FEnUARY 1, 1915 



A. I. Root 



OUE HOME 



Editor 



In the sweat of thy face slialt thou eat bread. — 

 Gen. 3:19. 



TlIK GREAT ARM i OF THE UNEMPLOYED. 



The Home paper below was dictated 

 before coining to Florida last fall. Before 

 using" it, Erne.st wrote me as below ; but as 

 it is already about the usual length I plan 

 to take the matter of " the worthy unem- 

 ployed " up in our next issue. 



Dear Father : — When you wrote this, conditions 

 were quite different from what they are now. Possi- 

 bly you saw in the Cleveland papers that there were 

 61,000 men out of employment in Cleveland alone, 

 a larire majority of whom appear to be worthy men. 

 I asked two or three prominent people in Cleveland 

 if this could be possibly true. They said that it was 

 absolutely a fact. In your write-up here you speak 

 as though only the dissatisfied or incompetent were 

 out of work. I thought possibly you would like to 

 modify this before it is published. 



A good friend at Palatka, Fla., has writ- 

 ten me two very long letters in regard to 

 this matter. I answered briefly by saying 

 that here in my Medina home, and down 

 in my Florida home as well, there is a con- 

 stant and unfilled demand for competent 

 laborers, especially good mechanics. Of 

 course there are mere or less tramps claim- 

 ing they 'cannot get a job. One such came 

 to me just a few days ago. He was fairly 

 well dressed, a good strong fellow, and he 

 wanted something to eat. I told him I 

 could not give him any thing to eat, but I 

 would give him work in the lumber-yard. 

 He snapped me up quick by saying, "How 

 much do you pay ? " I told him we would 

 pay him what he was worth. Again he 

 asked. "How much do you pay?" I ex- 

 plained to him that I could not make any 

 bargain in regard to the pay until I saw 

 how capable he was, and how much he was 

 worth. I told him the foreman of the 

 lumber-yard would be fair, and pay him 

 what he earned ■■ompared with the otlier 

 help. He went on grumbling and cursing. 



Xow, this is a fair type of the unem- 

 ployed that have come to my notice. There 

 are a few who seem to be honest and will- 

 ing, but who are too stupid to do things 

 right. Well, in my answer to the brother 

 T have mentioned, I told him he was crazy 

 to insist that merchants should sell all their 

 goods at cost, and that the manufacturer 

 should pay his help all he earns, without 

 any margin to pay for the use of capital 

 and incidental expenses. In his reply he 

 takes up a subject I had not in mind. He 

 says Uncle Sam is selling goods and doing 

 work for the people nl large without any 

 profit, and this is all right. I heartih' 

 commend it. I am glad to see Uncle Sam 



lake charge, not only of tlie mails, but also 

 of the banking, at least to some extent; also 

 taking charge of good roads; and 1 should 

 rejoice to see him take charge of telegraphs, 

 telephones, and even of railways when we 

 as a people are ready for it. This man 

 from Palatka is soured against the govern- 

 ment ; he is soured against God, and I fear 

 he is soured against his fellow-men. His 

 vision is obscured, as it seems to me, so that 

 he does not see the good in this world of 

 ours. He mentions a neighbor of his, a 

 250or man with a family, who came to him 

 with tears in his eyes, saying his folks were 

 suffering, and yet he had traveled day after 

 day hunting for a job. Well, now, althougli 

 I do not know the circumstances I cannot 

 help feeling sure that this man is either 

 incompetent or else he will not do faithful 

 and honest work when he gets it. He and 

 the writer of the long letter have got into 

 a fashion of thinking that Uncle Sam 

 should relieve them from responsibility, 

 hunt up work for them, and feed and clothe 

 them, etc. Right here let me state that the 

 philanthropic societies in ouf cities all over 

 our land are fast finding out that there is 

 no quicker way of spoiling a man, woman, 

 or child than by doing things for them that 

 they ought to do themselves. In the admin- 

 istering of help, whether it is money, food, 

 or clothing, great care and good judgment 

 are needed or you will do more harm than 

 good. This poor man with a family, who 

 sat down and actually shed tears because 

 he could not find a job, could go to work 

 and make garden every day in the year in 

 that genial clime. Just now, October 3, he 

 could plant potatoes, and get, say, $2.00 a 

 bushel for them, as I did last winter, or 

 something near that price. He could do 

 this as well as to do nothing. Do you say 

 he has no ground? Well, he certainly can 

 find ground near his home that he can work 

 on shares; and just as soon as the people 

 in that vicinity see him doing a man's work 

 on a piece of ground, he will have a job 

 with good pay, more or less. 



My friend writes me this man has offered 

 to work for fifty cents a day, and adds that 

 nobody would give him any work, even at 

 that price. Of course, I cannot say what 

 the conditions are around Palatka, Fla.; 

 but so far as I know, farmers and market- 

 gardeners are complaining everywhere that 

 the wages now demanded by competent men 

 are more than they can alTord to pay. Of 

 course, there may be excepliunal condilions 

 on account of the war, and jierhaps there 



