Resourcefulness

“ For the vastness of the task which seems to frighten some of my friends, represents, in fact, the very measure of its value to the community, if that task be only undertaken in a worthy spirit and with worthy aims. Work in abundance is, as has been several times urged, one of the greatest needs of to-day, and no such field of employment has been opened up since civilisation began as would be represented by the task which is before us of reconstructing anew the entire external fabric of society, employing, as we build, all the skill and knowledge which the experience of centuries has taught us. ”

“ And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit; and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.—God will multiply useful workers in industries, and the invention of labor-saving machinery—the beasts of burden and of the productive arts and trades. They shall increase in numbers and in service to mankind, and shall multiply the productivity of the workers, bringing forth with the busy, happy hum of industry, plenty for all, fruitage abundant for the needs of humanity. ”

“ The means and measures which immediately present themselves are those whose tendency is, on the one hand, to encourage and assist the laborious, deserving, and permanent portion of it: and, on the other hand, to initiate, and stimulate the growth of providence and industry in those who have not yet learned the necessity and the duty of striving to help themselves and to improve their own condition ”

“ There is, however, another reason for want, the responsibility for which comes nearer home. This is the tremendous waste involved in our present method of making and distributing commodities. As a people we seem to have little idea of measuring our resources, our natural wealth, and the productive power that lies in our hands and brains up against our needs, and of using them wisely and economically for the general good. ”

“ Proper education will teach every child to work neatly and with perfect accuracy, will teach eye, hand and brain, will teach the value and pleasure of work, careful management and economy and a regard for the general good.
A study of the great facts of our national possibilities that have been gathered together in this book should arouse in the heart of every American, old and young, the feeling that here is a work for every hand and every brain, not only to save, but to use wisely; to develop all the possibilities of our [Pg 318] great resources no less than to conserve them. ”

“ The product of his labor—and no more!
191Well, then, let us begin with life’s first needs,
And give him of the earth what he can make;
As much of air and light as he can make,
As much of ocean, and sweet wind and rain,
And flowers, and grass, and fruit, as he can make.
But no, we answer this is mockery:
No man makes these things. But of human wealth
Let every man be given what he makes,
The product of his labor, and no more. ”

“ Under these circumstances the entire source of productive power lay in the will-energies of living beings, whose bodies had to be supplied with food, clothing and housing; and to provide these, other productive powers of a similar kind were required near the same place. ”

“ What more unnatural than that labor -- the producer of all food, all clothing, all shelter -- should not be exchangeable for its full equivalent in food, clothing, and shelter; that while the things it produces have value, labor, the giver of all value, should seem valueless!
Here are men, having the natural wants of man, having the natural powers of man -- powers adapted and intended and more than sufficient to supply those wants. ”

“ In our material life we draw our resources from every land. Clothing, spices, fruits, toys, household furniture,—we lay contributions on the whole world for the most frugal meal, for the humblest dwelling. ”

“ Those supplied so abundantly on the earth that all individuals share them alike, without favor of fortune or forethought of mind. We may name them redundant resources. 2. Those provided so sparingly that individuals do not share them alike, but secure them by effort and by opportunity. They may be termed adequate resources. ”

“ Those early lessons which had formed her industrial education, were of life-long value, both in enriching her own life, and by adding to her economic and therefore social value, alike as a member of her own household, and as a contributor to the wealth of the little community. ”

“ If you have not means enough to buy a farm, go to work and make one; if you have not means enough to buy a house, build one, and thus gather around you the comforts of life, and the means to subsist upon. ”

“ The conditions which have told for our marvelous material well-being, which have developed to a very high degree our energy, self-reliance, and individual initiative, also have brought the care and anxiety inseparable from the accumulation of great wealth in industrial centers. ”

“ Now, the moral side of an industry, productive or unproductive, the redeeming and ideal aspect of this bread-winning, is the attainment and preservation of the highest possible skill on the part of the craftsmen. Such skill, the skill of technique, is more than honesty ”

“ Nor is it only in the labouring class that improvement of mind and character operates with beneficial effect even on industry. In the rich and idle classes, increased mental energy, more solid instruction, and stronger feelings of conscience, public spirit, or philanthropy, would qualify them to originate and promote the most valuable improvements, both in the economical resources of their country, and in its institutions and customs. ”

“ We do not mean merely physical work. There is a great deal of higher work—the work of action and endurance, of trial and patience, of enterprise and philanthropy, of spreading truth and civilization, of diminishing suffering and relieving the poor, of helping the weak, and enabling them to help themselves. ”

“ We have seen, then, how man, in his social surroundings, begins to secure something over and above the mere necessities of life; and so, after providing himself with a certain competence of food, clothing and shelter, has means and energy left for the supply of luxuries, ornaments, delights—call them what you will. ”

“ How stores of food, of clothing, of fuel and of the materials for building may be collected and preserved; how present labor may be made to supply future wants, and the thought of future enjoyment be made to sweeten the present toil. How the means of instruction and of amusement may be secured. How all engaged in supplying one need of society co-operate with all who are engaged in supplying its other needs. ”

“ Therefore, to control the production of wealth is to control human life itself. ”

