The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-06-24


with witness and taking evidence from his
possession, and there is no knowing what
the House might do-expel him, perhaps
Then these investigations and letters. and
Heaven knows what, and i'll health to crown
all BY all means let Mr.. Blaine go into the
Senate as the successor of Mr.. Morrill,. It
will solve dozen political problems
The Sewing Machine Companies and
tho seamstresses.
The invention Of tho sewing machine has
not been an unmixed blessing to those who
live by the needle. An engine driver is not
. more enviable person than the driver
Of an old-time stage coach. The ma
chine sews at rate that fingers
cannot compete with. It has brought
needlework within the things requiring
capital 1t has made the possession of o
sewing machine necessity to all seam
stresses. The tools that could be had three
for q cent have been raised into an article
costing sixty-fve to seventy dollars, or
representing the entire wages of from
eight to eighteen weeks. The struggles
necessary on the part of poor
girl or woman to pay this extor-
tionate sum for an article not costing
the manufacturers more than one-fourth the
amount can only be family depicted in
words No description would do justice to
the pinching process by which week after
week, in the face Of hundred needs, the
mite is put by to pay the instalment on the
machine which the glozing agent sold her
on such 'easy terms" So easy indeed
are the terms that if she by sickness
or loss of work fails in q payment he
will have the company's men, armed with
replevin, come and carry off the ma chine,
and refuse to return her cent of what she
has paid, even though, like Bridget
Barry, she has paid fifteen dollars more
than the cash selling price. Often and
often this has happened without word Of
complaint from the poor, starving creatures,
who think that there is no redress for them
when a rich company sets its lawyer to
work at their cases. Surely they think
the rich company, if it has no more
heart than stone, would not 60
outside the law. They. have paid all they
could, and in some wny-which, to be sure,
they cannot understand the Justice of-they
are to lose what they have paid. All! they
do not know how the rich company has
counted on their poverty and their ignor-
ance. Well, US there came man called AL
exander, who settled the Gordian knot by
cutting it with the edge of the sword, there
came, in moment of despairing madness, q
woman named Bridget Barry, who settled
the sewing machine demon with the first
paving stone that came to her hand. The
crash of the plate glass that followed the
fight Of that paving stone has made known
her wrongs and those of her sisters in suffer
ing to the world.
teaches is this, that the poor women who
have entered into these contracts should not
submit to having every penny they have
paid withheld from them in case, by stress
of circumstances, they should be unable to
complete their payments The poor women
should not sign contracts that place them
absolutely at the mercy Of the sewing ma
chine cormorants, whose manners are pleas
ant until the payments cease. 1t should not
be difficult to find charitable and well-in-
formed persons to look over these contracts
before they are signed. But there is another
point to which Bridget Barry's case calls
attention-namely, the huge privileges en-
joyed by the monopoly through Congress,
which, by extending patent rights, has
enabled the manufacturers to prey ON the
poor. The inventors have been long ago
amply rewarded, and no application for the
extension of sewing machine patent should
be entertained. Congress has already re-
fused to extend some important patent, and
this practice should be rigidly followed in
all future cases. 1t is time that this business
was limited to the profits which are recog-
nized MS fair in every other business.