Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-02-20
DIGNITY OF LABOR.
Why Honest Work Is an Honor, Not .
Degradation.

Why Honest Work Is Honor, Not .
Degradation.
There are young men VIII o are satisfied
with a salary which merely feeds and
clothes them. rather than engage in
such labor as would afford them re-
spectacle net income every year. Society
is building; the capitalist is the roof,
the merchant is the walls and the Ia
borer is the foundation. Remove the
roof, and the walls and foundation will
stand; remove both roof and walls, and
you still have the foundation upon
which to rebuild; but if you destroy the
foundation, the whole becomes an utter
ruin. The studious avoidance of manual
labor by our young men, and by fathers
for their sons, is the curse of this age,
and is the parent of destructive vices
among those upon whom the RESPONSE
bilities of social life must rest in the
future. No rich man educates his SON
for any of the departments of manual
labor, but desires that his son shall
start where he stops The poor man Is
likewise ambitious that his son shall
escape the necessity of labor. Thus the
parents of this age are raising their
children to live without work. Labor In
regarded as a disgrace. Whom do
fathers, both rich aud poor. wish their
daughters to marry, and whom do the
daughters themselves desire to marry?
The man who labors? No. A mechanic
may be good-looking, temperate, sensi-
BILE and thrifty, yet our girls will reject
him, for no other reason save that he Is
mechanic. Many of the wives and
daughters of this day would blush with
shame If It were thought that
they went into the kitchen and
kneaded the dough and baked the
bread. Man was given a body with in
geniously and wonderfully made mem
bers, and with four hundred muscles un-
der the control of sovereign intellect
and an imperial will-force, to subdue
and govern all nature, animate and in
animate. And this is SO manifestly
mans duty and destiny, that his health
and happiness depend in a greatmeasure
upon it. There is more health and hap
piness among the 1aboring classes than
in any other department. of human life.
This is Gods Endorsement of its honor
ableness and nobility. Which is the
more reputable, the producer or the
mere consumer-the drone or the work
ing-bee? Another reason why labor In
regarded as curse is that many sup
pose it prevents the cultivation of tho
mind. There never was greater mis-
take. Work, in developing the body,
ought to facilitate the mind in the ac-
QUESTION of knowledge. Labor Is both
the law and the condition of life, from
the loftiest to the lowest forms Of eI-
6tence. From God. who worketh ever
to inspire and uphold His creatures.
down through all the ranks, orders and
gradations of rational and irrational be-
ings, to the little toiling masons who
build their coral reefs beneath the sum
ny skies and amid the stormy seas Of
the tropics-an labor to the obedience Of
this primary law of life. Health Of
body, heart, conscience and mind ara
the legitimate ofspringof honest, man
ly and intelligent labor.-San Francisco
Argonaut.
Lawyer speaking of prisoner at the
bar)-'I can say ON oath, sir. that havo
met this man in places where vould