nreliable workers
are the savages, paupers, criminals, idiots, lunatics, drunkards, and
the great tribe of exploiters, "grafters," despots, and "leisure
classes," who live on the work of others. Nearly every question of
social pathology may be resolved to this, Why does he not work? And
nearly every social ill would be cured if the non-workers could be
brought voluntarily to work.

There are just two grand motives which induce the freeman to
work--necessity and ambition. Necessity is the desire for quantity,
quality, and variety of things to be used. The term is elastic. It is
psychological, not material. It includes, of course, the wants of mere
animal existence--food, clothing, shelter. But this is a small part. The
cost of the mere quantity needed to support life is less than the added
cost needed to secure the quality and variety that satisfy the taste and
habits. A pig enjoys raw corn, but a man requires corn cake at five
times the cost. Tastes and habits depend on one's childhood, one's
training, one's associations, and kind of work. The necessities of a
Chinese coolie, Italian immigrant, or negro plantation hand are less,
and cost less, than those of a skilled mechanic or a college graduate,
because his associations have been different, and his present work is
different. But necessity goes farther. It includes the wants of the
family considered as a unit, and not merely the wants of the single man
or woman, else the race would not continue to increase. Furthermore,
social obligations impose added necessity. Compulsory education of
children compels parents to support their children instead of living on
their wages. Laws regulating sanitation and tenements compel the tenant
to pay more rent. The necessities of a farm-hand on the estates of Italy
are less than those of the same hand in the cities of America.

Ambition is the desire for an improved position for one's self and
family--for better quality and greater variety of material things. It
demands a style of clothing and living suitable to the improved position
aspired to. It demands an education for one's children superior to the
minimum set by compulsory schooling. It demands thrift and economy for
the sake of independence or the ability to hold on until one's demands
are conceded. Ambition looks to the future--necessity is based on the
past. The negro or the Malay works three days and loafs three because
three days' wages procure his necessities. The Chinama