The Dickinson press., 1890-05-17
Labor's dissatisfied Demand.

EDITOR PREsS:-In an article ap.
pearing in the Mandan Pioneer Of
March IL, entitled Federated Wage
Farmers Mutual Loan Association"
appers upon careful perusal of plan
and p%rospectus) to have some merit
worthy of consideration and seems
to afford a partial and temporary re-
lief to a restless population, who UNI
der the exigency of the times, are
hardly able to make a living
We have before us the fact that
the condition of the laboring mar in
this country, whether in city, town
or rural district. is relatively less
favorable than it was a generation
ago, and this change of condition is
hurtful, as we'll us unjust to the great
majority of the people who are the
one affected by it.
The cry of the monopolist that the
poverty of workingmen is due to
their own fault, is brutal insolencel
1t means-if it means anything-that
workingmen could easily keep soul
and body together if they would deny
themselves and their families all the
comforts of life and devote their days
to the simple task of getting food
enough to ward off hunger. 1t regards
workingmen as mere animals, and if
workingmen we're content so to re-
gard themselves they could doubtless
get on as suggested, for u time at
least.
Fortunately American workingmen
decline to regard themselves in that
way. They claim the right to live as
men, and not as animals, to make
something Of their lives, to educate
their children, to surround them.
selves with such refining influences
at they may be able to command. In
short, their wants are the wants Of
intelligent men, and not Of a degrad-
ed and brutalized population; and in
asmuch as this country has grown
and prospered with enormous rapid.
ty, and it's annual production is vast,
these men rightfully contend that
their labor which is so productive of
wealth for others ought to give them
the means of gratifying these reason
able desires. The fact that it does
not is conclusive proof that labor is
poorer paid in this country than it
was a generation ago.
Labor should receive a fair reward,
but the tendency is more i'll the oppo.
site direction; the factory which has
superseded the small shop has itself
been superseded by the corporate
monopoly and the oppressive trust,
and these deal with the question of
work and wages from a purely aritll-
metical and economic point of view,
with more of heartlessness and a
colder calculation than were ever pos.
sible to individual men. Their sole
concern is to reduce the pay roll with
out reducing the output.
This condition also affects the
farmer. Here in Dakota there is
want and poverty, though the soil is
rich and cheap and the population is
of that same Industrious and thrifty
class which has created the vast
wealth of the great west. They find
that it often costs more to produce
wheat than wheat will sell for in the
market, while in favorable years the
cost of production is so nearly equa.
to the market price that the margin
left for the support of the family is
miserably insufficient.
1t will take Il little time and legis
lation to smooth out the inequalities
now existing between employer and
employed, to give the farmer the
benefit of his soil and the artisan {
proper recompcnse for his skill. Tn
til that time arrives think some
plan like the mutual loan wonid bene
lit IL large number of wage Garner:
and stimulate Il more hopeful feeling
amongst the people of North Dakota
w. L. B.