The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-02-16
WAGES SHOULD KEEP PACE
WITH HIGHER IDEALS AND
CONDITIONS OF LABORERS


of the workingman, important as il
is, is still not so essential as the alb
solutely vital ideal of every worker
the moral and intellectual improve
ment of the laborer. The result of the
development of modern industry has
been to throw even larger classes of
the community upon the necessity of
earning wages, and a greater per-
centage of men and women of this
country now depend upon wages than
at any previous time. The migration
from country to city, from farm to
factory, increases with each year the
proportion of wage earners, and it is
not improbable that at some future
date a large proportion of the men
engaged in tilling the soil will be ac-
tually, if not legally, in a position re-
sembling that of the wage earners of
the cities. 1t thus becomes imperative,
if the American democracy is to en-
dure, that the moral and intellectual
improvement of these masses of wage
earners should be raised to the high
est possible level. Much work has
been done in this direction by means
Of the public school system of the
country, by means of our cheap and
popular newspapers, by means Of the
admirable postal system of the United
States and by means of the wage
earners themselves. Much has al
ready been accomplished by the work
er, but in the future, progress will be
more rapid. To secure this advance,
there must be an increase in the ma
terial prosperity Of the workingmen.
High thinking is not incompatible
with plain living, but it is impossible,
when men work at excessively mental
labor for a pittance scarcely sutfi-
cient, in these times of high prices,
to maintain their families, and with a
constant fear of dismassal and pen
ury staring them in the face, that
they develop mentally or morally.
When every working man is assured
of his ability to earn fair wages I'M
der fair living conditions and is guar
anteed against the possibility Of un-
deserved Indulgence, he will be able to
vastly improve his intellectual and
moral living. Our public schools and
our newspapers endeavor constantly
to stimulate the wants of the people,
and as a consequence, they require
more wages and more leisure in which
to spend them. / do not mean that
this progress in the wants and needs
of the people should keep too far in
advance of the possibility of satisfying
them, or that the workingmen should
demand grand pianos, Turkish rugs,
or extra dry champagne. But we
wage earners, however, should con-
stantly seek to widen and broaden our
desires for material, intellectual and
artistic satisfactions, and thus make
our lives worth living in the highest
fabulous wealth for those
who own by law the mines of the Lead
Belt, but our reward is a mere pit
lance, speck or atom as it were,
to the men who own and
operate them. With lead selling and
in demand at $50 per hundred
pounds, | cannot see why the workers
the Lead Belt do not take
matters into their own hands and
force the Lords of Gold who dwell in
gilded palaces beyond the Alleghanys, |
to pay wage in proportion to the
profit they are taking
from lead, produced by the efforts Of
workers, and also insist on having one
Or more members on the boards of di- |
rectors who are in favor of giving the
Iaborer square deal If the boards
of directors of the lead companies
were composed of the same high class
human material as is the Midvale
Steel Co. and others, it would not be
necessary for the employees to over
work their bodies in the day time and
their minds at night figuring out just
how to divide the pay check so as to
satisfy all creditors. Not until men
who possess a high sense of justice
and right are in control of the COM
panies of the Lead Belt can labor ex-
pect justice. Such man we believe
is Mr.. Robert Holmes. In him we
have a man who is able to see beyond
mere dollars and cents; man who
thinks more of the welfare, happiness
and good will of his fellow man than
he does of great riches. A true Mis-
sourian, born and raised in the show
me State and endowed with a very
liberal portion of ideas of fair deal
ing and justice to all. Ed.