Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1878-12-05
The Labor Question.

1t has now became question of serious
Importance over this country, as to how
the poorer laboring classes of our coun-
try are to be proftably employed, and
how they are, by their labor, to be COM
fOrtahly clad and fedr The large manu-
featuring establishments that have, for a
few years past, been springing up in
many portions of the United States, do
not seem to furnish labor at living prices
for the vast numbers that are compelled
to work, to beg or to starve. Thousands
of this class of the population of our
country are thrown out of employment.
without knowledge of how to earn their
bread, except by particular branch of
mechanism or mandatory, and when
any Of these large manufacturing estab-
lishments fail, for the want of profta-
ble market for their products, as is the
case at this time, the operatives suffer;
hence, it is, that our rural districts are
aboutfilled with hungry, destitute men,
seeking the necessary food to support life,
for the manufacturing districts do not
produce the amount of food necessary to
feed the operatives. 1t is question to be
seriously considered, whether we are not
tending to. condition similar to that in
the great man ufacturing districts in Eng.
land, where the operatives are reduced
almost to a state of slavery to the money
powers and lords ofthese great manufac-
turing institutions. Mr., Joseph Cook, in
lecture which he. delivered at Music
Hall, in Boston, few evening since, tells
-us; in thefOllowing paragraph, what he.
saw on his visit to these English manu-
featuring districts. He says:
There was before me in Manchester
wtlat dOeslIot vet exist in New England:
an hereditary class of operatives. Littl
by. little men had gone down tn th.
Fqmalid condition to novels where 1 saw
children fight over. piece of fish 6lrOp-
ped from a pedlar's cart. have stood
there myself and peeled an orange, and
tile peel WAS picked swiftly from the side
walk anil eaIen by hungry children.
ie0uIttf1fe an arrow in the street over &C.
or 0rS0,chiltlren thar looked as if they had
been uuwa~hPtl from birth. Within can
non shot stood these palaces Of the man
ufarthrerS. That contrast H. To be seen ali
through the Old World, and it results
from these great principles, that subdi-
vision of labor increases the skill of the
operative, and that the larger the estab-
lishmert the greater The profits, TheslmaI,
WhO.manages the great establishment may
become rich and can take care of himself:
the man who makes the pin-head lOoses
capacity TO do anything else, If he loses
tue opportunity to make that pins head,
he knows no other trade. and may suffer
terribly before he can learn one and. find
another place to work.
What else did l see in Manchester ?
Near one Of the great factories was lone
brick building, and 1 saw women pass E.
and hand their infants in at the gate
When six O'Clock came in the afternoon,
saw these same women coming back and
receiving out of that gate their babes
What sort of housekeeping is that? In
the great factory towns in the Old World
you often find an establishment near the
factory for the care of very young chill
afen while the mothers are in the mills
tElris that must go to the mills and work
zen hoprs day after she is sixteen is not
likely to be a perfect housewife The
certainty is that hereditary factory nom
uiacion Is not the best place in which To
seek good housekeepers. In the Old
World It is very well known that social
rank Is lost partly because the art of keep
ths a nome neat Is lost. But how is it
1OsIF Because children must work in the
mills to exc out the earnings of the ma
1epts. Ihe mother must be bound to the
looms although she ought to be at home
IaKlng care of the children. Her babes
st ne must pass into an establishment a,
Iubiia sb .ie mil, 20 be taken care OF
Mune sue Is earning something To feed
them when she returns. We bsvo W seer aeeo
netIe Oh this arrangement vet in New
England, but who knows that traja bovo
Will not follow these precedentsP The
operation OF the two great laws of manu-.
Iactures can De foreseen with certainty
We find these laws spinning the t,yr nv,
@trasted classes in our New England tow ne
AS years go on, and the first effects them
selves become causes, these laws tend :,
make the superior yet more superior an,
the inferior yet more inferior. 1 am no
denying the advantages of manufactuT
ing eminenee; but stating, as a motiv
for public caution, that political econC
mists have long acknowledged as the dii
advantages of such eminence.