The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-06-23

round by an impenetrable wall of tradi-
tions, which have seemed to make it
right that the laborer should, as g rule,
be poorly housed, fed, amused. The
very first of these traditions is the ~
terpretatioE nan has seen fit to Put
upon Christ's words, "rhe poor sc have
always with you Instead of asscniA2
that Christ was merely stating sad
fact, which he regretted, these words
have been twisted into q belief that cur
Saviour thought it right that there
should be poverty in order that the rich
should be made sympathetic. This is OF
course the extrarae view, but it exists IL
all possible degrees and has duiled hu-
rnanity to the horrors Of poverty.
Added to this is the comfortable as
sertion that all pc;erty is due solely to
the shiftlessness and incidence of the
poor, or the still more extreme position
of even intelligent people that there Is
no poverty to speak of-that 1t only e1-
lists in the minds Of a troublesome anc
of6cioEs set of reformers.
The idea that so grand and altogether
good thing as money might be as ac-
tive cause of poverty, as shiftlessness
and Incidence could never have pene-
trated, unsided, this triple plated wall
of prejudice.
Protect Labor.
Even yet the question, Does labor need
protecting from unprincipled money
power? is never asked by those most
ready to condemn not only the mistakes
of unions, but their very existence. To
protect labcx means to see that wages
are kept high enough for each laborer
of every kind to live. Here again there
is an almost impenetrable mass of tradl-
tons to be dug through before logical
conclusions can be reached.
Tolire means to be able to feed the
soul as we'll az the body, to be able to
crafty every p',re and rightful taste and
ambition-thaf is, it should mean moth
ing less than this in any country which
calls itself Christian, and especially
must it mean this IN our great republic
If We are to prove ourselves worthy of
ibis inheritance.
But the wages Of many laborers mere
II keep body and soul together, and
man cannot live by bread alone It
takes most careful surroundings to breed
the virtues of industry. perseverance,
forethougbt and courage, and tae vices
which belong to poverty are usually the
result Of that poverty rather than the
cause.
No one will deny that labor needs
protecting in the extreme cases where
the working manor woman cannot even
consult decency in the housing and feed
ing Of their families or where children
are deprived Of an education in order to
help earn the living. But from this un-
pleasant subject the public always seeks
relief in the monotonous answer that
wages are higher now than they used
to be. This really switches the atten-
ton Off from the real evil But grant for
the moment that they are higher. Then
it must be remembered that higher does
not mean at all the same thing as high
enough. Conditions are better in many
ways for every one today, but is any
class being content because of this? Men
today own tens of millions where in
the past tens Of thousands fully answer
ed the purpose. But is the millionaire
content?
The Past No Guide For the Future.
Why, then, IS the 4aborer to be con-
tent when the trivial advance in wages
still keeps him shut cut from the many
legitimate uses for money which exist:
IF the advance in wages does not keep
pace with prices and the greater advan-
tages which money can buy, then it is
net really an advance.
And what assurance have we that
those wages Of the past We're even high
enough: And if they were sufficient, it
was for more primitive times which had
not grown up to the better advantages,
comforts and reGnemerts of today. But
to get away from primitive times, with
all their crudities, into the broader con-
disions of today is what we mean by
progress, the advance Of civilization. l.,
the laborer, then, to have no share in
this growth of idsals?
But the lahorer has been one Of the
greatest agents in bringing about this
progress In the past, at least. nothing
was possible without this being. whom
hard necessity has forced to do the
worlds drudgery, and not necessarily
because he was able to do nothing else,
as too many think, but because the brute
strength, which wants ease and comfort
at any cost to others, is always the
strongest.
No Success Without Labor.
In the past st least dollars might have
been piled mountains high and the &C.
tive brain Of the originator might have
conceived most brilliant projects, but
without the hand of the laborer nothing
could have been done. Had these orig
~. - III L., Jc II