New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1917-12-19
The Christmas SPIRIT
As "A Cure For J
Social w rol,egs:. 5 IS. SIS:

Ifee.C Christmas SplT1t
As ~ Cstre-AllF For
Social Wro'sgs. Sc
Leavitt Corning Of st. Paul, U. S. a.
gets out a clever little magazine, quarter
". He calls it .Corning's Razoo' and
about once every three months he has
something very good in it. The Winter
number for 1917 is no exception; in fact,
his Christmas editorial is about the best
we've seen this year and because it says
J 50 many things that we think, and says
them so exceedingly well we are going
| to lift the whole article instead Of
trying to say the same thing in less
j, forceful manner. The editorial is long,
lbut well worth reading, every line Of it,
even in the busy days before Christmas.
/ For several years / have taken this
Space in this issue of this book to urge
i upon employers the use of the Christmas
spirit, not one day, but every day in
!, the year. AS time goes on l become
more and more convinced that it is as
sure as anything in this world can be
/, that some remedy must be found for
some conditions that exist under our
present industrial and political system,
or serious trouble will result.
The masses Of mankind said a
writer many years ago, live lives of quiet
desperation!
sThis should not be true.
AL goes we'll in the household of the
average individual composing the mass
es OF mankind until sickness or accident
or increase cas- in living expenses makes it
necessary to dip into the little savings
account to pay the doctor or grocer; faces
grow wan and pinched- quiet despera-
tlon!-while the man works on and on
IN quiet desperation to save his loved
ones. from the horrors of malnutrition
and the disgrace of seeking charity. What
future rises before such a. family?
and there are millions of them in this
great land! Loyal, true citizens who love
God and home and native land even as
you and but, how would you and I.
feel if we weren't quite sure that we
would have a square meal next Sunday,
and if we knew that if one Of the children
1ell sick the dostor's bill and the nurses
care would take every cent of savings
and put us behind in the rent?
Christmas time is good time to ask
ourselves these questions. I once heard
Woodrow Wilson addressing meeting
of the Saint Paul Association before he
was president. He said, prefacing his
remarks: Gentlemen, you are, ap-
prehend, the men of this community
who have arrived or are about to
arrive; the problem for you is not to
solve the question of economic indepen-
dence for yourselves it is to decide what
you can do for those less fortunate,
comprising the naassos of DIR citizenship
who have not done so.
II do not quote the president exactly,
but know that is the sense of what he
said. The words have occurred to me
oftentimes since as being both admoni-
tory and prophetic. We must heed
them, or sooner or later those who make
political capital of labor's wrongs and
capitals arrogance will get their incom-
petent, impractical fingers on the very
centers of our government.
'The highest authority in the land, the
President, has spoken. Now listen to
one of the lowly. This pathetic letter
is clipped from the Pioneer Press of
Thursday, October / l, 1917. The editor
of that paper headed it as follows:
8 Fears Pauperisn; Laborer's wife
Blames Employers For Rise of
Socialism - (
"The letter itself:
CT read in the papers that many
families who have formerly been self
supporting must ask for help, and I
know this must be true, for my husband
probably puts in more hours of work than
any other man in town, and was taguht
to save from my childhood, vet we can
barely get enough to supply the neces-
saries of1ife for our children when We are
all well. What would it be if sho uld be
sick and needed help? Do you think that
a family thus forced to paunerism will
ever again work 50 hard to keefout oft?
The man who works from early morning
until late at night knows that he earns
enough for the support Of his family.
If he. does not get it, some one else does.
This thought embitters him against the
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