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THE HOURS OF TOIL.t»rIt is taken for granted, generally, that men were made to toil; it is simply taken for granted that life, in thevastr majority of cases, must be spentin aqtive effort to obtain the means ofIiiIsubsistence, or to advance materialinterests. And very few men willever consider the possibility of escape from this incessant devotion toteachings in -political economy. Aclose student of Sismondi and Dr.Chalmers can heither be a visionary reformer, nor a bigoted adherent to the theories of Adam Smith.No more grateful duty can fall toour lot than that of introducing the character and writings of these great men to our readers..I]They have given us courage and faith when all the“business.”And still worse—very few can lookupon any different state of existenceexcept with indifference or disgust.Picture out a life of ease and quiet,world seemed devoted to the service of mamon, and when no hope for the poor and perishing anywherec(1appeared.We beg our readers, whenever they •where temperate, regular labor shouldprovide, with the certainty of seedtime and harvest, good houses andsee a quotation from Sismondi, tolt;)»read and study it, as an act of respectfor a noble man whose heart beat only for the good of man.clothing, an abundance of healthfuland everything needful forfood,health and culture, including freedomfrom evil and overwhelming temptations, and present your picture to themultitudes, side by side with the present lottery scheme, where the blanks are a thousand to but one brilliantprize,—and how few would prefer theformer. The man of business wouldchoose the rush and roar, the excitement and dizzying whirl of Broadway; the dissipated and vile wouldsee no charms in it for them, and even*the toil-worn masses, whose limbs have been stiffened bv unnaturallabor, whose minds have dwindledfrom want of exercise, or whose habits have been formed amid the dustand the stench, the gloom of narrow homes and the petty excitements ofcitv life, would find themselves unlitin heart, as well as in thought, for such a life. To a few it •would be fullSismondi wrote when the doctrinesof Adam Smith were in the full flushof triumph, and he had literally to“cast his breat upon the waterS.Hecould not gain a hearing. Higreatability, his nobleness of soul, his unselfish devotion to hiskind, were recognized, but the world was madand filled with dreams as wild asthose found in Arabian story* and his earnest pleadings were unavailing.In 1818 he published his “New Yiews of Political Economy,” in whichhe deploredof glory, as a release from the meanness and cruelty of the hard scramblefor position and safety, and from theselfish ungodliness of our present social warfare.But this phase of human life is topass away. Philosophers have never been satisfied with it, have never believed in the possibility of its permanence. Fevers and ulcers cannotlast; they pass away, or they kill. And it cannot be true that drudgeryand hoarding are the objects of life.i Dr. William Elder, in his valuablebook, “ Questions of the Day,” thusgives expression to the faith of goodand wise men in regard to this subject:“There is evidently in the progress of tilings—in the order of Providence,working for the deliverance of men from the bondage of animalism, and from its limitations in resources and enjoyments—a constant endeavor to substitute the insensate forces of nature for the drudgery of human beings, and to remit them by the route, and through the regenerating power of education, from one degree of skilled industry to another and a higher, until emancipation shall be complete—till toil shall no longer fail of its best ends, or absorb any more of life than is consistent with, and promotive of, the highest style of life of which man is capable on earth.”But, as Dr. Elder observes, in an-“The evils of competition, that war of the years of peace; the excess ofproduction, which ceases to be wealth from the moment when it no longerconsumers.”His biographer says of him:“ Was it not Sismondi who was first indignant at the laissez fa ire, laissez passeiof political economy? It wasonly after him that his disciple Buvet repeated ‘Laissez faire la misere; laissez passer ta mort! * Let wretchedness do its work, do not interfere with death!“It was Sismondi who was indignant at the system by which some labor, that others may enjoy.“He it was who cried out that the time will come when our posterity will not deem us less barbarous for having left the laboring classes without any security, than we deem those nations who have reduced them to slavery.“It was he who asked if it is every where perceived that men confiscated for the things? The working men are trenched, sometimes in one business sometimes in another. And what signifies the increase of wealth, if it does not serve to feed them?