labor is entirely lost. Such men necessarily have to learn more
careful ways in after life. It is a good rule in this, as in the
previous case, to make and copy complete records of everything in such
shape that they may be convenient for reference and criticism
afterward.

One of the important problems with which you will have to deal in the
future is the labor question, and it is probable that your very first
experience with it may be in direct antagonism with the opinions of
many with whom you have heretofore been associated. It is an honor to
the feelings of those who stand outside and witness this so-called
struggle now in progress between capital and labor, that they believe
the whole question can be settled by kindly treatment and reasonable
argument. There are some cases that will yield to such treatment, and
one's whole duty is not performed till all possible, reasonable, and
humanitarian methods are adopted. There has been an excuse for the
organization of labor, and it, to some small extent, still exists.

Time was that the surplus of unskilled labor was used on a mercantile
basis to reduce wages to such an extent that it was almost impossible
to rear a well nurtured, much less a well educated and well dressed
family, and, moreover, the hours of labor in some branches of business
were so long as to shorten the lives of operatives and make
self-improvement impossible. The natural progress of civilizing
influence did much to abate many of these evils, but the organization
of labor removed sores that had not and perhaps could not have been
reached in other ways. Having then an excuse for organization, and
supported by the success made in directions where public sympathy was
with them, is it to be wondered that they have gone too far in very
many cases, and that the leadership of such organization has in many