St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-18
DAILY MEANS.
THE VALUE OF LIFE.

The meaning and essence of mate
rial progress are generally over
looked or underestimated by those
who are intent solely upon moral
development. What, they will ask
you, is the good of great cities, with
Rll the refinement that invention and
art can give them, while thousands
of wasted lives go out annually in
their tenements and Sums? What
is the value of a railroad that shall
carry passengers at a speed of one
hundred and fifty miles per hour, if
that is to become a present reality,
when votes are bought and sold, and
legislatures pretending to represent
the people are subservient to the
nod Of constituencies capital? This,
the idealist says, and says rightly
from one point of view, is not civiliZa-
ton or progress. 1t is the dedica-
ton Of effort to material develop
ment; and by that bread alone no
greatness that it had achieved To
one who reasons thus, it were bet
ter to return to the woods and huts
of the primitive man; since out of
the wonderful achievements of scien-
tific investigation, and it's applica-
ton to the material wants of life,
there comes no corresponding eleva-
ton of the individual character. Be-
tween the two, he thinks, there is
a great gulf fixed.
This is the assumption that is at
fault. There is a neXus between the
triumphs of material progress and
the social and spiritual develop
ment of man. Nor can we fail to see
1t when we compare the system of
the modern world with that of those
countries which still linger in what
we are pleased to call a low civiliza-
ton. Take, for instance, the pict-
IRE presented by a book of travels
n China. What is the one abhorrent
fact that stares at US from every
lessness, in common custom and
habit of thought, of human life. 1t
is exhibited no more in cruel and
unusual punishments, in the blood
lhirstiness of laws and the inhuman-
lty of their executors, than it is in
The peaceful processes of everyday
life. Life and labor are accounted
as nothing. Men and women toll
at the work which is done with us
inventive genius has provided. No
)ne thinks it worth while to change,
for labor is not worth saving. In
Avery industry and in every art, the
value Of human life is unconsidered
1t is enough that work of every kind
should be done by methods the most
primitive, because there are people
enough and too many. A few score
Of human beings more or less, here
and there, scarcely enter into the
account. In the tasks that are set
to the average worker, in the in
sufficiency of his remuneration, il
the total lack of interest in sanitary
measures and in charitable or re-
fornatory work, we catch sight OF
the same standard. The least valu-
able thing in the lower civilizations
is the life of man.
Now, while seIf-interest and The
hope of profit are doubtless the main.
spring of that progress which the
more restless races have achieved
there flows from that progress a new
estimate Of the price to be set upon
humanity. If we have invented 6
machine that will do in a day wha
would occupy the hands of scores o.
lll-paid workers in another country
there is a double consequence. No
only do we increase our product anC
Dur profits, but we decrease oul
labor. We save for himself som,
part Of the life of that man who
would otherwise be engaged end.
iessly in toll but poorly compensated
We diminish the market price of e
certain commodity; at the other enc
of the scale, we enhance the value Of
r. man. Political economy occupies
Itself Singly with the first effect. So
ciety will owe whatever advance.
ment 1t makes TO the second. The
. highest civilization. FOR Which We
nave many centuries to wait We:
probably, vii! be built upon the
foundation Of the infinite sacred