Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1909 — Idleness Affects Morality [ARTICLE]

Idleness Affects Morality

By JOHN F. WALLACE.

Formerly Chief Engineer of Panama.

Tk /V ORA LIT Y is a mental or spiritual state, not physical. I I Ihe more active and occupied the community the I X. higher its standards of morality. A RELAXED CONZ DITION, PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL, BUT ESPECIALLY PHYSICAL, LEADS TO IMMORALITY. In the tropics, as in the temperate countries, you find that THE ACTIVE, INTERESTED POPULATION IS MORAL; THE from the States sent out by the government, corporations and individual employers are men of the highest moral, mental and physical standard. THEY ARE PICKED MEN—PICKED BECAUSE THEY MUST HAVE THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL ENDURANCE TO OVERCOME DIFFICULTIES, BEAR SEPARATION FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND FOR LOVE OF WORK, NOT SALARY ALONE. THESE MEN ARE NOT IDLE; THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT IMMORAL. YOU CANNOT BE OCCUPIED AND IMMORAL AT THE SAME TIME. • But in summer you have peculiar conditions. Decidedly the immorality is due not to temperature, but to idleness—to what we lightly term needed relaxation of the vacation season.