Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-06-16
The Dignity of Farm Labor.

The Bishop of Shrewsbury, preaching
at a harvest festival in his diocese, made
some interesting remarks concerning
labor on the land. He said it was i'm
possible to be unaware of the fact that
there was growing distaste for this;
that the lot of the agricultural laborer
was i'll thought of, even looked down
upon; that there was an unwillingness
on the part of the lads who had stayed
longest at school and profited by the
good education that was now given to
90 to farm work, as though it was call
ing beneath them, and they were fitted
for something better-for employment
in towns, in some of the arts and crafts,
the manufactures and business which
found their home in them. He desired
that night, in opposition to that view, to
uphold what he did not hesitate to call
the dignity of the work of the cultivation
of the soil. Certainly it was the Oldest
of all industries, appointed by God Him
self for man. Before man fell, in the
days of his innocence, they read "that
God took the man whom He had made"
and put him in the Garden of Eden, "to
dress it and to keep it," And after the
fall the necessity was still laid upon man
to cultivate the soil as the condition OF
obtaining from it his daily bread; though
as part of the penalty of sin, it should
be with difficulty, and with effort, and
in the sweat of his brow, such as he
did not experience before, for the earth
shared the curse which mans obdience
brought upon him, and, left untitled,
it would bring forth thornS and thistles
and worthless weeds. Butas husbandry
and labor in the fields was the oldest in
dustry. so it was the most necessary and
universal, for man and beast alike were
dependent upon it for existence. And
though all that the earth produced was
Gods gracious gift, he gave it as the
result of mans careful toilsome labor.
And so it followed that there was no in
dustry to be compared to it for the num-
Der it employed, nor was failure in any
branch of industry, or in all put together
to be compared for moment to the loss
which would be inflicted on the world,
if, through the abandonment of labor on
the land, it was permitted to go out of
cultivation and the supply of food was
to cease.
Those who did not know, continued
the bishop, because they did not think,
were apt to imagine that there was no
skill in agricultural labor, whereas the
fact was that an experienced laborer
who was ready for any and every kind OF
work that a farm demanded, needed,
and indeed possessed, an intelligence
more keen and varied than many classes
of mechanics, who, through the sub
division of the work which prevailed in
every kind of manufacture, were engag-
ed day after day on single piece oi
production or construction only, and
were not required to go beyond 1t. He
asked them to take that thought with
them, that they might recognize the
dignity of labor in the fields, that they
were preparing the way for God Himself
to work. Therefore, he would say to
the lads and younger men, do not think
meanly of farm labor, as though they
were too good for it; but believe that it
offered to them an employment in which
their powers of body, and mind, too,
might be healthily developed, and they
might help to perpetuate for their
fatherland vigorous, brave and inde-
pendent race.
He was not insensible of what the
drawbacks to farm work and life in
villages were, and in particular he could
wish. that the cottages in which they
lived were more commodious and. more
conducive to health and morals. But
as he knew something of town life, he
could not assure them that if they mi
grated to towns they would find improve.
ment, while at the same time they would
pay more for their accommodation, and
lose many of the advantages which they
possessed in the country and which went
far to make up for the difference in their
earnings. He hoped no one present
would think that what he had said was
untitled to the occasion, for, feeling
that the subject touched very deeply
their daily life, he thought it not I'M
worth of being dealt with by preacher.
Mark Lane Express.