THE OLD TIME FARM-HAND 339 
efficient, I believe; that he is unreasonable in 
his demands and regardless of the interests of 
his employer, I know. There are many shining 
exceptions, and to these I look for the ultimate 
regeneration of labor; but the rule holds true. 
I do not believe that the principles of life 
have changed in forty years. I do not believe 
that an intelligent, able-bodied man need be a 
servant all his life, or that industry and economy 
_miss their rewards, or that there is any truth in 
the theory that men cannot rise out of the rut 
in which they happen to find themselves. The 
trouble is with the man, not with the rut. He 
spends his time in wallowing rather than in 
diligently searching for an outlet or in honestly 
working his way up to it. Heredity and en- 
vironment are heavy weights, but industry and 
sobriety can carry off heavier ones. I have 
sympathy for weakness of body or mind, and 
patience for those over whom inheritance has 
cast a baleful spell; but I have neither patience 
nor sympathy for a strong man who rails at his 
condition and makes no determined effort to 
better it. 
The time and money wasted in strikes, agita- 
tions, and arbitrations, if put to practical use, 
would better the working-man enough faster 
than these futile efforts do. I have no quarrel 
with unions or combinations of labor, so far as 
they have the true interests of labor for an 
object; but I do quarrel with the spirit of mob 
