The Higher Powers of Mind and SpiritTrine, Ralph Waldo
Religion
The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit
Trine, Ralph Waldo
Mind and body; New Thought
The bane of organised labour in the past has too often been the
unscrupulous, the self-seeking, or the bull-headed labour leader.
Organised labour must be constantly diligent to purge itself of these
its worst enemies. Labour is entitled to the very highest wage, or to
the best returns in cooperative management that it can get, and that are
consistent with sound business management, as also to the best labour
conditions that a sympathetic and wise management can bring about. It
must not, however, be unreasonable in its demands, neither bull-headed,
nor seek to travel too fast--otherwise it may lose more than it will
gain.
It must not allow itself to act as a shield for the ineffective worker,
or the one without a sense of mutuality, whose aim is to get all he can
get without any thought as to what he gives in return, or even with the
deliberate purpose of giving the least that he can give and get away
with it. Where there is a good and a full return, there should be not
only the desire but an eagerness to give a full and honest service. Less
than this is indicative of a lack of honest and staunch manhood or
womanhood.
It is incumbent upon organised labour also to remember that it
represents but eight per cent of the actual working people of this
nation. Whether one works with his brains, or his hands, or both, is
immaterial. Nor does organised labour represent the great farming
interests of the country--even more fundamentally the backbone of the
nation.
The desirable citizen of any nation is he or she who does not seek to
prosper at the expense of his fellows, who does not seek the advancement
of his group to the detriment of all other groups--who realises that
none are independent, that all are interdependent.
He who is a teacher or a preacher of class-consciousness, is either
consciously or unconsciously--generally consciously and intentionally--a
preacher of class-hatred. There is no more undesirable citizen in any
nation than he. "Do you know why money is so scarce, brothers?" the soap
box orator demanded, and a fair-sized section of the backbone of the
nation waited in leisurely patience for the answer. A tired-looking
woman had paused for a moment on the edge of the crowd. She spoke
shortly. "It's because so many of you men spend your time telling each
other why, 'stead of hustling to see that it ain't!" He is a fair
representative of the class-consciousness, class-hatred type. Again he
is represented by the theorist constitutionally and chronically too lazy
to do honest and constructive work either physically or mentally. Again
by the one who has the big-head affliction. Or again by the one
afflicted with a species of insanity or criminality manifesting of late
under the name of Bolshevism--a self-seeking tyranny infinitely worse
than Czarism itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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