190T 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1391 



ItOMLS 



6yAJ.ROOT 



Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your 

 mioister; and whosoever will be i hief among you, let 

 him be your servant.— Matt. 20 :26, 27. 



On page 1098, Aug. 15, I said that, when 

 the whole wide world would "repent and be 

 converted," it would not only solve our la- 

 bor problem but all other problems, etc. A 

 good friend takes some exceptions to the 

 statement, and writes the following: 



" THE ONLY SOLtTTION." 



Mr Root:—l notice with pleasure* that the labor 

 question is one of the many things you are interested 

 in (page 1098), but have doubts as to the conversion 

 of the world being the only solution of troubles in the 

 industrial field. There is a large and rapidly increas- 

 ing number of people who believe that labor troubles 

 and a good many other troubles would or could be set- 

 tled by the collective ownership of all the means of 

 life— tools of production and machinery of distribution 

 by the actual users thereof ins-tead of by a class who 

 act merely as owners, performing no useful service. 

 This system of conducting industry could be inaugu- 

 rated whenever a majority— not aZ^— voted for it, and 

 it is not quite clear that such majority must necessari- 

 ly be made up of Christians or converted persons. 

 Those who claim, therefore, that the conversion of all 

 wage-earners and employers is the only solution 

 should be able to show that the system suggested 

 would not work, and also be able to give at least an 

 outline of the probable procedure in settling labor 

 troubles in the event of the conversion of the world. 



An item in your Special Notices (p. 1168), entitled 

 "Doing More than you are Paid to Do," appears to 

 have some bearing on the subject, because labor trou- 

 bles are usually the result of employees not receiving 

 as much pay as they think they deserve. If workmen 

 generally would make it a point to do more than they 

 are paid to do, labor troubles would be settled to the 

 complete satisfaction of employers at any rate. But 

 if all or the majority of workmen acted on this advice, 

 who would '■ get to the top "y And would doing more 

 than they are paid to do be any evidence of their con- 

 version? Employees as a class will never see any 

 greater reason for their doing more than they are 

 paid to do than they will for employers paying more 

 than the wages agreed upon. J. R. Hand. 



Richards' Landing, Ont., Aug. 20'. 



Friend H., I have been watching and read- 

 ing more or less for years what is being said 

 and done in solving the labor problem; but 

 the results of my observations have been 

 continually that nothing could help mat- 

 ters verv much until all mankind learn 

 to love their neighbor as themselves. When 

 this is done our troubles will be ended. We 

 have illustrations of it every little while. Let 

 me remind you of one that I have brought 

 up several times. 



A wealthy man moved into a neighbor- 

 hood where one of our bee-keepers had a 

 large number of colonies of bees. In a little 

 while the new comer declared that no man 

 had any right to keep bees or any thing else, 

 especially such a large number of bees, as to 

 annoy and injure his neighbors. A lawsuit 

 followed; but just while both parties were in 

 the hottest of the tight the bee-keeper's son 

 and the rich man's daughter became acquaint- 

 ed, and finally the two children got between 

 the two hostile parties. Now, these men. 



even if they were bitter enemies, had good 

 sense enough and courtesy enough to stand 

 out of the way of the young people and to 

 shake hands and become friends. When 

 they got to looking at it from another stand- 

 point the matter of the bees (even though 

 our friend had a big "bee-yard") was con- 

 sidered a triding matter, and it was so easi- 

 ly adjusted they were both ashamed of them- 

 selves when they came to look at it in a com- 

 mon-sense way. Now, I did not learn that 

 those two fathers were converted men; but 

 this thing that came about had the effect of 

 turning both of them in a sudden and unex- 

 pected way from their evil thoughts and 

 feelings. Instead of being strangers and en- 

 emies, all at once they became brothers, 

 members of the same family, and were put 

 on their good behavior. Now, of course our 

 boys and girls can not always come between 

 us and settle things right and left in that 

 way; but a kindly and loving spirit toward 

 all humanity, planted in the human heart, 

 will solve all troubles. 



The great diffi(^ulty between capital and 

 labor, so far as I can see, is that both parties, 

 to use a slang expression, "want the whole 

 earth." Of course, both sides are not al- 

 ways equally guilty. We have many illus- 

 trations of faithful, honest employees who 

 are never appreciated by their rich and over- 

 bearing employers; and our unions are to a 

 great extent bringing these greedy and ty- 

 rannical employers to their senses. On the 

 other hand, we have overbearing and impu- 

 dent workmen (and workwomen, too, for 

 that matter) who do not appreciate or realize 

 how kind and indulgent employers are who 

 do every thing in their power to make them 

 pleasant and good-natux'ed, and yet without 

 avail; yet these very persons are frequently 

 exceedingly anxious to get back to their old 

 employer when they have tried working for 

 some one else. I shall have to confess that 

 I have not time nor the al)ility to go into 

 this matter of public ownership. I am ready, 

 however, to say that it seems to me the gov- 

 ernment will in time be able to manage much 

 of our public business (say our telegraphs 

 and railroads, for instance), just as it now 

 handles and manages the mails. If we were 

 sure of being able to find good men, with 

 enough Christianity, or, if you choose, the 

 love of God in their hearts, to be above graft 

 and bribery, and every thing of that sort, we 

 might go ahead without fear. But, dear 

 friends, just consider how the public money 

 has been wasted right and left all over our 

 land whenever there has been a chance to 

 steal where nobody was appointed to watch 

 or happened to be watching. Prison walls 

 and high fences, even with a barbed wire on 

 top, are of little avail unless men will "re- 

 pent and be converted," and have a disposi- 

 tion of their own to be honest and do right. 



In your closing sentence you seem to ques- 

 tion somewhat whether Christian employers 

 would pay better wages than they agree to 

 pay. Of course, that clipping from the Sun- 

 day School Times, that so strongly enjoins 

 doing a little wore than you are paid to do. 



