The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-11-08

LIN IN EOO1As AAO o00A1, NV
st the wedding is n ationed here not
only because it proves . fitting acknowl-
edgment to the U0lue Of labor by the
German ruler, but also because we
wish to show that even the presence of
this high and honssed guest did not
deter Bertha fFom paying q touching
tribute to her humble origin. For as
soon as the ceremony was performed,
and while the kaiser and the other
guests were still In the little chapel,
Bertha and her husband, her mother
and sister, left their presence and
walked to the old smithy in which her
great grandfather had worked and
toiled, and which old smithy has been
piously preserved, while all the rest of
the village in which it formerly stood,
had disappeared more than fifty years
ago. The two great granddaughter
wound garlands around the tools for
merly used by their ancestor, and COW
cred with flowers the old anvil on
which he had hammered. May our
Almighty Father preserve this young
employer of SO many toilers from ever
changing the sound morals she has so
far shown to possess! That, surely, il
a prayer which will find its echo in the
breast of every person who loves those
who work faithfully for their daily
bread!
+ r.
Comparisons are sometimes very in
structive. Those I shall now make are
odious. For l shall ask my kind read
ers to accompany me on a visit to dis
tricts in which other large employers of
workmen conduct their operations-to
the anthracite coal fields, and to the
iron and coke region of Pennsylvania.
shall not speak from hearsay; nor
from what Lave read. At three diff
ferent times-for journalistic purposes
have personally Investigated the
conditions prevailing in those regions.
I have visited the men while at work
and also at their dirty shanties they
call home, have talked with them and
their pastors in their own language,
and-have witnessed much poverty
and not a few cases of actual distress.
I was on one of the barges In the Ohio
River before Homestead when the no.
torious eviction of the workmen oc-
Cured. But shall not rake up old
matters which had best be buried and
forgotten. My purpose is merely to
compare the workgiver as he ought to
be with the one who is looking out only
for his own person.
The workmen in the regions referred
to were always paid very poorly; so
much SO that during the last twenty
years but very few born Americans
could be found to do that kind of
work. Hnngarians. Croats and other
slavic races from southeastern Europe
form the great majority of the work
men in the mines, in the iron works and
at the coke ovens. Whenever new
migrants could be obtained who
would work for lower wages, the older
laborers were compelled to agree to a
reduction, or 60 on strike. And l will
admit right here that the actual dis
: tress witnessed would not have oc
Cured, had not the men permitted
/ themselves to become the tools of un
J scrupulous strike agitators. Still. thu
t wages were so low that they did moi
| allow the average workmen to support
{ a family in even half decent style
], Their demands for an increase always
} met with refusals. The great plants
are almost all cheaply built, of Woo
. or sheet iron, and brick chime!
8 cannot be found IN any of them.
have been in many similar plants il
; many parts Of the world, and must So.
l that those near Pittsburg are th'
Q worst Of ell. These plants can proper
q ly be styled "get rich quick" concerns
|. and such they have proved to be
+ Nothing whatever is done by the EN-
r ployers for the education and for tn
Z comfort OF their men. They pay then
Q their low wtluss, and that ends their re
Q sponsibility towards them-so the.
d Think
Q The employers story is always tn
d same. They say that they cannot al
Il ford to pay higher wages without in
p curing loss. That, Of course, woul,
I be an incontestable argument IL /