on the Coming Civilization. 375 



very few, and each one provided for his own. The chief 

 business of the early tribes Avas war, and the daily drudgery 

 was left to the women. Then, as certain tribes grew stronger, 

 they kept alive the prisoners taken in war and made them 

 slaves. Under these circumstances it was natural for hand- 

 labor to be regarded as degrading, fit only for slaves. And 

 it followed from this that those who were not slaves but 

 who were compelled to labor were looked on as but a little 

 above the slavish rank. So they were shut off from the 

 higher ranks of society as being low caste, or were serfs 

 attached permanently to the soil. In either case, bound as 

 they were by their necessities, without the means, even if 

 they had the right, of moving from place to place, or of 

 rising above the level on which they were born, they were 

 practically but little better off than slaves. During the 

 Middle Ages, the laborers, by their guilds and other asso- 

 ciations, were able to lift themselves much above the posi- 

 tion they occupied in the ancient world. And if agricultural 

 laborers were practically tied to the soil, perhaps it was 

 quite as well, for they then had no taste or fitness for travel, 

 and so preferred the old-time associations. But when 

 America was discovered a new era dawned for the common 

 people. They became accustomed to the thought of change, 

 while a Avider contact with society, and acquaintance with 

 other nationalities, developed ncAv tastes, created more and 

 higher wants, and so tended to lift them to a higher level 

 of manhood. It is true that the laborers are not yet free. 

 For while the wage-system is an immense advance on any- 

 thing the Avorld ever knew before, the man Avho must go 

 into the market and sell all the hours of every day in order 

 to live, of course cannot travel or study, or develop a taste 

 for what are rightly called "the humanities," the higher 

 sides of life. There must be some wealth, some leisure, 

 for these things. 



To this point then the world has come. Those who 

 allow their impatience at remaining evils to run away with 

 their judgments, to the extent of asserting that the wage- 

 earner's condition is growing worse instead of better, show 

 one of two things : either that they are ignorant of the 

 facts, or that their prejudice Avill not let them see them. 

 This will appear plainly as we go on Avith our discussion. 



But the question now before us is as to what is the 

 next step. As preparatory to this, we need to recur for 



