The Seward gateway., 1921-01-06
TO EAT OR NOT TO EATs

~--@>~@~>~>@.@@>->>~>~>~>s , TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT,
 Consider the case of . man who must get, his living from the soil. When he should be blowing he sits in the shade of the barn and tinkers with a device to polish finger nails. When he should be planting he tolls patient ly to perfect a rocking-ehair that will play . tune. When he should be har- vesting he sits on the fence and whin- es because his stomach is empty. An odd character, surely. He is America.
 America is going to town, where it can see the show windows and revel in tue sight of other peoples wealth. And as the downward march continues the sound of the dinner bell grows faint and the land is filled with an agon- ized vail from restaurant patrons. The task requires both intelligence and brawn. He earns prosperity. At pres ent he takes the price he can get; when he will. he can get the price he is willing to take.
 If the country were on the verge oi starvation and all the fields were fallow while men huddled in cities to send machines, the growing of food might become matter of patriotism, md the Government might call for volunteers to guide the blows. But at present each man feels free to look out tor himself, and If he wishes to quit che farm to get more of profit and pleasure in town, he feels that it is nobody's business but his own. If ,ther people object to his action. let hem hold their peace and take the ylace he vacates.
 We assume that men quit the farm because they long for the sight of brightly lighted streets, for show plac- as. for crowds of well-dressed people md for shorter hours of labor. The assumption is not wholly correct. If he farmer could make one hundred dollars on the farm in the time requir- ed to make one dollar in the city, nei- sher the crowds nor the bright lights would tempt him to quit his fields.
 Nor does the matter of hours serve IS sufficient explanation of his de. sire to migrate. Shorter hours interest those whose reward is fixed. If one is assured ten dollars the day and knows chat he can get no more, any dream of oettering his conditions will have to do with lessening the effort required to get the ten dollars. He may ask that his hours of labor be reduced to six or four or two. But if the shop in which he lsbors belongs to him and his re- ward depends entirely upon the qusn- tity of his output, he will be ready to fight if an effort is made to redues the number of his working hours. :, The farmer works long hours during DOT ton of the year. His common sense does not permit him to waste good daylight when the ground is iEiFAt for blowing. The soil may bake and be- come too hard. or rain may keep him fretting within doors. The seasons do not wait for him. But if he lsbors long during one season. he dnds many hours of leisure in another. His life is not without it's compensaioni.
 It is the desire for money and the things money, can buy that takes men from the farm-- this, and nothing more. When men, ,rushed ta CaR1esnia and to Alaska insseareh, q soid, thsy took no thought of dissonforts. sTAey did not ask for short hours or lisht tasks. If the Goeyspmsat aAeaM oessr a flat salary of ssa tAosaand dellsu . year to nsa wilIing te ssik tbe- -