Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1906-01-26
Friday, Jan. 70, 1000.
SHOULD HAVE EMPLOYMENT.

of young men who idle their tim,
away during the winter months il
most southern Utah towns, is on,
deserving of the very best thought O
our tinanoiers. In nearly every towr
of this part of the country you will
meet with dozens of unemployed
young men, who are not really lazy,
but have no profitable employment.
OF course, most Of them could find
something to do If they we're really
in search of it, such as the fixing M
OF fences, side walk and yard at
home, but not one boy in hundred
has any stomach for this kind of
work, and we do not know that we
can blanc them very much when 80
few of the older men set the example.
but nearly all of these young men
would work If job was offered
with something in it." What they
want is chance to earn something.
1t is not so much the work they are
looking for as the emoluments, and
this is largely true of the world az
large.
Labor is one of the important con
siderations in the production of all
classes of commodities. 1t is i'm
possible TO produce anything, scarce
~, without labor, and yet here we
have this great essential to progress
and prosperity daily wasting among
us. Figure the labor of each of these
idle young men at 81. so per day for
four months in the year, and estimate
the number of unemployed at 100.
which is not an extravagant figure
for the average small city of southern
Utah, and it means a loss to each
town OF SIS, 600 each year. Think
wat this means to us. The ,expend-
-Ntss q VI !, eea Aa,.rsexs-w~
u Q community would make !. wonder
fA difference to local conditions.
Vt would build fine homes and public
buildings; would improve our
schoo& streets, sidewalks and town
generality IL expended, or fair pro-
portion of IL, in these directions.
But how are we to bring these con
ditions about? OF course, so far as
streets and sidewals are concerned we
can accomplish something in this
direction by means of direct front
age tax, payable in labor This will
employ few of those who are now
idle for little season, but not many
of the unemployed are property
owners, and the tax will not effect
great many of them. What we want
is some regular, steady, means of en-
ploying our boys and young men,
especially during the winter season.
We want TO evolve some means by
which we can convert this wasting
labor into some finished product that
will command cash price on the
markets. 1t seems to us that no great
difficulty should be experienced in
the establishment of such manufactur-
ing Industries as would convert this
surplus labor into cash, and at the
same time yield dividend for the
persons supplying the capital. We
will venture the assertion that the
amount sent out of each good sized
town annually for confectionery runs
UP we'll into the thousands of dollars.
Now, while it would not pay for
every southern Utah town to start
candy factory, it would certainly be
a profitable investment for one town.
We practically import everything in
the form of manufactured articles
that we consume, fifty per cent or
more of which is represented by the
labor required to produce it, while
We have tens of thousands of dollars
worth of this labor going to waste
every year.
No wonder we complain of hard
times. No wonder the balance of
trade goes against us il our mutton
and wool crop fails or falls below
par. Is it not about time that we
we're waking up and doing something
to change these conditioner
Brigham Young foresaw all this at
the earliest settlement of the country
and did more to establish and en-
courage home manufactures than all
the other learders we have since had
put together. But AS conditions
changed and the exigencies of the
occasion called for adjustment, the
work so wisely begun by this learder