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QEORQE W. BERQE, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
Volume 18
Lincoln, Nebraska, November 30, 1905
Number 28
Labor Is A High Privilege For Which
Men Should Render Thanks
Labor is the highest privilege of man. It is a divine gift that; s
enables him to work for himself and for others If on this Thanks-,
giving day we fail" to render thanks for the gift to toil we prove our-'
selves ungrateful for the best of all gifts. . ,
Some men consider work an evil and such it is when the in
dividual is forced to work in slavery or to work at that which is
not his real life work. But in itself work is a blessing. The most
foolish conception of heaven is that which pictures the immortal
spirits as enjoying eternal rest. If the brain of man or the intellect
of an angel should cease to toil it would cease to be. If our bodily
functions should cease to toil we should cease to be. Toil is the
condition of all existence and can only be an evil when it is not
free.
On this earth labor can never be wholly free and must, ever
be something of an evil, but at the same time it is the greatest of all
blessings because in spite of its limitations it develops the good
that is in our human nature. There is no growth, mental, moral or
physical, without labor. Even the beasts of the field and the birds
of the air must work that they may eat and develop. As for man,
being an intelligent being, he grows not only m a physical sense, ;
but mentally, morally and spiritually by means of -toil, whether of
hand or brain. Those who fail to grow as the result of their labor
have labored in vain. As there would seem to be always room for
further development of the bodily muscles by toil, so there seems to
be room for indefinite development morally, spiritually and mentally.
There is, however, a bourne which hems us in and prevents indefi
nite development in our mortal state. The immortal soul, however,
passes beyond this bourne into new fields of labor, into the region
of eternal toil, which is at the same time the region of eternal
peace. .
A few days ago Andrew Carnegie, while attending a banquet
in New York, declared that poverty was a blessing instead of a
curse. "Abolish wealth," he said, "but abolish poverty, never."
The canny Scotch ironmaster was perhaps dreaming of his boy
hood days" when he whistled light-heartedly on his way to work and
took little heed of the morrow, what he should eat or what he should
wear. But Mr. Carnegie mistook the source of his happiness and
of his moral and spiritual growth. He was not happy because he
was poor. Insofar as he was really poor he was unhappy. But
insofar as he overcame poverty by toil he was happy.- Because ho
was poor he was forced to toil, to use his brain and body. in the ac
cumulation of those things which are necessary to sustain life. "The
destruction of the poor is their poverty," but the salvation of the
rich and the poor is their iabor.
The greatest evil in the world is sin and vice. The next
greatest evil is ill health, and last of all comes poverty. But the
unthinking are apt to reverse the order and to place poverty first,
ill health next and viciousness last of all. But the1 first is the true
order, and that is why the world will always pay its'highest tributes
of esteem to those who care for the souls of men, and will give
honor next to the physician who stills the throbbing pain of the
sufferer and wrests from nature the secret antidotes that check the
ravages of disease. To him, however, who battles with the ever
menacing perils of poverty, who finds the ways and means to im
prove the material welfare of his fellow men, to diminish pauperism
and thereby to diminish disease, vice and crime, men will ever give
meed of love and respect.
To the Author of Toil, therefore, we owe our high thanks
giving. The fruitage of the field and the fabric of the factory have
been produced m lavish abundance, but greed and avarice, folly
and ignorance, will prevent a fair distribution. And yet while con
demning the human errors and passions that lead to the unfair dis
tribution of wealth, 'we should never forget that God has given an
abundance for all. If He withdrew the atmosphere for a few sec
onds all men would perish. If He took from the soil its nourish
ing qualities for a single season the human race would cease to
exist. If the earth should lose its balance for the millionth part of
a second it would plunge into space and no record of the earth or
its inhabitants would remain in the universe of matter. That none
of these evils eventuate is due to an All-wise Benevolent Tro
idence. But even though He did not entirely withdraw His care,
if He but withdrew His kindly providence sufficiently to make most
of the earth a marsh or a desert the conditions under which wo labor
would become vastly more painful. ,
In spite of man's unfairness, his ignorance, greed and folly,
the human race thrives and men are content to advance from small
things to great, from weakness to strength, from the night of tho
unknown into the daylight of knowledge and understanding, through
the medium of toil.
Railways Show Their Hand In Battle
For Regulative Legislation
Serious discussion of such a brazen document as Senator For
. ulcers bill for railway regulation would unduly dignifyan effort to
mure for the railways more license to plunder tho public than they
now possess. Tho language of the bill is purposely obscure and in
volved, designed as it is to weaken rather than to strengthen tho
present laws against discriminations and acts in restraint of trade.
The following provision will bo particularly offensive to those who
ldieve the railways can ! effectively regulated by the govern
ment :
"That nothing In tho act to resutate commerce, approved February 4,
4, 1SS7, or U the act to protect trade nl commerce agnlnat unlawful re
straints nnd monopolies, approved July 2. 1800, or In any net amendatory to
either of said net nhall apply hereafter to the establishment of rate or tho
changing or publication of the tamo wita r,p'ct to forelcn commerce, If
curried lu hl of American rcUlry: or Khali prohibit any neceary or
reasonable act, association or agreement with reject to Interstate trans
portation that la not In reasonablo restraint of commerce with foreign na
tions or among the several states; or shall hereafter authorize forfeiture of
property as punishment for any violation of such acts."
What is the meaning of this jargon? The railways will lo
permitted to do anything necessary or reasonable that is "not in rea
honable restraint" of trade. The doing of anything reasonable that b
not reasonable is a sort of special privilege Monging exclusively to tho
realm of frenzied finance. The provision m-m- t 1 n devise which
will icrmit tho railways t pool on Tates and to form nuch associa
tions for the purpose of agreeing on rates as are now forbidden by
tho interstate commerce act. The last clause would remove n pcn
alty that at present rather frighten- railway officials who are eager to
grant preferential treatment to favorite hijjers.
The other provisions of the bill are along the lines of what