“Before I can give you a clear description of the interior of the
‘big-house,’ and the work that is done in it by the inmates, it will
be necessary to give you a brief explanation of our system and idea of
labor,” continued Mr. Midith.
“In the first place you want to bear in mind that our day’s labor, as I
have told you before, is very short, in an average less than two hours
a day; but there is no place in our society for an idler. All sound,
able-bodied persons, men, women and children, are expected to work at
some suitable productive labor. We teach that labor is necessary and
honorable; that idleness is robbery and a disgrace. Our public opinion
shuns an idler or unproductive laborer as much as you shun a burglar.
We believe that a proper amount of physical labor is healthful, that it
is essential for the highest development of body and mind. We further
believe that children should be taught to labor while young, because
labor becomes pleasurable only when the habit of laboring is acquired
during childhood and youth. A child should be taught to be independent,
to support itself by agreeable, healthful labor as early as possible,
for many reasons which I will tell you some other time. I find here on
earth that many parents believe that manual labor is a disgrace. With
us, you will notice, it is just the reverse. We believe that a parent
who does not teach a child to labor while it is young is the child’s
greatest enemy, for such a child will be a slave to labor ever after.
“We classify labor as productive, unproductive and destructive.
When I speak of labor here, I mean that kind of labor only which is
expended in the pursuit of acquiring the material subsistence; and in
the rearing of offspring I include only the _toilsome_ exertions, not
the _sportive_ exercises. Plowing, sowing, reaping, cooking washing,
planting, digging a needful well, mining iron, building a house,
making a coat, writing a useful book, running an engine, holding and
carrying a baby beyond a certain length of time, etc., are examples of
_productive_ labor. Productive labor, then, as here restricted, is that
kind of labor which adds to the aggregate amount of the community’s
material wealth in the form of food, clothing, shelter and luxuries, or
that which is expended in the rearing of offspring. After a productive
day’s labor, the world is richer in material wealth than it was before.
The day’s labor must have produced something. It must have augmented
not only the labor’s individual wealth, but the aggregate wealth of the
world.
“_Unproductive_ labor is that kind which neither tends to produce nor
destroy material wealth. No amount of unproductive labor produces
food for a single meal. To be digging wells where there is no need
for water; to carry a brick to and fro from one place to another; to
plant a potato for the sake of planting; to plow a field and not sow
and harvest it; to build a house and not utilize it; to mine coal and
not use it; to gamble, etc., are examples of _unproductive_ labor. No
matter how much the laborer perspires, how long and how toilsome a day
he makes, how diligent and honest he may be, all his efforts and toil
expended in this manner do not add one iota to the aggregate material
wealth of the nation or of the world.
“_Destructive_ labor is that kind of labor which actually destroys
wealth, which, we have seen, can be produced only by _productive_ labor.
“For examples: A soldier tearing up or otherwise destroying railroads;
a burglar exploding a safe; an army burning a city; a miner mining iron
that is to be manufactured into a gun with which life and property are
to be destroyed; a malicious destruction of a tree or useful plant,
etc., etc.
“We can plainly see that if we should all engage in _destructive_
labor, all the material wealth would soon be destroyed, and the more
industrious we would be in the expenditure of destructive labor, the
less material wealth we would have left. _Idleness_ is a _virtue_ as
compared with _destructive labor_.
“Perhaps more than three-fourths of _your_ labor here on earth is
either comparatively unproductive or destructive. Nearly all your
fencing, banking, mining gold for money, speculating, soldiering,
three-fourths of your so-called mercantile business, your sectarian
preaching and teaching, all your political scheming, manufacturing and
selling liquor and tobacco are unproductive or destructive. Besides
these few cases that I have mentioned there are countless other ways in
which you expend a vast amount of unproductive and destructive labor,
which I can not now make you clearly understand, but which you will see
hereafter as we compare our social and industrial system with yours.
“By the foregoing explanation we see that an _industrious_ person
is not necessarily a _producer_. One may be as industrious in the
destruction of wealth as in the production of it. A millionaire, who
labors to _accumulate_, by some scheme, the wealth that others have
_earned_, to augment his individual fortune, is an unproductive or
destructive laborer, not a productive one. He robs some person and
thereby makes the world worse. His object is not to _earn_, but to
_appropriate_ what _others_ have already earned or produced. It is not
always easy in your system to determine whether a certain kind of labor
is productive, unproductive, or destructive. Intelligence, the basis of
all activity, is the only criterion that can determine it.”
“Do the Marsites all work only at productive labor?” asked Mr. Uwins.
“Yes,” replied Mr. Midith. “We gradually eliminated all unproductive
and destructive labor as our social and industrial system advanced.
“But allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to tell you right here, there is
one other point in connection with labor that I shall have to speak
to you about, in order to give you a clear understanding of our idea
of labor, and that point is this: not all human exertion, whether
performed on earth or on Mars, is considered laborious or toilsome.
For instance, the beating of the heart, eating, breathing, voluntary
conversation, a ride or walk for recreation, pursuing a favorite study
or occupation, shopping as you call it, entertaining a welcome friend,
being engaged in a certain kind of fancy work, are not considered
even by you as toilsome labor. They have either become delightful
exercises, or they have lost their conscious sensitiveness all
together, like the beating of the heart, etc.
“All well organized persons find delight in being _always_ engaged in
some active, physical or mental pursuits, during their waking hours.
Absolute quietude and idleness are very burdensome to them. So, too,
is excessive labor toilsome to them. But by the aid and improvement of
our machinery, by shortening the day of manual labor, by acquiring the
habit of working while young, by receiving a large return for labor,
by laboring in company with pleasant companions, by having all the
necessary and convenient tools, by becoming continually more and more
proficient in our occupation, by appreciating with a keener, esthetic
sense the improved products of an advancing industry, and by laboring
more and more under individual freedom, all exertions tend to pass from
the sphere of toilsome labor into the sphere of delightful, sportive
exercise, and this change will, no doubt, continue until a complete
adjustment is effected.
“You see our machinery and tools are so perfect and easily manipulated,
our conveniences so complete, our day’s manual labor so short, our
return of labor so abundant, our company so pleasant, our choice of
occupation so free, our liberty so unimpaired, our esthetic sense so
keen, that nearly all our work has passed into play, and is almost as
delightful and pleasant to us as activity is to a child.
“With you things are just the reverse. Your machinery is not so
perfect, your tools are not so handy, your conveniences for labor
are very few, your day of manual labor is so long and toilsome, your
returns go largely to the rich idlers or unproductive labors, your
companions are often rival enemies, your occupation whatever you can
get to do, your overseer a cruel, heartless tyrant, your appreciations
for accomplishments have been withered by anxiety and poverty. Nothing
but the bare necessity of acquiring the material subsistence for a
meager livelihood spurs you on to your almost unendurable and endless
toil, which generally lasts until the premature grave entombs the
remains of your worn-out, lifeless body. Under your sad social and
industrial arrangement, it is no wonder that you dishonor labor, that
you endeavor by all schemes to escape that endless tread-mill of toil
to which you are generally hitched for life by the tugs of cruelty,
want of knowledge and superstition.
“It is now time for our afternoon work, and, whenever hereafter I tell
you anything about our wealth and labor, always endeavor to think
of them as they are considered by the Marsites, and not as you look
at wealth and labor here. Always bear in mind that organized-self
and mental wealth are necessary constituents of our genuine wealth,
and that the old toilsome labor has almost completely passed into
delightful sportive exercise.”