II. What is Labor.
Let us define Labor, that we may have a clear conception of the import of the word, which is so often used and so little understood. It means
1. Muscular effort directed to some useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, mining, &c., &c.
2. Intellectual exertion, mental effort, aimed to develop and elevate the human race in mind, morals and religion.
You will observe that there are two general classes of laborers, viz: Manual laborers, or those who eat bread in the sweat of their faces, from hand toil, as the merchant, clerk, carpenter, farmer, cook, washerwoman, chambermaid, etc.; and the professional laborers, or those who eat bread in the sweat of their faces mostly by the exertion of the brain, as the school teacher, minister, physician, lawyer.
These two classes will serve for our present purpose. Of the good citizens in this country, all must belong to one or both of these classes of laborers, or be put down among the idlers who are condemned by God and man as worthless beings. I will remark here that it is a part of the duty of every good citizen to persuade his neighbor to engage in some useful employment, or see that he is punished as our vagrant laws provide.
III. The Proportion of the Two Classes.
The United States census of 1880 gives 265 occupations, engaged in by 17,392,099 persons 10 years of age and upward. Of the 265 occupations there are only six which I consider purely professional, to-wit:
| Lawyers | 64,137 |
| Clergymen | 64,698 |
| Journalists | 12,308 |
| Physicians and Surgeons | 85,671 |
| Authors, Lecturers and Literary Persons | 1,131 |
| Teachers and scientific men | 227,710 |
| ———— | |
| 455,655 |
This is about 2½ per cent. of the persons employed in the various occupations; or to put it more plainly, about 5 in every 200. The per cent. of persons of the colored race who are engaged in the professions is five times smaller. It is about ½ of one per cent. or one person in every 200. It will be seen from these figures that at least 97½ per cent. of all races are engaged in personal service and manual labor. The old expression "There is Room at the Top" has misled many a youth, and consequently many a man has found his way to the poor house or the felon's cell. Public speakers and lecturers have done much to give a wrong impression of the meaning of this famous sentence uttered by Mr. Webster. They hold certain positions, or occupations, as being at the top. Such an erroneous idea never entered the head of that great statesman. He simply meant that whatever you engaged in strive to reach perfection in that. The blacksmith may climb to the top in his occupation, the washerwoman may reach the top of her art, for washing is an art as much so as music or mathematics, and so with the carpenter, the mason, the hod carrier and the common laborer. Each may obtain such a degree of skill as will render his services indispensable to his employer. Did you ever think that there is art in the use of the pick, and that it may be cultivated with high satisfaction to the employer and employe?