248 The Labor Question 



The first time I ever labored alongside of and got 

 thrown into intimate companionship with men who 

 were mighty men of their hands was in the cattle 

 country of the Northwest. I soon grew to have an 

 immense liking and respect for my associates, and 

 as I knew them, and did not know similar workers 

 in other parts of the country, it seemed to me that 

 the ranch-owner was a great deal better than any 

 Eastern business man, and that the cowpuncher 

 stood on a corresponding altitude compared with any 

 of his brethren in the East. 



Well, after a little while I was thrown into close 

 relations with the farmers, and it did not take long 

 before I had moved them up alongside of my beloved 

 cowmen; and I made up my mind that they really 

 formed the backbone of the land. Then, because of 

 certain circumstances, I was thrown into intimate 

 contact with railroad men, and I gradually came to 

 the conclusion that these railroad men were about 

 the finest citizens there were anywhere around. 

 Then, in the course of some official work, I was 

 thrown into close contact with a number of the car 

 penters, blacksmiths, and men in the building trades, 

 that is, skilled mechanics of a high order, and it was 

 not long before I had them on the same pedestal with 

 the others. By that time it began to dawn on me 

 that the difference was not in the men but in my 

 own point of view, and that if any man is thrown into 



