People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1895 — It Is Disgusting. [ARTICLE]

It Is Disgusting.

It is disgusting to hear men who seem possessed of ordinary sense and judgment make the assertion—so* often heard —“Men can get’work who want to work,” or “No man need to be idle.” Men who make such assertions are either wofully ignorant or find it necessary to advance such argument as an excuse for candidates forced upon an excuse for conditions forced upon the country by their party. Suppose a man starts out to find employment, how many farmers could he find who could give him employment— except during harvest, or at most for a few days or weeks? Take the country over, and we venture the assertion that nineteen out of every twenty would not be able to employ a hand the year around, while eight-tenths could not employ help six months of the year—many not three months, and one-half of all of them could not employ any wage help at all. Then strike the trades and manufacturing industries, and the idle man would fare no better. And yet we hear the silly twaddle, “Men can get work if they want it.” Young men who would, under proper conditions, be working for themselves on farms of their own are staying at home helping father and mother make a living, and in many cases the combined efforts of the parents, several grown sons and daughters are necessary for the existence of the whole family. This ought not to be so, and would not if there was an equitable distribution of the fruits of toil, if every man and woman who are willing to labor were receiving a just recompense of reward for their toil.. There are causes for these anomalous conditions, and it is the duty of every man and woman to study them and properly apply the remedy. We have been legislated into this condition, and the remedy is an intelligent use of the ballot.