The Labor enquirer., 1885-04-11
Why We Toll.

For The Enquirer
A common objection to Socialism is tn at
lazy people would not work. Blu acloSe in
vestigation will find that Socialism promises
nothing to the individual who will not work
at all. Even BOmmuaiSm which says: mo
duties without rights and no rights without
duties" promises nothing to the person who
acknowledges no obligations TO society what
ever But believe the really lazy people
are very scarce.
People say" If l lived in a COmmunistic
society would not do stroke of work and
many others would not; must the induStri-
Gus then, support us?"
This question is the same nature as that
of the orthodox Christian to the dtSbelleVer
in everlasting punishment. "Why if be-
leved as you do, would do everything
wicked | could think of; what would there
be to hinder"'
This leads to the consideration of true in
centives to all hu nan action. Do we always
do what we believe to be our duty because
forced by outside Influences or thrOughtear =?
| do not believe it. The orthodox may sin
cerely believe he is respectfully good because
he is afraid of the mysterious awful some
thing threatening him after death; but he
misunder5tands his own nature and SANDERS
himself He is as good as his disposition,
conditions and surroundings make him. He
would do as he does if he should discover
there surely were no hell. So too, the per-
son who thinks he would be lazy if actual
necessity did not urge him on is mistaken in
his conception of his own and all human ma
ture Inaction is not natural, and no healthy
man or woman could remain idle for six
months unless forced. He has formed his
opinion of work from the manner in which
it is performed under present systems, which
is no more like what work will be under an
equitable system than slavery is like Tree
dom. No one can be blamed for wanting to
get out of the rank of wage slaves the only
escape from drudgery now is to climb up on
the shoulders of fellowwOrkers till you are
a task-master yourself; aud those who can
not conceive of work in any other light nat
urally think if want did not drive them they
would do nothing.
Considering the suffering, the dreariness,
the lack of. all that makes life pleasant, ac-
companying all toll, it is no wonder The
necessary work of the world is done by a
little more than one-half the able population;
of the rest about one third do large amount
of unnecessary work; another third, does
nothing, lives on dry crusts and homeless.
As a natural consequence those who do the
useful labor of the world must drudge rather
than work They must go through certain
monotonous motions for ten, twelve and
fourteen hours day in which their minds
can have no interest. There is not the
slightest association of ideas that can make
the work agreeable The hod-carrier carries
mortar up fight after flight and hour after
hour simply because he must to keep himself
alive. The grand edlfice he assists in erect
ing has no interest for him, he lives in
shanty and can never expect to live in
beautiful mansion. The girl who attends
machine that makes in one day, thousands of
times over, one-sixteenth part of shoe, has
no personal interest in the work; she cannot
even see the perfect completed shoe, and