The True Cost of a Hired Hand
A frank critique of the era's labor relations, arguing that farmer complaints about hired help often stem from poor treatment and meager food rather than a decline in worker character.
The story, cleaned up
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When a farmer hires men to help him about the farm, he is unwise if he treats them badly in any way, as he needs their services quite as much as they need their wages. When we hear farmers complain of their hired help as disrespectful, dishonest, shirking, and teaching others to shirk, we can but think that the fault is not all on one side. There is much truth in the old proverb, 'Like master, like man.' Speak to your hired man as you speak to a dog, and if he does not sometimes growl he is above the average of humanity. Pinching him in his food is worse than screwing down wages. We must not expect full work on an empty stomach. One of these scrimping farmers once gave his hired men the soup bone for his dinner, and, hoping to make it relish, remarked: 'The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat.' 'It may be so, sir,' said one of the men, 'but were you in our place, you would be more impressed with the thought, the nearer the bone the scarcer the meat.' There can be no question that kind and generous treatment on the part of the master conduces to respect and faithful labor on the part of the man.
“Speak to your hired man as you speak to a dog, and if he does not sometimes growl he is above the average of humanity.”
This editorial exposes the timeless friction between capital and labor. While the context is 19th-century farm life, the argument—that fair treatment and livable conditions are precursors to productivity—remains a core pillar of modern labor disputes, from warehouse strikes to gig economy negotiations.
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