Page:Carl Sandburg - You and Your Job (1910).pdf/22

22 Whoever owns your job owns you.

You're a lucky man if you have a good job. A good job means plenty to eat, plenty to wear, and a good home.

Now listen! If a job is a good thing you ought to do everything you can to hold your job. You may do your work right and satisfy your boss. But you know, and everybody else knows, that many a good man who does his work right and pleases his boss gets laid off, loses his job.

The boss says, "Hard times—no orders—we have to shut down." Then the man who is out of a job says, "But I have to live! I and my children have to eat, and the grocer wants cash." But the boss only answers, "I can't help it. Business is business."

If you can't get another job when you're laid off, you can do three things. You can starve. You can steal. You can beg. And any one of the three is the way to hell and degradation.

You don't want to do any of these things, do you? You want to do all you can to make your job safe, don't you? You want work all the time. And in exchange for that work you want a decent, comfortable living. You are not a keg of fish nor a lump of coal, to be juggled in the markets.

Now, you know that politics has a lot to do with your job. You know that our state and national government is a great, strong power that can help the working class. You know, also. that the worst time to think about politics is when you are out of a job. Now is the