Hom. Review Leviticus 25:2-55 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you… It is said that John Wanamaker, when a girl told him that she could not possibly live on the three and a half dollars a week that he offered her, replied: "I know it, but the fact is that I am overrun with applications from girls, daughters of mechanics, tradesmen, &c., who have their homes already, and use their wages merely for dress, and they set the scale. "The story of the employer who coolly told a girl who came with the same complaint: "Most of our girls have gentlemen friends who provide for them; you had better do the same," has been not only widely told, but widely believed. A gentleman went to a wealthy importer on Broadway to ask for a situation for a friend, and received the reply: "He had better not come here. The fact is, all our men are underpaid, but we can get all we want at present wages. Why should we pay any more?" It is notorious that an immense amount of the "piecework" done by women for the great stores and manufactories is done by those who merely wish to provide themselves with some additional comforts. So instances innumerable might be given of the fact that the wage-earners suffer most from the competition of those who are, at least in a measure, independent. That this is wrong and unjust will be acknowledged at once by all right-minded people. The remedy, however, is not so easily recognised. As a rule, it has been supposed to lie with the employed themselves. It is said that these others have no right to work at such low terms. Undoubtedly, if all were unselfish, there would result much alleviation of the difficulty. There is, however, another phase of the case to which we would call attention, and that is the responsibility of the employer. How far is it right for a man to accept of service for which he does not pay a fair price — i.e., a price such that the one who receives it can live upon it fairly and comfortably? There are, of course, limitations. No iron rule can be laid down. Inexperience cannot claim the same as experience, extravagance should not lay down the law for economy. Yet, after all, every employer knows perfectly well whether or not he is paying what are called "living wages." It is much the fashion to decry the Mosaic laws as belonging to a period and state of society entirely foreign to modern needs. No one, however, who carefully studies those laws can fail to recognise the fact that they touch very closely upon the demands that we hear on every side for a more equal distribution of property, a more just relation between employer and employed. The German Empire has already endorsed the same principle in stating clearly the obligation of the community to provide for its individual member's. The Occident is not the Orient. Anglo-Saxons are not Semites; but the fundamental law that one man shall not oppress another, by taking advantage of his necessities is just as true now and here as it was in the desert of Arabia many centuries ago. (Hom. Review.) Parallel Verses KJV: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. |
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