What Work Should Give Us Besides Bread November 8, 1914

Earl Barnes, November 8, 1914
“We all know what it is to work. Many of us know only too well what it means to be worked. To be able to work in our own way, conquering, achieving, creating, and to enjoy the full fruits of our labor is a glorious privilege. To be obliged to work as another may arbitrarily dictate, with no choice of time, place or occupation, and to receive less than our labor entitles us to, is essentially slavery. Our hearts cry out in protest against an industrial order and commercial standards that take no account of the individual’s welfare or of the merit of his service to society. We challenge the soundness of an economic system that so generously interferes with the individual’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and which also so often denies that the laborer is worthy of his hire.”