The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-04-23
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.

WITH uGCl0 COutINUlCllVA. nu"AlS
these is the old saying: Buy as cheap
as yon can, and sell as DEAR" This III
cludes the buying of human labor and
skill as we'll as the things which skill
and labor produce. The maxim leaves
out Of sight all considerations of JUS.
tice or equity on behalf of the worker,
and all regard to his need, as one who
must live on wages paid daily toll. In.
adequate wages and salaries compel q
style of living, on the part Of the
mass of workers, which makes limited
demand for the things which contrib
ute to human comfort, health ard re-
finement. When the workers wife or
child is sick he buys patent medicine
and the physician gets no fee. For
lack Of good clothes and money to buy
text books his children get but little
education. He rents poor, comforts
less tenement and landlords get neith-
er means nor encouragement to build.
and carpenters, masons, painters. plas
terers and laborerS get fewer contracts
than they would get if wage earners
we're better paid. An intelligent,
temperate community of wage earners
will eat good food, rent comfortable
houses, wear good clothes, employ the
physician when they need him and ed
ucale their families. This means pros
perity to all other classes, and this is
produced only where the working man
gets proper support. The mania for
cheap things compels cheap produc-
ion and that puts shoddy goods on the
merchants shelves, and puts wages
below living point.
1t would be we'll if no buyer would
invest III goods which had not honest
" paid for the labor and skill which
produced them. We know very we'll
that this is not the practical rule OF
trade. No good, but much evil, comes
from the rage Of trying to get some
thing for nothing. Concerning this
one of our exchanges says: eve are
not prophets enough to foretell what
will be the outcome of this form of in
sanity. 1t may pass away like the
plague, leaving behind it carcasses and
skeletons, or it may go up sky high,
like magaZ ne Of dynamite struck by
lightning, leaving behind ruin and
desolation Full doses Of Solomou's
Proverbs. and repeated applications
of doctrines promulgated on The hills
and plains Of Judva eighteen hundred
years ago, may be prescribed as the
only effectual cure.' Mr.. Powderly
has recently written the following
paragraph pertinent to this su(j1ct:
Every ster in educins tie standard
of living and wages of the labourer IT,,
duces the wages, ,af the skilled workmen
as we'll. When 73 cents Il day in 1890
takes the place of 81 60 in 1850, each
cipient of such wages must curtail
his purchases, i'll order to conform to
the rs per cent. reduction in wages.
LESS of food, less Of clothing, not so
many shoes and cheaper lodgings must
be had; and those who make shoes,
clothing and articles Of household use
find that their business falls off also.
The falling off in business is followed
10y a reduction in wages, and the evil
stream runs the entire length, until
all are infected The cheapening of
labonr cheapens production; cheap pro
duction cheapens human flesh; ard
when the race of cheapness is run we
find ourselves nation of cut threats,
for each man s hand is at his neighbor' S
throat, seeking to wrest from him a
part, or the whole, of the trade he has
acquired, and his argument always is:
II can do it cheaper" he logical end
of cheapness is-nothing; and to that
end the immigrant of to-day, in his
ignorance, is driving the American la
bourer, mechanic and business man,
many of whom laboured 10y his side
across the water years ago."
The Alliance members of the Kansas
Legislature had an ample majority ia
do all that they proposed to do, and
stood pledged to do, for the benefit of
the lab"ring class. But they do no,
seem to have brought forth fruits
satisfactory to some of the working
men who voted for their election. A
prominent locomotive engineer indicts
the Alliance men in the legislature OF
Kansas az follows: ''They refused tc
make any appropriation to continue
the construction of the state house
which will throw hundreds of laborers
out Of employment besides being o1
immense damage to the portion al
ready built.
They crippled the efficiency of man,
of our state institutions by al unjus,
reduction Of wages of laborers anC
salaries of teachers, us witness the state
reformatory at Hutchinson, where thu
best superintendent for such an in
stitutiOn in the nation has had hi
salary 80 reduced that he is searching
for another situation.
They passed a maximum freight bill
that reduced rates 81 per cent in som,
instances and which they knew woult
bankrupt every railroad company do
ing business in the state and woult
cause the discharge Of thousands O
railway employees, and reduce tn
remainder. They passed bill reduc
ing the passenger fares which woul,
have had like effect.
They killed ourbill which imposed
heavy fine on railway companies fo
retaining in their employ any conduc
tor, engineer, agent, operator or trail
dispatcher who was in the habit O
getting drunk.
They killed our bill which rpuuir;p