The Somerset reporter., 1886-02-24

Mr.. Bodwell.-Well, when | was q
young man had to work twelve hours a
day, and there never was day that |
should not have been glad to strike OFF
two hours. My mature judgement, both
rs laborer and employer, is that ten
hours should be the limit of days work.
Instead Of leaving the question open for
dispute and bad feeling, | think the law
making power should step In and make II
absolute so that for regular days wag-
es no man, woman or child should be
compelled to work over ten hours. Tina.
is not a recent judgement of niue, bu' Is
one upon which have long acted in my
employment OF men.
Mechanic. Would not the agents OF
our large factories object to this?
Mr.. dwell.-Possibly they might at
first, but in the end they would find that
ten hours one day carries over to the next
man of vigor for the next days work
which more than comprDsates for the
hour or the hour aud hall that would be
dropped In many of the foctores. There
is nothing 80 hopeless as to have man
go to work this morning still fatigued
with the work OF yesterday. So that in a
nom am sure that a man will do more
work at ten hours day than b., will at Il
or II 1-2 hours He might do it for a sin
gle day, hut you have got to look at it by
the month or year.
Mecbanic.-Do you not think the fac
toi les employ children at too tender an
age for work?
Mr.. Bodwell.-Yes, DC, but the fact is
that manufacturers are not so much to
blame In this matter as the parents are
Parents and guardians solicit employment
for their children and often msrepresent
. hat I hitb h.
ceived into factory or permitted to work
under fifteen years of age. This gives
then time to get good amount of school
| lug and to grow strong aud healthy. II
you put them in the factory at eleven or
twelve, or even as low rs ten, as | have
known cases, you inevitably ruin or seri>
0usly mi are the health of the children and
doom them to grow up in ignorance. /
think the law should be very firm on this
| point aud strictly enforced under sevo re
penalties, and it should apply both to
| parents and the factory agents.
MachaDic.-Wha do you think OF The
present administration of thelaw in regard
to trustee process on wages'
Mr.. Bodwell.-I think the trouble there
would be cured to considerable extent
II the payment of wages were made week.
ly. You pay man only once month
and being little behind he goes in deb,
for his living; but II you pay him week y,
prompt and sure, he will have no occasion
to run up bills at stores. He can buy for
cash and that will save him good deal OF
money, aud IL will be better for the trader,
and for the workmen. l think if weekly
payments should be established the who e
trustee process upon wages of working
men should be abolished. The law should
be repealed and wages should no longer
be liable to attachment. Everylhin
then would be on cash basis and great
good would result to all parties. And
right there have another suggestion &c
make. l would not have Saturday fol
pay day. II there are any rum shops
around they are sure to get hold of the
man that is disposed to drink, on Saturday
and Sunday, aud the weeks wares, in
stead of going to his family, often get US
ed up in spree. think 1t would be tal
better to take the middle of the week anC
pay them off on Wednesday at close q
work. The families would theu get tht
benefit of their wages.
Machanic.-Well, If YOU abolished al
tachmcnt of wages in this way, you would
not allow men TO be imprisoned for debt
Mr.. Bodwell.-W Well, | think that /,
barbarous anyway. No man ever should
be imprisoned for debt. If he has no pro
perty the only way he is to pay his debt i.
TO work. When you imprison him you
say he shall not have u chance to carr
money to pay his debt. The whole thlnl
assured and cruel. When you abolish The
alta, hment on wages and abolish impris-
onment for debt, you are going to fore,
hings on to a cash basis, and to u large
extent break down tn, credit system
That will be u great advantage. II any
man working for day wages would KEEP
accoun. OF the difference between paying
cash for everything he gets and running
up bills at stores, and would put that dr.
ference In the savings bank every week,
be would be a rich mau in ten years. The
credit system is regular pitfall for work
ing men, and keeps their noses to the
grindstone all their lives.
Machanic.-Do you think that women
get fair rate of wages for their work?
Mr.. Bodwell. -Well, that depends upon
what they are doing. There Is a great
deal of light work that women can do
readily, where it is no use to hire a man
of full strength. In such case they could
not, of course, expect to get the wages OF
man. But where man and woman
are doing the same work it Is unjust not
to pay them equally. My opininon is
that rate of wages should not depend up
on whether the aborer is a man or woman.
The rule should be-same work, same pay.
But 10 general, of course, men and womt n
do not come into direct competition, and
the light work should be left to the wo-
men, with as good rate Of pay as justice
demands.
Machanic-Wha do you think of all
the labor troubles that are now occurring
in the country?
Mr.. Bodwell We'll l see nothing in
them but what could and ought to be set
tied by fair arbitration. My Judgement is
and my experience has always been that
fair conference between employer and
employed brings about an adjustment,
and where the parties cannot agree them
selves there should be an arbitration.
The whole matter should go upon the
basis that capital and labor both have
rights and are dependent on each other.
The factoey needs labor as much as labor
needs wages, and the two must get along
together. No wise friend of the laboring
man wants to make war on capital, and
no capitalist, II he has any. sense, wants
to do injustice to laboring man. They
have got to work together or both will be
injured. But when we speak OF capital
anu laDOT we W uOb ncdu wv CiooSCo vi
the community, because the man working
for wages to. day will very likely ten years
hence be capitalist employing other men
to work. Capital aud labor, therefore,
are not In the same hands, but are contin-
ually shifting and exchanging places. The
rich man gets poor by mismanaeement,
aud the poor man gets rich by good man.
apemeut. 1t Is entirely wrong view to
think that they are two permanent forces
in the same hands, in conflict with each
other and bent on each Others ruin.
Mecbanic.-Do you think the labor diffi
culties that are affecting 50 many enter
prises will cause trouble among your
workmen?
Mr.. Bodwell.-I do not, for intend to
pay and always have paid the highest
wages for men doing the different kinds
OF work for which l employ them. 1t IN
not my practice to discharge men unless
they should prove to be incompetent OF
uDfaithful Ia the dlsch arge of their duties,
or unless have no work to offer them.
Having been laboring man myself all my
fe, l can symphthize with all the just
ION nda that Labor NAV make