Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-03-16
A Word With Labor Reformers.

'NAN WIN oouVI hclUEmeISs
Two msn-we will call them Noke.
and Strang-caGe Of age nearly at the
same time. They were then worth ex-
actly the clothes they stood in-say S25
each-but had about average inteilects.
fair constitutions, good health, a decent
common school education aud a tolerabls
knowledge of ordinary farm.work. They
soon hired out TOR Sl5 per month each,
with board and washing, and were &C.
counted good hands. Nokns saved his
hours and his earnings, spending nothing
tor indul gences; Strang took a day out
now and then, drank and smoked and
danced, as most men will, resolved to
"live as be goes along" At the years
end, each had more and better clothing
than at the outset but Nokes had $loo
in cash laid by, with ten dollars in hIs
pocket, while Strang had three or four
in his pocket, ana nothing put aside "for
a rainy day" They now hired again.
at little better wages, and 80 on
Strang marrying at %, and thenceforth
being constrained to closer calculation
and greater economy, whereby, what
with cares and children, he just kept and
keeps his chin above water; while
Nokes, marrying at 27, had $1,000
drawing interest, besides enough in hand
to buy what he must to fit up frugal
home. Twenty years later, Nokes has
a good farm, well stocked, with g.. 900
at interest and every comfort about him,
so that he is considered worth 10000,
and at length begins to take the world
more easily; while Strang, the same
man he ever was, has accumulated half
dozen children and their duds, but very
little else. You can find just such men
as each of these (but more like Strang
than like Nokes) in almost any rural
township, in any village or ward. Ia
fact, mankind may fairly be divided into
small class of Nokeses and one much
larger of Strangs.
Now the difference in these mems ca.
tates was not made by banks, or tariffs.
or charters, or monopolies, or anything
OF the kind. Any of these or all OF :hem
may have helped Nokes or hindered him,
as you will but the ground " ork of his
success was in himself; aud 80 with
Strsng's comparative failure. We know
that bad government may discourage
thrift and SO reduce the proportion of
the thrifty; but it has pleased God to
endow some men with the instinct of
saving, which others are born without
so the former amass wealth and the lat.
ter do not. So it was from the begin
ming; so it will be, unless human nature
changes, TO the end of time. We are
not arguing that Nokes is wiser or bet
ter man than Straug. That is not the
point. What we deem unconsidered
and unrealized by the majority is this =
1t is the interest of all, including the
poorest, that there should be more and
more men like Nokes and fewer like
Strang.
Nokes, you say, is selfish and purse
proud /; he makes money his god, AMI
misses the good in life in order to scrape
together wealth which he does not en-
JOY, and from which his children will de-
rive no real benefit. Well; admit il.
But mankind are richer for the wealth
he has created and saved; his farm. his
house, his stock, will be left to us though
he be taken away. Nay, more: from
the hour he became capitalist, he ceas-
ed TO be competitor Tor employment
and became a provder of employment
for those who, but for his ris', might
have sought it in vain. To make his
home what it is, he las bought thou
sands Of days labor from ditchers,
stone-pickers, fence-makers, muck-dig-
gers, ETC.; the construction of his better
house has made work for cellar-diggers,
biick-makers, masons, lumbermen, car
penters, furnishers, ETC.. he has thus
without intending it, if you say So
been a benefactor to labor; and nine
tenths of the wealth he has amassed will
remain to benefit others after he had
done with it. Had al been like Nokes,
the most luckless among us would have
been born to more desirable lot in life
than is actuallyenjoyed by quarter of US.