4o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing to the latter a very uncertain subsistence. Nor does the cap- 

 italist have credit for the fact that, without him, labor would not 

 be so productive, and for the further fact that his share is taken 

 from a product that was created largely through his direction, 

 his enterprise, and his resources. It makes a vast diiference 

 whether an army has a skillful general at the head, or only an 

 ordinary leader. 



On the other hand, the employee should remember that, as 

 things are now constituted, there is no employment without the 

 use of capital. He must not consider the capitalist as his enemy, 

 but rather as his friend. Nor should he close his organizations 

 against all who do not work with their hands. His own day of 

 labor measures eight or ten hours. There are other laborers in 

 the field to whom a day's work means from twelve to sixteen 

 hours. They are none the less laborers because they work with 

 their heads, and it is a narrow definition of the " workingman " 

 that rules them out. 



When De Tocqueville studied the institutions of the United 

 States, in 1835, he gave a broad view of labor as he wrote, " Every 

 honest occupation in the United States is honorable." The same 

 view must be taken by both the capitalist and the workingman 

 before true sympathy between them can be assured. Until that 

 day comes, neither profit-sharing nor any other form of effort will 

 be able to bridge the chasm. 



^ 



SKETCH OF EBENEZER EMMONS. 



AUTHORITIES differ as to the year in which Ebenezer Em- 

 -^-^ MONS was born. The first General Catalogue of Williams 

 College, published in 1880, puts " mt. 65," after the year of his 

 death. In Durfee's Williams Biographical Annals the year of his 

 birth is given as 1709, while, according to Prof. Jules Marcou, in 

 Science, Prof. Emmons always stated to his children that he was 

 born in 1800. His sister has informed the writer that 1799 is the 

 correct year. The month and day were May 16th, and the place 

 was Middlefield, Mass. He was an only son, but had two sisters 

 older and two younger than he. Prof. Emmons's father, who also 

 bore the name of Ebenezer, was a farmer. His mother's maiden 

 name was Mary Mack. The Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, who 

 was quite a noted preacher in his day, was an uncle. The first 

 ancestor in America of this branch of the family came from Eng- 

 land, and settled at East Haddam on the Connecticut River. A 

 brother who came with him settled in Boston, 



Young E ben's interest in Nature appeared at an early age. 

 The doors in his room were covered with bugs and butterflies 



