The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-06-24

Tore G0d ana your own conscience you
ought to pay him. - q
Do not be too ready to cut down wages.
AS far as possible pay all, and pay
promptly. There is great deal of Bible
teaching on this subject,
Twill be swift witness against all sor.
cerers, and against all adulterers, and
against those who Cypress the hireling in his
wages-MaIachi
Thou shalt not keep the wages OF the hire.
ling all night INTO the morning.-Leviticus.
Masters, give unto your servants that
which Is just and equal, knowing sh at ye
also have Master in II saven.-Colossians
So you see 1t Is not question bstweeh
you and your employe 50 much as it is
question between you and your God. Do
not say to your employees, snow, if you
don't like this place get another" when
you know they can not get another. AS
far as possible oncea year visit at their
homes. your clerks and your workmeh.
That is the only way you can become ae.
quainted with their wants. You will by
such process find out that there is a blind
parent or q sick sister being supported.
You will find some Of your young men in
rooms without any fire in winter, and in
Summer sweltering in Authenticated apart
rnents. You will find how much depends
on the wages you pay or withhold. On
Saturday morning, when you come into
your counting room and draw the check
which will bring the money for the wages
on the salaries, you viii have a thrill of
satisfaction in knowing it is not only the
money you give to the young man, bat the
relief to the dire necessities which stand
back of him.
Moreover, it is your duty as employer,
as far as possible, to mold the welfare of
the employee. You ought to advise him
about Investments, about life insur.
ance, about savings banks. You ought
to give him the benefit OF your Ell.
perience. There are hundreds and thou.
sands of employers in this country
end England, / am glad to say, who are
settling in the very best possible way
the destiny of their employees. Such men
as Marshall, Of Leeds. Fister, OF Brad
ford; Akroyd, OF Halifax, and men so
near at home it might offend their mod
esty if I mentioned their names. These
men have built reading rooms, libraries,
concert halls, afforded croquet lawns,
cricket grounds, gymnasiuns, choral So
cieties for their employees, and they have
not merely paid the wages on Saturday
night, but through the contentment and
the thrift and the good morals of their
employees, they are paying wages from
generation to generation forever.
Again, I counsel all employers to look
well after the physical health of their
subordinates. You. are expected to I'M
derstand better than they all these ques-
tions of ventilation and sunshine, and all
the laws of hygiene. s. ttH ~ t5
There are stores and banking houses
and factories and newspaper establish
ments where the atmosphere is death.
Your employees may not always appreci-
ate your work, Ak that style of kind
ness was not appreciated in the instance
mentioned by Charles Reade, where in a
great factory fan was provided
for the blowing away of the dust of metal
and stone, the dust arising from the ma
chinery, and some Of the workmen refused
to put this great fan in motion. They
seemed to prefer to inhale the filings, the
poisonous filings, into their lungs. But
in the vast majority of cases your en-
ployes will appreciate every kindness in
that direction. SIS
Then would have you carry out this
sanitary idea, and put into as few hours
as possible the work of the day. Some
time ago-whether it has been changed I
know not-there were enc thous and gro
Ger clerks in Brooklyn who went to busi-
ness at FIVE O'Clock in the morning and
continued until ten O'Clock at night. Now,
that Is inhuman.
I 1t seems to me all the merchants in all
departments ought, by simultaneous move.
| ment, to come out in behalf of the early
closing theory. These young men ought
to have an opportunity of going to the
Mercantile library, to the reading rooms,
to the concert hall, to the gymnasium, to
the church. They have nerves, they have
brains, they have intellectual aspirations
they have immortal spirits. II they can
| do good round days work in the ten or
eleven hours, you have no right to keep
| them harnessed for seventeen. 1 do OF
think that any intelligent employer can
| afford to be reckless of the physical and
| mental health of his subordinates.
But above all. charge you, o employ
ers, that you look after the moral aud spir.
itual welfare OF your employ es. First
know where they spend their evenings
That decides every thing. You do moi
want around your money drawer a Young
man who went last night to see Jack Shep-
| pard. A man that comes into the store in
the morning CHASTITY with midnight revel.
ry Is not the man for your store. The
young man who spends his evenings in the
society of refined women, or in musical Of
artistic circles, or in literary improve.
| ment, is the young man for your store
| Without any disgusting inquisitiveness
| without any impertinence, you ought tc
| have your young men understand that vol
are interested so much in their welfare
that you want to know where they SPEND
their leisure hours, and they viii frankly
and gladly tell you.
One of my earliest remembrances is o,
Old Arthur Tappan. There were many
differences Of opinion about his politics
but no one who ever knew Arthur Tappan
and knew him WELL doubted his being an
earnest Christian. In his store in New
York he had a room where everv morning
he called his employees together. and b,
prayed with them, read the Scriptures t.
them, sang with them, and then thew en-.
| tered on the duties of the day. On Mon.