--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 8 published: 1903-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Talks to Young Men: VIII—Industry," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 8 (June 1903): 604–608.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0608unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0608unse start_page: 604 end_page: 608 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0608unse publication_year: 1903 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Talks to Young Men: VIII—Industry 604 IMPROVEMENT ERA comfortable environment has developed, in the rising generation, tastes for "nicer" vocations; and the workshop is abandoned for the office, the bank, or the bar. The tendency toward professional callings has been stronger than it should have been during the past decade, and a return to the bench and workshop would today be proper for the majority of our young men. There is a most con- spicuous falling behind in the mechanical pursuits, among the pro- gressive young men of our state. It will require grit and determination to lay aside habits for true character, and to put aside fine clothes and white linen, and put on overalls and jumper, and get to work in dust and grease and smoke, but that's the sure way to make men. "Iron bars and perspiration" build characters as well as struc- tures of steel and stone . A young man should aspire to be something more than a com- mon laborer; be a skilled artisan. Learn a trade that develops the brain as well as the brawn, and you'll find in it independence, dig- nity, a comfortable living, advantages never dreamed of, perhaps, and, still more, it may be a means to great and noble ends. How pitiably dependent is the man who has no hand-craft at his command! He can only use a pick or a shovel, and thereby rates himself at one dollar and a half, or two dollars per day. Think of it! A man with a brain that can think, and a hand that can take hold of things, valuing himself at one dollar and a half per day! And all for the lack of muscular and mental education combined. To be a mechanic does not require the laying aside of intellec- tual training that every man should strive for; in fact the two go hand in hand. The late George G. Bywater was a man of unusual intellectual attainments, and, at the same time, a locomotive en- gineer of the highest rank. While engaged in running the loco- motive on passenger trains between this city and Ogden, he was, one Sunday, called to occupy the pulpit in the Tabernacle. In the audience were a number of distinguished Union Pacific officials, who, after the service, were very anxious to meet the speaker who had delivered the learned and instructive discourse. President Young told the visitors that the speaker had to hurry oflP to catch his train, but that they could meet him at the depot, as they were to leave on his train. When they met the man, it was beside his loco- 2ALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 605 motive, where he stood with jumper on, and oil can in hand. One of these distinguished gentlemen rode in the locomotive cab, with the engineer, and from that day on, a strong friendship existed between them. The party expressed themselves as feeling per- fectly safe in riding on a train behind such an engineer. A father who does not give his son a trade, but teaches him industry only, sends him forth into life's battle with a stick in his hand instead of a sword. With such miserable equipment, is it any wonder that many fall in the fierce struggle for competent exist- ence? But give the young man a hand-craft along with head- craft, and the battle is half won at the very onset. Laboring men remain common laborers generation after gener- ation. Only a small per cent of the toiling masses rise from the traditional rut in which they find themselves environed. But it is invariably the tradesman, the mechanic, that has trained the mind to work with the hand, that lifts his family from the thral- dom of poverty, and places them in a higher sphere. Then the advantages of education are seen and seized, and that tradesman has emancipated his descendents to the fourth or fifth generations. One day, the writer was in the office of the late Elias Morris, and there heard a venerable looking gentleman make the following splendid statement to the bishop: "Twenty years ago, you told my son to drop the hod, and you put a trowel in his hand. Today, he is the father of a large and prosperous family. He attributes his success in life to that turning-point which your interest and insight into his character brought about." A young man was driving team for one dollar and a quarter per day. His employer recognized in him a conscientious regard for his work, and determined to elevate him. He consequently called him down from the wagon seat, and put a chisel and mallet into his hand. Scarce five years have passed, and that teamster is now a fair mechanic, drawing about three times the wage he drew formerly. This is a fair example of the monetary advantage that a trade usually has over common day-labor. There are, however, hundreds of men, in this state, who are capable of being first-class mechanics, but for want of grit and opportunity, are working for ^ages that a Pullman car porter would look upon with contempt. And still farther, there are professional men, too, of fine scholastic 606 IMPROVEMENT ERA, attainments, who are working for similar wages, while, among the competent tradesmen, such as masons, carpenters, plumbers, and stone-cutters, there are many who are making from five to six dollars per day. The compensation, however, is not the only consideration in regard to work. The pleasure a man has in his toil is often quite as deserving of attention as the wages. To be a real tradesman, one must have