LABOR. 21 



child; in man in a natural or savage* state; and in man 

 in his civilized state after he has acquired a competency 

 for life. Another and very important feature in addition 

 to man's instinctive desire to labor is the incentive to do 

 so. It is well to remark here that what some writers have 

 styled ' 'aversion to labor, ' ' might more properly have been 

 termed a lack of an incentive to do so; in other words, an 

 inadequate compensation. Men do not "strike" because 

 they have an aversion to labor, but for better wages, or 

 for less working hours, which is equivalent to the same 

 thing. This incentive to labor is one of the most import- 

 ant features of our subject; in fact it is the subject itself. 

 We will leave it to others to discuss the matter from a 

 physiological and scientific standpoint and only address 

 ourselves to the more practical points as they appear to us. 

 Man has a natural desire to better his own condition. 

 This principle alone, uninfluenced by any other motives, 

 indicates universal selfishness, and is, according to Dr. 

 Smith, ' 'so powerful a principle that it alone, and without 

 any assistance, is capable of carrying society to wealth and 

 prosperity. ' ' If we were ready to admit that among men 

 there was no benevolence, no generosity, we might pause 

 here; but almost if not equal to the incentive to serve 

 one's self, comes the desire to provide for the family. In 

 addition to this man has a natural pride of State that is an 

 incentive to serve the community outside of pure motives 

 of selfishness. With a part or all of these incentives man 

 enters the field of labor. He is an integral part of the 

 whole, and over him and each one of the whole "is the 

 community, governing the laborer by its unwritten rules, 

 paying him his real wages and fixing the order of his life. ' ' 

 The natural law of labor is, that the laborer is entitled to 

 all the fruits of his toil. There is no variation to this 

 rule. It is fixed upon the universal law of nature, and 

 any infringement upon it is not only repugnant to the 



