Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-06-15
The Vice Of Idleness.

Inere Is perhaps no greater fiCo IL enio
world than idleness. According to re-
cent writer in the arena there are in this
country twenty millions of workers, ,includ-
ing the women, who put in long, servicee-
BILE days in our homes; and the total wealth
produced annually by all classes of labor
ers, including professional men, is about
twenty billions each year, or $1,000 Tor
each worker. This is the product after
deducting repairs and material. Now,
there are at least one million people, able
to work, who are wholly idle, and the wage
earners as body are idle about one-tenth
of the working days in year, which is
equivalent to two million: idle the whole
year round; which, added to the one mil
lion absolutely idle, makes idleness cost
this country three million times 81, ,OOO, or
three billion year. There are about ten
million more, mostly women, who spend
their time shopping and flirting, and IN
what they call pleasure" and who would
be infinitely happier if they had something
useful to do, of whose capabilities society
does not avail itself.
Idleness costs this country at the low
est possible estimate, three billions year.
Another billion is spent uselessly for In
toxicating drink. Two billion more might
| be produced were the energies wasted In
gambling and other fraudulent and useless
employments devoted to productive indus
| tries.
We do good deal of kicking about ava
rice, and the thirst for gold, but, my son II
,s the desire for wealth that makes men
work, and it is work that produces fne
good things wherewith life is made worth
living. To be sure the desire for money
| causes men to do evil things-to lie, cheat,
rob and murder. But it also causes men
to study hard to become good physicians,
preachers, writer's, lawyers, artists and me-
chanics, and it nerves the arm of the day
laborer to pursue his toll. Why do people
want famef Because, as rule wealth fol-
lows. He is shallow and superficial rea-
soner who attributes the woes of this
world to avarice, or desire for gain.
Without that spur to human activities we
would be as languld and worthless as Hot
entots.
1t is of course the desire for gain that
causes corporations to grind their employ es
But it is also that desire which causes
them to engage in productive enterprises
1t is the desire for gain that causes work
men to ignore the interests OF their fellow
wage e-earners by taking their.places wher
they 20 on strike. But it is the same
desire which causes all men to engage IN
useful employment and fill the world witt
good things.
Blot out of the human heart their thirs'
for wealth-this selfish desire for gain
which arlarge class of fself-appointed proph'
cts predict is leading this country to ruin
and what incentive would there be to Ia
bort That self-love which creates de
sire in man to place himself and wife and
children beyond the reach of want, is wha'
makes him hustle. No matter in what
man engsges-whether it is business
enterprise, editing a newspaper, practic'
ing law or medicine, preaching the gospel
or by days labor, the measure of his abili-
ty and usefulness is guaged by the amount
Of money he can earn.
Idleness, as we have shown, is the great
est of all vicss, and the penalty for it is
death. The Creator has SO ordained mat
ters that, from the lowest organism to the
highest. exertion ia the price of life. And
in this fight for subsistence mental ener'
gies count far more than physical activlt-
les. In the fierce competition caused by
this struggle for existence much strife Is
created and much injustice is done. Many
men are forced into degrading drudgery,
and nearly all the lower animals are either
enslaved or slaughtered for food. 1t is the
way of all nature. The strong devour the
weak nThe fig feh vat tho little fsh, :
and all life is struggling, groaning mass
There is but one remedy for it all, and
ttst is through education-such develop
ment of the heart and brain as will inspire
men with love fer every living creature,
and which will cause them to exert their
best energies for the happiness and vel
fare of all. To howl calamity and revolu-
ton, and predict bloodshed and destruc-
tion, is calculated only to brutalize and
degrade. 1t is love and enlightenment
that must finally redeem the world, and
not the scars and wounds of tooth and
clsw.-Punxsutawney Spirit.