Norwich bulletin., 1911-07-29

| could have done with old Sorrel and
the steel rake. but the hour didn't
take any more out of me, ''-dldn'
weary me any more. Disregarding the
amount accomplished, and simply con-
sidering the labor involved, I'm in
clined to think I'd rather pull the
mandrake an hour than drive a horse
rake for an hour.
All this has set me off on new
line of speculation. L wonder if the
advent of improved machinery on
farms has really made farm work
much easier than it used to be. We
certainly can do more in day with
our machines than anybody ever could
with hand-tools. But is the work
much if any easier, after all? We
can do more in ten hours with our
machines than our fathers usedsto do
in fourteen hours with their hands.
That's clear. 1t would be unreasona-
bic to question it. The result is a
cheapening of production. That's
equally clear. But don't we work just
as hard if not a. leetle harder during
those ten hours than the old folks
used to during their fourteen? It is
manifestly possible for us to- Any
man can work faster for a single hour
than he can all day; he can work
harder for ten hours than he could
for fourteen,-an keep it up. Is that
about what we are really doing?
extra notch?
If we really have done that thing,
then it would seem as if it was some
thing of a misnomer to talk about
labor saving" machinery. 1t might
more accurately be called labor
speeding machinery. 1t makes US
work faster, enables US to do more,
produces larger results per hour. But
is it really any easier? doubt it.
Indeed, | don't suppose there is, or
ever was, or ever will be discovered
any way to make hard work easy. Nor
do 1 suppose that anything worth
while will ever be accomplished in this
world without hard work.
Nor,-and this is most intrinsically
important of Aldo | suppose that
any real man ever wanted to live or
ever will want to live without hard
work.
You can't climb a hill by sliding
down the slope; you can't build a
house without first getting out the
stuff and then framing it together;
you can't make winning race-horse
out of any colt by keeping him in a
padded stall with never an hour of
hard training: you can't have a body
that will obey and serve you without
first developing the sinews and mus
cles by hard work.
Don't talk about work as a curse.
Why, man alive, it's the greatest
blessing of life. It's the one thing
that makes life endurable; the only
thing that makes it worth while. Men
and women who hate work usually
end up by hating everybody and
everything else on earth,-including
themselves. And if the sentiment
isn't cordially reciprocated by others,
it is because contempt is a more fit
ting response than hate.
OF course, there's all the difference
in the world between intelligent, self
directed work towards an end and
with a purpose-between this and
slayish drudgery. Right there IL
where I'VE farmers on our little in
dividual farms have the pull on all
the rest of the world. We work for
ourselves, towards the accomplishment
of our own ends, not under the lash
of any human taskmaster. That our
work is hard is nothing against it.
That it is productive and self build
ing and up building and satisfaction
breeding and eer-nurturing, these
are among its blessings. I don't think
that attempts to escape hard work are
either praiseworthy or desirable; ]
know they are seldom successful.
Also. we all know that when success
full, they lead eventually to the very
worst kind of failure,-the failure of
life itself.