Page:Carl Sandburg - You and Your Job (1910).pdf/3



Dear Bill:

Your last letter is here, the one in which you talk about the man who is out of a job. You say, Bill, that the man who is out of a job has only himself to blame. You say it's the laziest man in a shop or store who is the first to be laid off when hard times come. And you're correct there, Bill.

You say that the fellow who is always kicking about his Job and his pay and the way he's treated is among the first to be given the merry release. You're right there, too, Bill. It's the agitator, the man who is not satisfied, the man who wants more and always more, who is the first to get it, and he gets it where the Thanksgiving Turkey gets the bright and shining edge of the farmer's ax.

You tell me about the fellow who goes around whining "hard times," asking for credit till his credit is no good, letting his wife and children go ragged and hungry while he guzzles away at beer and cheap whisky all the nickels and dimes he can pick up by begging and wheedling. You say this fellow could get all kinds of Jobs if he wasn't so particular about ditch-digging, lawn-mowing, window-washing, working on a farm or at odd jobs to be had everywhere. You say he is too holty-toity proud to soil his hands with real work. You call him "a quitter." And