_PUCK, May 18th, 1887._
Mr. Henry George no doubt found his account in catering to the unruly
and turbulent in 1887, but it is doubtful if Father McGlynn, the Roman
Catholic Priest who got such a bad attack of the George doctrine that
he earned for himself several years of suspension from his priestly
functions, made as much out of it as his more astute colleague. But
between them they made a great deal of noise, and PUCK did what he
could to counteract their influence. With this cartoon on May 18th,
1887, appeared the following editorial advice to the laboring man:
“Don’t be a laboring man--that is, labor, but as an employer rather
than as an employee. You have got to serve your apprenticeship to
poverty--so has everybody else, except the comparatively few who
inherit large fortunes. But be diligent in your apprenticeship, and it
will be mastership in the end. Work with this one idea in view--that
some day you will have earned and saved enough to go into business for
yourself. Then you can employ some other poor man, who would else go
hungry; and you can treat him well and give him a chance to make money
in his turn. That is the way of the world. It is not a bad way, if you
take it bravely and cheerfully. If you refuse to take it in the right
spirit, if you sulk and whine and call upon labor organizations to
protect you, and cry for special legislation to right wrongs which you
can’t even define--why, you will find it a pretty hard way. It is hard
on shirks, idlers, skulkers, and men who do half-hearted work. But it
is a way that is as old as the rising of the sun; a way that will be
the same when the last sun sets on this world, and all the McGlynns
and Georges and Anti-Poverty Clubs in creation will not change it. It
is the good old way of duty, and it existed before Labor Leagues were
thought of.”
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