The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1904-05-20

written FOR the Echo

have not the slightest notion that
letter or series Of letters from me
would revolutionize, or in any percepti-
BILE degree, change existing conditions,
but if, in my awkard mode of express
sion, can succeed in giving your read
ers something to think about and thus
keep them out of mischief and incident
ally afford them brief relaxation from
the ordinary drudgery of life, 1 snail
feel amply repaid for the effort
For il they stop to count the cost,
They will see that they have nothing lost,
Except the time they've spent in reading,
Which they'll agree is not worth needing.
1t will only be necessary to try to at
tract attention to the Ideal, because
ALL are acquainted with the REAL ex-
listing conditions.
The exercise of each mans creative
faculties in the formation of the objects
most desirable to him, is the only form
of human labor which does not require
man TO look upon large numbers of his
fellows as his victims, his rivals or his
foes.
The sweetest pleasures incident to
work attend its wholesome, unbought,
unslaved exercise.
To reproduce ourselves, our thoughts
and fancies in objective realities in
wood or stone, in words or colors, in
melody or in art, independent of an en-
ployer's hire or markets caprice, lifts
labor from its servitude and sets it on
its throne; removes its curse and re-
stores to it its crown OF regal dignity.
The highest wants of man become his
friends, the proper stimuli of his toll.
They cease to be the means by which
his brother tempts him to his ruin.
Each man receives rewards commensu
rate to his labor, not doled to him from
selfish, greedy hands, but each becomes
his own pay-master, finding his fairest
compensation; first, in the enjoyment Of
the foIms he himself hath built, second,
in the buoyant healthfulness, INSOFAR
able from inventive labor.
To mankind toiling thus, no strife
could rend asunder the bonds of human
fellowship. For who would covet i'm
perial palaces and pomp, if, that the
thought of all the race condemned the
owner to the hand OF scorn unless his
labor fashioned it. And who would
lose the blessedness of giving to the
poor and worthy, If charity were loos-
ened from the bonds with which brsi-
ness necessity binds its open hands.
Relying chiefly on himself, mans moral
which commercial complications re-
srain its force. Manhood would cease
to be compromised by complaisance to-
ward evils that cried TO heaven for re-
dress, or completely in wrongs which
flush the cheeks will shame. The un-
trammeled conscience would regain its
power, and unwarped charity assert its
might. Individual vice and social out
rage would shrink and cover before the
free, outspoken condemnation of the
moral judgement of the race. The
richest minds, the ripest culture and
the strongest wills, instead of strug-
Cling with each other for mastery over
the poor, to acquire by purchase Of the
objects of desire, would invent unnum-
bered novelties to sustain existence and
fill its hours with Joy. The possibilities
of such life no thought can guess.
Man differs from all below in this,
that he alone creates, constructs. The
bird builds its nest by instinct; the
beasts burrow their holes in the ground
by instinct; and one nest and one lair
differ not from others in glory.
Man alone has the varied wants, the
changing caprices, the never satisfied
desires, the ever growing aspirations,
which nothing less than ceaselessly
active constructive power can crafty.
Man alone has the taste to discriminate,
the judgment to distinguish, which only
infinite variety can satisfy.
With constantly growing power,
with constantly improving taste, with
wants, desires, caprices outrunning sat
isfaction, with daily growing knowledge
of the materials and forces furnished
to his hand, he stands on earth its
sole creative agency. Here, If any
where, man is in the image OF his
maker. Joking.
ITO be continued)