Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1920-01-02
The Man And The Public.
From The Country Gentleman.

From The Country Gentleman.
John Smith is a carpenter, mason, miner,
railroad man, ditcher or any other laborer
who works for wages. He labors on the
eight-hour plan and just about succeeds
in making both ends meet in the under
taking to provide the family needs. But
he wants something more than the bare
necessities he wants an automobile or a
piano or perhaps a better house. How
shall he get itH
Now there are two ways in which our
friend, Smith. can proceed in this attempt
to realize his ambitions for better living.
He may work an extra hour every day
and thereby add twelve and a half per
cent to his income or he may strike for
higher wages and get the increase with
out working for it. Some would choose
one way and some the other. with the
odds, at present, rather in favor of getting
the increase without labor.
While it makes no difference to Smith,
in carrying out his plans, whether he gets
the extra money by extra labor or by a
higher wage, it does make a decided diff
ference TO the public.
If he gets the extra money by extra
work. then he is really producing the thing
he wants. Even if he does not actually
make the automobile which he is 10 drive,
he makes something else that can be
traded for it in the markets of the world.
AS he is making that by extra labor in
extra time. the world, as well as John
Smith. is richer by reason of his ambition
and to the extent of one automobile, which
would never have been built If John Smith
had not wanted fuller life badly enough
to put in extra hours to get it.
However, if John Smith gets his money
by a raise in wages and without extra
service, then no extra automobile appears
upon the market because of his new de-
sires. He simply goes out and buys from
the stock on hand in competition with
others. thereby raising the price because
no machine was made for the special pur-
pose of meeting this new demand.
And that is not ALL Though Smith is
richer by an automobile, the public has
gained nothing. Not only that, but the
public is shorter by one automobile than
it was before. and this will make it all the
harder for every other man who wants one
to own machine. What is true of auto
mobiles is true of pianos. of housing. of
clothing, of food and of every other thing
desirable to make one comfortable.
The economic principle is-and we can
not get away from it--when man first
feels the desire for more or better things
he should find some way Of increasing,
not his wages, but his producing power,
else the world is poorer and not richer be-
cause of his ambition. If he will do that
the world. as well as he. will be the better
off because of every impulse upward ;
otherwise, everybody, Smith included, will
ultimately be injured by these laudable
impulses, and general stagnation would be
the only preventive of revolution in the
general attempt to get what one is moi
willing to work honestly for by rendering
full equivalent in actual production.
The farmer is not caught at this poin
because he works for goods. not directl,
for money. That is to say. if he wants al
automobile. piano or something not hith
erto afforded, there is only one way b,
which to get the money with which to buy it
That way is to produce more Of crops o
animals. which of itself means harde
work. 1t is the wage Garner who is caugh
by false philosophy because he work
only for money and he frequently does no
seem to realize that back of money mus
always be goods actually produced b.
honest labor if, indeed our desires are t
be really eratified.
The individual by violent methods ma!
throw the burden upon other shoulders. bu
the public in general and the world at larg
must pay all bills with labor actually per
formed. There is almost no limit to tn
amount Of food, the quantity OF clothing
the kind of housing. the number of auto
mobiles, pianos. monographs and wha
not other comforts or Injuries the work
might have. if everybody would 60 to worl
with the understanding that it could hav
as much as it could make and no more
Then if man would work at the job hal
as industrously as the boy will dig TO
worms while his fish pole leans by the tree
the world would literally be OVERLOOKING
not only with milk and honey but ais
with every conceivable thing desirable fo
our care and comfort We can have any
thing we are willing to work for, and curse
be he who shifts the responsibility to hi
neighbor.
When the man who works for wages an,
not directly for commodities. as the farme
does. learns that new want must be me
by extra labor and that the man himsel
must actually produce the thing he want
or else its full equivalent. not in none.
but in other goods when our men VIII
work for wages learn this lesson-then W
shall have fewer strikes to attain the i'm
possible and we shall have more men seri
ously trying to increase their producin
power by honest and efficient labor
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