The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-01-23
THE SOURCE OF HARD TINES.

A leading instructor in this State has re-
Gently claimed that if the people would
work as hard to-day as they did thirty or
forty years ago there would be no hard
times. The speaker had especial reference
TO farmers in making this remark, but it
has been quoted as applicable to all classes
Of labor in this State.
1t is true that our people do not work as
hard as men and women worked thirty or
forty years ago. We hope they will never
have to do so. Life would not, under such
circums tanCes, be so desirable. When the
farmers and other labOTers Of California
are obliged to work as hard as these classes
of men worked then, the probabilities are
that they Will demand a new deal in the re-
markabe game Of life which the monQpo-
lists of to-day seem bent on making them
play.
Thirty or forty years ago the man who
worked on n farm back East arose, as a
rule, before daylight, ate his breakfast by
Candleigbt and was ready at the first hint
OF dawn TO repair to his daily toll, which
was kept up just rs long as he could see to
work. When evening shut of the daylight
he sought his bed to rest and recruit for the
m0rrOW's toll. While men iab0red thus out
side the women tUiled within doors, till men
! and women both, wearing out side by side,
died In the harness. leaving behind them
/ little else than good name as faithful
workers. Whoever lived on farm thirty
| or forty ears ago VIII recognize this picture
as a truthful description Of the life there
| three-f0urths of the year.
! Such toll may have been necessary to the
| making of a living, but who can suppose
/ that the living was desirable? The charac-
/ teristic literature, even the fiction of that
period, shows that the people were not
/ happy, that they did not live, but merely
/ Wrested hard existence from the soil Nor
/ were lab0TeTs in the cities and towns much
/ better off. Wages were lower, the working
/ days were longer, pleasures were fewer,
/ the necessarie5 of life we're not easier to
/ procure than they are now, and the people
( were under the same blind necessity for
/ deyOting so much time to making a living
! that they had no time left to live.
Decidedly these are better times, though
there sull remains much room for improve
ment. il is true our people DO not spend as
/ many hours in toll as people used 10 do,
/ yet more actual work IS accomplished by
! them in these fewer years, and the standard
! Of intelligence among item S higher. The
/ same class Of men who were then content
/ 10 toll unquestionably until their lives went
/ CUT in weaTiuess now question, understand
/ ingly, why these things should be They
! are maniiestng an inconyenient curiosity
! TO know Why it is that, despte the many
/ labOT-Sayiug inventions and improved
/ methods Of tie age, they do not. on the
/ whole, get ahead any faster than they did
/ forty years ago. They see that the work OF
/ the world is all tending to enrich the few,
/ while the masses are growing poorer, ana
! the conditions that keep them down are be-
/ coming more difficult to surmouut. They
/ are told that this nation Is An enormously
/ wealthy one, vet they know that per cent
| Of the population owns over 30 per cent OF
/ this wealth and pays less than 10 per cent OF
/ the taxes, which naturally GetractS from the
/ complaisancy with which they might other
/ wise regard the nations wealth. Here in
/ California we have the spectacle of whole
/ State ruled by an immense monopoly con-
/ troled by half dozen men. The people
/ see their avenues Of income blocked by the
/ interests Of these few. They see the greater
/ part OF the results Of their labor going to
! pay tribute TO the powerful destroyer that
| has the Stale in its tolls. They declare
! sadly, that they have no confidence even in
/ the Supreme Judiciary of the State, and
/ they know that they can place no confidence
/ in their legislators. They see their beloved
/ State Slapped Of its life and its prosperity
/ threatened, and TO be told while chafing
under these conditions, that did they but
| work harder thee would be none of these
/ hard times. is not calculated to improve
| their temper.
! But We have largely ourselves to thank
for this state Of affairs. So long as the
/ people Of California continue to elect men
! to Office who belong, hand and foot to the
| nstigators Of the influence which now holds
! our State by the throat, just so long may we
! expect that these worthy henchmen will be
about their masters business, to the ex
| clusion Of ours. AS matters stand now the
| people have no recourse but the ballot. and
| only at the polls will they be able to show
/ whether they believe the remedy for hard
! times TO be harder work on their part or
! closer attention to the present government
/ of the people by politicians for monopoly.