MAt 27, 1919
13
The Commoner.
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A Stray Thought or Two
Every now and then I
run across
a .man who secies to excuse nis em
ployment of little children in his
factory by saying:
"I started out to work when I was
11 years old."
That man is usually about 50 or
55 years old, and he seems to think
that because he had to begin work
when he was a boy that boys ought
to begin earning a livelihood by the
time they are 10 or 12.
Iran up against such a man in a
big city the other day. He employs
several hundred people in a big,
stuffy, illy-ventilaiQd factory. Prac
tically every employe is of foreign
birth, and 75 per' cent of them un
able to speak the English language.
"With a school officer i visited this
factory and several child workers
were taken out and forced to go to
school: The employer was mad
about it. He asked:
"How are we going to get help?"
"Pay good wages and employ
adults," I suggested.
"I began working for a living
when I was 11 years old," he said.
Then I waxed somewhat wroth and
remarked:
"Perhaps you did, sir; but you
didn't begin working in a crowded
factory, surrounded by ignorance,
crowded in a poorly lighted room,
with foul air to .breathe. And you
were not forced to bend over avma-
chine performing the same automatic .
task for ten hours a day for a mere
pittance a task that benumbed your
brain and did not train your fingers;
a purely automatic task which, if
followed for a hundred years, would
not make you a skilled workman nor
teach you even ihe rudiments of a
trade. You at least had good air to
breathe. You were taught a trade
that promised a livelihood, and had
a future of some promise for you
no.t a future as empty as a broken
cistern. You Were taught to work
because it was good for you not
forced to work because some one
wanted to coin your boyish brain
- and muscle into gold for himself, un
til the little frame was exhausted
'and then thrown aside like a
squeezed orange. If you'll give these
little children the same chance, the
same surroundings, the same
thoughtful consideration, that you
had when you were a child worker,
perhaps your paltry excuse will re
ceive some consideration from men
and women who think more of pro
tecting little children from exploita
- tion than they do piling up dollars."
I might have said more, but the
employer did not give me a chance.
He left.
what he had heard. The striker
said':
"Meet me here in thirty minutes."
The official waited and promptly
on time the striker appeared, fol
lowed by the executive committee of
his union.
"Mr. Official," said the striker,
"you compel those employers to
obey the child labor law, and leave
the boy and his mother to us. If
he will go to, school, bringing us a
report from his teacher each day,
we'll pay his mother as much as he
would earn in the shops. -And when
school is out we'll either get him a
job in the open air, and away from
the foul air and heat and smoke of
that place or pay him to stay at
home and work in the garden for his
mother." ,
Just as soon as the official could
reach a 'phone he ordered the boy
discharged under penalty of instant
prosecution. The bay is going to
school and every evening ho car
ries home to his mother an envelope
containing 60 cents, paid by men out
on strike to secure a 'fair day's pay
for a fair day's work performed un
der fair conditions.
while wo all knelt, he poured forth a'
prayer of thanksgiving and a petition
for blessings upon the household and
the guest within the gates. Then
off to bed, and somehow or other,
confirmed victim of insomnia that I
am, I dropped off to sleep without
loss of timo, and next morning was
up and stirring around about the
hour I Usually manago to get to
sleep.
Perhaps the problom of keeping
the boys on the farm isn't such a
difficult one, after all.
This same farmer owns a fine pas
ture bordering upon a small river.
Three or four years ago he and the
boys scraped out a nice pond near
the stream, excavating u'ntfT the bot
tom of the pond was lower than the
bed of the river. The pond imme
diately filled up by seepage and was
stocked with fish channel cat, crop
pies, bass, pickerel and bullheads.
Pretty soon that farm will bo har
vesting a profitable crop of fish, to
say nothing of the pleasure it will
afford the mombers.
Some of these days I'm going to
own a farm, and the first thing I'll
do after I get title to it will be to
build a fish pond. While my rich
friends are touring Europe I'll bo
sitting on the bank of that pond hav
ing the time of my life.
Mary Agnin
Mary had a little lamb
With which she wont a-straying,
Until her papa said to her,
"That mutton isn't paying."
A few weeks ago I spent a night
at the "home of a Nebraska farmer.
