Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1880-06-05
BOB LNGERS0LL ON LABOR.

lngersoll ls not Wholly gwen up TO
lectures on theological subjects. He
delivered an eloquent address on
labor" at Boston, from which we
append the following extract:
Every man ought to be willing to
pay for what he gets. He ought to
desire to give full value received.
The man who wants So worth of
work for 81 is no honest man. The
man who wants others to work to such
an extent that their lives are burdens
is utterly heartless. The toll Of the
world should continually decrease.
Of what use are your inventions if no
burdens are lifted from industry-if
no additional comforts fRd their way
to the homes of laborP
Why should labor fill the world
with wealth and lire in want?
Every labor-ssving machine should
help the whole world. Every one
should tend to shorten the hours of
labor.
Reasonable labor is the source of
Joy. To work for wife or child, to
toll for those you love, is happiness
provided you can make them happy.
But to work like a slave-to see your
wife and children in rags-to cit at a
table where food is coarse-to work
all day, and throw your bones on a
miserable bed at night-to live with
out leisure, without rest, without
making those you love comfortable
and happy-this is not living-it is
dying, slow, lingering crucif1ion.
The hours of labor should be short
ened. With the vast and wonderful
improvements of the nineteenth CEN
tury, there should be not only the
necessaries Of life for those who toll,
but comforts and Injuries as we'll
What is a reasonable price for lab
or? answer: Such price as will
enable man to lay by something for
his declining years, 30 that he can
have his own home, his own freside
10 that he can have the feelings Of
q man.
sympathizs with every honest eff
fort made by the children of labor to
improve their condition. That is a
poorly governed country in which
those who do the most have the least.
There is something wrong when men
have to beg for leave to toll. We are
not yet civilized people. When we
are, pauperism and crime will vanish
from our land.
There is one thing, however, of
which am glad and proud, and that
is, that society in our country is not
pstrifsd; that the poor are not always
poor. The children of the poor of
this generation may and probably will
be the rich of the next. The sons of
the rich of this generation may be
the poor of the next; so after all, the
rich fear and the poor hope.
1t is the glory Of the United States
that the poor man may take his son
upon his knee, and say, "My son all
the avenues of distinction are open
to you. You can rise. Thsre is no
station, no position, to which you may
not aspire. The poverty of your
father will be no milestone around
your neck. The public schools are
open to you. For you there are edu-
cation, honor, fame and prosperity"
These thoughts render holy every
drop of sweat that rolls down the face
of honest toll.
I ympathize with the wanderer,
with the yagrant out of employment,
with the sad, weary men who are
seeking for work. When I see one
of these men, poor and friendless-no
matter how bad he is, I think that
somebody loved him once-that be
was once held in the arms of a mother
that he slept beneath her loving
eyes and wakened in the light of her
smile. l see him in the cradle, list
ening to lullabies, sung soft and low,
and his little face is dimpled as though
by the rosy fingers of Joy. And
then I think of the strange and wind
ing paths-the weary roads that he
has travelled from that mothers arms
to vagrancy and want.
There should be labor and food for
all. Weinvent. We take advantage
of the forces of nature. We enslave
the winds and waves. Weput shack
les on the unseen powers. These
slaves should release from bondage all
the children of men.