American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-12-26
Managing Hired Help.

FARMERS probably have greater cause
to complain of the inefficiency of hired
help than men in any other business.
There is no denying the fact that persons
dependent upon their daily labor for
living avoid the farm as much as posi-
BILE. We do not believe that it is because
the work is SO much more severe than in
other occupations where great physical
strength and endurance are required, for
we very much doubt if the best farm la
borer works as hard or as steadily as the
carpenters, masons, or other mechanics.
1t is true that they usually labor more
hours out of the twenty-four; but labor
ers in other occupations, who make
shorter days, get no resting spells
during winter. On many a farm rainy
days are really leisure days to the man
who works by the month, and his pay
goes on, rain or shine. Not SO with the
mechanic, for when he stops work, if
only for an hour it is his loss and not the
employers. As for wages, the farmer of
the present day pays fully as high rates
for the quality of labor as in any other
field of employment; consequently it can
not be hard work or poor pay which makes
it SO difficult to obtain men or women
to go into the country and work on a
farm. There are, however, other good
reasons for the too general avoidance of
this kind of work, and we believe one of
the principal ones is the slow payment
of wages.
No matter how sure and good the
wages may be, prompt payment is one of
the greatest incentives that can be Of
fered to laboreIs in any branch of in
| dustry. Farming throughout the coun-
try as general rule is conducted upon
the dilatOry-payment principle instead
of the cash system. LabOrers are hired
in the spring, or at the commencement
of the year, to be paid after the harvest
| ing of the corn: wheat, oats, cotton, or
whatever may be the principal crop of
the region. Perhaps a few dollars are
paid from time to time, or an order is
given on the store or grocery, and the re-
suit is, five times out of six, that the Ia
borer believes at the end of the season
he has been grossly swindled. The more
ignorant he is the more certain he is of
this, whether there be the least cause
for it or not.
Now, in most other occupations labor
ers are paid in far more systematic
manner. AS rule payday comes once
a week, and the labOrer does not have to
ask for his money, but at certain hour
the amount due is handed over and he is
free to do as he likes with it. This
prompt and frequent payment begets
promptness in labor, both as to time
of beginning and steady continu-
ance through the day. We know that
| many of our farmers will say that this
cash system cannot be adopted on the
| farm, but we know that it can that it is
| the practice in many localities, especial
| ly near our larger cities, and that it
| works well and insures far better class
of laborers than the old dill
atory system of paying at long
| intervals, or at some specified time
months hence. There is no good reason
| why farmer or cotton or sugar planter
should not pay his workmen every Satur-
| day night as those following other
branches of business do, and we know
that it's effect upon laborers and employ
ers would be alike beneficial, for neither
/ can escape the damaging influence of
the present far too general credit system.
| 1t may require some sacrifice at first
on the part of the employer to get his
| finances in such condition as to enable
him to start upon this pay as-yOu go
basis; but if he will look at the facts
squarely he cannot fail to see the advan-
| tages of being one year ahead instead of
one year behind In financial matters
The best laborers will always seek the
employer who pays promptly and the
| highest wages; hence we see in many
| portions of the country men t1ocking to
| the railroads, canals and other public
works, not because they get more wages
| but because their cash comes more fire.
quently.
| The extensive nurseries throughout
the country employ many thousands of
laborers, and digging, planting and pack
| ing trees is far from being light work
still there is seldom a scarcity of men in
our nurseries, and we believe the cause
| is traceable to prompt payment of
| wages. If the farmers and planters will
adopt the cash system and frequent pay
Gays we believe they may f1nd in it a
remedy for many of the evils which now
beset them-Ne,o York Sun