The House and the Builder

"In these strife-torn times,' Jonathan Daniels, a journalist and writer in the early days, wrote,'mens hopes are often coupled with their hates. So,' he continued, 'it is good to remember this simple philosophy which Lincoln brought from the frontier to use in a speech which he made in 1864 to a labor union."

"Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."-Abraham Lincoln

These words are not often brought forward in our times. Workers and employers have been too busy seeking the testimony of their own evident partisans to pause much over the wholeness of such wisdom for both of them.

Mr. Lincoln was not worried about divisions between workers and employers because he was so honestly simple that he could not see them as separate groups. He had built houses and knew something about the labor involved in the process. He held as worthy of security the things he had helped to make.

Abe Lincoln knew - or maybe he learned it lifting logs - that the laborer is worthy of his hire and that honest hire must include not only bread for today but also hope for tomorrow.

Mr. Lincoln said it very simply: the house and the builder, the bread and the hope, the labor and the security, are not parts in a quarrel but equal elements in the creative enterprise of Americans. And he who does not guard his fellow's security is diligently engaged only in the destruction of his own. Stop the madness, please.