§ 4. Play- and labor-motives mingled. Actions of a second kind are those pleasurable in themselves and at the same time leaving an objective result. The hunter enjoys the day better if he returns with well-filled bags of game. In extreme cases the distinction between the sportsman and the "pot-hunter" is not hard to find. It is a matter of emphasis; the one has his chief joy in the sport, the other in the material results of the sport. But always the motives are somewhat mingled. The study of primitive peoples shows that all of the more important industrial activities were first of the nature of play. The prim itive man did only the things he liked to do, unless driven by the direst want. The whole tribe danced and sang, went through intricate dramatic ceremonials before going upon a hunt or planting corn, made a tournament of the hunt itself, and even of hoeing and reaping the crops, and concluded with festivals in celebration of the successful hunt and of the bountiful harvest, to the delight of every member of the tribe. Thus were men gradually habituated to actions having an object out side and beyond themselves.
§ 5. Disagreeable labor. Actions of a third kind are those disagreeable in themselves, but performed by force of will, because leading to some desired result. A large part of what is called labor to-day is of this kind, either like taking medicine—positively disagreeable but endured for the hope of ulterior benefits—or in the milder cases only relatively un desirable, being not what one would most prefer to do at the time. The end sought is an objective good resulting from the labor.
The social ideal clearly is that all labor should be made desirable. Social dreamers love to picture a day when all shall find for effort a full reward in the mere doing—the reward of the artist, of the scholar, of the saint—in addition to the objective result in economic wealth. In some occupa tions possibly we are slowly nearing this ideal. Not only in the professions and in the esthetic arts, but in commerce, in mechanics, and in the humblest walks of life are found men free from envy, rejoicing in their daily tasks. Such is the normal feeling of the healthy optimist. And yet in every serious occupation there are numberless moments and occa sions when the spirit flags and only hard necessity holds men to their tasks. The complicated and often long-continued tasks of modern industry can not be accomplished by mere play ; neither can they by labor done only with immediate pleasure. The dilettante does not go far or long or steadily; the real tasks of the world are done by men that labor, now with joy, now wearily, but unfailingly. A large part of the
heavy monotonous hand-labor is an evil just because it yields so little of the joy of workmanship and is so purely drudgery endured for the day's wage at the end.
§ 6. Physical differences among men. material things differ in "their uses and fitness to economic uses, so do men differ in their powers o a r. The most obvious dif ference is in physical strength, which varies with age, indi vidual, race, and sex. Differences due to age are the most obvious. The child, at first weak, grows toward his maximum of physical strength, which he attains before his fullest intel lectual capacity.' The period of maximum physical working power lasts fifteen to twenty-five years according to the indi vidual and to the kind of work, and then gradually declines as the old worker approaches again the inefficiency of the child. Families and strains of stock differ notably in physical powers; one excels in stature, another in development of mus cle. The differences within families are inexplicable; some times one brother excelling in one thing, the other in another. The physically perfect man is a rare product. Among three thousand students are but twoscore endowed with the remark able combination of lungs, heart, muscle, nerve, and char acter, that makes possible the finest athletes. The natural dexterity of some workers marvelously surpasses that of the 2 In 1910 there were nearly 2,000,000 children of the age-group be tween ten and fifteen years reported as engaged in gainful occupations in the United States, most of them in agriculture. Two-thirds of the total number were boys, those occupied being one-fourth of all boys of that age-group. In the South, however (comprising the three southern geographical divisions in the census), nearly half the boys of that age group were in gainful occupations, while in the North only one-eighth were.
average man, and seemingly is due not to special training, but to natural qualities of sight, touch, nervous reaction, or mus cular energy. The national and racial differences in work ing power, even in the simplest tasks, are marked, but are diffi cult to explain, as so many influences, customs, habits of life, and varieties of diet modify the result. We can not tell how much of the Englishman's great superiority over the East Indianian is due to individual native differences of mind and body, how much to the social environments in which they have lived. Certainly tho, the difference is not mainly one in size; in the Boxer War the little brown men of Japan out marched all the others. Certainly fiber counts for more than bulk, and character for more than muscle.