Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-08-28
A PRICE OF PROSPERITY:
Workers Are Broken Down and UseIesr
Before They Reach Middle Age.

| Workers Are Broken Down and UseIesr
Before They Reach Middle Age.
The great material prosperity In the
United States which has made the
whole world open its eyes in a Won
dering bewilderment has not come as
a chance gift, but has been achieved
| through the hardest kind of work.
| Every triumph costs something, eren
though it be peaceful and in its WIN
ming there be none Of the aspects Of
war. The wise at this time rightly
attribute our industrial pre-eminence
not to our natural material wealth
alone, but to the fact that we put
into our work unusual skill and ener-
gy, and regulate both of these by a
mental qnickness almost phenomenal.
But the wear and tear in this are
bringing into being social conditions
which will have to be dealt with seri-
ously by and by, IL not at once.
The efforts at cheapness of produc-
tion and superiority of product are
lengthening one end of the labor line
and shortening the other. The young
are put to work too soon, and the old
er workers are retired too early. That
surely Is a serious condition in coun-
try where manhood suffrage prevails
and the majority rules. We do not
note any particular demand for men
and women. On the contrary, if we
inquire among those who work to as
sist and uplift the poor. we learn that
even In these booming times there
is much suffering, because men past
their first youth and not accomplished
In special branches Of skilled labor
cannot find employment to which they
are equal.
Take one branch Of work. Before
the motive power was changed on the
urban traction lines 1t was the COM
monest thing to see conductors and
drivers whose heads had become whit
ened in the service. They were quite
equal to the work they had to do in
those slower days that have only
passed. But now few are employed
save youths. Indeed, because of its
purely physical eXactions none but
youths can do the work-youths with
the alertness and the activity of aero
bats. But even the youths who now
fill these posts will not stand still. Mid
die age comes surely, and old age
presses closely on the heels Of it So
what are these men to do in a few
years when their first spryness is
gone? So also with the clerk, who be-
longs little higher up in the scale. He
is at his best at thirty, and at forty he
begins rapidly to go down the hill, to
be numbered among the old fogies. The
laborers, who frankly do manual Ia
bor have assistance from their boys
and girls. Indeed, laborer nowadays
counts large family of children as
valuable asset. n kind of savings
bank, for the children are early put to
work and trained in the idea of con-
tributlng their wages to the family
fund. And the all-round man, the
Jack k-of all trades, what of him? He
walks superhuous on darkened stage.
Nobody wants man who can do any
thing-that Is, everything. What is
wanted is that man can do some
one thing with some degree of excel
lence. 1t is q time of specialization,
not only in the professions, but in the
trades, and even among the common
laborers, whose muscle and Drawn are
their only means of earning.
The outlook for those not provided
with fortunes and not fortunate
enough to have laid by for the time
of early retirement Is not particularly
bright. But much better provision
may be made for the growing youth
Of the time if those responsible for
their education will take into account
the changed and changing conditions.
Our young men must find out what
they want to do. and learn how to do
It. There will be the bright spot in the
future-the realization that the educa-
ton Of the youth who are soon to be
the, men, and the controllers, shall be
In the direction of their life-work, and
not confined to q slipshod cultivation
which units them for many useful
employments and qualities them to
excel in none.
There is always room at the top, the
preachers and other wise men tell us.
This is quite true; but it is also quite
true that the geniuses and men of un-
common force that are born into the
world are not one in ten thousand. We
need not bother about them. The COM
monplace and the ordinary, however,
make up the great mass OF the people,
and their happiness or unhappiness is
the measure of success or failure
Editorial in Harper's Weekly.