Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-12-29

Nothing is said about the employer
who grows old before his time in q
vain attempt to get frowsy ne'er-do-
wells to do intelligent work; and his
long, patient striving with "help"that
does nothing but loaf when his back is
turned. In every store and factory
there is constant weeding-out pro-
cess going on. The employer IS con-
stantly sending away help that have
shown their incapacity to further the
interests of the business, and others
are being taken on. No matter how
good times are, this sorting continues,
only IL times are hard and work is
scarce, the sorting is done finer-but
out and forever out, the incompetent
and unworthy go. 1t is the survival
Of the fittest. Self-interest prompts
every employer to keep the best
those who can carry message to Gar
cha.
l know one man of really brilliant
parts who has not the ability to man
age business of his own, and yet who
is absolutely worthless to any one
else, because he carries with him con-
stantly the insane suspicion that his
employer Is depressing or intending to
Cypress him. He cannot give orders;
and he will not receive them. Should
message be given him to take to Gar
cia, his answer would probably be,
Take 1t yourself, and be damned"
Tonight this man walks the streets
looking for work, the wind whistling
through his threadbare coat. No ono
who knows him dare employ him, for
he is regular fire-brand of discon-
tent. He is impervious to reason, and
the only thing that can impress him
is the toe of a thick-soled NO. boot.
OF course | know that one so moral
ly deformed is no less to be pitied
than a physical cripple, but in our
plying, let us drop a tear too, for the
men who are striving to carry on a
great enterprise, whose working hours
are not limited by the whistle, and
whose hair is fast turning white
through the struggle to hold in line
dowdy Indifference slipshod imbecil-
ity and the heartless ingratitude,
which, but for their enterprise, would
be both hungry and homeless.
Have | put the matter too strongly?
Possibly l have; but when all the
world has gone a-slumming | wish to
speak word of sympathy for the
man who succeeds-the man who,
against great odds, has directed tho
efforts Of others, and having succeeded,
finds there's nothing in it; nothing but
bare board and clothes.
l have carried a dinner pail and
worked for days wages, and 1 have
also been an employer of labor, and I
know there is something to be said ON
both sides. There is no excellence,
per Sc, in poverty; rags are no recon-
mendation; and all employers are not
rapacious and high-handed, any more
than all poor men are virtuous.
My heart goes out to the man who
does his work when the boss is
away, as we'll as when he is at home.
And the man, who, when given let
ter for Garcia, quietly takes the mis-
sive, without asking any idiotic CUES
lions, and with no lurking intention of
chucking it into the nearest sewer, or
of doing aught else but deliver it,
never gets laid off," nor has to go on
a strike for higher wages. Civiliza
ton is one long anxious search for
just such individuals. Anything such
a man asks shall be granted; his kind
is so rare that no employer can af-
ford to let him go. He is wanted in
every city, town and village-in every
Office, shop, store and factory Tho
world cries out for such; he is needed,
and needed badly-the man VINO can
carry a message to Garcia.-The Phil
istine.