Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1920-03-06

dren TO work or starve As these
men grew oder their families grew in
size and demand, While their ability
10 earn decreased The tragedy reg.
istered in their pay envelopes They
were being ground between growing
needs and diminishing wages. The
grinding not only hurt their bodies. II
furrowed their brain.
They lived in dread of poverty. II
had been TIER nurse, they feared It
would be their pallbearer. Poverty
had taken its revenge upon them.
They were resolving that if they could
help 1t 1t would not put its lash upon
their children. They knew poverty
intimately. 1t wasn't word, a name
Il was living hateful, cruel compan-
ion. II was the devil that recruited
the Marys of Scarlet Hall, the Magda-
lens Of the Sums. and always the
army was modified from the shantles
of the poor. Children who had been
robbed Of their youth. who had never
owned a flower. poorly fed and mis-
alarm clocks, sounding the call to toll,
when they should have been answer
ing the school bell, children physical
ly unfit for the breadwinner's strug-
gle, children without the moral en-
durance necessary for the fight, were
driven into No Woman's land, the
rotten scum under the world.
Light in Education.
Before the war men were brood.ng
on these things, papers, books. maya
zines mirroring life. pictured these
horrors. They were the subject OF
public discussion and debate. Men re-
turning from hard days work talked
these things over with their wives aft
er the children had gone to bed. and
many man left his supper table to
peek through the half closed door into
the room where his Riddles were Sleep
Ing. tiptoeng back, only to took into
the eyes of a mother. and see reflected
there the fears he felt.
The invention of the typesetting ma
chine, the cheap manufacture of paper
the growth of public school systems
and public libraries brought light to
the dark minds of the workmen. In
that light they saw more clearly their
needs and more completely realized
their rights. 1t is the natural ambition
of man to climb. He wants to get on
and up. Ignorance had kept him from
climbing. ignorance is darkness. Men
stumble when they try to go forward
in the dark, Education is the light In
the road. They sought To make haste
to make up for the lost time. Education
taught them to want things for them
selves and their families that their
fathers and mothers never thought of
wanting. The homes which satisfied
their parents depressed and irritated
them. The bathtub ana tooth brush are
acquired habits. The desire to straight
on the back that has been bent In toll
too long. is PUT there by education
one thing stood in the way-it oh
structed the path upward to decent
living. They saw the barrier clearly
and acknowledgements. They saw this
impossible obstacle was made out Of
poor wages. They saw more. They saw
that poor wages built the p0orhouses
and filed them. organized The bread
lines. introduced the soup house. OUT
of their thoughts, in their experience
they carved q truth. AS long as some
people have more than they can pos
sibly use. while others through no
fault of their own have less than they
absolutely need. something is wrong"
and when the call ~ arms came these
thoughts were living in the mass mind
of the world. Many not concerned with
the problem of thP other seyen-eighthS.
knowing nothing Of what was happen
ing in the minds of the men and
women of toll. and caring less. they
did not know that these men were
uniting and planning TO tear down the
wall of poverty.
Copyright. 1890 Western Newspaper UnionI