The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-01-05
A Year of Unex-
arnpled Prosperity
Editor Times:-


things that were, has been a record
making, not record-breaking, one.
Every field of activity and enter
prise has been worked far beyond the
most exaggerated expectations, and
history has failed to record any era
of near approach to it, notwithstand-
ing the much inflated cost of the nee
essaries incident to the modern life
Of our people.
The fact most worthy of consider
alton attendent upon this, and spring
ing UP from it as it were, is that most
Of the great industrial concerns,
throughout the country at large, have
shown their appreciation Of this great
expansion and profit taking in
which they have been rewarded, in a
very concrete and substantial way.
The great dailies of our trade CEN
ters, have for weeks and are yet, in
most glaring headlines, telling of this
and that great industrial concern
cutting big watermelon and inviting
their employees to the great feast in
appreciation of the vital part that
they played in the consummation of
these great accomplishments.
They did not HE themselves away,
together with their great profits, to
New York City, or some other mon
eyed and fashionable center, to give
the entire melon to "me and my wife,
my son John and his wife," "weuns
and no more," that their exclusive set
might revel in all of the luxuries of
fashionable life at the expense of the
sweat blood wrung from the honest
and horny-handed sons of toll.
Instead they, realizing that these
lRboring men of their employ were the
chief agencies that made these great
profits possible, call their employees
together and say to them, you have
placed in our hands these great accu-
mutations, by your unceasing toll,
through many sacrifices of body and
mind, and have doubtless withstood
many privations and have faced many
dangers that our great and many in
terests might not suffer, Now, we,
in lieu thereof, are willing and anxious
for you to share with us in these gains,
and in doing so We give not to char
ity but simply remunerate unrequit-
ed toll to near its just deserts. By do
ing this we are only in line of our
duty, thus enabling you to bear the
heavy burdens incident to labor. You
will be better equipped to care for
your own and your families needs, not
only in material way, but will be
able to provide for them some of the
better things of life, better clothes,
better houses, better environments
that tend to uplift, and last but not
least, you will be able to give your
children equal opportunities with the
more favored ones of the world, in
the educational race in life.
In view of these facts, it seems that
the return of the principles of the
brotherhood Of. man" once so pre-
valent in our land, like the prodigal,
has returned.
Not so with the great industrial
concerns of st. Francois county, the
county above all So richly bestowed
by nature. 1t is true that small
"bonus" has been attached to the mea-
ger wage given their employees, but it
has not been commensurate with their
ability to do so or even their duty,
when they are able from this years
profits, to devote % per cent gain
to their surplus fund and of one dol
lar per share to their dividends pro-
fits. They have never seemed to be
interested in the welfare of their la
borers, but Shylock-like have exacted
the very last drop of blood sweat that
their Golfers might become plethoric to
overlooking. Even in State revenues
they have signally failed to contribute
anything like a reasonable share, but
by one means and another they have
been able to get by on very slim
amount as compared with other pro-
perties of the county of much less
productive value they are willing that
our county one of the very richest in
the State shall be dubbed as pauper,
that they be allowed to escape with
their last pound of God-created wealth.
When will the ones that we have COM
missioned to look after the interests
proceed to see that no unjust dis
ordinations are practiced on account
of wealth or other cause. If one con-
tention of Democratic principles main
tanned above another in the last cleo
ton was made prominent to the ex-
clusion of all others, it was that there
should be an honest adjustment of
this unjust method of assessment and
taxation of the different properties of
our county, and we wish to emphasize
the point, if those officials whose du-
ty it is to see that no unjust discrim-
nation maintains in this vital matter
fail in their duty, the ire and the dis
pleasure of our people will be so pro-
nounced as to make said officials wish
that they never had been.
And in conclusion, we wish to en-
phasize the fact, that if the one great
corporation, viz: the st. Joe-Doe Run
Lead Co., be equitably taxed and as
sessed, that our pauperism in State
revenues will vanish like the mists
of the morning. And if the other
great mining concerns are made to
come across with their just proper
tionate share of revenue, then St.
Francois county will cease to be bur-
den to the State and will become one
of its most valuable assets.
Yours for simple justice.
A. TAXPAYER.