Article July 13, 1899 Issue

In Praise of Labor

Major-General Nelson A. Miles visited Pittsburg, Pa., June 30, 1899, as the guest of "all organized labor." In the evening he addressed two large audiences in the Grand Opera House and Avenue Theatre. His address at the Opera House was in part as follows:—

From the earliest records and traditions that we have of the existence of mankind upon this earth we find that those people who have been industrious, economical, prudent, and temperate have been prosperous, happy, and strong. Industry gives physical and mental strength to men and awakens all the intellectual energies which have characterized the brain of the intelligent laborer, of the inventor, of the discoverer, and, generally speaking, of the genius so productive, fruitful, and so beneficial to the welfare and happiness of mankind. Wherever indolence and prodigality have appeared as the result of slothfulness or extravagant luxury, there we have found that decay, poverty, and desolation have come to the people and to the nation or race.

Through all the ages up to the present time the purpose of man to earn an honest livelihood, to support himself with the skill of his own hand, or by the genius of his brain, has been most commendable if not always fully rewarded. The condition of him who toils has been constantly improving for many generations. If we go back to the time when labor was forced by tyranny and oppression— and to do so we need not go far beyond our own time—or when labor was often "unrequited toil," as Abraham Lincoln termed it, we find that the condition of man has been constantly improving, and was never more favorable than at the present time.

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