The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1918-05-10
OILERS AND LoAFERs.

ioLERs AND LoAFERS.
;.."In many places sheriffs and towr
marshals are rigidly enforcing loca.
laws against vagrancy and loafing.
says the Hon. Clarence Ousley, assist
ant secretary of agriculture, in let
ter to The Herald on this subject
in which he makes a plea for each
farming community to take care oil
its own labor problem. I'm most
towns" he says, 1T Is against the
law to loaf on the streets. A rigid
enforcement of such laws will compel
able bodied men to find work of some
sort, and whether they go to the
farms or find other employment, the
effect will be to release labor and
Increase the man power of the coun.
try. In view Of the demand for
labor 1t is proper for communities, by
law or by public sentiment, to insist
that every man, whatever his wages
or his wealth or his condition, shall
put In full time"
1T may be understood from this
letter that the government is not on
the trail of the idle negroes alone.
The men who are supposed to have
incomes from invested capital or
other source are not to be permitted
to waste their muscular strength for
that reason.
'E Suggesting methods by which the
full tnan-power of the nation may
be mobilized, Mr.. Ousley says:
1T is not possible for us to wage
q war Of such proportions as that in
which we are now engaged and ut the
same time maintain peace practices
acknowledgements. We must all sacri.
flee: we must all do things in other
ways than the ways to which we are
accustomed. II we can not get the
best we must take the next best.
War industries can not be suspended;
ship building must 60 on; munition
plants must be operated; soldiers
must 60 to France. With all these
activities drawing upon our man pow.
er In increasing volume it will be.
come more and more necessary, from
week to; week and from month to
month as long as the war lasts, for
each of us not so engaged to re-
adjust and reorganize as the circum-
stances require. More effective than
any law that can be enacted by the
National Government is the force of
public opinion. The best agency for
tho solution Of these problems is the
agency OF community action. If the
people OF q community resolve that
thing shall be done they will find
the. means Of doing it. There is no
power In the government to create
labor, nor have we yet reached the
point of national peril where it is
necessary to conscript labor or to re-
quire farmers by law to grow certain
crops. The true test of democracy
Is its ability to meet local emer-
gency without the compulsion of
national law. At any rate, it is i'm
possible this year to organize sys.
tenn of Federal Administration of
labor, but 1t is easily possible for each
state, each community, and each
neighborhood to solve its own prob
lem. Notwithstanding labor difficult
ties last year. production was greatly
increased; the situation this year is
but little. II any, more difficult, but
the more difficult 1t becomes the more
necessity there is for united commun-
ity action"
This letter from Mr.. Ousley fits the
situation in Maury county. The labor
question has not yet become so SER
ious that the production of the coun-
ty is endangered. But it is growing
moro serious. The draft is taking
more men every week from civilian
labor. Men are not being drafted
now from the farms, but as they are
drawn from other industries the farm
labor supply will be weakened. be-
cause other industries losing labor
ers will offer inducements to farm
labor to join them. A new call for
10000 more men for the army has
just been issued in Tennessee. That
will mean another draft on the states
man-power.
Every state and municipal law
against vagrancy and loafing should
be laid with all force against the
man, In whatever station in life. who
Is not working six days every week.