pleasure in his work. His heart must be in it. A great artist was once asked how it was that he produced such beautiful blending of colors in his painting. He replied: "I mix them with my brains." A man's brains and heart must be put into his work, or he is not a great workman. When you build, do so as though you were to out-do the pyramids; build for eternity. During a recent stay in Chicago, the writer visited the plant of a very successful contractor. The energetic proprietor said to him: "I work from ten to twelve hours each day. If I don't get pleasure out of my work, I have none in life." He was the man at the heart of his business. The scores of employes under him recognized him as their master mechanic, and there was not a piece of work in the shop that he was not master of. By reason of his conscientious attention to the details of his work, he has made a reputation for superior workmanship, and he had all the work of the highest order in his line he could do, and for it re- ceived his own price, always. He absolutely refused to do anything but the best work, and thereby established a reputation. "A mechanic's reputation is his capital." "A broken reputation iz like a broken vase; it may be mended^ but always shows where the krak was." —Josh Billings. An incident in the life of Bishop Elias Morris illustrates this, and shows the jealousy with which he guarded his reputation as a mechanic. It occurred back in the 50's. He and his wife were locating in Provo, and the bishop had purchased a log cabin for one dollar, and had just moved it onto a main street lot which he had received in exchange for a new English overcoat. The newly located couple had been entertaining some friends, one night, and had made up an unusually large log fire. The heat had been so intense that it had burned the heavy log on the outside which . TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 607 propped the adobe chimney. After they had gone to bed, and just fallen asleep, the bishop and wife were suddenly awakened by a tremendous noise. It did not take long to discover that the log had been burned away, and the great chimney on the outside of the cabin had tumbled into a heap. The young mason soon saw his way out of his predicament, and said to his wife: "We must rebuild the chimney before daylight, for," added he, "how can I ex- pect to get other people to employ me to build for them, if I can- not build a chimney for myself that will stand?" With his wife as tender, he rebuilt the chimney before daylight, and when the morn- ing light came, it did not reveal a mechanic with a damaged repu- tation. A few years later, Elias Morris contracted for the con- struction of the first story of the Salt Lake temple, and his repu- tation as a builder will stand unequalled, at least for the first fifty years of Utah's history. We spoke of a trade as serving as a means to greater ends. Because a young man masters a trade, it does not follow that he must slavishly follow that vocation without hope of enlarging his sphere. Two young men, today, stand high in the profession of law who were at the beginning of their careers, one, a stone-cutter on the Temple block; the other, a carpenter in the shop. But each used the trade he mastered as a means to other ends. Since we have ventured to mention names, let us go still far- ther, for, as Ingersol once said, "after all, men are the best books." About fifty years ago, Henry Dinwoodey might have been seen making barrels and tubs in a little shop in St. Louis, (and beside him his thrifty wife, selling nic-nacs). Later, he followed his trade in this city, and went from that to cabinet work and wood carving. Today he can ride in his carriage through the beautiful streets of Salt Lake City, and point out, here and there, cornice and wood- work which he did with his own tools, in the days of small things. He is the owner of one of the largest and most prosperous estab- lishments in this inter-mountain country. And it all came into his hands through the means of the trade he mastered in his younger days. As much may be said of the personnel of the well known firm of Taylor, Romney and Armstrong, of this city. Both of the two gentlemen first named spent their early days at the bench, and — 608 IMPROVEMENT ERA. stood knee deep in shavings, pushing the jack-plane and rip-saw. Their hands, to this day, bear the royal scars of this earth's "inde- feasable scepter," the implements of hand-craft. They are, today, prosperous men of large affairs, connected with many of the largest business concerns in the state. And what is still more com- mendable in these men, their lives are not so wrapped in business affairs that they can do nothing else. Each of them is able to spend the greater part of his time in higher and nobler callings than the mart and workshop. They work untiringly in the service of the Master-workman. Among the most competent mechanics we have had in this country is William Silver. He equipped his three sons with good trades, and today they are the proprietors of a growing and pros- perous plant unsurpassed between Denver and the coast. This came to them by reason of the hand-craft which a wise and indus- trious father imparted to them. Wilford. Woodruff was a miller by trade, and Heber C. Kimball, a potter; While Brigham young was a glazier and cabinet-maker. No man is born into this world whose work Is not born with him; there is always work, And tools to work withal, for those who will; And blessed are the horny hands of toil! Lowell. DO RIGHT! Motive and action make character, both in men and in organ- izations. It is the man with pure motives and steady purpose who builds for himself a noble character. If the motives be selfish, or abandoned on slight provocation, the resultant character is an ob- ject of scorn and a thing ignoble.