THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



Undoubtedly there is a modern tendency to accept 

 this view of the dignity of physical labor. At any rate, 

 we differ from the savage in thinking it more fitting, 

 that man should toil than that his wife should labor 

 to support him though it cannot be denied that even 

 now the number of physical toilers among women 

 greatly exceeds the number of such toilers among men. 

 But in whatever measure we admit this attitude of mind, 

 there can be no question that it is exclusively a modern 

 attitude. Time out of mind, physical labor has been 

 distasteful to mankind, and it is a later development 

 of philosophy that appreciates the beneficence of the 

 task so little relished. 



The barbarian forces his wife to do most of the work, 

 and glories in his own freedom. Early civilization 

 kept conquered foes in thraldom, developing an heredi- 

 tary body of slaves, whose function it was to do the 

 physical work. 



The Hebrew explained the necessity for labor as a 

 curse imposed upon Father Adam and Mother Eve. 

 Plato and Aristotle, voicing the spirit of the Greeks, 

 considered manual toil as degrading. 



To-day we hear much of the dignity of labor; but 

 if we would avoid cant we must admit that now 

 scarcely less than in all the olden days the physical 

 toiler is such because he cannot help himself. Few 

 indeed are the manual laborers who know any other 

 means of getting their daily bread than that which they 

 employ. The most strenuous advocates of the strenu- 

 ous life are not themselves tillers of the soil or workers 

 in factories or machine shops. 



