Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 167, 8 April 1891 — Betterment of the Laborer. [ARTICLE]

Betterment of the Laborer.

A great truth frequeiitly lost (?'igbt of is, that nothing in this workl is iinal, nothing susceptable of adjustmcnt f<,r all time. As in the iix r ocl Bcienees the student i»' \ei reaches a «tage where he ean say there is nothing bevond, ho the Hoeial science struggle is— as a very coLi(lition of prGgress-— ii:cessant and perpetuai. The natural tendency of eivilized society 13 toward3 betterment and it is througli tliis law that the man who works fr;r wages shall be endeavoring to better his eondition throuf:h his employment. Every demand whieh labor has inade since it beeame an organized forcfi has been aeeom}>anied by an assurance that if it (>arried its point a finality would be reached. But this has generally proved delueive, as finality st; II to be in -tbe distance. This is sin:ply a natural law of progress. Whenever a class rests satisfied with what it has done and ceases to try to better itself, it .etagnates and begins to retrograde. If men of science were to conclude tnat discovery and invention had reached thsir limit of progress, the world would begin to decay and human activity woukl eome to a 6tandstill. īt is on!y by constantly aiming at bettcrment that mankir.d ean ! m;jintain its ho!d on the gains it enjoys. '♦ • ♦ We hear that the llawaiian T<ll, (ir;vcrnor of thc Leper Hcttlenient, Moloka' has to be satisfied with a thir<l of what was paid his AngloSaxon predeeessor salarv. \Y<> are only astonished that Tell gcts even as mueh as that