Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/330

 138 THE CONDITION OF LABOE.

leisure and rest in proportion to the wear and tear of his strength ; for the waste of strength must be repaired by the cessation of work.

46. In all agreements between masters and work-people there is always the condition, expressed or understood, that there be allowed proper rest for soul and body. To agree in any other sense would be against what is right and just ; for it can never be right or just to require on the one side, or to promise on the other, the giving up of those duties which a man owes to his God and to himself.

47. We now approach a subject of very great impor- tance, and one on which, if extremes are to be avoided, right ideas are absolutely necessary. Wages, we are told, are fixed by free consent; and, therefore, the employer, when he pays what was agreed upon, has done his part and is not called upon for anything further. The only way, it is said, in which injustice could happen would be if the master refused to pay the whole of the wages, or the workman would not complete the work undertaken ; when this happens the State should inter- vene, to see that each obtains his own but not under any other circumstances.

48. This mode of reasoning is by no means convincing to a fair-minded man, for there are important considera- tions which it leaves out of view altogether. To labor is to exert one's self for the sake of procuring what is neces- sary for the purposes of life, and most of all for self-pres- ervation. In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread* Therefore a man's labor has two notes or characters. First of all, it is personal, for the exertion of individual power belongs to the individual who puts it forth, employing this power for that personal profit for which it was given. Secondly, man's labor is necessary, for


 * Genesis iii. 19.

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