St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-06-12

are reasonable and as your business will
afford. Not necessarily what others pay,
certainly not what your hired help say
you must pay, for that is tyranny on the
part of labor unbeara BILE. The right of
laborer to tell his employer what he must
pay, implies the right of an employer to
compel man into a service whether he
will or not, and either of those ideas is
despicable. When any employer allows
laborer to say what he must do or have his
business ruined and the employer submits
! to it, he does every business man in the
United States wrong and yields to a
principal which, carried out, would dis
solve society. Look over your affairs and
put yourselves in Imagination in your la
borer's place, and then pay him what be-
fore God and your own conscience you
| ought to pay him.
"God bless yous' are we'll enough in
their place, but they do not buy coal nor
pay house rent, nor get shoes for the chill
dren. At the same time, you. the en-
ployer, ought to remember through what
straits and strains you got the fortune by
which you run your store or factory. Y GU
are to remember that you take all the
risks and the employee takes none, or
scarcely any. You are to remember that
there may be reverses in fortune, and that
some new style of machinery may make
your machinery valueIess, or some new
style of tariff set your business back hope
lessly and forever. You must take all
that into consideration, and then pay what
8 reasonable.
Do not be too ready to cut down wages.
As far as possible pay all, and pay
promptly. There is a great deal of Bible
teaching on his subject.
will be swift witness against all sor
cerers, and against all adulterers and
against those who Cypress the hireling in his
wages-Maach
Thou shalt not keep the wages of the hire
ling all night unto the neutrality-suspicious.
Masters, give unto your servants that
which Is just and equal. knowing til at ye
also have Master in Heaven.-Colossia Ms
So you see it is not question between
you and your employee so much as it is
question between you and your God. Do
not say to your employees, 'Now, if you
don't like this place get another" when
you know they can not get another.
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 nsur
ance, about savings banks. You ought
to give him the benefit of your ex-
perience. There are hundreds and thou
sands of employers in this country
and 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, gymnasiums. 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, counsel all employers to look |
we'll 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.
dlc SIOIce Olu HouScS
and factories and newspaper establish
ments where the atmosphere is death.
Your employees may not always appreci-
ate your work, as that style of kind
ness was not appreciated in the instance
mentioned by Charles Reade, where in
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.
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 l
know not-there were one thous and gro
Ger clerks in Brooklyn who went to BUSH
ness at five O'Clock in the morning and
continued until ten O'Clock at night Now,
that is inhuman.
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. If they can
do good round days work in the ten or
eleven hours, you have no right to keep
them harnessed for seventeen. do not
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 and spir.
itual welfare of your employees. First,