The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-12-31

garrets OF our great cities--esss am"
vest The advice ths. those who are
forced to earn thsi, living by the
needle, should A learn to ct and make !
al manner Of clothing, outer and in
ner, coarse and 6ne," followed by the
assertion-that if they have neither
time nor teachers to enable them to
become so, they have no cause of com !
plant if they are obliged to make
shirts for sir cents apiece, is logic which |
may be very lucid to Madam Hamilton
but which is very obtuse to ordinary
Upon a par with this reasoning is
the following DsOrcsdH;
IL a woman Is dissatisfied with making shirts
AZ sir cents apiece, let her make dresses at
hfteen collars. But she does not know how
What then, - she complaining Of? Must the
employer If he wants shirts and does not wsnt
dresses, pay for one and receive The other
No, il is said; but the employer who wants
shirts made should pay living p,lce. Nor IN
The LKAsT. Whether the price be living or
dead ID no affair OF his Il 10 soLELY TO paw
the sum necessary to get his work done. Il 10
not question OF morality. IL is que tion OF
market price. You have no more right to de
mand Of a man that be shall pay twelve cents
for work which he can buy st Elk. than he has
70 demand that you shall pay ten dollars a bar
rel for -four when you can get il for five. Nor
atty and philanthropy and sentimentslity are
anTt~alw 81
in to relieve individual suffering, but they con-
tribute nothing to the solution Of the problem.
We pay for thinVs what they are worth.
What is she complaining Of, Ell?
Ha, madam, it is evident you have
never been compelled to make shirts
for six cents apiece, to keep the wolf
from the door; or Jouf little ohes from
starving, as thous nds Of wel-aigh
homeless seamstresses have for many
long weary year. If philanthropy
and sentlmentality have nothing TO do
with the observation-disclosures has /;
and the employer, who under any cir
cumstances will pay a seamstress six
cents as compensation for such work, is
a thief who lacks even the manhood
and moral courage Of the highwayman.
No question Of morality involved
No obligation TO pay even = living
price. These be strange, strange
words to come from would
be reformer. No higher guide than
the selfish impulse 10 take advantage
of the poverty stricken and the unfor-
tunate. Carry out this argument to its
legitimate conclusion, in all orr rela-
tons of life, snd where. we ask, would
it land us ? Does the fact that there
are two starving competing wretehes,
who are willing, or rather compelled,
to make shirts at six cents apiece, in
order to keep body and soul together,
justify " the lac of trade" or the sell
tisbness of the employer who enriches
himself through their misery? Are
there no higher considerations invol-
we'd? Is ii any wonder that vice and
prostitution are q be found on every
hand that women prefer a we!l-paid
life of shame to virtuous life Of unre-
Quilted toll, when such stuff as this is
paraded in the columns Of journal
which claims to represent the sentt
ments Of the Christian portion of our
community?
Away with all such quackery about
" market prices" "the solution Of the
problem" and the like. 1t is the plea
of the Insurer, the robber of honest
labor. Above and beyond custom and
the laws Of trade is the maxim given
BY him who spake as never man spake /:
DO unsO others as ye ICOuld others should
~ unto you''-the highest guide of hu-
man action.
The qualification evinced that
dressmaker had charged and sued for
the sum OF two thousand dollars for
making lady's tTO,SseGU, is on par
with the general logic of the article.
Will "Gail' allow us to inquire how
much of that q 900 went into the
pockets of those who EARNED it? None
of our business, Ell? Yes, il is, for we
hold if the services of every middleman
in the country were dispensed with,
and the proceeds Of labor distributed
among those entitled to receive them,
the greater portion Of the misery COM
planned Of would be removed, and the
world become the better for it. And
to bring about these grand results
should be the aim of every man, woman
or child who hates oppression or longs
for the triumph of the right-irrespeet-
i've Of those claws of trade" which are
framed in the interest of the non-pro-
ducer.