, All sorts and varls'
lies Of calculations arc made, bios
soming out with q perfectly regular
irregularity Into tabular statistics, on
the comparative increase OF supplies,
wages and wants within terms OF time
reaching back from five years to i've
hundred but from them all only one
tact appears 10 result, or 10 remain rs
the vital residum, namely, that with
the continual increase Of comforts No
fall 10 grow any more conlenled' 30
that tho moralist may claim his right
to step forward at this point and insist
that lit Is not all life to live" but that
there is something invisible aud IN
tangible which Is not TO be got from
the wheat fields oi the West, the looms
OF tho East, or tho mincs OF tho Pacific
coast, II sas good @ asccrlained
by this time that, though laborcrs
pay IL steadily increased and gains con
tinually on the cost OF commodities,
he nevertheless remains les aontcnted
than before. We are told within the
last six centuries meat has almost lrib.
led in price, while wages IN the same
time have increased more than seven'
fold, Anybody eau see on which
side the advantage lies, aud there are
few also who cannot see that the side
having 40 great an advantage is rs Tar
from being satisfied MS ever. 1t Is
unqucstlonably in the divine order
that il should be 50, Were men to
sink down to the standard Of supplies
instead of chcrshing the constant dis
content Of aspiration, there would be
nothing left for the race but 10 satisfy
their physical wants as long as they
lasted, aud then die. But the same
heaven tha, takes pains TO fold up the
buds OF Autumn in their gummy coat
for the returning Spring suns to dis
solve the one and excite the other,
likewise folded away in these coatinSs
of human appetiteS the spirit OF adj
yancement that uses food and ralment
merely rs helps on its way.
The moralist has just rs much right
to place in this problem of food and
wages as the economist and statlsti'
clan, if not a better. So long as dis
covery and invention threaten the
revolution of old social toms and ideas
together, these figures of comparison
go too slow to keep their place in the
general statement. Supply and de.
mand makes n very pretty see-saw in
economical science, but there is yet
a something for which mere economy
does not provide and that is the
strictly human as distinguished from
the animal side of our being. Who
oau say that the present discrepancy,
statistically speaking, between the
cost of commodities and the price Of
labor is not destined to become even
more exaggerated rather than less..s :!
1t may be that in the very make OF our
natures that it is so and always to
be so. 1t, as we now look at the sub
iect across the field of legitimate spec
ulation, the discovery Of new laws in
nature and their application to human
wants are to multiply resources while
they likewise increase desires, there is
nothing to encourage the hope that
this gap will ever be filled up or the
race eyerbe overtaken in its asplr-
atoms by its supplies. And when we
consider that we are all laborers alike
some in one place and calling and
some in another, one holding plough
and another pen, we doubt if there
is so much as a slumbering wish in any
mind that the race may ever fall back
contented into the lap of plenty, even
though we are all ready to confess
that except for the constant presence
of that plenty our con,emporaneous
progress is impossible. So that while
work goes on in order that we may
be fed and clothed and warmed, and
the price of these necessities is ever
on the increase and thus calls for more
work still, somehow the plan of our
common aspira,ions-tirst for COM
forts and then tor luxuries--serve to
lift the standard of life higher and
higher, and promises to make a noble
growth of what has had to feed itself
all the while from the soil.-Boston
Post.
A dying negro. was recently re-
quesled to forgive another darkey'
He did so in the following words: "l1
I dies forgive dat nigga, but if ]