Surplus Labor; H.P.B. Jenkins

SURPL US LABOR or BIG BROTHER IN THE LABOR MARKET It was a chilly afternoon At storytelling time. Old Kaspar closed the windows tight And poured his rum-and-lime, While Peterkin and Wilhelmine Warmed up the television screen. They saw a crowd of workingmen Who stood on shuffling feet And watched an open factory gate Across the city street, Where men dressed up like Uncle Sam Had blocked the gate from post to jamb. "Now tell us what it's all about!" The little children cried. "It is the Federal Wage Control," Old Kaspar then replied. "The lowest legal rate of pay Was raised another notch today." 166 SURPLUS LABOR "That crowd of workers," Kaspar said, "Were going through the gate To work at jobs that paid a wage Below the legal rate. But Uncle Sam has made it clear There'll be no bootleg labor here." "Will they get jobs at higher pay?" Asked little Wilhelmine. "Their chances now," Old Kaspar sighed, "Are few and far. between.

They'll have to join the growing mobs In search of higher-paying jobs." "Can workers live," cried Peterkin, "With neither job nor pay?" "The payrOll taxes," Kaspar said, "Were also raised today. The men whose jobs have been destroyed Will live off workers still employed." 167 Mr. Jenkins is an economist at Fayetteville, Arkansas. His verses, "with apology to the muse of. Robert Southey," appear regularly in The Freeman.