CORRESPONDENCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2399, 15 September 1892, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

[We do not hold ourselres responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]

MR WILSON AND THE UNEMPLOYED.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Allow me to tell this Bluecliffs bona fide Working Man that I go to the store where I can get what I want best and cheapest, and I have a strong opinion that the best is always the cheapest and that the cheapest is never the best. I have had some experience as an employer and an employe, and my experience and observation have forced me to conclude that cheap men are like all other cheap rubbish, and generally dear at any price. But if this Working Man is willing to work for Mr Wilson for nothing, and is accepted at that price, I have no objections. I found fault with Mr Wilson's abuse of working men who decline to give him their labor at his price, so far below value. Your correspondent complains that he can't see what the mortgage had to do with the point in dispute. I had no intention of throwing impertinent abuse. All I aimed at was to convince Mr Wilson that a working man is a man, and that he (Mr Wilson) is nothing more, and to refute the palpable fallacy that wealth is the result of hard working. If an employer can in a given time pay off a mortgage by getting fair value for his hard work, the employe" if he works as hard should be able to save as much money in the same time, if he gets fair value for his work. That would not be getting rich by Act of Parliament, but by Justice. But we don't want to be made rich; all we want is justice, and the advent of justice will be the end of wealth aud poverty. There is a small piece of land that belongs to each of us, about 6ft. x 2£ft., that will be absolutely our own as long as we require it, with the comfort of knowing that our heirs will never wish ua out of it to make room for them. But Acts of Parliament cannot make us landowners, although they have deluded unthinking men into the belief that they are landowners. Such men invariably conduct themselves as if they had a 999 years lease of life, and obliterate every noble sentiment and ignore all that would make life enjoyable, their whole mind being concentrated in looking forward to the +ime when the mortgage will be paid off and their barns full. But long before tho goal of their ambition is reached the message comes: "Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of thee." Where then is the pride of superiority to working men. Why do men work? Because nature has made work imperative. Therefore the man who is not a working man cannot be an honest man and ought to be in gaol. There is no dignity equal to the dignity of labor. All that we want to make life worth living is laws that will secure to labor its just reward.—l am, &c, Working Man. Sept. 14th, 1892.