Litchfield enquirer., 1879-01-02
Morals and Manufacturing.

| ue manufacturing system which New En- 1 gland has in the main copied from Old En. gland. is one that needs most careful watching. Its material product is as immense as it is in. dispensible. The work of fewer hands now accomplishes in minutes more than was done in hours of the ceaseless, many sided industry of our forefathers. During the past fifty years the American people have, by a shrewd' divis- ion of labor, and by the introduction of innu- merable machines invented in this and other | countries, greatly shortened the hours of hard labor needed for obtaining their necessary food and clothing. True it is that our wants have grown in equal proportion with our means of l supplying them; that the luxuries of half a | century since are the necessities of today; and | that the average American, while SO much bet ter housed clothed, fed, and schooled than his ancestor, finds no less difficulty in keeping the wolf from the door," It cannot be denied however, that his hours of labor have sensibly shortened that he reads more newspapers, if not more books and that our material cendi- tion, as people, has greatly improved.
 Conceding these great material benefits to the factory system, what are we to say of its social and moral results. Here the dark side of the picture comes into view It is evident, in the first place, that our copies of the En- glish system have all the faults of the original. Concentration of power and property into the hands of the few is just as prominent feature of American as of European manufacturing communities. In his Boston lecture of last week, MT. Joseph Cook puts it strongly as fol- lows:
 If the present careless factory arrangements are continued fifty years, your floating popu- lations in many manufacturing centers will be full of moral ulcers. Lazarus will lie at the gate of Dives in New England, and he will be full of sores. I>throw my whole weight into the scale against the continuance of these care less arrangements. / kasoo th0t tue ADaericdn Lasorus na0y h1-norroac, or in tue 7sert genera t1on, become DtUes, 0s the European mag not; but 1n spite of Anaerac0n iastituti0ns, the dag $ conaing unless tacto,y Ete as studied and ad- lMsted naost cGrefutIy, achen here and throughout Neao E1agtd7od of arlich the achole AtLantic slope s c factory, Lazarus aciU He ct tue gate of Di- Des.
 In times like these the whole unloveliness of the system becomes obvious. The machinery of trades unions fails to assert any of the rights of the employee. He becomes the dependent of the employer who may dictate his politics and almost his religion. Often he can do noth ing but tramp and even this resource is being much restricted by severe legislation and by hostile public sentiment. If the outcome of republicanism is to be the division New England into two classes; the one consisting of a few great employers, owning all the property and monopolizing most of the intelligence; and the other an army of employees, living from hand to mouth, hopelessly inferior socially, and hopeless ly dependent politically ,-can we wonder that the active minds of this latter class are looking yond repubicansm tocommunism for relief? i?
 Granting the evil social and political results of the imported factory system, it's evil moral results foll0w as matter of course. Children of ignorant and superstitious foreigners grow up worse. citizens than their parents. They nay have lost superstition, but they have not gained principle. Their intelligence all turns to craft. The American factory village is full of the material for Paris Commune If MT. Cook paints 8 true picture of factory man. ners-in the work-room, of all places in Amer ica, the coarseness of man is not restrained by the presence of woman.
 It is easy to point out the evil, but the rem edy apparently remains as yet undiscovered. Mr. Cook seems inclined to make the mistake of most religious teachers in supposing that radically vicious system can be made endura- ble by the palliatives of religious instruction and education. Just as no amount of religious instruction could ever implant manhood in the average Southern slave, SO no amount of reli- gious instruction, even if kindly received, will ever eradicate the inherent vices of the factory system.
 At one time it was hoped that cooperation would take the place of forms of industry which are obviously unsutedto republicanism l; but corporation, so attractive in theory, has seldom proved successful in practice. We have no great faith in legislation, at least in any legislation yet devised, forthe remedy of the evils of the factory system. Something has been done to alleviate the toll of women and children; but even these laws, disliked by both employers and employed, are very diff | cult of enforcement.
 One thing government can do. It can cease | to foster evils it cannot remedy. On looking over our revenue laws it will be discovered 1 that the manufactures which are protected most are those which deserve protection least | Worst of all are the duties which are so con- trived as to prohibit foreign competition l Whatever may be the merits of Mr. Woods | bending tariff bill, there can be little doubt
 hat some measure of tariff reform is greatly
 leeded; and even New England legislator
 'houl not forget that, with all it's great ma
 erial advantages, our system of manufactures
 las its very grave political, social and mora
 disadvantages.
 | Great Fire in Thomaston.
 The large factory of the Thomaston Clock | Co., just across the bridge over the Naugatucl