1111'''''(18

Sylvis said:

WE have heard and read a great deal about "the dignity of labor." It is a prolific theme with demagogues, politicians, occasionally attracts the attention of our most profound political economists. It also serves to ventilate the overcharged wisdom of many an egotist, who uses it as a stepping-stone to gain notoriety or promotion.

It is a remarkable fact, however, that those who flatter workingmen most, and hypocritically chant "the dignity of labor,"are the active agents in sinking it far beneath scientific and professional occupations, both of which are dependent upon and intimately connected with labor.

But let labor reach what standard of respectability it may in the estimation of effeminate non-producers, one thing is certain, it is the germ from which springs a nation's prosperity, and the only true fountain from which the masses can draw social happiness.

It is the motive power which keeps the machinery of society working in harmony.

It is the base upon which the proudest structure of art rests- the leverage which enables man to carry out God's wise purposes- the source from which science draws the elements of its power and greatness.

In short, labor is the attribute of all that is noble and grand in civilization.

(quoted from the essay "Prison Labor" in the Biography of William H. Sylvis)