The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1913-10-03
Emerson Branch. R. G. MASTERTON, MGR,

R. 6. MASTERTON, Mgr.
talk is so absurd that it needs no answer.
!, IT we're question before court no other
evidence would be needed for decision
than what Mr.. Day says himself.
i AS to his assertion that the hobos twill
make things hot" next year that is an
impossibility except in an isolated and
scattered manner. The thousand of men
who flock to the grain fieles of the Da-
kotas and Minnesta every fall, have no
common homegenoity except the fact that
they are laborers. They come from all
over the United States and Canada, they
come for short season of work of sixty
days. There is no possibility of uniting
these floating atoms of all sorts of men
into any organization for or in SO short a
time. That they might be able to make
trouble IN some central places. as they
did this year at Minot is true, but such
sporadic organizations have little
binding force among themselves and are
comparatively easily controlled by the
authorities.
Unskilled labor cannot be organized
into "unions." There was never sue.
cessful strike made by body of unskill-
ed laborers.
"Up' here in this agricultural country"
Mr.. Day (should we say Mister) states
that the farmers dominate everything.
That seems to oe grievance, and yet we
hardly see how in purely agricultural
country any other thing would be pos.
sible even il desirable.
Perhaps it would be better that the
farmers hand over the local government
to the transients like Day; at least we
cannot see any other way. II the natives
are all agriculturalists where else can
we get ofiicialsY
''When we line up next summer the
farmers will have to pay living wages"
This is the nub of Mr.. Hole.in the Days
talk. This is the assumption of the II.
w. VS." We sometimes wonder Just
how large wage would be sufficient to
satisfy hobos of Mr.. Days stripe? Per-
haps the best answer to the question
whether our farmers pay "a living wage"
is answered by the very fact of Days
own presence in the state at harvest
time. What induced him to come here?
What induces the thousands of laborers
to come here year after year from all
over the United States? Many leave
farms of their own, many are sons of
farmers, many have other occupations,
many are college men. Why do all these
men come to the harvest fields of. the
Dakotas and Minnesota for the short
time Of harvest and .threshing, paying
railroad and hotel bills3 The answer is
so obvious that we will even let Mr. Day
say it.
The SIMPLE fact is true. that the farm
ers of the Dakotas and Minnesota pay
the highest wages ever known at any
time or place for unskilled labor. For
years now. the wages for labor in haying
have been about q a day, while IN har-
vest and threshing the wages run from
1925 to e3 with board in all cases. And
it is because Of these wages that the
laborers flock to the harvest fields eyery
year. II they could get better or even
equal wages elsewhere they would not
trouble to come here. They don't come
here for charity.
As to the sort Of man that Day Is, he
tells himself. He carries a revolver, he
is q traveller" he is man Of "educa-
tion,' and what he regrets most is the
loss of the supposed oath of the secret
order of the knights of Columbus (Which
the officers Of that order say is not a.
true copy but on the contrary is lie. J
From h,s own statements the farmers OF
North Dakota would unanimously re-,
solve that they would prefer that ali
men Of his kind should remain out 81
this state at harvest or any other time
and they will take the chances Of .sleav-
ing their fields unworked, their grain
!unharvested and unthreshed."
We want to add 70 this talk, that Day.
il also making another big mistake. He
counts oil the laborers n bong Of his
soft. We acknowledge that there are
many. but we are also glad to say that
there aro Thousands Of these mon Who
- nr&a t,1a 1.-s.l.,. .-i,.s5.