During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s many men had different views on the poor and the wealthy. Here we will go over Russell Conwell’s Acres of Diamonds as well as Samuel Gomper’s What Does the Working Man Want? A significant example of Conwell’s belief is when he says . “I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich.” It is a man’s responsibility to go out and work for his riches. To look around him and to use what he has at hand to earn a living. By hard work and being driven any man can gain wealth. By believing what others have said about being wealthy others have handicapped themselves and used it as an excuse for remaining poor. Conwell said, “My friend, that is the reason why you have none, because you have
…show more content…
At the beginning of his speech he says, “I maintain that this is a true proposition—that men under the short-hour system not only have opportunity to improve themselves, but to make a greater degree of prosperity for their employers… Wherever men are cheap, there you find the least degree of progress.” He obviously believes that by working shorter work days that men are more likely to do more outside of work to better themselves and that they will be more productive at work. Throughout his speech he mentions several times about the millions of people who are walking the city streets looking for work. He feels that politicians and college professors feel that workers can be taken advantage of because of the amount of men and women who are looking for work. They give the idea that is their choice whether they work or not, but this isn’t true because we all have to work to survive and to provide for our families. Gompers wanted citizens to be seen as human beings and not by what they could add to the workforce. He wanted employment to be more secure and see a more stable wage scale as well as see more jobs created for more of the jobless. That is evidenced when he says, “What we want to consider is, first, to make our employment more secure, and, secondly, to make wages more permanent, and, thirdly, to give these poor people a chance to
At the beginning of his speech he says, “I maintain that this is a true proposition—that men under the short-hour system not only have opportunity to improve themselves, but to make a greater degree of prosperity for their employers… Wherever men are cheap, there you find the least degree of progress.” He obviously believes that by working shorter work days that men are more likely to do more outside of work to better themselves and that they will be more productive at work. Throughout his speech he mentions several times about the millions of people who are walking the city streets looking for work. He feels that politicians and college professors feel that workers can be taken advantage of because of the amount of men and women who are looking for work. They give the idea that is their choice whether they work or not, but this isn’t true because we all have to work to survive and to provide for our families. Gompers wanted citizens to be seen as human beings and not by what they could add to the workforce. He wanted employment to be more secure and see a more stable wage scale as well as see more jobs created for more of the jobless. That is evidenced when he says, “What we want to consider is, first, to make our employment more secure, and, secondly, to make wages more permanent, and, thirdly, to give these poor people a chance to