Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1860-01-20
From the New York Herald
The Lesson of the Lawrence
y" NnaSSAcHA

We are compelled to continue the sad
record of the terrible calamity at Lawrence.
Mass, where, through the penny wise and
pound foolish meahness of soilless corpo.
ration, noarly two hundred operatives lost
their lives, land another hundred or more are
manned for the remainder of their days.
There are some shocking accidents-such
as fire at sea and shipwrecks-the results of
which, however painful they may be, can
only be regretted. Human foresight in
many of these cases could neither have pre-.
vented their occurrence at the time, nor
have provided against the possibility of their
repetition. This Lawrence murder is nos
one Of those cases wherein we say that men
and women died by visitation Of God, or
through the workings of some inscrutable
dispensation of divine providence. Thai
there will not be wanting in Massachusetts,
people, perhaps journalists and parsons; Is
take such ground, we can readily imagine
it will be as sheer blasphemy as if it were
pleaded as an excuse by wretch who came
into court with his hands died in the blood
of his brother. go" y
Let us examine the case. In the centre
ct large manufacturing town there has
been erected a building to be used as man
utactory, to be filled with ponderous ma
chinery and to be occupied during ten hours
in each working day by eight hundred men
and women. 1t is found, after the erection
Oft the Building, that 1t is not safe, and it is
patched up with iron plates as if they GOULD
insure the stability Of a structure which
was doubtless insecure from its foundation
to its roof trees. The corporation makes
itself secure against pecuniary loss by full
insurance. The spindles are in motion.
the busy fingers Of the white slaves guide
the magic thread wheron hang fat dividends.
The President and Directors doze over their
after dinner wine, its ruby color deepened
with the blood Of the operative. The man.
ufactory may fall to pieces, or may be burn
ed doHh. No matter. tits insured--ful-
ly insured-in good Offices. Another glass
of wine And the director enjoys his port,
as fne old Boston gentlemen have done be.
fore him for many day gone by, and will
for many a day to come He has dropped
into gentle slumber, and is dreaming Of
two per cent. per month, when their comes
4 crash, shrek, death wall. Two hum
dred 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 mothers, and weeping sisters,
and agonising brothers, who stand over the
mangled and eharred remains of their kin
dred7 Who shall pay the premium that
will be demanded from the fine old Boston
gentleman at the last great accountants
day when the books of the rich and poor, the
high and low, Dives and Lazarus, the bog
gar and the king, shall be squarely and e.
evenly balanced with the golden rule -
What company will insure the fine old Bos-
ton. gentleman against that risk ? Not we.
But they are philanthropists, these cor.
porators of Lawrence. Very likely they
give great deal to home and foreign mis-
sions. Without doubt they sincerely SYM
pathize with the negro who picks, in Ala
bama, the cotton which their slaves weavs
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 Brest1er Toulou 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 epactments.-
Well, we have governments federal and
a State government-an extensive and cost
ly machine, which we work or which works
US, at an expense of many millions per an
mum. Every year we have as many as two
or three thousand new lave about one thing
and another, But the moment that any act
is proposed to provide against the occur
renee of such massacres as that at Lawrence,
capital comes in, buys Legislatures like so
much merchandise; and there's the etia IL
all. We need not 90 to Lawrence to see
examples of this. The Greeks are at our
own doors. There are hundreds of insecure
buildings in New York. and a very largo
number of unsafe steam boilers Kissing be-
meath the feet of our citizens as they pursue
their daily avocations. In the matter Of
the boilers, the Common Council, VIC Believe
has passed an ordinance appointing an In
spector; bnt the man has not yet been Sc
lected, aud probable will not be until after
the next explosion. =
1t will be seen that all these dangers to
which We have alluded menace more p,rtio-
ularly the laboripg classes, who are gener-
ally unfriended, living from hand to mouth,
aud fighting tho battle of life upon empty
Truly, they have tn, civil law
to resort to. The law is open to everybody
and 60 IS the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Perhaps
a bereaved father or mother might succeed
in an action for damages against the pro-
prietors Of the femberton Wills; but who,
would 60 security for the costs preliminary
to the result? What poor devil can fight
wealthy corperations The operative looks.
then, to the journalist as his only friend
And the journalist should accept cheerfully
the championship thus thrown upon him.
The press should unite to demand that spe.
sial laws, as in the case of railways, should
be enacted for the insurance Of the opera
lives as we'll as of the buildings wherein