Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-01-20
WISE AND FOOLISH INDIANS

udy WHICH CdIIl6u uOI Ouly q punt,
but furnished a moral as well. 1t
concerned an Old Indian Of the Cana
dian Northwest who had, through land
speculation and shrewd business deal
ings, become very wealthy. A white
brother who had not been so success
full in corraling the wherewith to buy
automobiles and other necessities of
life, was asking old Fat-Wad-in-the-
Pocket the secret of his success, and
the answer ran something like this:
Zone hundred years ago, white man
he willing to give big Injun anything
Injun can get. White mar satisfy any
time to give Injun the hole and white
man he take doughnut. But now In
jun he learn. He willing to take
doughnut and give white man the
hole"
The point, of course, is that the
foolish Indian of yesterday is the wise
Indian of today, and the moral reads:
Never accept the hole without the
doughnut.
Whether it is because we think too
little of ourselves or because we think
too much of our friend, the capitalist,
the fact remains that too many of us
are prone to be satisfied with the short
end of the good things derived from
the little old industrial game we are
playing.
1t is related of Critic, the one-time
famous lightweight Australian boxer,
that he never used to wait for his
manager to give him his proper share
of a purse, but would grab off a few
small bills from the outside of the roll
and make tracks for the nearest place
OF amusement. Up until about a CEN
fury ago the working classes of the
world had no redress from unfair
treatment. They either had to like
what they had handed them or lump
it, or both. The toilers then had none
of the advantages of the modern me-
chanic. There was little opportunity
then for procuring education or adj
vancement of any kind. There were
no powerful labor organizations to
protect and further the interests of the
working classes. Legislation in behalf
OF the working person was %conspicu-
Gus by its absence. Verify, the toiler
in the good old days was in most
senses a nonentity-not by choice, but
by necessity.
A hundred years g the white mar
could tell the Indian that black was
pink and the redskin swallowed the
statement for gospel. With a string
OF gaudy beads worth, perhaps, ten
cents a dozen, John Paleface could
bride an Indian into parting with an
entire prairie, and for two strings
of beads and a few drinks of the Juice
of the barley Mr.. Injun would peddle
the old American continent. It's diff.
ferent, though, today. A redskin is
still a redskin and he possesses many
of the weaknesses of his f%orefathers
but he is no longer entirely queer il
the upper fiat. The modern Indian
has been to college in most cases anC
he knows that it takes 100 cents tc
make a dollar.
A trife over ten decades ago-be.
fore there were any labor unions tc
preside owe the destinies of the Amer
lean working classes-there was some
excuse for accepting SKINNED milk
while capital smacked its lips over the
cream. Working people in those days
didn't like drawing blanks all the time
any more than people do nowadays,
but they accepted them and smiled be-
cause there was no comeback. A
whole lot can happen in a century.
A whole lot has happened-a whole
lot that should have happened and a
lot more that shouldn't. Among the
several things that should have taken
place, but which certainly did not, is
that every working person on this vast
continent be adorned with a good old
union card. Perhaps in the next hum
dred years-but who knows? AT all
events, here is guessing that there are
organizers in labor's great field who
will take an affidavit to the effect that
it would require about ninety-nine
years, at least, to convince some work
ing folks which side their bread is
buttered upon, and that toadying to
capital will never get them anywhere
beyond Poverty Lane and a life of
abject servitude, for that is what being
a non-unionist practically amounts to
in the majority of cases.
The union man of the rank and file
is entitled to no small measure OF
credit for his efforts in behalf of him
self and his kind, but even he is not
to be entirely acquitted of the charge
of being game for the c~apitalistic
hunter; for if he, during the century
of his existence, had been more insist
ent and more ~persevering in his efforts
to do for his union instead of depend
ing so much upon the efforts of his
leaders he would occupy a much better
position than he does even now.
The trouble with many of us-in
fact, most of us-is that we look down
instead of up. We listen too eagerly
to the employers prattle when he
compares our elevated condition with