The Tucson citizen., 1902-11-29

the mental and moral improvement of
the workingmen, housing them in
modest dwellings and supplying them
with refined amusements. 1t is also
worth noting that the most obstinate
strikes often occur in labor commu-
mites where flower gardens, modern
plumbing, hot luncheons, weekly lee
lures, a chess and checkers club and
free reading room are furnished at
the expense of the proprietors of the
business; while a. stones throw
away, where the operatives live in
shabby tenements and scratch for
themselves when not engaged in their
daily tale of hard work, the surface of
things remain quite unruffled. The
paradox is puzzling to any one who
sees only the mechanical side of life
in big labor hive and ignores the
strictly human element
Does it never occur, to the philan-
thropists who rum model factories or
mining camps that not every person
enjoys having things "done for him"
and that to many worthy working
man the equivalent in dollars would
be thrice as welcome as the best
library, or the most highly improved
tenant house? Perhaps he would
himself spend the money on books or
on house comforts, and then the doer
of good would wonder what stubborn
streak had entered into the compost
ton of that fellow Is not highly
educated employer better able to pick
out good books than an unlettered
factory hand? Is not the sanitary
equipment of cottage better directed
by man Of large resources than by
one of small means and narrow expe-
rience?
Well If it comes to that, how
would the employer like to live in
home ready made for him by some
body else, or have his recreations
dictated to him by some one un-
familiar with his tastes? Would such
benefits, if issued to him by a cone
pany in which he had become a share
holder, suit him as we'll as an in.
creased dividend?
Here and there one might be found
who would enjoy such a thing, but in
majority Of cases We suspect it
would be greeted with scant enthu-
siasm. Most people would rather di-
rect their own surroundings than to
have them selected and prepared for
them by the best expert on earth.
Does not the little girl go back with
all the more zest to her old home
made rag doll after coquetting with
the waxen beauty brought her from
Paris? The home of the working
man, which is not prepared for his use
by his employer. contains at least the
stamp of his own personality, which
may more than compensate, to his
taste, for whatever it lacks in modern
improvements. Possibly he would
rather sit around the stove and puff at
his pipe and swap stories with his
mates after his work and his supper
are out of the way than to spend his
evening listening to the best lecture
ever read. de gustibus" is as true
of the man at the loom or in the mine
as of the member Of the millionaires'
club.
And yet, who would willingly or un.
Willingly check the benevolent feeling
which suggests the model tenement
and the poor folks library in man
ufacturing or mining village? There
is merit in this, yet the other order Of
things is not necessarily g1aceless
We have sometimes wondered whether
the safe and far-sighted course did
not lie between the two extremes:
whether the employer who really
wished to help his men upward in
the scale of health and happiness
might not give each employe choice
between a projected improvement and
the money it would cost. Now and
then-perhaps oftener than seems
probable-one would choose to have
the money spent in his behalf but a
great many would prefer to do their
own spending. There would be no
such antagonism between the two
preferences that both need go unful-
filled in the same community. Those
workingmen who wished to live in
good houses, read good books, and
hear good lectures and concerts could
do so, and those whose tastes pointed
the other way could go in the old
fashion. If both classes could then
be made content, we should perhaps
hear less of labor troubles among the
men, and certainly fewer charges of
ingratitude and treachery from the