The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-07-23
The Employer and the Employed

To the Editor of the Los Angeles Her
aid: At least quarter of century ago
perhaps longer, Thomas Carlyle, in his
work entitled Past and Present" said
A fair days wages for a fair days
work.. 1t is as just a demand as gov
erned men ever made of governing. IT
is the everlasting right Of man. Indis-
putable as gospels, as arithmentical
multiplication tables; it must and will
have itself fulfilled-and yet, in these
times of ours, with what enormous diff
Guilty, next door to impossibility.
We have more riches than any nation
ever had before; we have less good of
them than any nation ever had before. -
This was written in England, about Eng
land and English people
Does it fit the United States today?
Is there not danger that the conditions
of the wage-earner will be as bad as in
England twenty-five years ago?
A prominent employer of labor one
of the largest in Los Angeles, said to me
but recently: Wages are too high; but
who dares to take the initiatory in re-
ducing them" He was wrong and the
fact is the employers point of view is
very apt to be wrong.
This particular employer receives from
the public daily large sums of money,
earned with less expense in cost of fuel
and other items than 10 years ago. Yet
he voices the sentiment that to me seems
fraught with danger-that is the reduc-
ton of wages.
1t is a pity that wage-earners do not
see the only way of escape from life of
hopelessness and take advantage of a
condition that does not exist in Europe.
I refer to the opportunity offered in
this country to return to the land. The
late Rev Haskins (than whose warmer
heart never beat towards suffering hui
manity) often talked of the only way of
escape, and bitterly regretted the fact
that idle lands idle hands and idle
money" were the curse of the civilized
world.
We have large landholders in Southern
California who are able financially to say
to the wage-earner: 81 will sub divide
my land into reasonably small holdings,
place a reasonable price thereon, and
will sell these parcels of land to any in
dustrous man with family, absolute
ly without a cash payment. l will give
you ten years 10 pay lOT Ills pdICel VI
land, at a low rate of interest. l wish
to aid you to secure home, where,
come prosperity or come adversely, you
can raise enough out of the soil to keep
you and your family from want"
What blessing it would be if some
capitalist would erect beet sugar fac
tory within-say six to ten miles south
of the city of Los Angeles, and make
a market for the product of $4,000 to
$1,000 acres of land, making thousand
people comfortable by reason of en-
ployment in field and factory.
The rich must find employment for
labor at living wages if they would avert
the most terrible crisis imaginable.
When Los Alamitos factory opened up
recently over $50 applicants sought to
secure labor where only about 1875 were
required.
1t is pitiful to listen to the appeals Of
those who seek work and not be in po-
stion to satisfy their request,
Yet there are millions upon millions
of idle money in the banks of our state;
millions upon millions of idle acres and
crowds of honest men anxious for work
simply to satisfy their hunger.
w. H. HOLABIRD.