“ I sometimes take the liberty of preaching upon economy to this people. Perhaps some are inclined to think that in so doing I transcend my own duties and obligations. I do not. I instruct the husbandman how to till his farm, because I know and understand the nature of the elements that produce grain better than he does. I know how he should prepare the elements for the seed to produce the increase which he desires in the things necessary to sustain himself and family. It is my duty to instruct my brethren, if I understand any branch of business better than they do. ”

“ This personal responsibility makes the question of consumption of wealth a question of morals as well as of wisdom. The whole discussion here turns upon the wisdom or unwisdom of certain personal uses or social uses of what the world has accumulated. We can ask what use of wealth is prudent, what imprudent; then what social organization best develops the wisdom which secures a prudent use of wealth; and finally, how far and in what ways society can act as a unit in the place of individuals. ”

“ I repeat that we have gone crazy over structures above ground. We are absolutely forgetting the greatest of our resources,—the great spiritual resource, upon which everything depends. How shall we develop these resources? ”

“ It is true that improvement in the material condition of a people or class may not show immediately in mental and moral improvement. Increased wages may at first be taken out in idleness and dissipation. But they will ultimately bring increased industry, skill, intelligence and thrift. ”

“ If your means be small, remember that such knowledge can make that portion of your money which is devoted to the purchase of food, go as far again, and yield twice as much harmless gratification as it would otherwise do; if you have an abundance of means, then the knowledge may be made serviceable in providing only such food as is suitable to the maintenance of health and strength, and the avoidance of disease. ”

“ This natural wealth of the organic world possessed the greater worth for the reason that it was not soon exhausted, and offered, as it still offers, to the population, an opportunity for constant work, enduring activity and steady development. ”

“ If a man wants a farm, let him make it; if he wishes an orchard he plants it; if he wants a house for his family to live in, he must gather the materials and build it. He will give us wisdom in these things, but he will not come down to do the manual labor. 9:250.
This people are increasing in the wisdom which cometh from God, and their power to organize the crude elements around them into the necessaries of life is in ratio to their increase of intelligence and application of labor. In this way we ought to understand these great principles. ”

“ The problem of income required, as he understood the real purpose of life, only the primal creed of simplicity, the elimination of useless acquired tastes. To meet the needs of man exacted no excessive labor, only a healthy industry. ”

“ Since the satisfaction of his physical needs and the desire of comfortable living require some mastery of physical resources, his progress can naturally be measured by the degree of success he makes in providing for satisfactions of this kind. Such progress is material progress, and its standards are economy and efficiency, or the attainment of the maximum result with the minimum of effort. This kind of progress is very diversified, embracing all the economic concerns of life, and much of society and the arts. ”

“ There is material progress, by which I understand an increase in wealth, that is, in the commodities useful to man, which give him health, strength, and longer life, and make his life easier, providing more comfort and more leisure, and thus enabling him to be more physically efficient, and to escape from that pressure of want which hampers the development of his whole nature. ”

“ The subject of home production and becoming a self-sustaining people is another text, and this will probably guide me right back to "Dixie." I will ask the question, How are we going to become self-sustaining unless we avail ourselves of the elements around us and provide ourselves and families with what we need to eat, drink and wear, and our implements of husbandry and other thing [s] of like nature? We need iron ware and machine shops. ”

“ We have a state of splendid and varied resources, but God has so willed it, and fortunately, too, that these resources cannot be properly developed or utilized without work hard work work of the brain and work of the hands. ”

“ When income has been provided; when there is food for every mouth, warm clothing for every back, enough fuel for winter, and a few pennies each week for recreation, then indeed you may begin to speak in terms of social improvement. ”

“ The base, the foundation, of healthy life in any country, in any society, is necessarily composed of the men who do the actual productive work of the country, whether in tilling the soil, in the handicrafts, or in business ”

“ Can there be between them and the donors any of that happy manly interchange of thought, by which the possessors of education, refinement, leisure, might help, or be helped by, the active, self-reliant working-man, with his large capacity for fresh vigorous joy, and his store of power accumulated during a long period of endurance and patient effort? ”

“ And a nation's labour, well applied, is, in like manner, amply sufficient to provide its whole population with good food and comfortable habitation; and not with those only, but with good education besides, and objects of luxury, art treasures, such as these you have around you now. ”

“ Is it not, on the contrary, a clear indication of a most inestimable quality in the soil, which God has bestowed on man—the quality of being able to maintain more persons than are necessary to work it? ”

“ All men have certain simple economic needs—for food and shelter. Denied these, they perish. Given them, they are able to devote their remaining energies to one of the many lines of activity that men have developed. ”

“ Do you not realize for instance, through how many hands the food you put into your mouth passes, before it is brought to you, and how many persons have been employed in the service of preparing it for you? And man has, in short, the same kind of need of helpers in his clothing, home, and in all the arts and trades, as has before been mentioned. ”

“ The third great principle of employment is, that whenever there is pressure of poverty to be met, all enforced occupation should be directed to the production of useful articles only, that is to say, of food, of simple clothing, of lodging, or of the means of conveying, distributing, and preserving these. ”

“ Of what nature offers them, be it ever so abundant, all living things save man can take and care for only enough to supply wants that are definite and fixed. The only use they can make of additional supplies or additional opportunities is to multiply. ”

“ Because of the traditions which have been handed down to us, we are healthier-bodied and cleaner-minded men and women. We are 270 more efficient, not merely in making money, but in everything that goes to make a full and well-rounded life. ”