Christian sociology; Labor -- United States; Labor movement -- United States; Working class -- United States
“I would not like to work in a candy store,” said a young lad, “because
then I could not have the fun of buying candy.” A visitor to Atlantic
City stepped into one of the shops to make a purchase. She said to the
little girl in charge, “It must be delightful to be able to live in
Atlantic City and work right here on the boardwalk.” “You may think
so,” replied the girl. “But I guess if you put in all your time in this
store, and had to come to work at eight in the morning and work until
nine at night every day; and all the time saw these thousands of people
passing along outside, going up and down, with nothing to do but just
enjoy themselves, you would not think it is such a snap.” Two boys
were playing the game of “wish.” When the turn of the youngest came,
he said, “I wish that I worked in a chocolate factory, then I could
have all the chocolate I wanted to eat.” When we become acquainted with
the people who are at work producing the luxuries, we find a common
and far-reaching disillusionment. The hardest work in the world is to
work when other people are playing, or work hard ourselves just for the
purpose of giving other people enjoyment. And yet there are literally
hundreds of thousands of people who spend their lives in producing
luxuries.
Oliver Wendell Holmes used to say that if he could just have the
luxuries, he would not care anything about the necessities of life.
This was a whimsical way of stating a fact that is common to all
experience, that is, that life is enriched by the luxuries we enjoy. I
asked a man of the typographical union what he considered the one thing
that had done most for the advancement of printers. He replied, “Pianos
in their parlors.” By this he meant that when hours were decreased and
wages increased, printers began to have something to hope for; and
with a margin of money they bought luxuries, and in the margin of time
enjoyed them. Thus they laid the foundation for future development.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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