Berea College - Chimes Yearbook (Berea, KY)

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LABOR ' S ORISONS by Albert G. Weidler For the past twenty-five years commencement has brought the privilege of autographing personal greetings in the Chimes, the students ' remembrance book par excellence. This year the editor has asked for a general printed expression since the 1943 Chimes is dedicated to Berea ' s labor program. This in itself is an assurance of the importance of the place labor has held in the life of the Berea student, and is a challenge to an interpretation worthy of such gratitude and loyalty. It has been my habit to quote, as the mood dictated, one of two mottoes which to me epitomize labor ' s relation to each student. These taken from the Latin, for centuries the universal language of scholars, were Labor omnia vincit ( Labor conquers everything ) and Laborare est orare ( To labor is to pray ) . Little by little I have found myself using the latter as the more significant interpretation. It is only a half truth to affirm that labor conquers everything. There are many, many situations in which our most earnest endeavors are completely frustrated. An outstanding instance is the untiring and unselfish endeavors of thousands of friends of peace to prevent another war. Then, too, there seems to be too much importance given to con- quering. Life cannot be summed up solely in one ' s conquests. So I have accepted for this twenty-fifth annual greet- ing the one, to me, most expressive, Laborare est orare. ( Laborare is the infinitive of a compound verb consisting of two Latin root verbs, lab and ora. The first verb, lab means to be weak, to totter, to fall, the past participle giving us the word lapse. It indicates the struggle and physical exhaustion of work which unfortunately has been the most common lot of man. Originally the word laborare consisted only of this first verb, but in the evolution of the civilization and of the thinking of the Romans the idea was modified and ennobled by the addition of the second verb, orare to speak or to pray. So now, as we have inherited it, our word labor means mental and spiritual expression through the physical exertion of work In our Berea program labor is in truth self-expression through work. Each student has the opportunity of earning his living, in whole or in part. In most schools this opportunity is limited, and the comparatively few funds available are used to provide scholarships for the few who are exceptionally endowed or eminently successful in scholarly competition. These favored few are being carried in part at least by the accumulated previous earnings of the toil of others and thus are relieved sufficiently from self-support to progress still more, and further outdistance their fellows. It has been characteristic of our Berea students that rarely has one even applied for the few limited scholarships which we have, and in some cases they have been reluctant to accept those offered. In case of acceptance the usual agreement has been that the funds so used will be considered as a loan to b - returned later when earnings have begun. Berea ' s policy in granting its few traditional scholarships has been to supplement the earnings of worthy and promising students, not to carry the student without rewarding labor but to help him help himself. To be truly self -expressive labor must be adequately compensated. In some schools, having a labor plan much of the required work is in lieu of tuition or other services and is otherwise unpaid. This has never been true of Berea. Our students cannot complain as did Cervantes in Don Quixote when he referred to those of his contemporaries who can expect nothing but labor for their pains. The Berea student has the satisfaction of not only earning his expenses in part, but of keeping down the cost of his living expenses to the minimum by cooperating with his fellows to do the necessary work of the institution at rates comparable to the low charges. Thus each student is able to earn his ex- penses and at the same time keep these expenses within the r;ach of all. May he not rightly say, in the words of Milton, that in his daily duties in maintaining the Berea Household his labor has consisted of orisons, each morning duly paid . Then, too, labor to be truly self-expressive must be free. Ours has been a free labor in a democracy of scholars, not the frozen slave labor of an aristocratic Athens or of the present-day concentration camp. Ben Greet, in his Labor Day address, stressed the type of labor we delight in. How often his experience and ours has paralleled that of Shakes- peare in that the labor we delight in physics pain. I am sure the supervisors of labor will join me in our appreciation of the many instances of self-sacrificing acts of loyalty on the part of Berea students. We can say as the apostle Paul did in his first letter to his co-laborers, the Thessalonians, remembering your labor of love. Our self-expressive labor has been compatible with high scholarship. Many have feared that the increasing number of students of college rank would mean a loss of efficiency in labor and an increasing unwillingness on the part of the higher trained students to do the necessary work of the institution. The college enrollment increase from scores to hundreds and, at the peak, to a thousand, has had just the opposite effect. Our iabor system has had a relation to gen- eral scholarly training similar to that the laboratory has to training in the physical sciences. The labor position has been the laboratory where much discipline and skill have been achieved. The supervisors, foremen, and superintend- ents have been the laboratory instructors. Our President Emeritus William J. Hutchins gave numerous instances of this in his Labor Day address, Labor the Good Teacher. Students and faculty alike have been learners in this great laboratory of labor. In some types of labor directly connected with class work, as laboratory assistants, instructors, paper graders, and the like, many a student has been instrumental in helping teach other students the techniques of scholarly habits. In solving the problems of surplus labor, Berea College has organized industries of the handicraft-art type, hieing a non-profit institution, she has assumed the responsibility of providing work for all. She has guaranteed this in an article of her Constitution. While profit organizations have kept their necessary labor reserves in unemployment and idleness, Berea has set its surplus workers at interesting and educational types of labor, making artistic products of interest to that portion of the public that supports educational institutions. Wherever these beauiful products, hand- woven woolens and linens, furniture, toys, decorated tea-sugars, are displayed, the Berea message of self-expressive labor is preached. . a , In his labor the Berea student has been encouraged to think, to create. The annual creative effort prizes have ottered excellent incentives to this end. Everywhere on the Berea campus are tangible evidences of the creative handiwork of her students. In visiting the famous public schools of Great Britain which have had such a large part in training the leaders of that nation, one frequently observes the public recognition of the honors, scholarships, and awards of their graduates won at Cambridge or Oxford. The citations are frequently inscribed on plaques prominently displayed in their chapels. In Berea the citations are not displayed in gilded words but are fabricated into the very fibre of her — continued on page fifteen

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I We dedicate this book to the Berea workshop in which we have come to believe that there is dignity and joy in working with our hands

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These are the things we do with our hands and our minds. These are the ways in which we earn while we learn. We do the jobs that need doing everywhere. An unknown printshop will someday benefit through the labor of a Berea-trained typesetter. Berea bread is good bread, made by students who learn the right ways of doing. Weaving brings adventure and satisfaction to aspiring Minervas. The college farm is a challenge to all agriculturists as well as a place for learning. Confectioneries neatly decorated go all over the United States to tell of Berea ' s working students. The child who plays with a Needlecraft toy is sure of a good, lasting companion. Science pl ays a part in the things we do. Newer and better methods for working are not slow in coming to Berea. Like weavers of old Berea boys manu- facture woolen cloth for suits and coats. We feed ourselves and others with our own labor