256 LAND AND LABOR. 



operation of labor, have built themselves dwellings. 

 For this the earth is mined and quarried, the forests 

 are felled and fashioned into lumber, the soil is formed 

 into bricks, the natural ores are converted into metals 

 and wrought into building material and tools, and 

 dwellings are constructed by and through the opera- 

 tion of labor, and by that alone. By it man is fed ; 

 by it he is clothed ; and by it he is housed. By labor 

 he is enriched with all the necessaries, comforts, and 

 luxuries of life ; but without labor the condition of 

 man becomes worse than that of the brute. 



In these conditions lies the only necessity that exists 

 for man to work. They are the conditions under which 

 man has existed from the very first, and they are the 

 same that will continue to the end. There is no 

 escaping the Divine fiat, that " In the sweat of thy 

 face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the 

 ground." Hence we see the imperative necessity that 

 exists for a way to be devised by which all shall work 

 that all may live. 



It has been shown that, in our country, whilst an 

 abundance is produced for the comfort of the whole 

 people, it is done by the labor of a portion only, with 

 the resulting evils of great idleness and consequent 

 distress, whilst large amounts of the general product 

 are sent out of the country to be consumed abroad. 

 And it has also been shown that the only demand 

 that can possibly exist for work is in the supply of 

 our own society with the three great necessaries of 

 life, and its comforts and luxuries. 



To a great extent these are fixed factors. Our sta- 

 tisticians will tell you, approximately, the amount of 



