The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-06-01

to go into HE Win Incse three prln-
ciples to earn a fortune. 1t is your
desire to do your whole duty to the
men and women in you service.
First OF all, then, pay as large wages
as are reasonable and as your business
will afford-not necessarily what 9TH
ers pay, certainly not what your hired
help say you must pay, for that Is
tyranny on the part Of labor unbear-
able. The right of a laborer to tell his
employer what he must pay implies
the right OF an employer to compel a
man into a service whether he viii or
not, n either of those ideas is de-
spicable. When any employer allows
a laborer to say what he must do or
have his business ruined and h EN-
ployer submits to Ii, he does every
business man in the United States a
wrong n yields to the principle
which, carried out, would dissolve So
ciety. Look over your affairs and put
yourselves in imagination in your
laborer's place, and then pay him what
before God and your own conscience
you think you ought to pay him.
God bless yous" are wei in their
place, but they do not buy coal nor
pay house rent o get shoes for the
children. At the same time you, the
employer, ought to remember through
what straits and strains you got the
fortune by which you built your store
vi 10u NIC " IN
member that you take all the risks
and the employee takes none or scarce
ly any. You are to remember that
there may be reverses in fortune n
that some new syle of machinery may
make your machinery valuless or some
new style of tariff set your business
back hopelessly and forever. o must
take all that into consideration, and
then pay what is reasonable.
CUTTING DOWN WAGES.
Do not be too ready to cut down
wages. AS far as possible, pay all, and
pay promptly. There Is a great deal
Of Bible teaching on this subject. Mai
achi: 81 will be 4 swift witness against
all sorcerers aid against all adulterera
and against those who oppose the
hireling in his wages" Leviticus:
Thou shalt not keep the wages of
the hireling all night unto the morn
ing" Colossians: Masters, give unto
your servants that which is just and
equal, knowing that We shall also have
a Master in heaven" So you see it is
not a question between you and your
employee so much as 1t is a question be-
tween you and God.
Do not say to your employees, "Now,
if you don't like this place get anoth-
err" wen you know they cannot get
another. AS far as possible, once a
year visit at their homes your clerks
and your workmen. That is the only
way you can become acquainted with
their wants. You will by such pro-
cess find out that there is a blind par
ent or a sick sister being supported.
You will find some of your young men
in rooms without any fire in winter,
and in summer sweltering in ill venti-
lated apartments. You will find out
how much depends on the wages you
pay or withhold.
Moreover, * IS your duty as employ
er, as far as possible, to mold the well
fare of the employe. You ought to adj
wise him about investments, about life
insurance, about savings banks. You
ought to give him the benefit of your
experience. There are hundreds and
thousands Of employers, I am glad to
say, who are settling in the very best
possible way the destiny of their en-
ployeS. Such men as Marshall of Leeds
Lister of Bradford, Akroyd of Halifax,
and men so nea at home it might Of
fend their modesty if I mentioned
their names-these men have built
reading rooms, libraries, concert
halls, afforded croquet lawns, cricket
grounds, gymnasiums, choral societies
for their employees, and they have not
merely paid the wages on Saturday
night, but through the contentment
and the thrift and the good morals OF
their employees they are paying wages
from generation to generation forever
Again, I counsel all employers tc
look we'll after the physical health OF
their subordinates. Do not put on them
any unnecessary fatigue. 1 never could
understand why the drivers on our
city cars must Stand all day when they
might just as we'll sit down and drive.
1t seems to me most unrighteous that
so many of the female clerks in our
stores should be compelled to stand
III Iorv 0-l -, ~-> $1,000 h
there are but few or no customers.
These people have aches and annoy
anceS and WEAKNESS enough without
putting upon them additional fatigue.
Unless these female clerks must go UP
and down on the business of the store,
let them sit down..
Then I would have you carry out this
sanitary idea n put into as few hours
as possible the work of the day. 1t
seems to me all the merchants in ali de-
partmentS ought, by simultaneous
movement, to come out In behalf of the
early closing theory. These young men
ought to have an opportunity Of going
to the mercantile library, to the read
ing rooms, to the concert hall, to the
gymnatium, to the church. They have
nerves, they have brains, they have
Intellectual aspiratic they w i'm
mortal spirits. If t, can do a good
round days work in the eight OF ten
hours, you have no right to keep them
harnessed for seventeen.
THE DUTY OF THE EMPLOYERS.
But, above all, 1 charge you, o en-
ployers, that you o after the moral
and spiritual welfare OF your employees.
First, know where they spend their
evenings. That decides everything. You
do not want around your none drawer
a young man who Went last night to
See Jack Sheppard" A man that
comes into the store in the morning
CHASTITY with midnight revelry is no
the man for your store. The young man
who spends his evening in the society
of refined women or in musical or ar
tistic circles or in literary improve
ment to the young man for you store,
Do not say of these young men, IF
they do their work in the business
hours, that is all I nave to ask" God
has made o that mans guardian.
want you to understand that many OF
these young men are orphans, or worse
than orphans, flung out n society to
struggle for THEMSELVES. A young man
is pitched into the middle of the At
lantic ocean, and a plank is pitched