_Labor defined._—Exertion of any kind for meeting individual wants we call labor, whether it simply gathers food from the forest, or contrives the most intricate machinery for satisfying wants that may take years to grow. Exertion that has no end beyond itself, no matter how severe it may be, we call play, and consider it important in public welfare only as it aids in health and morals. Labor is separated, too, from all exertions to destroy or injure the welfare of others, if we can see their object. Any person claiming to labor professes to have given his exertions for the satisfaction of somebody’s wants without doing violence to the welfare of others in the community. Whenever we do not assume this we concede a state of war, violence and destruction taking the place of production and accumulation. These may require exertions usually classed with labor; but are punished instead of being rewarded, unless we can establish their final advantage in a larger welfare for humanity, or in defense of society. _Productive labor._—The various classifications of labor serve merely to call attention to peculiar relations implied in the results. If exertion results in giving additional wealth, or power to produce wealth, it is called productive labor; but if it contributes only to immediate comfort or pleasure or safety it is called unproductive. The distinction is useful so far as it enables us to be prudent in adjusting energies to meet real wants. All labor is maintained by the product of exertions. Any labor expended without a product must be provided for by an increased product from some other form of labor. A farmer may sustain life upon the food he raises; but the wife who makes his house a home cannot live on the product of her labors. She may add to the value of some products directly, as in turning milk into butter, and raw materials into palatable food; but her chief energy may be in getting satisfaction for the household out of materials gained by her husband. Both are essential to the welfare of either, and prudence requires a proper adjustment between them. A force of physicians may be needed to keep a community in working condition; but if a whole community tried to live as doctors some other community must furnish the material wealth to sustain them.