The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-05-18
Wards Words .

The idea that siXty-f0ur million people |
can be worried by les9thaR sixty-four hun
dred blathersktes and tramps falls with a
thud upon the thinking mind
Yes, absolutely worried by them, and trains
are taken and run by them, despite the
hurry and rush of armed men to stop them,
when any five ordinary train robbers would
have taken the job of capturing the trains,
stealing the locomotives and putting the
chiefs hors de combat for thousand dol
lars per capita. 1t only proves that ours is
the weakest government on earth for self
protection, and still they keep on killing off
those train robbers when they are really the
most valuable part of western society.
The wage question, which is one of the
results of the war, comes from the difficulty
people haYe of accepting decline in wages
corresponding with the universal decline in
produce and cost of living. Most people
are not content to live as they did in the
ante-bellum days. Then, clean calico
dress and sunbonnet was good enough for
plain country folk to ''go to meetin" in,
while now some of the same women can be
seen of Sunday morning vending their
way to worship with an outfit on that cost
enough 10 make payment on farm. This
is one of the why's, and poor people-well,
they mast keep up with their neighbors-.
and that's how.
man can dress well,
For mere bagetee
And the boys can do ditto ween;
But the girls and the wife
Worry out all the life
OF mans money making machine.
This is quotation from Shakespeare
Bacon's edition, but it fits here pretty well.
In those ancient days along in the forties
and fiftes, man worked hard on the farm
for from 25 to so cents and didn't growl
about hard times or go on the tramp either,
while at the same time dollar goes more
than twice as far now as it did then for all
absolute needs of family.
Right here is where the trouble comes in,
and that is the unwillingness of wage earn
ers to conform to the changed condition of
things from what they were during and for
several years after the war, and be content
to accept what employers can afford to give.
Now, no farmer can come out ahead and
give SlS or S15 month for hired help. AT
the time speak of best farm hands got ten
and twelve dollars month, and they didn't
have horse kept and Sundays for nothing
either. Not any. They worked week days
| from sun to sun and milked the cows after
dark and were glad of the chance, and their
fathers took the finance to help pay for tacir
farms. What do you think of that. ye
young monarchs of all that ye owe?
There was no complaint about hard times
either, because people lived within theil
means, or tried to, and although wheat
wasn't worth much over so cts. bushel
they didn't have to give a man two bushels
of it as they do now to pay for aday's work.
Right along here is where the laugh come:
in.
i Years ago during the highest price ol
wages ! saw a carpenter sitting on dry
goods box smoking, while every other one
of his craft was busy If he only knew
!. enough to drive nail, and that was abou
the extent ofthis mans skill. and inquired
the cause. "Well," said he, ''if can't ge
: ss--which was top wages-I aint goin t
work."
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