Section 1: Labor as a Natural Necessity

1. Labor is, first of all, a natural necessity. Nature compels man to labor for the necessary means of subsistence. Since the fall of our first parents, the earth, which is the ultimate source of all things required for the support of the human race, of itself bears nothing but thorns and thistles, and man is compelled to till the soil in the sweat of his brow to make it yield the products he needs. "With labor and toil thou shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life."¹ "The soul of him that laboreth, laboreth for himself, because his mouth hath obliged him to it."²

¹ Gen. III, 17 sqq.

² Prov. XVI, 26.

"Manual labor," says St. Thomas, "has a fourfold purpose. The first and principal one is to procure food, wherefore the first man was told: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.'³ ... Therefore, since manual labor is ordained for the obtaining of sustenance, it falls under the necessity of precept, because it is necessary to attain that end. For that which is ordained towards an end, derives necessity from that end, i. e., it is necessary in proportion as the end cannot be attained without it. Consequently, he who has no living from some other source, is obliged to perform manual labor, no matter what his position may be."⁴

³ Gen. III, 19.

⁴ Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 187, art. 3: “Manual labor is ordained to four purposes. First and principally, to obtaining sustenance; whence it was said to the first man: ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.’... Therefore, insofar as manual labor is ordained to obtaining sustenance, it falls under the necessity of precept according as it is necessary for such an end; for that which is ordained to an end has necessity from the end, so that it is necessary precisely insofar as the end cannot exist without it. And therefore one who has no other source from which he can live is bound to work with his hands, of whatever condition he may be.”

Having in view both the natural and the economic aspect of labor, we can truly say that the more industriously men work, the more abundant are the means of sustenance and enjoyment at their disposal, and the less danger there is of want.

2. As man consists of body and soul, his labor is either bodily or mental, or perhaps it would be more correct to say, it is both bodily and mental; for as a rule the two occur in combination, though one or the other may, and usually does, predominate. Moreover, nearly every kind of bodily labor is more or less planned and directed by the will and the intellect; —by the will, because all labor involves the overcoming of difficulties; by the intellect, because the proper utilization of the materials and powers furnished by nature requires a preliminary knowledge. Productive labor is that which creates, conserves, acquires or transfers material or economic goods, and likewise that which produces, preserves, communicates or spreads personal or social values, as religious and moral convictions or endeavors, useful knowledge or facilities, intellectual and spiritual culture, political order and security, or any other requisites of intellectual and physical well-being.⁵ While the work of some classes of men, e. g., physicians, teachers, priests, authors, etc., does not produce material goods, it may be truly said to be productive in a mediate and indirect way, because the creation, acquisition, and preservation of economic values depends largely on personal and social goods. "He who writes a book," in the words of a modern author, "serves the intellect, and by serving the intellect, serves the world." Thus, in the natural or economic sense, labor may be defined as the conscious and purposeful application of man's faculties with a view to producing those things which are necessary or useful for sustaining life.

⁵ Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 187, art. 3: “It must nevertheless be known that under manual work are understood all human offices by which men lawfully earn their livelihood, whether they are performed by the hands, by the feet, or by the tongue. For watchmen and runners and others of this kind who live from their labor are understood to live by the works of their hands. For because the hand is the instrument of instruments, by the work of the hands is understood every operation from which anyone can lawfully earn a livelihood.”—Ibid., qu. 100, art. 3, ad 3: “One who has knowledge and has not thereby undertaken an office by which he is bound to impart the use of his knowledge to others can lawfully accept payment for his teaching or counsel, not as though selling truth or knowledge, but as though hiring out his services.”

The line of demarcation between work and play is not always easy to draw; nevertheless it exists and must be duly attended to.

Charles S. Devas,⁶ because of the invidious and misleading character of the term "unproductive," prefers to divide labor into industrial and non-industrial, according as its end is, or is not, the preparation of material goods or the production of wealth. The terms industrial and non-industrial are also used by Dr. H. Sidgwick⁷ and correspond substantially with Prof. Nicholson's "material production" and "immaterial production." The moralist may disregard this controversy as irrelevant.

⁶ Political Economy, 3rd ed., London 1917, pp. 15 sqq.

⁷ The Principles of Political Economy, p. 265, London 1883.

3. The welfare of the individual as well as that of society depends not only on the amount of labor performed, but likewise on its proper distribution among the different individuals and classes that constitute the community, on the way in which the laboring men are treated, and on the perfection of the mechanical means employed, such as tools, machinery, power, and on the progress made in industry, trade, and commerce. A higher standard of living with less expenditure of labor is to-day the goal of all classes of workers, including the farmer.

The necessity of working for a living entails the obligation of employing labor efficiently and economically, so as to make it as fruitful and re- munerative as possible and to satisfy not only the elementary natural needs of man, but likewise his legitimate craving for relaxation.⁸

⁸ Cfr. F. Schäffle, Kapitalismus und Sozialismus, 2nd ed., Tübingen 1878; G. Ratzinger, Die Volkswirtschaft in ihren sittlichen Grundlagen, 2nd ed., Freiburg 1895.

Of the "right to work" we shall treat in the fifth volume of this Handbook.⁹

⁹ See on this subject J. E. Ross, C. S. P., The Right to Work, New York, 1918.

READINGS. —St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 187, art. 3. —Leo XIII, Encyclical "Rerum Novarum," May 15, 1891 (The Pope and the People, London 1912, pp. 188 sqq.) —E. Genicot, Theologiae Moralis Institutiones, 4th ed., Louvain 1902, Vol. I, n. 365. —S. Weber, Evangelium und Arbeit, Freiburg 1898. —H. Noldin, S.J., Summa Theologiae Moralis, Vol. II, 11th ed., Innsbruck 1914, pp. 79 sqq.