Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1918-05-15
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i. NO ROOM FOR DRONES. i.
Observation-Disclosures
(Atlanta Constitutions


(Atlanta Constitution.
ldlers and loafers the country over
are, in the language of Clarence Du-
Bose, of the Federal Department Of
Agriculture, Having hard sledding."
Public sentiment is nearing the
point where the non-worker no lon
ger will be tolerated. The people
realize that the war cannot be won
without food, and that food cannot
be produced without labor. There
fore. says Mr.. DuBose "there Is a
spirit from one end OF this land to
the other which says to every man:
You are going to work! Voluntar-
lily, If you prefer-but YOU are 60
ing to work!'"
That men prefer voluntary labor
to penal servitude Tor habitual idle
ness Is proven by the records In COM
munities where the authorities have
aggressively tried conclus usions with
the ne'er-do-wells and loafers. In
New Jersey, Mr.. DuBose declares,
1.-The number of applicants for farm
jobs at employment Offices increased
many thousands as soon as rigid en-
forcement Of the vagrancy law be-
gam And "in GeorgN," he goes
on to say
The Governor expressed it with
much pith. "The farm or the chain
gang was the message he sent to
sheriffs. Confronted with these al
ternatives considerable number Of
leisurely individuals are discovering
latent talents as farm laborers that
heretofore they concealed very sue
cessfully. The proclamation Of the
Georgia Governor said that an unre-
lenting enforcement of the vagrancy
law and the general knowledge that
the punishment for loafing is certain
will cause many idlers to go to
work voluntarily; but in communi-
ties where they do not 60 to work
voluntarily, see that they are probat-
ed to farmers to work under proper
supervision after arrest and convic-
tion.'
That's fair warming! Loafers,
avoid Georgia."
Thus New Jersey and Georgia have
put the iron heel of the law down
hard upon the loafer and the "loun-
ger-about-tOwn" and the countryside
as we'll. The same is true of Mary
land, OF Virginia, Of Oklahoma,
which States have recently taken
drastic steps to stamp out the evil of
idleness. and of practically every
other State in the Union. The senti-
ment Of the entire nation is aptly
expressed by the Montana Farmer,
which, in recent editorial, said of
the labor conditions in that State:
Every nook and corner Of Mon
tana must be made too hot for
drones this season. If we make the
hive too hot to hold the drones, the
farm-labor problem in Montana will
be solved. If it appears nee
essary, nonessential industry must be
side-tracked until Montana harvests
her crop safely, y and that ap-
plies to every man engaged in non
essential work. There are
some highly paid men whose work,
considered as a contribution to the
nations needs, is considerably less
imp ortant than it would be If they
had on overalls and were out in a
field shocking wheat or pitching hay.
Some feelings may be hurt,
and some individual dignities may
be lost In the shuttle, but 1t Is up to
Montana to strike out for her farms,
and let the aches and pains, mental
and physical, fall where they may!"
The Montana Farmer is right. So
ciety has no room and should have no
tolerance for the man, rich or poor,
white or black, who refuses to work.
And society and the law should see
to 1t that all who refuse to either
fight for their country or work for 1t
OF their own volition are put in places
where they will be forced to work
under cOmpulsion.