Mexico weekly ledger., 1894-06-21
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY.
A Trip Through Severai Upper G0un
ties and What a Mexico Man
Saw-He Thinks we Shaald
Have q Pair.

health by breathing the pure, fresh
country air. Well, sir, we left Mex
leo, Mo-, at $50 a.. m. Left in a
single buggy-that is, a buggy with
one of Mexico's fine single drivers
hitched to it. We went through
Thompson, Centralia, Sturgeon,
Clark, Reniek, Moberly and Hunts
vile, arriving at Huntsville, Mo-, at
6 p. M, where we got Il good sup i
per and fed "Minnie'' well and let
her rest until 7 p. M. We then
drove to Mt. Airy, Randolph county,
Mo, arriving there at $40 p. M,
making the 60 miles in ten hours.
The crops along the road taken by
us were clean and in good condition
excepting the grass, corn and oats,
which were needing rain very much.
The towns did not show much evil
dence of any improvement, and the
mines we're shut down and looked de-
serted. AtHuntsville we learned that
the miners had been offered SO cents
per ton and they wanted 60 cents per
ton. When we left Mexico we were
in strong sympathy with the strikers
because then WI had only heard one
side of the question. After we heard
| the other side from a reliable source
we were just as much in favor of the
operator, for this reason: If a man
can make $3la per day all the year
round except Sundays in the mines
why should he want $41a per day?
Show us "A man, a laboring man, in
all this land that is making even
3d. per day or $21 per week by the
sweat of his brow. He earns this.
Who can afford to pay him more?
What does he do with this money?
A part of it goes to buy food for him.
self and family-a part of it, and |
am sorry to say 1.-THE part, the
lar ger part of it, goes to where this
d~eponent saith not.
Now, sir, at $21 per week makes
81 ,092 per year. A thrifty miner
ought to make enough at this rate to
quit mining in ten or fifteen years.
Now, sir, suppose the owner of the
mines were to consent to give the
miners 81 cents per ton. Has he any
assurance-any valid assurance that
the miner would not demand 70
cents per ton next year? The more
a laboring man makes the more he
spends the easier it comes the easier
it goes, and there would be no cud
to the demand. We came to this
conclusion: That there was no war
between labor and capitol, butin the
unjust demand for that capitol was
where the war came in. What are
our coal resources worth to us if the
T mining of them is to cost us more
than the purchaser can buy the ar
ticle on the market for? These are
hard times, but not as hard upon
; the miner as upon the professional
) man or the man who cannot get
work. Work is what a great many
? men don't want; they came into this
world constitutlonally tired and
| hence they are constitutionally OPP.
posed TO work in any form.
! We knew a man once who was &c
feet high and he raised two boys
about the same height. His wife was
a very small woman, only about 5
. feet high. All the work ever done
Z on Mr.. ID. P.'s farm was done by
{ that good little woman. d. 7. MOI
? his two boys never worked any they
t would fish and hunt and borrow
: from their neighbors, but they never
| worked any; they were born tired.
5 d. p. died at the age of As years.
l not from over work, sir, but elmer.
! tia" and a lack of cleanliness. Poo
ID. p. has left many heirs to his in
dolence and lack of industry. Any
E man who is anxious TO work can al
( ways find something to do, though
r it may not be the kind of work he
: likes to do. "Where there is a viii
I there IS a way"
:. A great deal of the misery, woe.
and unhappiness found among
. people in this world is on account o
idleness, ignorance and indisposi
ton to work. Busy people have nc
time to fuss, quarrel OR fight, ano
, God did not intend that one-fourtf
OF this worlds population was te
tote" the other three-fourths. No
0 sir; this was not His divine inten
ton. Each one should do his anC
her part. Let the burden be equal,
distributed. Capital cannot do with
out labor, nor can labor do wei