The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-05-19
FARM HANDS,
OfsrrevA1 of the Charge That They ar,
Lacking in Honesty.

ployed IN dsirying. The idea is mo-
new, as one often hears in the country
that honest and reliable farm hands are
nearly impossible to get, and that nc
success an be expected in farming
sEhen the main dependence is on hired
men. do not write to deny it, as
can not, and my own observation
rather confirms it; but, assuming that
1t is really true, there is something to
TO be said about it that ought to engage
the attention of all farmers in partic-
Hlar, and all others with the good of
society at heart.
But first, it can be said that there
Rnust be something wrong, something
Backing in the ability or tact of farm
hers for managing employees. Why is it
that they fail so seriously, and gen.
orally in entrusting their interests to
hired men, when hired men-that is,
men working for salaries-make up the
bulk of the worlds labor force in other
calhngs? Railroads. banks, insurance
accompanies, journalists, manufacturers.
merchants and others, employ millions
Iof hired men. and succeed in it. Are
they by nature more honest than farm
hands? Nonsense. Railroad conduc-
korS, bank clerks, Government clerks,
merchants clerks, and cashiers of
manufactures handle millions of dol
Lars daily, and while there is some
Stealing, there is no general or wide
spread charge that these employees can
mot be trusted. Neither public nor pri-
waite business can be conducted with
lout hired help, and there is no general
complaint except from farmers. Now
who is to blame? / shall not attempt
ANY comprehensive answer, but submit
the question for consideration.
But on one point suggestion can
be made which has some force. Farm
.ers find it just about as hard to get
along with each other in any co-opera-
tive work as with their hired hands.
They can not long cooperate in buy
ing or selling. in the use of farm ma
ichinery, in stock breeding, in dairying,
Hand working, or anything else, as a
kule. Even where the law sometimes
imposes cooperation, as in school dis
AFict education or road making, what
fierce quarrels arise that tear up neigh
borhoods and breed bad blood during
"a generation? How often does one
hear in the country. as the moral of
some attempt at neighborly or neigh
horhood cooperation: mo more
partnerships for mer' or ''there never
yet was a house big enough for two
Families to live inr' But in the cities
many families often live in the same
bouse. and have plenty of room; and
partnerships among business men are
q matter of course. Business men
emeet. and sometimes in ten or fifteen
minutes cooperate in schemes that in
yolve millions, and necessitate the en-
Eloyment of thousands of hired men.
Why can farmers so rarely succeed in
hiring one or two men? Where is the
tault?
One reason is that, very largely,
they lack business training. They are
suspicious of each other-more so than
sof village merchants, commission men,
lawyers, and local politicians. The
last three classes, though confessedly
i'm bad odor as classes, are able, by
plausible manners and promises, often
TO gain the confidence of farmers to
almost any extent, while respect
liable neighbors on the next farm
hardly get social recognition, for
some petty faults which ought
ITO be borne with patience. Right
there is one of the weaknesses of farm.
Iers, and hosts of country people. They
Eare too uncharitable as TO the minor
faults and weaknesses of each other
and of their employees. They magnify
higher thoughts, and these grow into
scandals sometimes that tear up neigh
borhoods into factions, and uproot pri-
vate confidence, and even business con-
Fracts. Gossip is curse everywhere,
and is peculiarly virulent in illiterate
lcircles where real culture is believed to
give people ambitious and ''stuck-np"
Tendencies. With broader minds, bet
Ger education, and less isolation as to
j6ociability, and better business meth
DDS, farmers would not find it as hard
% get along with either their neighbors
or their hired men.
/ But, really, are farm hands any more
dishonest than other classes? One
%FOulo 81 n IAN
position, but doubt it. The man who
thinks so should take look about him.
us not the hired man sometimes sent to
market with hay or grain little dam
aged, or milk that is not all milk but
Ter little oleomargarined and labeled
I''best creamery over ripe peas mixed
with green ones; venerable eggs, and
spring chickens of some other spring
than the last one. have myself bought
pressed hay with nineteen pounds of
cord-wood per bale, and have known
ienterprising farmers and fair officials
ito buy or borrow collections of fine
fruit, vegetables and live stock to ex-
hibit at fairs where the rules required
that each exhibitor should be the pro-
Queer or grower of his own exhibit.
The remedies to make farming pleas
anter, and hired men honest, are sew
eral, but rather slow ones. One, as