The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-11-11

ployed at the work into which it hasl
been introduced, while it has intro
duced a higher skill which, in turn, has
secured q higher compensation. The
handling of a locomotive requires morei
skill than the handling of a freight
team and the engineer commands high
er wages than the teamster. The rail-
road by vastly increasing commerce,
has multiplied the number of persons
engaged in the handling of passengers
and freight, and it has at the same
time improved the character of the
work done and raised the intellectual
standard of those employed. The same
result has followed in other kinds of
work. 1t might be stated thus, labor
saving machinery, as it is called-al-
though it might more properly be called
labor multiplying machinery-has ere
ated a demand for a higher grade of la
Dor: universal education has supplied
this demand, and the labor organiza-
ton has secured for these higher grade
laborerS larger compensation ard more
favorable conditions.
One thought has grown upon me as
we travelled, namely, the dignity of
labor. In no other country is so high
an estimate placed upon the wage
Garner as in this country. In the Orient
there was, until the advent of western
prince and his people. and there is
even now in large part Of the Orient
a gulf so wide that one who tolls with
his hands cannot look across it. The
royal families have lived by the sword
and they have forced from those be-
meath them a tribute sufficient to sup
port themselves and their armed re-
tainers The masses have been the
prey OF the governing classes, no mat
ter what tribe or family held the
throne
In Europe the extremes Of society
have been brought nearer together al
though there is still a gap between the
aristocracy and the masses. This gap
however, is growing more and more
narrow, education and popular govern
ment being the most influential factors
in bringing about this result. With ed
ucation now more and more within the
reach of all, the poor boy is forcing his
way to the front in business and with
his fortune thus acquired he is leveling
ranks. In the political world, too, the
champion of the weak and the op-
pressed is making his influence felt
and his political power is opening be-
fore him doors which until recently
were closed. In France deputies, SEN
ators and even presidents have come up
from the people, and in England a labor
leader, John Burns, has fought his way
into the cabinet. Who will say that the
European laboring man is not making
progress when Iabor's foremost repre-
sentative in Great Britain becomes the
guest of the king?
Yes, America leads the world in the
recognition of the true worth of the
man who tolls, and yet, even in Amer
lea there is room for still further adj
vancement. Our national life is full of
instances OF rise from office boy to mer-
chant prince, from plOwman to govern
or congressman and senator; we have
lad rail-splitter made president-and
no president ever bore himself better or
served amid more trying times-while
another president looked back to the
days when he followed the tow-path on
canal And yet, with these illustrious
examples of poverty overcome and
great careers built upon a foundation of
manual labor there is still much to DE
done before the producer of wealth will
receive the consideration which he de-
serves. The dignity of labor will not
be appreciated as it ought TO be until
our young men are taught that it is
more honorable to contribute by labor
TO the sum of the worlds wealth than
TO spend in idleness the money that
others have made.
TOlstoi contends that people cannot
be kept in sympathy with each other
| throughout their lives he says that
contempt for those who do the drudgery
of life is natural if we put that drudg-
cry upon others and reserve for our
selves only intellectual pursuits.
Whether this be true or not, it is true
that we cannot view labor in its proper
relation to life unless we measure life
by standard different from that which
is now ordinarily applied So long as
we measure life by its income rather
than by its out-go, we shall seek those
occupations which yield the largest pc
cuniary reward; when we measure life
by what we put into the world rather
than what we take out of it, we shall
seek those occupations which offer the
largest field for usefulness.
Enough has been said to Indicate that
the worlds work is broad enough to
enlist all who are willing to work and
that the variety is sufficient TO allow
each to follow his taste and select his
field, provided only that he is actuated
by a purpose to render to society a
service which will be more than an
equivalent for all that society has done
for him.
Copyright, 1906. by Joseph B. BowIes.
Copyright in Great Britain-Au
Rights Reserved.)