Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1907-12-26

present phenomenal prices Of food
stuffs Is due to the famine of labor on
the farms. 1t is a plausible explana-
ton, for the bounties Of nature are Of
no use to the world unless they can be
gathered at prices which pay the hus-
bandman. This scarcity Of labor has
existed in some fruitful sections for
many years, and naturally loud de-
mand with competition in wages in
wolves, year by year, a wider agricul-
tural area. Hard as 1t Is for people
whose incomes stand still and who
have always had to pinch to make
both ends meet to be held up for
from 80 to 40 per cent more or do
without the necessities of life, never
theless the situation Is not one to
mourn over If high prices really mean
that the harvesters are few.
The world is full Of toilers, and they
all seem to be busy-that Is, all who
care to work. If they can get jobs
which pay better or make them more
contented than farm work, then hui
manity Is to be congratulated. No
power can now force unwilling men
to dig in the fields. Formerly this was
not so. The same problem Of how to
get "hewers Of wood and drawers Of
water" has left its mark on all ages.
1t gave rise to African slavery; 1t es
tablished serfdom in Europe; 1t led to
the conquest and subjugation Of both
men and women to slavery under
various names. Races have been kept
for centuries from rising in the social
world because independence and edu-
cation would lift them above work.
All over the world there is famine
Of field hands, and this must be taken
to show that men are no longer con-
strained by force to bear the yoke Of
labor. The lesson of the hour should
make us more charitable toward those
nations and potentates Of the past who
forced men to do their drudgery. They
had to do 1t or civilization would have
gone backward. There are people to-
day In this land Of freedom and re-
ligious ideals who think the idle class
should be forced to work; that the
tramp and the loafer who eat and
do not toll should be made to work
under compulSiOn. 1t was this idea
that often led to the practical enslave-
ment Of whole races In the past. The
fields were crying for hands to the har-
vest, and men Of the semisavage tribes
passed their time in idleness, living off
the game Of wood and stream and
wasting their muscle power upon USE
less sport. To the moralist Of the
times, If such there were, 1t must have
seemed reasonable and just that these
wild men be conquered and harnessed
to the pillow. We have better way
Of accomplishing the same thing. The
humblest Of the men who work are bet
ter off than the vagabonds who bask
In the sun and trust to luck for food.
The savage man gradually sees the
difference and gets to work. Among
the warlike Yaqui Indians there are q
few young men who have earned mon
ey by laboring in the Mexican mines.
Their example is contagious, and the
hills are nearly depopulated Of stall
wart young men whose kind formerly
spent their days in games and let the
squaws do the work. In Africa the
same story is told. The results Of la
Dor are better than the results Of In
dolence, and this incentive to toll Is
far nobler than the rod and the lash.
Social reformers would have every
person toll for his own necessities and
everybody brought to the same plain.
But civilization is based upon a d.
vision Of labor, and in the long run it
Is bound to come to this, 1.-The laborer
Is worthy Of his hire" and all who en-
Joy the result Of his toll must chip in
and make up the price.