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Show I- LOAFING ON THE JOB. In Cleveland, Ohio,' a grand jury, called to consider the housing situation, decided that the chief blame for the tremendous increase In the cost of building was labor's refusal to do a day's work for a flay's pay. Then the report of the grand jury went on to declare there was no evidence of the existence of a combination or trust to keep up thy building prices. On this last declaration there is ample evidence to indicate that the jurora had their eyes closed, but as to shirking, there is no doubt that labor today is far from being as efficient as it was five years ago. Laboring men make a mistake when they loaf on the job, because be-cause no one pays a bigger price for that evasion of duty than the workingman himself. To- go on a job and fritter away time is a crime against the employer, the worker, the home, m a period during which the world needs the full services of every man. No laborer is to be -expected to undermine his health by hard work ; no laborer is to be expected to strain ati his task, but every toiler should give an honest day's work, not so much for the sake of the other fellow as for his own good. In a measure, work is exchangeable. If all the workers of the country suddenly do only half of what they have been doing, they cannot get back much more than half of the goods they formerly received re-ceived for a day's work. That is axiomatic. Of course, there are leeches and parasites and non-producers. They receive a part of every honest man's effort. They have existed throughout the centuries cen-turies and will continue to draw substance from the toilers. Shirk-! ing will not eliminate them. They play a necessary part in the economics eco-nomics of industry, just as the parasites have a function in the vegetable vege-table kingdom in the suppression of the seed of the unfit. "We believe the remedy is to be found in spreading this old saying: say-ing: "Tho mill will never grind with the water that has passed." No worker can ever recall the hours he has wasted no more so-than so-than can the miller bring back the water power which he has carelessly care-lessly allowed to flow by his plant without using. Days thrown away by laziness make the waste that begets want. |