The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1875-10-03
White Slavery in Now England.
Savannah News.l

ltis announced that the Fall River Mass.
| mills will resume operations to- day. provi-
| ded the operatives will sccept a reduction
OF ten per cent. on wages, AID consent to
| the proposition of the Board of Manufac-
| turers to "withdraT from any associa tioa
which does not leave the choice of work
and wages to the free will of each in6ivid-
ual." The indications are that the great
majority will be glad to close with this of
fer, rather than attempt to go through the
approaching winter in idleness and want.
At Fall River, at present, fifteen Thousand
operatives and forty mills are idle, and as
the "vacation" commenced six weeks ago
there is now considerable suffering among
the operatives. Hungry aud poorly clad
womeu," writes a coTrespon dent '.haunt
the rooms of the societies, hotels, and
stores, asking for relief, and at every cor
ner on every street dozens of sa3-lookiag
men stand gazing about them with their
hands 10 their pockets"
By the strike monthly wages amounting
to $500, 900 have been ln=t II the town and
trades people, while $50 000, ,G00 OF capital
lies Idle and unprOd 1ctive. The uaoufac-
tCTeIs have q stock Of goods from which to
i'll eptciai oTderF, and seem confident of
meeting limited demand therefrom for SIX
months. and say they might as we'll keep
their mills closed all winter, as they would
lose money by cnnceding the demands of the
operatives.
The Lowell manufacturers also announce
that they have Determined upon the reduc
ton of the wages of their operatives. The
Boston Adrertiser says the reduction will
be felt in all departments of cotton manu-
featuring, and will he OF such nature that
wages, relatively to each other, will be
changed, while at the same time all are cut
down to the lowest basis which reduced
prices aud diminished profits demand. The
proposed reduction will go in TO effect Octo-
ber 4, when wages will be cut down from
three to ten per cent, according as they
were considered relatively too high or too
low in the different departments of the bus
mess. III order to mitigate the effects of
the reduction as far as possible, the amount
TO he paid for boaro? at corporation houses
s reduced from So 30 to So % per week
for males, and from 81 25 10 81 10 for fe
males.
This is sad state of affairs aud affords
Il striking illustration of the evils resulting
from the present financial policy of the gov
ernmeut which has prostrated the manu-
featuring, commercial, mechanical and in-
dustrial enterprises generally of the coun
try. Ie demonstrates, too, the abject de
pendence of labor on capital IN New Eng
land, where the political economy of the
State is controlled by capital in the inter
ests of capital. Mr.. Calhoun once ssid
that labor and capital in the free States
were in antagonism, with the advantage
pressure came upon capital through labor.
while in the slave States pressure could
only reach labor through capital. In times
of panic and pressure, the Southern slave
owaer, to preserve his capital, was COM
PEELED to feed his slaves. The mill owner
could close his factory door and let labor
starve. The condition of things in Massa-
chusetts to day affords a convincing de-
monstration of the correctness of Mr.. Cal
houn's theory. Whatever were the evils of
slavery it had some compensations. 1t
gaze to labor, helpless labor, employ ment
and security, which the labor system OF
philanthropic Massachusetts does not.