Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-03-27
ROBB|NG THE WORKER
Underpaying Labor Is Society's
Worst Crime.
MOST TERRIBLE OF WRONGS.

Present Unjust Wage System the Un-
derlying Cause of Pove-ty-Progress
OF. Civilization Retarded by tho Greed
of Employers. ~
Society has been guilty of many
crimes since the dawn OF civilization,
but nothing that it has ever done has
been re terribly wrong. so horribly
unjust, as its present system OF under
paying its laborers. If man devotes
his time to the performances of duties
that have been assigned to him by an
other. he is entitled to just compeHss-
ton, and If he does not receive this
he is robbed. Moreover. in such cases
the effect of this robbery is felt both
more widely and more seriously than
any ordinary kind of thieving-that
whicE Is committed at the point of
pistol, etc.-for it is not the man alone
who is robbed nor the mans time
alone that is stolen. The thing that is
actually taken is the means to provide
for and educate his family properly.
that the children for whom he is re-
:sponsible may live to he good. strong
men-mentally, morally and physically
good citizens.
OF course 1t is easy enough to say
that every man is free to choose his
employment and that nobody is oblig-
ed to work for another at an unjust
rate OF compensation. Theoretically
this may be correct, but in actual life
it is the contrary that is true There
are plenty of men today who are not
able to choose their means of liveli-
hood or to select their employers. They
must work, because If they did not
work they could not live, and they
must take what they can get simply
because there is no opportunity for
them to secure higher pay elsewhere.
JAS the direct result of this utterly un-
Just system there is Il great deal of
poverty in this world that might easily
he prevented if there was but some
method by which employers could be
compelled to pay a decent wage in
stead ,of being permitted to secure
workmen at the lowest market price.
Although fzais may sound like So
scialism, it IS anything but sociaIistic.
Although it may sound radical, it Is
mot so radical that it ds not in perfect
accord with the conclusions presented
by Pope Leo XIII. in his eneyclical on
labor, and | don't imagine that there
lis anybody who would dream of sug-
;gesting that he was a socialist or a
ipreacher of socialism. At the same
thine he did not hesitate to declare
tthat the compensation of iaborer
tought to be sufficient Ito support him
lin reasonable and frugal comfort. Ii
Through necessity or fear of worse
tevir," The says, "the workingman ac-
tcepts ihaRder conditions, because an
employer. or a contractor will give him
cno better! Ae is the victim of force and
injustice
1t is onIy Ineeessary that we should
sapply these words ;ts Existing condi-
tions to prove ~eonclusiYely that the
sstrong mass of society is guilty of
grave crime against tie weaker por-
ton and especially against the nnskiil-
ed laborers, to whom ii gives employ
ment at a rate of pay that is so far
below all necessary standards OF iiy-
ing that no man can ike. marry and
bring up family decently rpoI such
an income. BY taking all his time 1t
shuts him out from The opportunity
to increase his income o. letter his pO-
: sition. and yet il fails utterly 10 pro-
vide him with sufIicicEt means to sup
ply even his vital needs.
The worst of it is that in most cases
this condition is due TO the unwilling
ness of the employer to pay the decent
wages. If he could not afford to do
this, there might be some excuse. but
when the men or the company Offend
ing are amply able to pay higher
wages and decline to do so through
: fear that their own income may be so
reduced as to compel them to forego
some luxuries which they now enjoy
r the crime assumes an extremely seri-
Gus aspect.
Undoubtedly the time will come
when society will take these matters
into its own hands and will specify
precisely the lowest limit at which a
man may be permitted to work, but
until the state actually awakens to a
realization of it's responsibilities and
passes minimum wage law the duty
of being just win continue to devolve
upon the employer. In other words, II
the employer Is sufficiently dishonest
Il and selfish to drive sharp bargain he
may continue to hire his workmen at
practically starvation wages, for there
/. Is now no law to prevent him from en-
tering into this sort of contract with
the unfortunate people who are at his
mercy. Not that 1t Is any less the
crime, but until public opinion has
been sufficiently aroused to say, $50
far you may go, but no further" there
is absolutely no way of preventing this
entirely unnecessary poverty. y.-Graham
Hood in New York Commercial Adver.