Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1906 — LABOR NATES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LABOR NATES

Labor Oppressed Years Aeo. 1 All the writers on the early labor movement agree that the working people in the early history of the nation had a hard row to hoe. Here is®what one 'writer says:—_—’ “The length of a working day in 1825 varied from twelve to r fifteen hours. The New England mills generally ran thirteen hours a day the year round. The regulations of the factories were cruel and oppressive to a degree. Operatives were taxed by the company -for th» saxp;Kirt-of religion.—-Habitual absence from church was punished by the Lowell Manufacturing Company with dismissal from enlploymeiit and in other respects the life of the employes outside the factories was regulated as well as their life within them. Windows were nailed down and the -operatives deprived of fresh air. __ A case of rebellion on the part of 1,000 women on account of tyrannical and oppressive treatment is recorded. “Women and children were scourged by the use of a cowhide, and an instance is recorded of an 11-year-old boy whose leg was broken by a' billet of wood. In Mendon a boy of 12 drowned himself in a pond to escape factory labor. Wages in the mills were small, adults earning between 05 cents and 71 cents a day, “John Mitchell in his Organized Labor says: ‘From 1825 to 1529 tlid earnings of the American workingmen were higher than ever before in the American history- The unskilled workmen, such as sawyers and hodearriers, received about 75 cents a day for twelve hours’ work where they previously received 50 cents from sunup to sundown. 'During the winter, however, wages were much lower. Men who could earn in summer from 62% cents to 80 cents a day were glad to receive a smaller sum in winter.’ “According to J. B. McMaster, the remuneration of women was, as it is to-day, lower than that of men and their opportunities for employment incomparably less. Women might bind shoes, sew rags, fold and stitch books, become spoolers or make coarse shirts and duck pantaloons at 8 or 10 cents apiece. Tbe making of shirts was sought after because these garments could be made in the lodgings of the seamstress, who was commonly the mother of a little family and often a widow. Yet the most expert could not finish more than nine shirts a week, for which she might receive 72 or 90 cents. 'Fifty cents a week seems to have been about the average earnings at shirtmaking. “It was about 1825, when the conditions of the American workman had already begun to improve, that considerable unrest appeared among the laboring classes, and from this time to the outbreak of the civil war there was a gradual evolution totvard a higher standard of life and labor.” Industrial Notes. According to a report issued by the American Federation of Labor, the percentage of workmen unemployed in the month of October is smaller than it has ever been since records were kept. Of 1-885 unions, with an aggregate membership of 154,118, making returns, there were nine-teuths of one per cent without employment. The Louisiana Supreme Court has decided that a labor union has no right to control the acts of “its members when performing public duties. The case wai that of the Plumbers’ Union, which had ordered its members on the board ta vote for a certain candidate for inspector. The men refused and were expelled from the union, and the court now orders them reinstated. The Industrial Workers of the World have about 50 members m Chicago, according to J. J. Keppler, business agent of the Machinists’ Union, but he says “they make enough noise for 5,000.” The organization was formed last July, and nttempts to unite all the workers under one union. It operates in direct opposition to the American Federation of Labor, and officials of that organization say that the new idea is impractical and will not succeed. Beginning on Monday, Jan. 1, 30,000 hands employed by the American Woolen Company of Boston had their wages advanced 10 per cent. The increase becomes effective in the 30 plants of the corporation, which are loented in several Sttties, aud several woolen mills in the East not owned by the company have granted a similar advance. It is estimated that the advance will give the American Woolen Company’s hands an aggregate of about $1,000,000 more each year than they have been receiving. As its final word to the public in anticipation of the coming struggle with the book aud job printing houses, the International Typographical Union heads a circular thus: “We propose to sell to the employer eight hours out of twentyfour, and we will do ns we please tvith the remaining sixteen/’ A peculiar feature of the strike at New York will be the tying up of the National Civic Federation Review, organ of the Civic Federation, which is printed in one of the houses pledged to oppose tho eight-hour day with nine hours’ pay. - During the last two years Argentina, South America, has had more than her share of labor troubles. Strike haa succeeded strike, and to such n pass has the labor question arrived that Congress • sanctioned a residential law by which the-gorernment was authorized to expel from the country all forelgnere who were considered dangerous individuals. Over 2UO persons have been sent out of the country under this law. The gverage workingman has gained in one way conwderably from tbe strikes, as the eighthour working day is general throughout the country and wages are much highest