The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-13
THE FARMERS ~HIRED MAN,


The problem of the hired man" on
the farm, always as live a topic there
as is the question of the "hired girl"
with the city housewife, takes on a
new phase in the agitation of this
money issue. Heretofore, he has been
discussed much as breeds of cattle or
swine are treated, and has been re-
garded only as a necessary evil to be
mitigated as much as possible. How
to get him, how to keep him, how to
treat him. have been the usual points
OF view from which he has been dis
cussed. He is indispensable. Farming
would be very much restricted with
out him, greatly as he has been dis
pensed with by the machines that have
been invented to help solve the prob
lem. In the discussions of the stand
ards of money, though he has been lost
sight OF. merged, submerged in the
generic term farmer" when the elo-
quent and pathetic orator pleads the
cause of the poor farmer whose sal
walton depends upon the restoration to
freedom of the minis of the dollar of
our granddaddies-for we have got to
go back of the ''daddies'' to find 1.-THE
groups the hired man with the farmers,
as if he and they were one, and as IL
he had no rights distinct from his boss
But this is a very serious mistake,
one sure to be fraught with disappoint-
ment. The hired man has been listen
ing and reading and thinking He has
read Mr.. Bryan's pathetic appeals for a
50-cent dollar, so that the farmer can
get higher prices for his produce. He
has heard his employer declare that the
money he pays his hired man with is
too dear; that the dollars are 200-cent
ones; that the dollars that represent
his grain and pork and beef, his butter
and eggs have thus become 5O-cent
dollars, while his debts have doubled
with the doubling of the money dol
lars. He has heard his boss declare that
he is going to vote for free silver so
that the dollars will be cheaper ones;
so he will get more of them for his
produce and pay less of them to his
creditor. He has not heard his "old
man" say anything about giving him
any more of these cheap dollars for his
work than he is giving him now of the
200-cent dollars, and he is wondering
where he comes in in the proposed
financial millennium
He reasons to himself while out doing
chores somewhat after this fashion:
The old man wants a cheaper dollar
that will give him 20 cents bushel for
his oats and a dollar for his wheat
but those dollars. will also give the
merchant twice as much for his cloth
ing and whatever else I buy of him.
That means that it will cost me twice
as much to get the things I buy as it
does now, and that my wages will be
worth only half what they are now
But the old man says nothing about
raising my wages so that 1 will be
able to earn as much and buy as much
as 1 can now. 1t seems to me as if I
was sort of forgotten in all this discus
sion. These fellows seem to be looking
out for number one and forgetting all
about number two. 1 reckon it is about
time for me to begin to figure how
this cheap dollar is going to hit me.
1t looks as If it was going to hit me
pretty hard; knock off about half of
my wages, for if I shall be able to buy
only half as much with them as now
can't see but that is cutting them
down half. L guess I Will have to ask
the old man what my wages will be
when he gets his cheap dollars. I'll
bet sixteen to one that he will say that
times are so hard and crops are so
poor that lie can't possibly think of
raising them. Anyway, whatever he
says he will do, reckon I hadn't bet
ter taken any chances. He might not
raise them if he says he will 1 might
he forgotten then just as 1 seem to
be forgotten now. When q fellow has
get good thing and sure thing he