1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



413 



ways bring things around so as to spare the 

 one who wants to be absent: and if he does not 

 want too mdny vacations, it does not spoil the 

 man's usefulness and money value. A good 

 many times when we have had more help than 

 we really needed, I have asked several (one 

 after the other) if they had any work of their 

 own they wanted to do, or if they would not 

 just as soon go visiting for a week, or some- 

 thing of the kind. By the time I have spoken 

 thus to half a dozen men, I am sure to find one 

 who wants just such a favor. Some of you 

 may ask, "Mr. Root, if you object to anybody 

 taking a day or more without previous arrange- 

 ment, do you on the other hand always expect 

 to provide work all sorts of weather for those 

 in your employ? " 



To which I reply, " Yes, sir, I do." It is some- 

 thing almost unheard of for a man to come to 

 his place in the morning, and be told that there 

 is no work, unless a breakdown happens, or 

 that we are obliged to shut down for repairs. 

 In order to do this we sometimes set a man 

 worth 81.50 a day on something that a boy 

 worth 50 cts. can do almost as well. We do 

 this for a short time rather than annoy him by 

 asking him to lay off. While I was absent in 

 the winter, I believe some of the hands were 

 stopped temporarily on account of the weather. 

 Had I been home, however, I could have set 

 even these people at work. " As ye would that 

 men should do unto you, do ye even so unto 

 them." 



I have sometimes felt like asking the ques- 

 tion, " Well, my friend, for whom are you work- 

 ing, anyhow ? " If somebody comes to you beg- 

 ging for work, and you give him a job, is there 

 not a general understanding that he , works 

 for you alone until that job is finished? Come 

 to think of it, I do remember one man who was 

 away from his post so much that we began to 

 Inquire into it, and finally found out that he 

 took jobs here and there, whenever he could 

 get 35 cts. a day more than we were paying 

 him. Of course, it is every man's privilege to 

 do so if he thinks best. But does that kind of 

 work pay? Surely not in the end, for people 

 often come to me offering to work at verj/ loio 

 wages providing I will give them a steady job 

 the year round, they evidently having discov- 

 ered by experience that steady employment 

 every day, right along, is much better in the 

 end than a day's work here and there, even at 

 a higher price. 



it just now occurs to u^e that my talk to-day 

 may sound like fault-finding. I do not mean it 

 to be so. Only a few feet from where I sit dic- 

 tating is a woman who has been in my employ 

 something over 26 years. A little further off is 

 a man who is nearly forty, who has been in my 

 employ steadily since he was a boy in his teens. 

 Our stenographer remarks here that our boss 

 printer has done better still, having been here 

 for 20 years, or ever since he was in his teens; 

 and he himself, who is writing down these 

 notes, is just now finishing up 16 years here. 

 When he commenced we talked perhaps 15 or 

 20 minutes about the matter of wages and 

 work. In all these years he has had a job 

 every day if he has wanted it, and his pay has 

 been forthcoming every week, without an ex- 

 ception. I have learned to regard these old 

 and tried friends with almost as much faith in 

 their being at their post as I do the rising of the 

 sun; and I presume they in a like manner have 

 faith not only in my good will, but in my abili- 

 ty to guide our little ship (business ship) 

 safely through the financial breakers. I need 

 hardly say these friends have good pay. These 

 pleasant relations were all built up by an en- 

 ergetic reliability, if that is the way to express 

 it. 



Now, I have been moved to throw out these 

 hints as suggestions, especially to the younger 

 people — the boys who have just got married, 

 for instance. Sometimes the consequence of 

 one man leaving his post for only a single day, 

 without notice, in a large factory, is disastrous, 

 not only in loss of money, but I think it some- 

 times brings about loss of life. A few days ago 

 my attention was called to a pile of lumber 

 that was put up so badly that high-priced 

 choice boards were almost ruined. The boss of 

 the lumber-yard explained it this way: He 

 commenced the pile, and carried it up three or 

 four feet; but as it was haying time, somebody 

 wanted him badly to help get in hay. He was 

 permitted to go, and another man was hastily 

 and perhaps thoughtlessly directed to go on pil- 

 ing the lumber. The first one had been educated 

 in his work, and knew just what to do and how 

 to do it. The one who took his place had had 

 little or no experience in that kind of work. 

 There was a clear sharp line where the good 

 lumber ended and where the damaged com- 

 menced. Once in a while we find a man who 

 says: 



'• I should like to be away this afternoon, but 

 I have arranged to have my work done by 

 somebody who will do it right. If any thing 

 comes amiss Ijecause it is not done right, just 

 charge it up to me and I will pay the damage." 



Now, that makes quite a different matter of 

 the whole affair; and when a man speaks in 

 that way, and his past record shows that he is 

 good for all he undertakes to do, his money 

 value is likely to come up instead of go down. 

 I feel quite sure that the great world at large 

 does not understand how it is that one man 

 gets big wages and another one low wages. 

 You may say the result of my teaching would 

 be too many high-priced men. Not so, my 

 friend. Every time a man is wanted to take 

 charge of a department or of a company of men, 

 we have hard work to find one competent. Or- 

 dinary day laborers are always in great plenty; 

 but reliaiile men to take charge of and furnish 

 brains to look after the muscle, there are never 

 enough to go round. 



I can not think of a better ending than to 

 put right in here a letter that was put into my 

 hands just as I dictated these last words. 



Dear Friend and Brother:--! feel that I have a 

 right to call j'ou brother now. I write this to you 

 first, from a sense of duty; and next because I 

 know it will re'joice your heart to know that an- 

 other of the Glkanings family has found the Lord. 

 I had strayed away from God for many j-ears; 

 but I have the blessed assurance in my heart 

 that I liave been washed clean in the precious 

 blood of Jesus, even if I have returned at the 

 eleventh hour. However low down in sin I have 

 been, I have always found time to read your Home 

 Papers when I have had time to read Gleanings. 

 Never give up those little sermons, you don't 

 know— you can never know this side of heaven — 

 the good they are doing. Notliing in the world 

 would give me greater pleasure than to take you 

 by the hand; but that may never be, perhaps, in 

 tliis world. But by the dear Savior's help 1 expect 

 to meet you in glory. 



Your brother in Christ, 



San Francisco, Cal., Apr. 27. Henry S. Thomas. 



Dear unknown friend, you knew then, did 

 you, that it would rejoice my heart to hear of a 

 reader of Gleanings who had started out for 

 eternal life? Now, dear brother, hold steady, 

 and beware of the tempter. Ere many days he 

 will try to cripple you and lead you astray. 

 Stick to your Bible; go to your Savior every 

 day and hour, and you will not only succeed in 

 holding fast to the new bright life, but you will 

 always find there are " more to follow." May 

 God bless and strengthen you, and all the rest 

 of the new converts that Gleanings reaches. 



