Show t THE POOR + MAN When laborers are without employment em-ployment and those who are at work get but very low wages then the theorist comes forward with his reasons for the labor and trade depression de-pression and offers his remedies for all the evils to which the poor man is subject Many of them are perhaps per-haps of immediate application but so chimerical that they are worthy of no other name than theory and so impracticable that few only would ever think of carrying them out There is an old saying however how-ever that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and in acc ac-c with this the best time to talk of remedies for low wages poverty pov-erty etc would be during a season of prosperity and plenty that is when we can get hold ef the ounce of prevention and not when it is entirely beyond our reach Many argue and among the number num-ber stands the workingman foremost fore-most of all that the only way to make all men happy is to raise their wages but this can only be done when capital can be so Invested as to yield a fair interest and at the same time a large surplus over and above this and even then the number num-ber of laborers should not be so great that they are compelled to bid against each other and thus run I wages down When a country is well filled up with settlers so that all its resources can be drawn upon to their full limit it is not t to be presumed that capital can be employed so as to yield a heavy profit and when such a condition of things is reached the workingman working-man cannot rationally expect high I wages There arises another question what good will high wages do the poor man He will not be likely to improve his condition long in fact he will not improve it at all in one sense The end of the year finds him just about as far behind when wages are high as when wages were low He manages to eat up and drink all that he makes and just as fast as he makes ic and in many cases a little faster He can regard himself as little better than an ox in a field He eats until he is satiated and then lies down until un-til he gets hungry again and so on from one day to another never thinking ot the future If he happens hap-pens to be in a poor field he does well if he can gratify his hunger if I in a rich field he finds out the best and the rest he tramples under foot and all that he accomplishes in either case is to satisfy hunger But the ox has no better sense and hence we can expect no more from him but how many human beings do we find in the same condition One would naturally suppose that after so many lessons taught the human race in the shape of famines fam-ines this want of foresight would have been educated out of the race before this if there is any truth in the theory of evolution The scientist scien-tist tells us that it was necessity that first compelled the ant to store away provisions for winter and wee we-e no reason why the human race should not be as apt pupils and equally as far advanced unless it be that they have not attended school so long as the ant family If we look over the history of different j dif-ferent nations we shall find that those are most highly civilized whose people make the best provision provis-ion for the future and the tribes that show least evidence of civilization civiliza-tion are those that live more like wild beasts depending upon what game they can catch from day today to-day for their subsistence And as proofs of this proposition we have only to cite the reader to the red Indian the Esquimau and the wild tribes of tropical regions in Africa Asia America and Oceanica The very first step taken to civilize them is to induce them to make use of the finery and ornaments of their more advanced brethren and this can only be done by laying by part of their earnings When they have advanced so far they see before them other luxuries to obtain which will require greater and longer continued con-tinued efforts and so they keep ch progressing from one stage to another rising higher and higher all the time but they can not go ahead unless they make provision for the future Many of us can claim to be s little better than barbarians in this respect We may dress better and live better but any wild Indian or South Sea Islander is liable to do as well when brought up under similar circumstances Among the many plans that have been proposed by the philanthropist for the amelioration of the poor I mans condition it seems strange 1 that one should not have teen made > < more prominent namely that advocated advo-cated by the cynic school of philosophy whose chief exponent ex-ponent was the eccentric Diog enese He believed that the surest way to pat all men in a position posi-tion to have all their wants gratified is to limit those wants to as few as possible Nor wa3 he a mere theorist out became a living example of what he taught But he seems not to have been aware of one peculiar characteristic of the human race that no man can be happy whose wants can all be gratified at his pleasure he must always have something to lock forward to but a something which he has a reaoo able hope of attaining no matter how much it may be beyond his present reach An aphorism of the celebrated Swift will apply here very appropriately The stOlCt1l scheme of supplying our wants bj I lopping off our desires is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes It requires no argument to show that no advancement can be made in civilization unless there is at least one small portion of the people so well provided for that they are i not compelled to work solely for the purpose of obtaining a livelihood but have a great deal of leisure time which some may choose to I spend to no purpose but which others will no doubt improve by working with the brain rather than with their hands It is to this class of men that the civilization of the world is indebted and we are making mak-ing rapid strides still they are none too rapid and the number of brain workers in the field ie by no means too great The number may be increased in-creased with no danger of bad consequences conse-quences but this can be done only I by looking forward and preparing ourselves beforehand We often hear men say that they have been obliged to work their way through the world up to an independency without any assistance assist-ance from their parents and their children can do the same for all they care A man who has no further regard re-gard for his children than that ought not to have any It is no higher a sentiment than that of a brute for its offspring In fact it seems to us not nearly so high The one follows the instincts of nature implanted nit n-it the other does the same but in addition has been blessed wits human feelings which raise him immeasurably above the other and 1 t yet he chooses to lower himself to the level of the other by throwing aside the use of those very qualities that he should prize above all others i And if he will not limit his bestial and sensual desires in order to gratify the far nobler sentiment of paternal affection the least thing he can do is to give his offspring the same advantage that he himself enjoyed en-joyed from his parents But he will say I started out with nothing children need ex and that is all my pect of me Yet if he will reflect for a moment only he must conclude con-clude that the advantages of a child born now and thirty or fifty years ago are not the same We need not go very far to illustrate the truth of our proposition we shall find plenty of good examples around us The opportunities that a man had thirty years ago of doing well and growing grow-ing rich in this Territory were we believe much better than they are So the man now that is in general who now throws his children upon the world without giving them any start in life is not doing so well by them as his parents did with him Ifc is not always necessary that wealth should be hoarded up for children to squander when they come into possession of it but there is a far better and surer method of investing ones means for the benefit of children It is to give them an education Found and practical a legacy which no one can rob them of and one which they cannot squander if they will But by this education which we do not mean an enables one to parse a sentence correctly cor-rectly from beginning to end and yet to make grammatical errors inmost in-most every utterance nor that II which enables one to give every rule in arithmetic and to work every example in the book and yet not be able to tell how many bricks there do mean an are in a wall but we education which includes with the study of books also the study of men and practical life |