The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-09-03
This paper Is Democratic In principles
and Is Independent in its Uieaos on all
local Questions.
A Homily to Laborers.

Well, boys, we promised you a fine
day, and you had one. Everything
smiled on you; you had a good time,
and we hope you go back to
work this morning better, nor
contented, happier, more bent
on industry than ever, and
above all more impressed with the
dignity of the place you fill in the
scheme of modern society, and with
the fact that it is only through the
laborious exercise ofayour skill that
you a hope to maintain that place.
Do not be disconnected because you
have to work hard. Your work is
your highest honor. and you see
everyone-the State, the city, the
great names, the solid men, politics,
business, the press, all stand up and
take off their hats to you. Why?
Because you are men? Not at all.
Because you are workingmen, and
are a great force in the community.
Work of some sort or other is the
only thing that is honorable in our
day, and it is honorable in proportion
to its skill, and the goodness of the
motive that prompts it. We
have no room for idlers
and loafers in the Nineteenth
century. Our Presidents, Grover
Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and
+bo ,on+ ~ oxrarxuorkaI UYhan M
Cleveland steps down and out he has
to go back to his desk in a law office
to keep in line with the age. Governor
Green is a hard worker, and Leon Alb
bett who will soon step into his shoes
tolls ten or eleven hours a day.
Mayor Cleveland is a steady la
borer. The presidents of our
banks, the heads of our great
factories, the editors of newspapers,
the big storekeepers along Newark
avenue, and the lawyers, cooped up
in the Weldon and other big build
ings all work hard, six-some of them
seven-days a week, and if you think
it over you will observe that the sue
cess and the honor they have at
tanned are in direct proportion to
their capacity and perseverance as
laboring men.
1t is well for you men who toll with
the hammer and the chisel to con-
template occasionally the labor of
other people, and consider how it COM
pares with your own. You must moi
fall into the error of supposing that the
man who sits in : studio and toys
with q brush all day is less of a la
borer than you, because the product
of his efforts is only a picture,
you must not think the editor is idle
because he sits at a desk and scribbles
a little, and the product is mere words;
nor the lawyer, because he reads and
read, and then stands up and talks a
little, nor the business man because
he sits for hours inspecting samples
and casting up accounts. All these
people, if they are trying to keep up
with the world, are working hard,
and they are working for you just as
much as you for them.
For the great educational process
that the artist, and the editor, and the
novelist, and the dramatist, the actor,
the clergyman and the teacher r
engaged in promoting, is really for
your benefit in particular and not for
that of the rich.
Did it ever occur to you that the
rich were always pretty comfortable.
Those who could command money
could always buy beauty and a in
their surroundings. But it
is the great glory of mod
ern life that, at least the
enlightened have ceased to think