Robert Hunter (author): Work

Robert Hunter (author) was American sociologist, author, golf course architect. Explore interesting quotes on work.
Robert Hunter (author): 196   quotes 0   likes

“To be above the poverty line, means no more than to have a sanitary dwelling and sufficient food and clothing to keep the body in working order. It is precisely the same standard that a man would demand for his horses or slaves.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Poverty (1912), p. 7
Context: To be above the poverty line, means no more than to have a sanitary dwelling and sufficient food and clothing to keep the body in working order. It is precisely the same standard that a man would demand for his horses or slaves. Treating man merely as the "repository of a certain sort of labor power," it makes possible the utilization of that power to the fullest extent. No one will fail to realize how low such a standard is. It does not necessarily include any of the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, or social necessities; it is a purely physical standard...

Food , Horse , Clothes

“In the time of Jesus almost everybody worked in small shops or on the land and then sold or bartered their own products in the towns.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 68
Context: In the time of Jesus almost everybody worked in small shops or on the land and then sold or bartered their own products in the towns. There were no vast industrial centers, no great factories, no steam power or electricity. Everyone knew his neighbor by name. There was no highly developed division of labor, nor were there great extremes of wealth and poverty. Such economic conditions are ideal—or at least as nearly ideal as they can ever be—for the spread of Christian communism. And so they are still in many parts of Russia.

Time

“When principles will not work out in practice and the obstructions confronting men are too great, even the most faithful give way. And this”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 63
Context: When principles will not work out in practice and the obstructions confronting men are too great, even the most faithful give way. And this, so far as we know, is what happened to every Tolstoyan.

Men , Faith , Way

“Hard manual labor revealed many things to Tolstoy. As soon as he began to do regular physical work the greater part of his luxurious habits and wants”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 37
Context: Hard manual labor revealed many things to Tolstoy. As soon as he began to do regular physical work the greater part of his luxurious habits and wants, which were so numerous when he had been physically idle, disappeared.

Parting

“Tolstoy, while sympathizing with the industrial workers, believed that they ought not to organize in trade unions and he opposed strenuously nearly every form of action advocated by working-class organizations.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 72

“There was one form of concerted action that Tolstoy believed advisable and he asked the workers to refrain religiously, firstly, from working for capitalists, if they could possibly get on without it; secondly, from offering their work at a lower rate than that current; thirdly, from improving their position by passing over to the side of the capitalists and serving their interests; and fourthly and chiefly, from participating in governmental coercion, be it police, customhouse, or military service. Only by such "a religious attitude toward the form of their activity" can the workmen liberate themselves from oppression. …a bloodless revolution that would be carried into effect through passive resistance. The workers are simply to refrain from doing anything that will add to the wealth or power of those who now dominate their lives. …All the people cannot be shot down or imprisoned and if all the people were willing to do as Thoreau did—go to jail rather than pay taxes, government itself would disappear.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 72-73

People , Wealth

“Whatever knowledge of the question is manifested herein comes largely from my work in a variety of movements intended either to diminish the number of dependents or to ameliorate the conditions of poverty.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Poverty (1912), p. vii

Question , Knowledge , Dependency

“To live miserable we know not why, to have the dread of hunger, to work sore and yet gain nothing—this is the essence of poverty.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Poverty (1912), p. 2

Hunger

“Without question, the causes, which produce on the one hand long hours and overemployment, result on the other hand in short periods of work, underemployment, or unemployment.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Poverty (1912), p. 28

Question

“Although Tolstoy in his protest recognized the fact that he was bound up with all others, neither this nor the knowledge of his individual helplessness induced him to work with others in order to change any part of the infamous governmental system of Russia.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 67

Knowledge , Change , Parting

“In seeking what to do, Tolstoy was materially helped by a remarkable workingman, Basil Soutaieff, who was actually following as perfectly as he knew how, the example of Jesus…. When asked, "What is truth?" he answered with conviction, "Truth is love in a common life." When his devotion to the unfortunate, the hungry, and the needy became known to Tolstoy, it had a profound influence upon his thought and eventually worked an entire transformation in his manner of living.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 23

Love , Life , Truth , Help

“It was not until Mr. Charles Booth published in 1891 the results of his exhaustive inquiries that the actual conditions of poverty in London became known. …about 30 per cent of the entire population of London were found to be unable to obtain the necessaries for a sound livelihood. …About ten years later Mr. B. S. Rountree incited by the work of Mr. Booth undertook a similar inquiry in his native town York. …His comments are as follows: "…we are faced by the startling probability that from 25 to 30 per cent of the town populations of the United Kingdom are living in poverty."”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Poverty (1912), p. 17-19

“Another workingman named Bóndaref, was also of immense practical help to Tolstoy, chiefly through his remarkable book "Industry and Idleness.".. Bóndaref insists that the "chief, primary, and most immutable" law for humanity is that every man must earn his own bread with his own hands. "Bread labor," as thus understood, includes all heavy rough work necessary to save man from death by hunger and cold and this bread includes, of course, food, drink, clothes, shelter, and fuel…. As the world has rarely heard such teachings since the days of the Apostles and the early Christian Fathers, Tolstoy seemed to consider Bóndaref as the discoverer of a new truth which he eagerly accepted as fundamental to a just life…. he emphasized the point that children must he taught above all things to do hard productive labor. They must be taught to be ashamed from the very beginning to use, and profit by, the labor of others.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 24-25

Life , Death , Hunger , Children

“Already in this country, as a result of the recent controversy, it is written in the constitution of the socialist party that "any member of the party who opposes political action or advocates crime, sabotage, or other methods of violence as a weapon of the working class to aid in its emancipation shall be expelled from membership in the party." Adopted by the national convention of the party in 1911, this clause was ratified at a general referendum of all the membership of the party. It is clear, therefore, that the immense majority of socialists are determined to employ peaceable and legal methods of action.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Violence and the Labor Movement (1914), p. ix

Country

“To continue in poverty for any long period means in the end the loss of the power of doing work, and to be unable to work means in the end pauperism.”

Robert Hunter (author)

Source: Poverty (1912), p. 7

Loss