SECOND

The trade of toil for money has led to many problems and discussions.

To-day the trenchant question: "What More than Wages?" is a matter of

eager talk. Is this a living-wage?--Just enough warmth, not to freeze.

Just enough clothing to be decent. Just enough food to go through the

day without actual hunger. Just enough shelter to keep out the wind and

rain and snow. Just enough education to learn to read and write

and count.

No. As the theory of bodily freedom demands for each man life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness, so the highest theory of to-day lays down

demands of economic freedom beyond the mere fad of possible existence.

Dr. Patten has formulated certain "economic rights" of man. Each

employer must say: Before I settle back with a serene belief that I have

given my men a living-wage, let me ask: Have they sun? air? sanitary

surroundings and conditions? medical care? leisure? education? a chance

to grow? Have they enough money for ordinary occasions, and a little to

give away? No man or woman has a living-wage, who has no money to

give away.

Education and comfort add to the value of the employed. The cook who has

a rocking-chair, a cook-book, and a housekeeping magazine in her kitchen

will do more work, and better work, other things being equal, than the

cook who has none. The workman who lives in a clean, sunny, well-aired

place, where he can found a home, and bring up healthy children, will do

more work, and better work, than the workman who lives in a damp, dark,

ill-ventilated tenement, and who goes to his day's work with a heart

sullen and broken because of avoidable illness and sorrow in his poor

little home. Five thousand employees who have a night-school,

luncheon-rooms, little houses and gardens, a savings-bank, and a library

of books and pictures are worth more than those who are given no such

advantages of happiness, growth, and content. The Railroad Young Men's

Christian Associations are said to be a good economic investment, as

well as an uplifting moral influence.

This appears to be a fundamental economic law: _Every physical, mental,

or spiritual advantage offered to an honest working man or woman

increases his economic efficiency_. Therefore even the selfish policy of

shrewd corporations to-day is to screw up, and not down; while the more

philanthropic are beginning to see, in their social power, a luminous

opportunity to do a god-like service.

But the capitalist, however just or generous, cannot do for a man what

he cannot or will not do for himself. Too many workers imagine that a

living-wage is to be given to each man, no matter how he behaves or

works. This is a false assumption. Underlying all human effort, there

runs a final law, that of Compensation: _What I earn, I shall some day

have_. This is a very different proposition from this: _What I do not

earn, I want to have_! For every stroke of human toil, the universe

assigns a right reward--a reward, not of money only, but of peace of

heart, joy, and the possibilities of helpfulness. But when the work done

has not been done faithfully, or well, or honestly, or in the right

spirit, the reward is lessened to that exact degree. To the end of time,

the idle and the lazy must, if they are dependent on their own

exertions, be ill housed and fed. If a man wastes, or his wife does, he

must not complain that his income will not support him. If he lets

opportunities of sustenance and advancement go by, the capitalist is not

to be held to account.

There are two chief kinds of economic difficulties. One is the problem

of the capitalist: How much ought I to pay? The second is that of the

working-man: How much service must I render? How much ought I to be

paid? Of the second kind, nearly every phase of it begins right here,

that men and women demand for labor something which they have not

earned. They do careless, indifferent, shiftless, reckless work, and

then demand a living-wage. The capitalist is not inclined to raise his

scale of prices, knowing that he has built up his business by prudence,

sagacity, and tireless application--the very qualities which his

dissatisfied employees lack.

We need not pay--we ought not to pay--for incompetence, for

impertinence, for disobedience of orders, for laziness, for shirking,

for cheating, or for theft. To do so is a social wrong. It is the wrong

that lies back, not only of sinecures and spoils, but of employing

incompetent and wasteful cooks and dressmakers.

What we make of our lives through wages depends upon ourselves. For

instance, a man gives each of five boys twenty-five cents for sweeping

snow off his sidewalks. One boy tosses pennies, and loses his quarter by

gambling. One boy buys cigarettes, and sends his money up in smoke. One

boy buys newspapers, and sells them at a profit which buys him his

dinner. A fourth boy buys seeds, plants them, and raises a tiny garden

which keeps him in beans for a whole season, The fifth boy buys a book

which starts him on the career of an educated man: he becomes an

inventor and a man of means. The man who paid out the twenty-five cents

to each boy is in no way responsible for the success or failure of their

investment of this quarter. He is responsible only for the fact that he

did or did not pay a fair price for the work.

God, the great Paymaster, gives to each of us the one talent, the two

talents, or the ten talents, of endowment and opportunity: after that,

we are left to our own devices!

There are four things which every employee should constantly bear in

mind, if he wishes to advance,--skill, business opportunity, loyalty,

and control. Until a man has mastered what he has to do, he cannot be

expected to be accounted a serious factor in the economic world. The

moment he achieves skill in what he has to do--and this is a question of

thoroughness, accuracy, and speed--he has achieved power, a possibility

of dictation in the matter of hours and wages.

The next point is business opportunity. Two men, of exactly the same

opportunities and endowments, take up the same task. One man idles and

is surpassed by the other, or he does only what he is told to do,

without further thought. The other performs his set task, but at the

same time he is examining into the principles of his engine, or into the

conduct of the factory or business. In a few years he is the foreman, or

an inventor, or a partner, with independent capital of his own. Again,

there is a blind way of doing skilled work, or of merely doing it

without noticing where it is most needed, or how the market is going for

this special kind of work. The one who has his eyes open reads, notes

the state of the market, adds to his skill the power of counsel, and can

gradually take a larger responsibility upon him, which will advance the

economic value of his time, as well as the work. There is a constant

flux in the labor-world, which is the result largely, not of special

opportunity, but of worth, application, and concentrated thought.

Third, loyalty has a high mercantile value. Disloyalty is a sin.

The fourth point is control. Does it not strike wonder to think how some

men have under them, either in their industrial plant, or in their

railway systems, or in their syndicate-work, anywhere from a few hundred

to ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand men? How do they maintain

discipline, either themselves, or through their subordinates? This

problem of control is a serious one in business. Every angry threat,

every sullen hour, each case of insubordination, every strike, every

widespread dissatisfaction, means economic waste. It means expense both

of time and money to send for Pinkertons to keep order and preserve

discipline. The man who adds to his technical skill, and his knowledge

of the market, the power of control adds great force and value to his

work. Higher yet is executive force, the power to adjust

responsibilities and duties in such a way as to get back a high economic

return in the way of service. But above all, there is that force of

character which impresses itself on a company, on a decade, on a

generation--so that some names are handed down in business from

generation to generation, all men knowing that from father to son, and

again to his son, there will pass down that certain integrity, nobility,

steadfastness of purpose, fidelity, and honor which give credit

throughout the business world, and which promise health and happiness

for those who are happy to be in their employ.

Before a man complains of his wages, then, let him ask himself: Have I

mastered my work? Am I loyal? Am I capable of larger responsibilities,

and of wider control?