WORK & WORKER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1941, Page 2

WORK & WORKER

ADDING DIGNITY TO LABOUR. "The difference between Man and other beings is that Man, made in the image of his Creator, must himself create or he will become something less than a man; he must create not only from necessity but from the love of creating,” said Miss Dorothy Sayers, the well-known novelist, in a recent address. “To treat economics as the sole basis, of man’s dealings with his fellow man is the negation of Christian principles. The real issue is the right relation between the work itself and the worker made in the image of the Eternal Craftsman. Years ago that would have been a commonplace; today it is quite remote from the ideas of the ordinary man. In the concentration upon economic security the true end of work is lost and forgotten. There is one set of men and women, however, who live by and for the practice of a creative imagination; men and women who are lumped together under the general name of Artists. They are writers, musicians, painters, poets and so forth. The general worker plods to make money so that he may enjoy those things in life which are outside his work. The artist makes money by his work in order that he may go on working. His work is his life. It is impossible, for instance, for him to submit to trade union rules. How can he subscribe to an eight-hour day, or keep to it if he does? He cannot stop his work unless he stops living. To set fetters upon his work is to set fetters upon his life. Yet he of all people has the least economic security.”