The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1915-12-24
A WORKERS VIEWS

the skilled worker, it seems to me, is
securing a larger, although by no
means sufficient share Of the reas-
enable satisfactions Of life, than was
possible dozen years ago. The de-
partment stores with their free deliv-
cry system, have tended to bring
down the prices of many articles of
furniture and household service; and
the transportation facilities of the
country, the railroads, wharves, docks,
and markets, have within reach of the
workman many things formerly with
held from him.
However, the man with an income
of less than 5000 year can profit but
little from these improvements, and
owing to his meagre part, the un-
skilled worker has been deprived of
the ability to take advantage Of them
When he receives a wage of $500 a
year-and at this time the unskilled
worker should receive this wage
opportunity for better living will
come within his reach. The effect of
this will be of great benefit to society
at large, as well as to the unskilled
worker himself. Not only is the
worker who has a comfortable home
with proper sanitary appliances, a
better and more efficient worker than
he who sleeps in dirty lodging house
or is crowded into a tenement. but
society gains in other ways. Once the
worker obtains this income the drink
bill of the community will be dimin-
ished, the expenditure for apprehend-
ing, trying and imprisoning criminals
will be reduced, and many other evils
of society will be lessened. The most
important result, however, of such an
increase in wages upon the part of
the unskilled worker would be an
enormous incentive to industry, vast
increase in the demand for goods, and
more rapid march of the United
States towards industrial supremacy.
The unskilled worker should, there
fore, keep constantly in mind, and
should within the coming year, at
tempt to realize the ideal of 5000
minimum wage for unslilled labor,
whether of native or of foreign birth.
The increase will pay for itself. A
5000 man, working even as a common
laborer, will be better workman and
better citizen than the $3.50 man
now doing this class of work, Just as
the latter is better than the Mexican
peon working at twenty-five cents a
day. The employer and the communi-
ty in general will be better off when
the conditions of labor are improved
and the wages of the working man
increased. High wages mean more
than industrial efficiency, more than
the qualification of the reasonable de-
sires of the working population. They
contribute to the wealth and the fu-
ture of the nation, which is not to be
measured by its palaces and million
aires, but rather by the enlightened
contentment and prosperity of its
millions of workers, who constitute
the bone and sinew of our land; and
/ will say further that there is no
place under the sun where the 5000
minimum wage scale is deserved or
needed more than in this Lead Belt,
or where there is less chance of OBJ
tanning it. Now, take the st. Joe and
Doe Run Lead Companies. Accord
ing to press reports they have or are
about to pay off an Indebtedness Of
two million dollars. This is a very
neat sum to accumulate within two
or three years, and how much Of this
vast sum could the men who made it
for them pay? 1t is useless to dis
cuss this question as we all know.
Now, as see it,. there is but one hope,
and only one for better conditions for
the employees of those two companies,
and that is for Mr.. Robert Holmes to
have voice in their management for
the reason that he has dared to lift
his voice and pen in behalf of those
who toll for him. Place Mr.. Holmes
upon the board of directors of those
companies and I am sure that deaf
ear will not be turned to our reason
able complaints and entreaties.
A WORKER.