The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-02-01
n INEFFICIENT

Manson Democrat: In all the
walks of life. the trades, the protest.
ons n the callings, General Tneffic.
lency. the war lord of discomfort and
rouDie, appears to be in supreme COM
mand, with Lieutenant Laziness and
Captain Squander as his immediate
underlings. 1t was not so long ago
that men learned trades because they
wished to make a living at them for a
while; then perhaps, with the money
saved by honest toll, embark in bust.
ness for themselves. They learned
their trades well, worked at them
faithfully to their employers and them
selves and turned out a product that
was salable all the way through
without the effort of the seller to get
rid of it by putting the best and the
unspoiled part Of it on the top or the
outside. Occasionally you hear a man
say that it took longer to learn a trade
in those times than it does now He
is mistaken, always. 1t takes just as
long now, but the men will not nut the
time into it. Life is too short. they
think, 20 fritter away learning a trade
or a business. The years their faith
ers used to put in at learning some
thing that would make successful men
and useful citizens out of them are
now cut in two, or three, and the rest
of the time is used up in living faster
than body, mind or purse is able to
stand. The result is a class of trades
men who are, to use the kindest word,
miserable. They have to lie, cheat
and actually steal to get work and
get away with it," as they boast.
They claim to have specialized by
learning one thing, but they soon
prove, on trial, that they have not
even learned one thing well and that
they are four fushers who care not
for skill or efficiency, or who AXE no
pride in their output, being chiefly and
almost solely concerned in the matter
of putting in the least hours for the
most money and chatting because it is
not quitting time of Saturday after
noon. With them the employer is a
slave driver and they themselves are
serfs, hense the only proper and pat
riotic thing to do is to gouge the BOSS
at every opportunity. They get cross
eyed from watching the clock or shy
ing at the boss and crazy from brood
ing over the fact that they have to
work while somebody else is having
a good time. / might go on ad infini-
tum, and tell you about how many
trades are cursed with this large and
rapidly increasing class of would be
workmen, but, why do so? The world
knows them better than | do, for the
world is large and my territory is COM
paritively small. What with the
tyranical employer and the wage
squeezing boss, together with the
four flushing artisan in all branches
of industry, the outlook for the future
greatness of this country as an indus
trial paradise is not at all r~eassuring.
There is a time coming, and it is
coming just as soon as the war / in
Europe is ended, when men who know
tr2des and professions and know them
well and are willing to work at them
honestly and efficiently, will be in
great demand and will command the
highest wages ever paid, while the
four fushers, the laggards and the
fellows who live merely to "get away
with it" will be left behind in the
great race for a place in the world to
become the INDECENT, the tramps, the
~loafers and the mendicants on the
great body of people who have to work
for a living and who love their work.