The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1903-04-04
LABOR COLUMN.
Devoted to the Interests of the Laborer
BRAGG, Editor.

employ large amount of retainerS
and servants, as IT was beneath
their dignity to do any useful
work: in TACT, their only aim in
life was to enjoy themselves in The
warlike sports of that period, to
be afterwards followed by feast
ing and drinking and riotous
living.
The only work that any OF these
lords did perform that is, if You
can call it work-was to make
themselves proficient in the use of
arms and the arts of war: so they
might give battle to their neigh
bors, and obtain by force an ad-
dition to their possessions
1t is not very difficult to per
ceive that, all the extravagances
of the Feudal lord must be paid
for by the toll and sweat of the
working serfs. SO they were re
uuired to work certain number
of days each week for the lord of
the manor (the landlord) and dur
ing the remainder of the time they
had to support themselves. We
are very apt now, on looking back
on those times, to think that it
was very strange that the serfs
were so foolish M to allow the
landlords to make laws, saying
that land was private property,
and that no one should be allowed
to live, unless he worked for the
landowners the most of his time
| But we must make sure that we
do not live in glass houses before
we throw stones
The landlords, being the rulers
at this time; they, like every
other ruling class, made laws only
in their own interest. They want
ed things to stay as they were,
and they were especially anxious
that no laborers should be allowed
to find any way of living. except
by working on the land So they
made many restrictions on trade
and manufacture. They had laws
saying just how wide and how
heavy cloth must be spun, and
when and how all exchanges must
take place, they fixed the wages of
the laburers by law, and decided
what kind of goods should be
made
All of those regulations were
distasteful to those who were en-.
gagged in any kind of manufacture
ing. In the early days of which
we speak, when all the manufac-
turing was carried on in such a
simple way with hand tools, the
laborers banded together in cities
and resisted the laws Of the land.
lords. SO there was always Il
struggle going on between the
town and the country.
While this gradual evolution
was taking place in the economic
field, another force was working
for the downfall of the Feudal
system. Two powerful families
of England entered into war for
the control of the nations-Many
years were spent in the throes Of
civil war, and when at last the
war Of the Roses was concluded,
the English king decided to over
throw the great powers of the
different mobiles.
The king saw that if their pow
ers were not checked, they would
always be a menance to the gov.
eminent, and now that they had
been weakened and almost annihi
lated by this long war, he con-
cluded to take the opportunity
thus offered, and forever stoI.
these Feudal Barons from ever re-
gaming their lost powers. So he
commanded that all armies kept
up by the nobility should he dis
banded, and that the only army
that should be allowed, would be
that of the States. 1t is true
that this put stop to their mill
tary powers, but it did not inter.
fere with their ownership of the
land, so, although they ceased to
be a menace to the government,
they still remained, living in idle
ness while the serfs looked up to
them for the privilege Of a living,
and for the greater mart of the