The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-12-02
THE POOR MAN.

W0rk get DuI very low wages, tHou
the theorist comes forward with his
reasons for the labor and trade de-
preston, and offers his remedies for
all the evils to which the poor man
is subject. Many of them are per-
haps of immediate application, but
so chimerical that they are worthy
of no other name than theory, and
so impracticable that few only
would ever think of carrying them
out. There is an old saying, how
ever, that an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure, and in ac-
cerdance with this the best time to
talk of remedies for low wages, pow
erty, etc. would be during season
of prosperity and plenty; that is,
when we can get hold of the ounce
of prevention. and not when it is
entirely beyond our reach.
Many argue, and among the num-
ber stands the workingman fore
most of all, that the only way to
make all men happy is to raise their
wages, but this can only be done
when capital can be so invested as
to yield fair interest and at the
same time large surplus over and
above this; and even then the num-
ber of laborers should not be so
great that they are compelled to bid
against each other and thus run
wages down. When a country is
well filed up with settlers so that
all its resources can be drawn upon
to their full limit. it is not to
be presumed that capital can
be employed so as to yield a heavy
profit, and when such a condition
of things is reached the working
man cannot nationally expect high
wages.
There arises another question,
what good will high wages do the
poor man? He will not be likely
to improve his condition long; in
fact, he will not improve it at all in
one sense. The end of the year
finds him just about as far behind
when wages are high as when wages
were low. He manages to eat up
and drink all that he makes, and
just as fast as he makes IL, and in
many cases a little faster. He can
regard himself as little better than
an OK in a field. He eats until he
is satiated, and then lies down un-
til he gets hungry again, and so on
from one day to another, never
thinking OF the future. If he hap
pens to be in a poor field, he does
we'll if he can crafty his hunger; if
in a rich field, he finds out the best
and the rest he tramples under foot,
and all that he accOmplishes in
either case is to satisfy hunger.
But the OK has no better sense, and
hence we can expect no more from
him; but how many human beings
do we find in the same condition!
One would naturally suppose that
after so many lessons taught the
human race, in the shape of FAM
ines, this want of foresight would
have been educated out of the race
before this, if there is any truth in
the theory Of evolution. The scien-
tist tells US that it was necessity
that first compelled the ant to store
away provisions for winter, and we
see no reason why the human race
should not be as apt pupils, and
equally as far advanced, unless it
be that they have not attended
school 80 long as the ant family.
If we look over the history of diff
ferent nations, we shall find that
those are most highly civilized
whose people make the best provis-
ion for the future, and the tribes
that show least evidence of civiliza-
ton are those that live more like
wild beasts, depending upon what
game they can catch from day to
day for their subsistence. And as
proofs of this proposition we have
only to cite the reader to the red
Indian, the Esquimau, and the wild
tribes of tropical regions IN Africa,
Asia, America and Oceanica.
The very first step taken to clvilize
them is to induce them to make use
of the finery and ornaments of their
more advanced brethren, and this
can only be done by laying by part
of their earnings. When they have
so far, they see before
them other luxuries, to obtain which
will require greater and longer con-
tinued efforts, and so they keep en-
from one stage to