Another needed reform, is that the night-workers should be released on Saturday and Sunday nights. None will deny that night work should be reduced to a minimum; and men who work nights deserve a Sabbath in which they can do something besides make up lost sleep. An appeal for the Saturday half-holiday, which is the rule in England, may well be inserted here, addressed especially to those who desire to have Sunday respected as a sacred day.
Episcopal Church.
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The Second Congregational Church.
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There is another appeal which should be made to employers, superintendents and overseers, and that is for the display of personal courtesy and kindness to those who are under them. This also has been suggested to me by an employe. Of course there are great individual differences in this respect, and those who do well have no cause to be ashamed if perchance they read these lines. But it is well to remember that people in subordinate positions, and even children, have a rightful sense of personal dignity, and rightfully object to being managed just as machines or horses are managed. Kindness and gentleness are not very expensive lubricants, but there is nothing to be compared with them for reducing friction. Those who neglect to use them may make a serious mistake.
Maple Street, Near Dwight.
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My last suggestion is for those who are engaged in retail business; but it is also addressed to the general public, who are apt to have things in this world about as they chose or determine. Every one knows that the greatest objection to retail trade is its long hours. But are the present hours necessary for the accommodation of purchasers? Not at all. For instance, it would be sufficient if the stores were open two evenings in the week instead of three or four. The Board of Trade might take some action in this matter, and public sentiment be enlisted, to refrain from purchasing upon other than the designated evenings, and after a designated hour.
Second Congregational Church.
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Residence of Joseph Skinner.
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All these suggestions, imperfect as they may be, are offered in the interest of the people who "work for a living;" and they are offered with the hope that they will appeal to employers, who also work for a living, but as a rule under easier conditions and with greater returns. To work for a living is not an Adamic curse, but a wise provision of Providence. Nevertheless, it would not be logical to conclude that because work is a good thing, the ore men have of it the better. To go back to the boy’s essay, with which we started, we may say that while man must continue to be a creature that works for a living, if he is also to be one that stands erect, in the physical and in the spiritual sense, he must not only have opportunity to secure a living—he must have time and opportunity to live.
© Laurel O’Donnell 1996 - 2006, all rights reserved
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