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Show H THE DITCH DIGGER. In spite of all that can be said about the honorable H quality of all labor, many people have always regarded H those who dig ditches and perform other unskilled labor, H with some contempt. Of recent years this work has been H largely done by non-English speaking aliens. It was not H so many years ago that this type of labor could be com- monly had for about $1.50 a day. H ' Recent years have placed the ditch digger in a more indenendent position. His wages in many places have doubled. The war has made raw labor scarce. The man -with energy and muscle enough to handle pick and shovel is not so common as he was. Our native Ameri- cans do not like manual labor, though they may be earn- ing less money somewhere at clean handed jobs. The new literacy test law promises to make the ditch H ligger even scarcer. Of course the man who has energy M enough to leave friends and earn passage money may have the grit to fit himself to pass our new requirements. But the new standard must have some tendency to reduce H the supply of raw labor. H Wherefore it behooves us to fell a little more respect H for the ditch digger. lie performs a useful and toilsome H task which the iest of us are unable or not willing to H undertake. He is in a position to get a higher price for H this disagreeable service, and he will make farm, high- H way, and construction work cost more. H It seems incongruous to many people that clergymen H" and teachers, who have spent good money going through H- "the schools, must often earn less than the unskilled H laborer who never took the least pains to educate him- H -self. Possibly machinery may yet be devised to fill the H jrap caused by scarcity of unskilled labor. Machines are H digging trenches in France, why not machines also to dig H our sewers? But until this substitution can be made, we H must all pay the penalty of the general inability and un- -willingness to work with our hands and delve in the dirt. H n |