88 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



HELP ON THE FARM. 



BY PRESIDENT MORRILL. 



I have had considerable experience with hired help. I keep a good 

 many men, and there are some things which I think I have learned, and 

 I will speak on those lines. I think we should get it pretty fairly 

 impressed upon ourselves that labor is a commodity and nothing else. It 

 is something that it is necessary to have in order to run our places 

 successfully. We have to go into the market and buy it. When we find 

 a man who owns labor, and we propose to exchange money for it, it is 

 his commodity, and about all we have to do with him or her is to receive 

 that, and his obligation is to deliver it in the proper manner. I think 

 many of us who hire help are essentially wrong in one idea we have, that 

 when we hire a man we own the man, when we hire a girl we own that 

 girl. That is entirely wrong. So far as we may know, they are our 

 equals in every respect, and should be treated as such until they prove 

 unworthy. There is where many of us fail. There is no sentiment in 

 the matter; I believe it is a matter of bargain. If a man wishes to hire 

 to us, we often hire him on his own recommendation; perhaps he furnishes 

 one from the last employer. After that, we have to do with the labor 

 he delivers, and if he is worth the money he is entitled to it; if not, he is 

 not. We have also to do with the manner in which he delivers his labor. 

 He must be our associate to a certain extent, and many times he is a 

 member of the family, practically; then there is an obligation resting on 

 him as well as on us. 



I am sorry to say that a great many men have a wrong conception of 

 their duties in a family. It is very unfortunate that we have many young 

 men in the country really not fit to take into our families but who get in 

 through this method. In the city they hire a man simply for his com- 

 modity, and the manner of delivering it is not so important, and they 

 can use a class of men not good enough to go on a farm. I mean morally 

 good enough. But in that matter many of us make a mistake. We some- 

 times hire a man whom we know to be unfit to come into contact with 

 any family, and we perhaps take him among our boys and girls. Many 

 of these men are profane and uncleanly in their habits, and many are 

 even worse. But there are many others, good, exemplary young men, per- 

 haps not so polished as others, but morally clean and all right, fit to take 

 in any family, and they are often not appreciated. It is a matter of fact 

 that the young man on a farm, in many parts of the state, who believes 

 in wearing a white shirt when off duty, who never uses bad language, 

 who does not chew tobacco, who is not a little bad at times, is far too 

 often regarded as not much of a man, anyhow. If that young man has 

 good strong sentiments, he is not going to associate very long with the 

 lower class of men, or in families where those things are not appreciated. 

 He is going to drift into better quarters, and he ought to. There are 

 many families who are careful enough of the men they hire, but on the 



