Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-07-06
ORGANIZED LABOR.

The National Organ Of the Farmers ALI
ance Speaks q Good Word for Labor in
the Cities.
Some farmers say:
eff 1 could get IS day I'd be glad to
leave the farm in a minute. My farm
don't pay no 5000 a year. I've got so
acres of good land and decent build
ings, and am out of debt, and it's all
can do to send my children to school
and make both ends meet could do
better than that on $500 year"
Could you? That remains to be
proven.
Three dollars day (f work and pay
are both certain) may be better than a
poor farm heavily mortgaged. where
the comforts of life must 60 to pay in
terest- But we will take the case of
the farmer out Of debt, and with COM
Portable buildings When he wants to
go to town he bitches up a team and
goes; 81 will probably hire man to
take his place, if necessary. But it is
not at all likely that he puts in 800 days
of solid work on his farm. The me-
chanic loses s. out Of his 5000 Of income
for every day he stops work or is sick.
At most times of the year the. farmer
can take one day off and hardly miss
1t. The laborer cannot The farmer
is his own master; the workman is not
When the workman wants day off he
must beg for it, and is often refused;
while perhaps the very next week he is
discharged entirely, and must spend
weary days or weeks, perhaps even
months, hunting q new job.
Some farmers think they work longer
and harder than mechanics. At cor
tain seasons of the year no doubt they
do. The mechanic cannot often live
close to his work. Hemust take cars and
pay car fare out of his wages to get to
it Sometimes he must take both steam
and street cars If he works ten hours
per day-from to u and 1 to Che
must often leave home at $50 in order
to reach the scene of his labor at T.
This means or 5:15 o'clock break
fast the year round, and very few farm
ers breakfast earlier than that He
eats cold dinner out of lunch pail
and reaches home to get his supper at
7:30. If he is fortunate enough to work
but eight hours per day he may break
fast at instead of 5. If he lives near
his work he has little more time.
AS to expenses, a cottage or d fat
containing from four to six rooms, in a
pleasant location on q paved street. in
any of our larger cities, will rent for
from s15 to $50 per month, or from $50
to $500 per year. If he feels that he
cannot afford 5000 a year for rent, he
must content himself with small rooms
on dirty streets. up innumera BILE flights
of stairs, or in the vicinity of vile
smokes and sickening smells Many
farmer occupying a pretty home would
be surprised to find that if he wished
to move to the city and rent a house as
comfortably and pleasantly situated,
he would be obliged to pay from $500 to
S700 rent Remember that we are
speaking of city rents. not of country
town rents.
To the city workman nothing is free,
not even the water he drinks Water
taxes must be paid just as surely
as coal bills In the city you
cannot have a garden from which to
obtain vegetables and small fruits.
Your potatoes will cost you from so
cents to 81. 25 per bushel Unless you
are renting an expensive house, you
will have no cellar in which to store
things You will have to live from
week to week, or day to day, and pay
grocer's prices. Your berries will cost
you cents quart, usually more, sell
dom less; your milk usually 6 cents a
quart, occasionally 5, occasionally Z; If
you eat good butter, it will cost you
from 25 to 40 cents pound; eggs will
cost from 12 to 80 cents dozen, accord
ing to the season of the year, and often
be very unsatisfactory; pork will cost
you to IL cents pound; ham, - to 20;
beefsteak, II to 16, in the east still
more; you will seldom buy chicken or
turkeys Your church expenses will be
heavier than in the country. If you
join a society of any kind it will prove
expensive, because hall rent must be
paid. Your clothes will wear out Just
as fast as they did in the country, and
you will have thousand expenses and
a thousand humiliations which you
never dreamed of while you lived on
farm.
Every time you wish to go farther
than you can walk you will have to pay
car fare. If you are sick you will have
to hire help to take care of you, or go
to the hospital. You cannot depend
upon your neighbors. Your doctors
bills will be heavy; and if you die, the
land to bury you in will cost dollar
square foot-or more.
The mechanic in country town who
gets s1.50 per day is as well or better
off than his city brother who receives
So. He can usually get house with
garden attached for from $50 to 800
sometimes less-and by putting his
leisure time on the garden can do a
good deal towards the support of his
family. He will have no car fare to pay
out of his wages The food he buys
will probably cost him less than half
what it costs the city laborer His
children's school expenses will be
small The farm laborer has still less
to pay-as he receives less-and can
usually procure more land to work,
thus providing himself with an occupa-
ton for out-of-work days.
And again, the number of city mechan-
les who have work 800 days is small, and
the most of them do not receive as much
as 50 per day. Those who receive more
belong to trades where two or three
months of work are followed by months
of enforced idleness, which entails great
privation. And again, there is often a
large per cent of loss to be taken out of
mechanics wages
But how do the great mass of CITY
laborers who receive but s1.5o to 81 per
day, and are out of work half the time.
live2
They exist in attics and garrets, or
underground Easements, whole FAM
lily, sometimes two or three families.
occupying but one room. The only
playground they have for their children
IS the street-and filthy street at that
for the children are ragged and dirty.
and II they should appear upon a pleas
ant shady street, the police would drive
them off.
The farmer we have described, pos