Like most Americans, the old man was too deeply involved with labor and
capital to think in those terms. Instead he thought in terms of people and
whether their work - and their word - was good. He liked giving people a
start.
There was Henry Johnson, for example, whom he'd hired as a boy - and taught
how to fix shoes. Henry would stay with him for the next 50 years through
the old man's various ventures, mastering one skill after another. His
apprentice would grow old with him, teach him as much he'd learned, and die
two weeks before the old man himself did. The family smiled knowingly. They
knew Henry had just gone ahead, as usual, to scout things out.
On this Labor Day, a great deal will be said in the usual press releases,
but none of it will be more eloquent than work done well. To me, two new
soles on a pair of well-shined shoes still say more than all the Labor Day
speeches ever written.
Paul Greenberg
Pulitzer Prize-winning Paul Greenberg, one of the most respected and honored commentators in America, is the editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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