are only as it aids in
health and morals. Labor is separated, too, from all exertions to destroy
or injure the welfare of others, if we can see their object. Any person
claiming to labor professes to have given his exertions for the
satisfaction of somebody's wants without doing violence to the welfare of
others in the community. Whenever we do not assume this we concede a state
of war, violence and destruction taking the place of production and
accumulation. These may require exertions usually classed with labor; but
are punished instead of being rewarded, unless we can establish their
final advantage in a larger welfare for humanity, or in defense of
society.

_Productive labor._--The various classifications of labor serve merely to
call attention to peculiar relations implied in the results. If exertion
results in giving additional wealth, or power to produce wealth, it is
called productive labor; but if it contributes only to immediate comfort
or pleasure or safety it is called unproductive. The distinction is useful
so far as it enables us to be prudent in adjusting energies to meet real
wants. All labor is maintained by the product of exertions. Any labor
expended without a product must be provided for by an increased product
from some other form of labor. A farmer may sustain life upon the food he
raises; but the wife who makes his house a home cannot live on the product
of her labors. She may add to the value of some products directly, as in
turning milk into butter, and raw materials into palatable food; but her
chief energy may be in getting satisfaction for the household out of
materials gained by her husband. Both are essential to the welfare of
either, and prudence requires a proper adjustment between them. A force of
physicians may be needed to keep a community in working condition; but if
a whole community tried to live as doctors some other community must
furnish the material wealth to sustain them.

Any increase of labor upon material products, either directly or
indirectly, may increase ability to meet future wants, while increase of
labor upon present uses of wealth may diminish ability for the future. The
wealth of a community is the product of all the labors that contribute to
make material nature useful. This classification is important in studying
the question of productive consumption of wealth, but does not decide
which gives best results. It is a serious error to assume that the worker,
whose