The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-05-25
WOrkiDgmen's Homes.

we presume there is not manufacturer
in all this broad land who is not ready to
concede the refining influences of bright,
cheerful, healthful homes; nor is there
one of them, we are sure, who is not con-
WINGED that, as rule, the best and most
reliable workmen are those who have
such homes. These propositions being
admitted, as we take it for granted they
will be, it would be matter Of great sur
prise that manufacturers do not more
generally act up to their convictions in
this regard were the Inconsistencies of
human nature not so we'll known.
We are convinced that employers could
not adopt better way of promoting their
own interests, and the interests and gen.
eral welfare Of their employees as we'll,
than by erecting and leasing to the latter
at moderate rent convenient and COM
Portable houses, with pleasant and invit-
ing surrounding s; and still greater good
would result if the conditions were such
that the workmen could in few years
become owners of these pleasant homes.
There is nothing so tends to give men
stability of character and sense of re-
sponsibility as the possession Of property.
In the New England States, where
wages are much lower than in other Sec
lions of our country, it is quite common
for workmen to own their homes, and the
result is that they are among the most re
spected and trusted members of the COM
munities in which they live, and it is
quite usual to find them occupying prom
inent positions in society, in the church
and in the municipal government. 1t is
under such conditions as these that the
phrase "the nobility of labor" has its
grandest Interpretation.
Could it be possible for such men as
these, surrounded with their contented
wives and happy children, and nobly con.
scious that they are the pillars which sup
port all this, to desert their fresides and
spend their nights and wages in the dram
shop or the gambling den? or need their
employers fear they would slight their
work, or go off on carousal or an unpro-
voked strike right in the midst of press
ing demand for their labor? These ques-
tons need no answer, and are only asked
in order to compare the different be-
havior of workmen under different cOndi-
lions.
If manufacturers want skillful and
steady workmen they must help to cult
vate them, and there is no way that prom
Uses so much success as the one we have
just pointed out.
Another advantage that would result
from the adoption Of this plan is the in
creased value that would be given to the
real estate owned by the employers, which
would of itself in many cases perhaps
more than compensate for the outlay in
Cured.
In brief, the policy we have outlined
demands but little risk and promises the
greatest good to both employers and en-
ployed. We trust that manufacturers and
other constant employers of labor will
take this question into serious considera-
american Manufacturer.
THE French Agricultural and Horti-
cultural Society has taken advantage of
the school boy desire to kill something,
by Offering prizes for the destruction Of
vermin of all sorts and for the preserva-
ton of useful birds. The method has
already begun to produce satisfactory re-
suits. Eleven scholars in one school de-
stroyed each !, 1865 insects of various sorts,
beside forty-two nests of caterpillars; and
they protected twenty-seven nests of useful
birds, sheltering 143 young.
If the area Of the Vienna exhibition is
one, the area of the Paris Exhibition in
1867 is not even one fourth, and the Lon