The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1913-09-01

Ms LABOR Lay Oh l6AO
& kmerican labor dresses ranks today not only
proudly but hopefully for things at last are coming
81 True the cost Of living is high and it has been
& struggle to force laggard wages to keep some
where near STEP But the hopeful factor in the equa-
HIN u that today for almost the first time labor does
NJ have to do all its fighting alone.
e Why it seems only yesterday that the law was
being swung to bat labor the head every time it
Xoiced discomfort with unfair conditions. What a
Il Inference now! State after state adopting work
ingmen's compensation, decreasing working hours,
stiening the requirements Of health and safety in
the work places, discussing minimum wage, adopt
ing mothers pensions, in short, throwing emphasis
80 last upon HUMAN values.
II doesn't seem likely that, in day at least, So
ciety can be fixed so that the worker will get the
full product Of his toll though each approach to-
ward that end is step in the right direction But
II should be comforting to older in the ranks of
the workers that longer is the discussion of this
great ideal confined within group of the COM
munity and laughed at by the rest Of the people
Z Visionary. 1t has become, among all, THE BIG
AND SERIOUS PROBLEM OF THE TIME to
which is being addressed the keenest study.
The dignity, the nobility Of honest work is better
understood today than formerly, society swings
sway from its mad worship of wealth and toward a
dITd08eHleuC
once looked down on the ranks of industry as from
superior level begin for the first time in use
less lives to see the pettiness the shame of riding
others backs 1t is good sign that increasingly the
children of the rich refusing to be sacrificed
the altar Of inherited ease but are seeking for light
md work and duties. 1t is movement directly con
Aed with the better appreciation of labor with the
1ew perception that is fundamentally dishonest to
zet others pay your way.
~ Int perhaps the greatest reason why hope should
- the commanding note this day lies in the change
N11cl is coming over our conception of education
Until lately most of our schooling has been plan
ned On q basis which assumed that to do good and
nseful work with the hands was perhaps necessary
] and tolerable but not re-eminently honorable
Thus we have had public schools aiming almost
exclusively to turn out smart pupils pupils with
wits well sharpened that they would not need TO
! 40 hand work for a living but might hope to find
short and easy cuts to fortune through the trick of
oppropriating the fruits of the toll of others.
Bay what we well, upon the school depends the
Trend Of q nations growth. And here we were rear
Ing children to despse the underlying value Of our
national life straightaWay work.
Happily we have begun to see the folly of this
! course.
Il the Job that You do are involved something fine
out 0f science, art, poetry, history Why, then, not
study as you work and study what you work at and
build your life values around the usefulness that you
be fitted for under scheme of things which
human soul behind every achievement and hOnors
that soul in proportion as it reveals itselfa
You have found work for the most part hard
exacting, cruel thing because it's beauties haven't
been unfolded and because under the conditions set
around you by greed you werent allowed the chance
Y NJ find the joy in it.
Bnt your children, when this revolution in school
6as gets further along, will go to work blithely be-
cofse IL will not be shaving to enrich one else
s Will be the joyful exercise of their own immortal
@6uls expressed in conscious creative effort, the
q KtStest happiness there is.
aid As they find out the possibilities of pleasure
II doing work that appeals to and stimulates their
they will very likely tire of the present sordid
|Esh scheme of industry which limits its rewards
s. Il 1riVileged few and establish in its stead the
f0f brotherhood -co-o operation
III scientists are trying to prove that Eve was
II SSxfk long before ADAM which is some softening