Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1911-05-06

(written Specially for The Bulletin)
When the farmers boy pipes up
with his ideas about Framework, it is
well to listen, and not too contemptu-
ously, either. He may be young and
green. he may lack experience, he may
strike his elders as a little "brash"
and little too fond Of play and a lit
tie to hostile to work, but,-he is the
fellow who is to make the farmer of
the next generation, il there are any
then Therefore his way of locking at
things, even though it be crude and
ill-digested. is worth considering for
our own sakes and the sake Of the fu-
ture. as well as for his.
am moved to these reflections by
reading a letter of a real farmers boy
in a western paper. He begins by
saying:
Labor unions in the cities have es-
tablished efght-hour working days.
Why should the boy and his father on
There's the first shot from the boys
gun. Has to work too long hours,
you'll notice. Don't fail to observe,
also, the order in which he naively
puts things:-"the boy and his father,
boy" first and father" second.
Isn't this characteristic +?
But don't let's be too critical in
small matters. Consider it soberly.
Why can't framework be limited to
eight hours as well as some work by
mechanics in cities? The first and
most obvious answer is that it can't
be so limited, regularly and the year
round, because Nature has never yet
adopted an eight-hour day, and the
farmer on his farm has tosreckon with
Nature and not with labor unions or
contractors. If Nature, here in New
London county, would kindly arrange
SO as to grow corn and potatoes and
hay,-and weeds,-for just eight hours
a day, every week day for fifty-two
weeks in the year, why then l sus-
pect it would be possible Tor farmers
TO follow her lead and work eight
hours a day, six days in the week. for
hfty-two weeks in the year. Perhaps
this might be better than at present.
II might be worse. Certainly it would
be vast deal more monotonous.
But Nature doesn't take that gait.
She grows things for us only about
five or six months in the year. The
rest of the time she's frozen up and
winter bound. Then when she does
start things moving, they go with
hops and skips and jumps and most
err1tically. The cFop-produccr, in
these latitudes, has got to do all his
productive work in the five or six
months when Nature will let him. AS
she fairly gets them in hand, and as
she works regularly and vigorously
when she works at all,-for twenty
four hours day and seven days In
the week, the farmer has simply got
to have hustle on most of the six
days week he can work. after her,
or he'll ret behind the procession
even at fourteen hours day of hard
digging. Moreover, you can't boycott
Nature when she works over time, nor
picket against her, nor blow her up
with dynamite, nor throw her off the
track nor mash her head with bricks.
Nor is there the slightest use "strik-
ing" against her regula tons. To tell
the truth. she Is q rather more infiuen-
tial parsonage than any labor union,
and she cares absolutely nothing
about it whether we like her gait or
not. We may keep UP with her,-if
we can,-or fall into the ditch,-if we
please. But she'll go on Just the same:
won't even look behind to see wheth-
er or no were still in the procession.
Our lives depend on our ability to
keep somewhere within shouting dis
lance of her trailing skirts: but
whether we keep in sight Or not
doesn't matter the least little bit to
her.
Now this lesson of tho inflexibe
AMI pitiless hardness of Nature is one
WIHCn IS LH6 very I1dT0eSL Oh all LOT
youth to learn. It has to be learned,
though, sooner or later We who have
felt the yoke CALLING our neclzs, 10,
these many ycars,-we should not be
too snappish with the youngsters who
are feeling its blistering burden for
the first time. They cant see the
Justice OF it: no more can WEI: the
main difference between us is that we
have discovered OUR helplessness and
have taken our punishment as philo-
sophically as possible, while they are
still chafing under the seeming cruel
ty. We know that II is hopeless for
them to seek to evade the universal
natural law; but we needn't be over
sharp with them because they will
struggle. A better way is to sympa-
th;ze with them and try to explain by
both precept and practice the real
character of the proposition we're all
up against.
Just in passing though, 1t might be
we'll to call the attention of these
young people who think anything but
an eight hour day is the excAption