He homesteaded in 1878, and still
lives on the original homestead, to
which he has since added many
broad acres. The farm house was
Vvtr Tr tvinnno o nrntnntlmio rnnnclnn
but everything about it. inside and "How yu and Ma love that lamb!"
out, spoke eloquently of comfort. To
So down to Washington he went
Chuck full of deep dejection.
And told the fellows there in charge
He had to have protection.
A few weeks ago the mechanics In
a l)ig western shop went out on strike
in order to enforce a demand for
better workfng conditions. Among
others secured to take up the work
was a 14-year old boy, who was
promised a steady job at good wages,
with chances of promotion. The lad
had been backward in school, being
still in the fifth grade. For his work
in the shop he was paid 6 cents an
hour.
The attention of a state official
was called to the case, and when he
protested against thi violation of
the state's child labor law he was
told that the boy's mother was a
widow, and that she depended upon
the boy's wages for her support. The
official hesitated, not being willing
to. compel the hoy's discharge until
-he had investigated the facts. He
met one of the strikers, and told him
achieve all this the farmer and his
splendid wife had endured many
hardships and privations grasshop
pers, drouths, hard times, and even
Indian scares.
When wo sat down to supper
there were eight of us the farmer
and his wife, four stalwart sons, the
youngest 15 and the oldest 24; a
daughter of 18 and myself.
We talked about the problem of
keeping the boys on. the farm, and
the farmer said to me:
"I've never had any trouble about
that," and the four boys smiled.
"How did you do it?" I asked.
"Well," he replied, "I couldn't ex
plain why or how, but 1 know my
boys have never shown any disposi
tion to leave the farm for the city."
"How about it boys?" I asked.
"O, we're well satisfied hero," said
the oldest son, and the other boys
nodded assent.
I thought -afterwards that I had
penetrated the secret. I saw in the
family sitting room row after row of
good books. I saw half a dozen farm
and. dairy journals. I discovered
that two of the boys had taken the
course at the State Agricultural Col
lege, and that another one was to
enter the same school next fall. Each
son had an interest in the farm, and
every year was given his proportion
ate share of the farm profits, and
the family kept books like an up-to-date
manufacturing extablishment.
The daughter was a graduate of a
high school and was preparing to en
ter the State University. She pre
pared the supper while her mother
walked with her husband and the
visitor about the farm premises. Be
fore time for retiring the daughter
played the piano and the whole fam
ily sang. A little gossip was ex
changed over the telephone with a
neighbor or two, and shortly after
9 o'clock about four hours earlier
than I am accustomed to retiring,
the father reached up "and laid his
hand upon a well-worn Bible. From
it he read a few veraes.i and then,
Exclaimed each tariff fixer.
"JuBt watch us help you guard that
lamb,
And do it double quick, sir."
The .tariff on that' young lamb's wool
To Mary did endear her;
And Mary and her dad just grinned
Each time that they wpuld shear
her.
Tariff Tradition
"What's that story about Jason
and the golden fleece?"
"O, something about schedule Kt
In the tariff bill, I guess."
Brain Leaks ""
It's a muddy road that has no
bottom.
It is better to lift up than to bo
dragged down.
The thing we do best is the thing
avo. love best to do.
What wo most want is not always
what we most need.
The tongue- of scandal Is helpless
before ears that are deaf.
Character is what a man has; rep
utation is .merely what people think
he is.
The man quick to make excuses
soon gets into the habit of making
nothing else.
Some men are like gunpowder
they put forth one exertion and are
never heard of after.
When Opportunity knocks -the
sound is usually drowned, by the
noise of the knocker on the Inside.
The man who is forever boasting
of b.eing self-made merely advertises
the fact that he has finished his top
story.
Men who take their business
troubles home with them usually
take their good nature to the office
and leave it there.
Late frosts have not been confined
to horticultural and agricultural dis
tricts. There have been, .some, se
vere political frosts in certain east
ern republican congressional diSr
districts. " '?$u .
J3?-
WWKWRm
KfiOEHX
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Having Cows
Will Soma Day Use a
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Nearly 1.200,000 farmers, croam
erymen, millc dealers and owners
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ino.000 or moro arc being added
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Why not fall Into tho Dc Laval
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NCW YORK MONTREAL
42 C MADI80H T. 14 A 18 PBINCI88 8T.
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Send for Booklet.
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