982 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY
be men to collect these materials, to buy and sell and distrib-
ute them. Everyone stands in his own place and does his own
work, and receives his wages. But he is none the less working
for you, and serving you as truly and effectively as he would
be if he were in your special employment and received his
wages from your hand.
In the light of these facts, which everyone must acknowl-
edge, we may be able to see more clearly the truth, that every
man and woman who does useful work is a public bene-
factor, and the thought of it and the purpose of it will
ennoble the labor and the laborer. We are all bound together
by common ties. The rich and the poor, the learned and the
ignorant, the strong and the weak, are woven together in one
social and civic web. Harm to one is harm to all; help to one
is help to all.
You see what a vast army of servants it requires to provide
your dinner. Do you not see that it demands a correspond-
ing amount of capital to provide and keep this complicated
machinery in motion? And do you not see that every man,
woman and child is enjoying the benefit of it? How could we
get our coal, our meat, our flour, our tea and coffee, sugar
and rice? The laborer cannot build ships and sail them and
support himself while doing it. The farmer cannot leave his
farm and take his produce to the market. The miner cannot
mine and transport his coal. The farmer in Kansas may be
burning corn today to cook his food and warm his dwelling,
and the miner may be hungry for the bread which the corn
would supply, because they cannot exchange the fruits of their
labor. Every acre of land, every forest and mine has been in-
creased in value by railways and steamboats, and the comforts
of life and the means of social and intellectual culture have
been carried to the most inaccessible places.