“It was he who demanded for all a participation in the advantages uf life: he, who refused to call that riches, which one member of thecommunity took from another: he, who cried that the advantage of all ought to limit the rights of all; thatproperty is the right to use, not to abuse.”“His works remain to us. In one of those hours of moral agony which the most vigorous minds pass through, Sismondi had exclaimed with bitterness, ‘I shall leave this world without having made any impression, and nothing will be done.’ He deceived himself. ”It was he who continually, repeated,‘ that all the efforts of charity are only palliatives: of what use are schools to him who has no time? Instruction, to him who sells the most pain-w€11«11t2 tft3ttc%\rtffi.crcIaiitevadvantagenotarcofre-bX*t0» Jnssf:}]vavatti *bfibnwc..Pother place, few will willingly make ful bodily labor at the cheapest rate,themselves ready for this “higheststyle of life.” They must be educated, attacked, and forced by something before or outside of them. The Darwinian philosopher would here make use of his doctrine of a “reversionarvtendency” in man to his brute origin. The Christian would refer touman sfirst fall,” and look to God for help. And we believe that God is in thesehard times.” whichare doingmuchto remove the glamour of ambition, and to show the uncertainty of thewithout being able to get work? Savings banks, to him who has onlypotatoes ?”“ No, the persevering study, the warnings, which his heart: prompted, are not lost. Facts havead£Pwytigone oiithev luina that conviction which liecomplained of not being able to produce. The dan will come token, thet.experience which he laid uj wW bear fruit in the world; the dag will namewhen both the operative and the laborer will obtain that just share of enjoyment which he never ceased soliciting for them.”best-laid plans of the ablest business men of the world. A little more ofthis rough experience will lead tosuch habits of reflection, and studythat the wav of safety will becomeT E MB E RANGE.y nI IV'.n 1\ h hv a c 1The Liberty Blade presents an important problem in the following editorial of March 20th:tlt;very plain.That way will lead backwards, andyet upward; it will free men from thenecessity of incessant toil, and willpresent opportunities for improvement, and happiness. In a century8°the school histories will pitifully record the struggles and the toils of this generation; they will speak of thepoverty that existed in the midst of.abundance, and will philosophicallycondemn the folly that led men tolabor as brutes, and by doing so, deprive themselves of the fair recompense granted even to the brutes.SISMONDI.We are delighted to see that laborreformers are beginning to study thePolitical Economy of the great andgood man whose name stands at thehead of this article. For thirty yearshis life and writings have been to usa source of light and encouragement.His teachings, on many points, were“While 500,000 men are engaged in the manufacture of liquor, there are only 83,000 teachers in our schools, and while the American people are squandering and wrorse than wasting,000 for drink, they arc payingbut 880.000,000 to support theirschools, voluntarily contributing ten times as much to educate our citizens in crime and sliame, for eternal ruin, as is raised by taxation to qualify our children and youth to be intelligent citizens.“Should the same state of affairs continue for twenty-five years to come as has existed during the twenty-five years just past, and this enormous evil increases in the same proportion as it has been doing, surelythe outlook is appalling.”An appalling outlook, truly; there can be no difference of opinion on that point. But is there any remedy ? Temperance men, in large number have been awake to the extent of therto:s]nwpyirnhbitPp:olaitV:IfC21Ctlitoiaitlblt;izmBevil for a quarter of a century, and a j a,vast amount of talent; energy, and self-sacrifice have been freely usedbutclear as sunlight, and it was difficultto believe that truths so fully apprehended, and so well expressed, could be forgotten, or could die withoutin mitigation of its calamities —What is towith very partial results, be done?bringing forth fruit.We notice that John George Ecca-If we could induce some of theearnest, talented, self-devoting friendsrius, in the Labor Standard, of New York, quotes from Sismondi. This isalmost enough, of itself, to lead us toendorse the orthodoxy of Mr. E.’sof temperance to study more closely the causes which lie at the foundationoittsc fei m ! ti m aicitl.aiof this and other moral evils thatscnow afflict society, we are confidenti i1Cthey would soon perceive the way tocheck and destroy the evil during thenext twenty-jive yean.tfcfuol
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Minneapolis Free Flag
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
Thu, Apr 12, 1877
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