The Ocala banner., 1911-09-08
Mr.. HARRIS ON LABOR

Mr.. Chairman and Fellow Citizens:
/ feel profoundly honored in being
invited to participate in the celebra-
tion of this day.
If had the making of the calendar
on which are noted in red letters the
honorary, patriotic and festal days
legal holidays which are to be joyfully
celebrated and commemorated-II
should put labor day at the top of the
column high above them all
Why?
Because labor is life.
If there should be a surcease from
labor-if all men were to stop sowing,
reaping and distributing, even for a
single year-the population of the
earth, the rich the same as the poor
would die from the bitter pains of
hunger.
There is a funeral. A rich man dies
and bequeaths to his immediate des-
cendants huge bundles of stocks and
bonds and great heaps of silver and
gold, yet comfortable and convenient
as these possessions are, they do not
lift their inheritors away from their
dependence on the man who tolls.
For the possibility of existence, for
the blessings and enjoyments of life,
the man with his bags of gold is as
dependent on the efforts and the sue
cess of the man who produces as if
he didn't own a penny.
Why?
The answer to the question is given
in the prayer taught us by the Great
Teacher: Give us this day our daily
| bread!"
The bread that sustains and is di-
vinely proclaimed the 'staff of life"
must be constant and re-current.
The bread of yesterday will not
suffice. Like the mama fed to the
children of Israel in the wilderness,
it must be gathered daily.
Human mouths must have fresh
food-the rich man cannot live on
the milk, and butter and eggs, left
him by his ancestors.
And the command-what is it?
This bread must be obtained in the
sweat that toll produces.
The command to labor was univer-
sal in its application. There were no
favorites and no exemptions. 1t ap-
piled to every human creature when
it was given, and the command is
/ still in force.
And before giving the command to
labor God himself first set the exam
pie.
He dignif1ed it, adorned it, beauti-
fed it,
Listen again:
finished, God was satisfied with the
work of his hands, and pronounced
upon it a benediction.
And we are told that he rested
from his fabors!
A man who has never labored has
never been in a position to enjoy
rest.
The person who performs a piece
of labor that meets and merits the
appreciation of his own heart, mind
and conscience, is in position to en-
joy that rest which God vouchsafes
to the laboring world, and this rest
which is perfect and joyful rest
can be obtained in no other manner
And Gods work, how perfect it is.
The more it's hidden treasures are
discovered, the more its secrets are
revealed, the more marvellous it ap-
pears.
The womb of nature is never bar
rem. 1t never grows old with age.
1t is never out of commission. AS
long as the rains descend the sun
shines. and the earth holds together,
it will never become exhausted.
Flowers will blossom, corn tassel,
fruits ripen and the process of fructi-
tication in endless evolution will keep
steadily on. There is no cessation in
natures laws; no stoppage, no retro
gression in her movements.
God, as designer, architect, build
er and laborer. was no blunderer.
The earth will yield as quickly and
as abundantly to the diligent and
skillful touch of labor today as it re-
sponded in the beginning, when
Cain began his first experiments as
an agriculturist.
In the countless years that have
preceded us, had the earth been a
million times more populous, were it
a million times older than it is, and
a million times more populous today,
there would still be enough in its ca
pacious and prolific womb to sustain
in comfort every living creature ,and
an abundance to spare.
Read the story of creation as re-