The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-01-13
a comfort or blessing to the unfortunate re
cipients of that boon.

Xhc Lesson Oh tho AoWrcmcc Massacre
We are compelled to continue the sad record
of the terrible calamity at LswreEa.. Mass.
nhnsAst- -,
, : SIC, where, through the penny wise and
! pound foolish meanness Of soulless corpora
ton, nearly two bsndred operatives lost their
lives, and another hundred or more are
manned for the remainder Of their days.
There are some shocking accidents-such as
fires at sea and shipwrecks-the results Of which,
however painful they may be, can only be re.
| gretted. Human foresightss' many of these
cases could neither have prevented their co.
currence at the time, nor have provided against
the possibility of their repetition. This Law.
renee murder is not one Of those cases wherein
we say that men and women died by the vista
| ton Of God, or through the workings of some
inscrutable dispensation Of Divine providence.
That there will not be wanting in Massachusetts,
people, perhaps journalists and parsons, to take
such ground, we can readily imagine; but it
will be as sheer blasphemy a. if it were pleaded
as an excuse by wretch who came into court
with hands dyed in the blood of his brother.
Let us examine the case. In the centre of o
large manufacturing town there has been
erected building to be used as manufac-
tory, to be filed with ponderous machinery,
and to be occupied during ten hours in each
working day by eight hundred men aud wo.
| men. It is found, after the erection of the
building, that 1t is not safe, and it is patched
up with iron plates, as if they could insure the
| stability of q structure which was doubtless
| insecure from its foundation to its roof-trees
The corporation makes itself secure against
pecunisry loss by full insurance. The spindles
are in motion, the busy fingers Of the white
slaves guide the magic thread whereon hang
fat dividends The president and direc-
tors doze over their after dinner wine,
its ruby color deepened with the blood
of the operative. The mandatory may
! fall to pieces, or may be burned down. No
matter. 1t is insured-fnlly insured in good
offices. Another glass of wine. And the d.
rector enjoys his port, as fine old Boston gen.
| tlemen have done before him for many day
gone by, and will for many q day to come. He
has dropped into . gentle slumber, and is
| dreaming of two per cent per month, when
| there comes a crash, shrek, death wall.
Two hundred young men and women have been
! crushed and burned to death since that fine old
Boston gentleman ate his last almond. But he
is insured. Where is the insurance for the
kindred of the slain? Where the recompense
for the bereaved fathers and heart-broken mo-
theirs, and weeping sisters and agonizing bro
theirs, who stand over the mangled and charred
remains of their kindred? Who shall pay
the premium that will be demanded
| from the fine old Boston gentleman
| in that last great account-that day when the
books of the rich and the poor, the high and
the low, Dives and Lazarus, the beggar and
the king, shall be squarely and evenly balanced
with the golden rule? What company will in
sure the fine old Boston gentleman against that
| risk? Not we.
But they are philanthropists, these corpo-
rators Of Lawrence. Very likely they give
| great deal to home and foreign missions. With
| out doubt they sincerUIy sympatti1o With she
negro who picks, in Alabama, the cotton which
their slaves weave at Lawrence They will
give money to help that cotton picker to rise
| and murder his master, and to make up for
that expense will put the screws tighter to the
cotton weaver, who is-God save the mark!-a
free laborer-free as the galley slave
who clanks his chains at Brest or
Toulon; free as the British soldier who faints
under the burning sun of India-free to
labor many hours at scanty pay in an insecure
building, and free to be crushed to death at
| last That is free white labor from State
street point Of view.
Here we may be met with the old plea that
| the gentlemanly vice of avarice can only be
| curbed by Legislative enactments. Well, we
| have governments federal and State gov
| ernment-an extensive and costly machine,
| which we work, or which works us, at an ex-
| pense of many millions per annum. Every
year we have as many as two or three thousand
new laws about one thing and another. But
the moment that any act is proposed to pro-
vide against the occurrence of such massacres
Legislatures like so much merchandise; and
there's the end Of all. We need not 60 to Law
renee to see examples of this. The Greeks are
at our own doors. There are hundreds of in
secure buildings in New York, and very large
number of unsafe steam boilers Kissing beneath
the feet Of our citizens as they pursue their
! daily avocations. In the matter of the boil
ers, the Common Council we believe, has
passed an ordinance appointing an Inspector;
but the man has not yet been selected, and
probably will not be until after the next ex-
plOsion.
1t will be seen that all these dangers to which
we have alluded menace more particularly the
laboring classes, who are generally unfriended,
living from hand to mouth, and fighting the
battle Of life upon empty stomachs. Truly,
they have the civil law to resort to. The law
is open to everybody, and so is the Fifth
Avenue Hotel. Perhaps a bereaved father or
mother might succeed in an action for
damages against the proprietors Of the Pember-