“But I make up for it.  I work overtime, work harder, am more attentive to my work; and thereby save more for my employer than I take.”  Here you contradict yourself.  You are therefore not underpaid.  And if you furnish a greater amount of labor than is expected of you, that is your business and your free choice.  And the right you have to a compensation for such extra labor is entirely dependent on the free will of your employer.  People usually pay for what they call for; services uncalled for are gratuitous services.  To think otherwise betokens a befuddled state of mind.

“But I am forced to work harder and longer than we agreed.”  Then it is up to you to remonstrate with your employer, to state the case as it is and to ask for a raise.  If he refuses, then his refusal is your cue to quit and go elsewhere.  It means that your services are no longer required.  It means, at any rate, that you have to stand the cut or seek to better your condition under other employers.  It is hard!  Of course it is hard, but no harder than a great many other things we have to put up with.

If my neighbor holds unjustly what belongs to me, or if he has failed to repair damages caused, to recover my losses by secret compensation has the same degree of malice and disorder.  The law is instituted for just such purposes; you have recourse thereto.  You may prosecute and get damages.  If the courts fail to give you justice, then perhaps there may be occasion to discuss the merits of the secret compensation theory.  But you had better get the advice of some competent person before you attempt to put it in practice; otherwise you are liable to get into a bigger hole than the one you are trying to get out of.

Sometimes the bold assertion is advanced that the employer knows perfectly that he is being systematically robbed and tolerates it.  It is incumbent on this party to prove his assertion in a very simple way.  Let him denounce himself to his employer and allow the truth or falsity thereof hang on the result.  If he does not lose his job inside of twenty-four hours after the interview, he may continue his peculations in perfect tranquillity of conscience.  If he escapes prosecution through the consideration of his former employer, he must take it for granted that the toleration he spoke of was of a very general nature, the natural stand for a man to take who is being robbed and cannot help it.  To justify oneself on such a principle is to put a premium on shrewd dishonesty.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.  CONTUMELY.

The Eighth Commandment concerns itself with the good name of the neighbor; in a general way, it reproves all sins of the tongue, apart from those already condemned by the Second and Sixth commandments, that is to say, blasphemous and impure speech.  It is as a weapon against the neighbor and an instrument of untruth that the tongue is here considered.