The Republican journal., 1886-08-19

1eSiiN'S'iNtt
action of all.
Preliminary to general adjustment, Maine
should lead in correcting some inequalities
and removing some burdens. The hours of
labor in all branches of industry should be
equalized by making the existing statute,
which defines ten hours as days work, alb
solute and mandatory in SO far as to declare
that days work should not 90 beyond that
limit of time. From long experience, both
as employer and employee, | am satisfied that
for given period man will do more work
in ten hours per day than he will do in eleven
or twelve. Whoever begins the work of to-
day burdcned with the fatigue of yesterday
is necessarily impaired in his skill and eff
cheney.
The legislature should in my Judgment
change two other provisions of law. First:
In no instance should imprisonment for debt
be allowed. If man has no property and
can pay his debt only by the avails Of his
labor, it is certainly an absurdity to shut him
up in Jail where he is not only incapable Of
earning anything, but where his support
necessarily becomes a charge upon the tax
payers of the community. .SefonH: Trustee
process should be abolished in 50 far as it
man. The result of repeating these two
laws would undoubtedly be to curtail the
credit system and assure the laboring men the
prompt and regular payment of their wages
BY this process the most beneficent results
will folow-among the best Of which is that
the expenses of living to the laboring man and
his family will be reduced from five to eight
per cent, thus enabling him to add that
amount to his savings for "a rainy day"
Still another evil in our labor system
should be corrected Children are now per
mitted to work in the factory at too tender
an age. This evil is caused rather by the de
sire of a certain class Of parents to have
their children earning wages than by the de
sire of those managing the factories. The
law should prohibit children engaging in
factory work at an age 50 tender as to under
mine health and strength and at the same
time deprive them of the opportunity to at
tend school. If the age for factory labor were
fixed at fifteen years both evils, physical and
mental, would be avoided.
I have for long period in private, and
few months since in public, advocated these
reforms. My experience has suggested their
value and | think in addition to the points
presented it would prove advantageous to ar
range system of weekly payments Of wages.
Every change in our labor system that gives
to the labOrer prompt control Of his earnings
in cash will prove helpful and profitable to
him and a regulation directing the weekly
payments would | am sure, prove beneficial.
1t will, however, be found in the end that
the principal influence upon the wages Of the
abOring man comes from the tariff system oil
the National Government. 4 protective tar
III means good wages, while free trade or
mere revenue tariff means poor wages TO the
labor of the United States. 1t has been the
steady aim of the Republican party to main
tain protection and it has been the steady aim
of the Democratic party to enforce free trade
On this direct issue lies the whole question to
the laboring man. If he fails to consider it
and to act upon it he fails at the point which
virtually affects his own personal interests
No citizen of Maine should fail to see that
the Morrison tariff bill supported at the pres
ent session of Congress by the mass of the
Democratic Representatives struck deadly
blows at every material interest of Maine 1t
gave to the farmers and lumbermen of Canada
the free market of the United States for all
their products-thus placing the alien, who
pays no tax to support our State or National
Governments, on the same basis as our own
citizens, who pay all those taxes To the fish
ermen of Canada the bill proposed to concede
such manifest advantages over the fishermen
of New England that one might suppose the
Democratic Representatives were legislating
for the Canadian interest and cherished a
special malignity towards the New England
interest. Every manufacturing interest in
which Maine capitalists have embarked their
money and in which Maine laborers secure
good wages was imperiled and its prosperity
menaced by this tariff bill, which but for the
stubborn opposition of the Republican Rep
resentatives in Congress would to-day be the
law of th.A land