The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-06-29
THE WORLDS WORKERS.

In the early days of America, most men did all
their own work. They felled trees, and built log
houses, they made clearing for farming and hunt
i their meat in the forests. Civilization was not
so complicated then as now. Today nearly every
body works for somebody else. 1t seems to have
been development of civilization and progress.
True, away back as far as history goes we have
records of men working for hire, but today the
system seems to have reached perfection or imper-
lection. 1t is almost impossible now to work for
ones self alone provided the employment is pro
ductive or useful. A task may be performed pri-
marily for ones benefit but there are others
who profit some way by the work performed. Even
in the old days when man thought his work was
for himself alone, others profted by it, and we are
even to this day drawing dividends of some kind on
work done hundreds of years ago. For instance if
man dug well hundred years ago, and we
drink from it today, we profit by the sweat of the
brow of that humble benefactor of humanity. And
it is plain that the man who made clearing in
wilderness provided thereby garden spo7' where
thousands who came after him have been benefited.
So it is throughout the universe piece of
work well done is and always has been a monument
to the nobility of labor No price can be set as to
the value to humanity of any piece of useful work
A house, we will say, costs $1,000 or 100000, ac-
cording to its size and quality. But this cost is
but fraction of the good this house will do in the
world, for who can estimate the value of the hap
piness which may come to the home which is CEN
tered there?
There is a. specious argument put forward by
certain reformers that they want the value of their
production. For example, the man who makes
pillow IN factory, thinks he should receive ap-
proXimatey the selling value of that plow But the
selling value of the pillow is but bagatelle as com
pared to the real value it is the farmer who cul
tivates a score of acres of land with it, and this
for dozen successive seasons. And supposing
hriftless and shiftless farmer should buy similar
pillow made by the man, and should leave it
out in the weather. and it lasted only two seasons is
1t not preposterOus to suppose the real value of
his pillow has equaled that of the other fellows? 1t
IS pretty hard to get at the real value of anything
There are so many standards by which values may
be measured. Relative value would pay the maker,
the cost of living during the time required to pro-
duce any article of trade The demand for the
product would be intimately associated with the
cost. If a newspaper produced only one copy of
its issue each day, that copy would cost from
800 to $4,000 more, but the newspaper prints
and the people buy them at from / cent
to cents each. The making of plows and news
papers are business enterprises There is no way
to compute the value of the work done on them ex-
eept to the cost of living, with bonus for skill
and intelligence required in either business over
The wages paid for other work requiring neither in
diligence nor skill:
And engaged in any and all work are men OF
varying degrees of capacity. Here is patient
olodder who has an original idea, by bis side
IN ambitious, INSCRIPTIONS, scheming young man.
whose only idea is profit to himself without regard
o anybody else. Then here is an agitator who
wants to regulate everything and everybody con-
iected with the business; there dishonest but bril-
liant fellow who wins success and promotion over
others equally brilliant but not INSCRIPTIONS.
Here is who is lazy and requires pushing; near
lin quiet forceful man who does things. The
nsincere trickster and the honest work side
" side. Who can estimate the value of their re-
pective work-not alone to the employer but to
humanity and the world at large!
The value of work performed could not be esti-
mated by the bureau of statistics at Washington.
t is intangible. Any philosophy which has for its
logan value for value received is fallacious. There