The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-09-02
A PARABLE.
1t Contains Concentrated wisdom for the
WOrkingman.

II contains concentrated WISDOM Tor the
WOrkingmau.
Once on time fifty young men started
out in life together They all had their
fortunes to make and nothing more for
capital at starting than the labor of their
hands. They took employment in a
large factory and spent some time in
learning their duties. Then they en-
tered upon the regular routine of daily
labor for weekly or monthly wages.
Forty-eight of the fifty set at their
tasks with nothing in their minds be-
yond the performance of those tasks in
the time allotted and in the way directed.
They became good workmen and most
of them are still good workmen.
Two of the fifty were not satisfied
with this. They persisted in finding out
not only what was set for them to do,
but why it was done and why it was done
in the way directed. Furthermore, they
were not satisfied with doing the
allotted task in the appointed time and
merely well enough to pass inspection.
They tried to find or make ways of do
ing more than was required and of doing
better work than the average.
The forty-eight took what leisure
time belonged to them for personal en-
joyment and pleasure; these two used a
part of their leisure in learning more
about the business than was comprised
in their narrow round of duties.
The forty-eight found a pleasant use
for their surplus wages in excursions
and dances and other more or less ex-
pensive amusements; these two used
some of their money in buying books
and educating themselves. and put most
of the rest in the savings bank
By and by something happened to a
couple of foremen and the employers
wanted successors. They had watched
their fifty men, and naturally chose but
these two, because these two could fill
the positions most competently. This
brought them an increase of wages.
They were able to invest still larger
sums and save more each year. They
soon became known as valuable men. :"
They could put their hands to almost
anything in the mill" They introduced
various labor-saving and prOduct-per-
fecting devices-the fruits of their read
ing and invention. They made more
money by the use of these.
By and by a reorganization became
necessary in the mill company. New
blood and new capital were called for
These two men had some capital. They
also had reputation. not only in that
mill, but at the banks, and wherever
they had invested their earnings, and
wherever their characters we1e known.
They were invited to join the company.
There was no difficulty in finding men
willing to lend them the additional
money needed for the purpose. They
became part owners and employers. As
time went on other changes came to
pass. Older men dropped out but the
mill prospered and these two vrospered
with it, and by-and-by they became the
sole owners and the sole employers in
that mill.
In the meantime some of the other
forty-eight had proved thrifty enough to
buy themselves little homes and gardens,
which they had paid for out of their
savings. But more of them were still
living in rented houses, spending what
spare money they could get oVer abso-
lutely necessary expenses On merely
passing amusements and qualifications.
| A few had dropped entirely oft of the
race and were working at othe, occupa-
tons, and some had fallen by tae way in
a natural course of life and death.
Then came to this mill villag, an apos-
tie of the "new social doctrine" and
called the mill employees together and
began to denounce the two employers as
''robber barons" and pirates fattening
on plumber" and "monopolists," and so
on. He declared it was labor and labor
alone which had made the mill and had
made its products and had made the
money which these two "plutotrats" had
put into fine mansions and handsome
grounds and costly furniture and fine
clothing for themselves. And he called
on the workmen to join him in abuse of
the owners of the mill property and in
organizing sort of revolution which
should shut the employers out of their
mill until they had agreed to manage the
property under rules agreed upon by the
workmen employed in it.
ThereupOn arose one of tn, original
fifty, one of the men had bought house
and garden, and who claimed it as his
property, and briefly told the st,ry above,
of how they all started at the beginning
together, how some had used their money
in one way and some in another, and
how the two mill owners had become
such by virtue of hand work,
hard study, constant economy, persist
ent ambition, backed by unflilching de-
termination and native ability. And he
concluded his brief talk by asserting that,
to his mind, the mill owners tenure of
their property; that they had exactly the
same right to use their property in ac-
cordance with their own ideas, under the
law, as he had to use his; AMI that he
had no more right to dictat, to them
how they should use their mill or forbid
their using it, than they had to dictate to
him or forbid him enjoying the house
and garden paid for out of his say
ings.
what better right have we" he ask
ed, ''to take possession of these mems
mill than to take possession of their
watches or their pOcket-bodx? What
better right have we to do either than
they have to take forcible possession of
our homes or our furniturep'
The question was not anJwered in
words, but the meeting broke Up and the
apostle of the new social theory that
"what is yours is mine if wlnt it and
can take it" left Factoryville the next
day and went down into Pennsylvania.
where he hoped people might have diff
ferent ideas of stealing Bulle-
tin.