The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-09-21


only relief for the laboring populations.
This is the path" he says, "by which
they are to come up from the hand to
the mouth style of living to reap the
rewards and the honors of our adj
vanced civilizations" Lord Derby and
John Stuart Mill, who gave half their
lives to the study of the labor question,
believed in cooperative institutions.
The cooperative institution formed in
Troy, \. u. stood long enough to il
lustrate the fact that great good might
come of such an institution if it were
rightly carried on and nightly devel-
oped.
But" says some one, ''why talk of
surplus being put by laborers into CO.
operative associations, when the vast
multitude of toilers in this country are
struggling for their daily bread and
have no surplus?' | reply: Put into
my hand the money spent by the la
boring classes of America for rum and
tobacco, and will establish cooperative
associations in all parts of the land,
some of them mightier than any finan-
cial institutions of the country. We
spend in this country over $1o0,0OO.O0c
every year for tobacco. We spend over
ST l,500,O00,00O directly or indirectly for
rum. The laboring classes spend their
share of this money. Now, suppose the
laboring man who has been eNpending
his money in those directions should
just add up how much he has expended
during these past years and then sup
pose that that money was put into Co
operative ASSOCIATION and then suppose
he should have all his friends in toll,
who had made the same kind of expend-
iture, do the same thing, and that
should be added up and put into CO.
operative association. And then take
all that money expended for overdress
and overstyle and overliving on the part
of toiling people in order that they may
appear as well as persons who have
more income-gather that all up. and
you could have cooperative associations
all over this land.
But now suppose that all the laboring
classes banded together for beneficient
purposes in cooperative association un-
der whatever name they put their
means together. Suppose they take the
money that they waste in rum and to-
bacco and use it for the elevation of
their families, for the education of their
children, for their moral, intellectual
and religious improvement, what a diff
ferent state of things we would have
in this country and they would have
in Great Britain!
Do you not realize the fact that men
work better without stimulant? You
say, ''Will you deny the laboring men
this help which they get from strong
drink, borne down as they are with
many anxieties and exhausting work 2"
would deny them nothing that is good
for them. I would deny them strong
drink, if ! had the power, because it is
damaging to them. Ny father said: II
became a temperance man in early life
because / found that in the harvest
field, while | was naturally weaker than
the other men, / could hold ont longer
than any of them. They took stimu-
liant and took none."
l know gentleman very well who
has over 1000 hands in his employ.
said to him some years ago when there
was great trouble in the labor market:
''How are you getting on with your
men," 'Oh," he said, II have no
trouble" why" said, shave not you
had any strikes?" "Oh, no." he said.
81 never had any trouble "What plan
do you pursue?" He said: Il will tell
you. All my men know every year just
how matters stand. Every little while
call them together and say: Now,
boys, last year made so much: this
year l made less; so you see I cannot
pay as much as / did last year. Now.
l want to know what you think / ought
to have as percentage out of this es-
tablishment and what wages / ought to
give you. You know l put all my en-
ergy in this business, put all my for
tune in it and risked everything. What
do you really think ought to have and
you ought to have?' BY the time we
come out of that consultation we are
unanimous. There never has been an
exception. When we prosper, we all
prosper together; when we suffer, we
all suffer together, and my men would
die for me-" Now, let all employers be
frank with their employees. Take them
into your confidence. Let them know
lust how matters stand. There is an
immense amount of common sense in
the world. 1t is always safe to appeal
to it.
remark, again, great relief will
come to the laboring classes Of this
country, through the religious rectifica-
ton of it. Labor is honored and re-
warded in proportion as a community
is Christianized. Why is it that our
smallest coin in this country is pen
nv, while in China it takes half dozen
pieces of coin or dozen to make one
Of our pennies in value, SO the Chinese
carry the cash, as they call it, like a
string Of beads around the neck? We
never want to pay less than penn,
for anything in this country. They
must pay that which is worth only the
sixth part or the twelfth part of pen.
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