Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1886-05-14
Has the Condition of Workingmen I'm
proved?
BY PROF. LEE DAVIS LODGE, A. NJ.

men TIE laDOrer comes before the OAR Vi
public opinion to plead his case, he should
be given fair trial. His voice may be
harsh and his hands may be rough, but, as
an American citizen who has never be-
trayed the trusts reposed in him, who in
war has carried his country's flag over fields
of carnage through fire and smoke on to a
glorious victory, and who in peace has large
ly aided by his toll in the making of the
great republic, he is entitled to have his
words, homely though they be, weighed in
the scales of even handed justice. Our eyes
must not be blinded 10 the truth by the
glitter and the glamour of wealth.
1t ought not to be necessary to speak such
words as these, but there are some, happily
they are comparatively few, who bear the
proud name of Americans and yet with AFRO
giant and ignorant presumption look down in
scorn and contempt upon the toiling masses
of the people, and imagine themselves made,
forsooth, Of finer metal and cast in superior
moulds When cry of anguish and pas
sionate plea for justice go up from the down.
trodden laborers, these large-minded and
kind-hearted gentlemen can only suggest
as remedy the bullet and the bayonet!
Shoot down the rufiians Why should they
thus break in upon our repose? What care
we for their starving families? o gener-
Gus hearts o wisdom without alloy So
spoke the lords and ladies of France, and
the French revolution came-came with
its wild excesses-came with the CHASTITY
guillotine-came with burning houses and
blood. besprinkled streets.
1t is we'll sometimes to look on the dark
pictures of the past. Let US never be guilty
Of heartlessness and folly in any degree
kindred TO that insanity which brought an :
archy upon France.
| The cause of the workingman in the United
States and elsewh here has suffered untold>in-
Jury from men who protested TO be his
friends Socialists, seizing the time when
the aborers were indignant at some wrong,
have strven by infammatory curbstone
harangues to raise every evil passion, and
lead the duped men on to cowardly deeds
of lawlessness and shame. But the words
of these Williams have fallen still-born. The
American workmen have had, thus far al
least, too much good sense to heed such
devilish counsels. They know full well thai
this proposed destruction of social order
means nothing less than the terrible rule Of
thieves and cut-throats.
A more dangerous, because a more plausl-
BILE, foe is the man who by exaggerating the
i'll and depreciating the good in the present
condition OF the laborers, imbitters their
minds, and tries to persuade them that the
progress of civilization has brought TO them
curses instead of blessings. Now do moi
deny that many who promulgate these ideas
are really sincere. Certainly their words
from the very weakness of human nature
have great influence. Most of us do not OBJ.
ject " being pictured as injured innocents
Nevertheless, believe that the assertion
that workingmen are now worse of than
formerly is moi only untenable, but that il
can also readily be proved false by an APP
peal TO the facts Of history. When | take
this position, however, would not be un
derstood to say that the laborer has no rea
and heavy grievances to-day. Far from it
To say that his condition now is better than
!. once was, is not at all to say that his
condition now is as good as it ought to be-
The arguments in favor of the belief thai
the aborcr is better off now than he was in
the past seem irresistible. In the first place
the invention and use of labor saving ma
chinery has so increased production as tC
give work TO greater and greater numbers o.
men. As this question of the effect Of ma
chinery is the great stumbling block ovei
which not few fall, l shall, if convenient
try TO explain in future paper hoU the re-
suit just stated comes to pass. Suffice it fol
the present TO show from undoubted facts
the truth OF my assertion. According Il
the Census Reports the population of the
United States in 1850 was %, 191 ,S76, AM
in 1880 II had risen TO 50,155, 1888, which Il
an increase of something less than III pei
cent, In 1850 there were 957 ,059 persons
working in manufactures, and their wage
altogether amounted to $236.755, AGA. II
1880 there were 2732, 800 persons employed
| s.f fnair
was S947 1853 ,7a5 There has been, there
fore, an increase of 1856 per cent in tn,
number of laborers in manufactures, ant
an increase of 300 per cent. in the wage
paid. But IL is in manufactures that ma
chinery, ii it hurts the laborers at all, mus
hurt them most. Summing up the teaching
of these figures we find that the number o
persons employed in manufactures has in
creased faster than the population, and tha
the wages paid have increased faster thar
the number OF persons employed.
Secondly. While wages have risen, tn,
prices of the commodities which the work
man buys have declined He, therefore. has
more dollars now, and he can get NOR,
things for dollar. Figures officially com
piled are before me which entirely sub
stantiate this statement.
Thirdly. In many trades and employ
ments the hours Of labor are fewer thai
they used to be. To illustrate what hav
said will quote an account which Pro-
Laughlin gives of New England cott0i
mill. He says; 1.-THE average wages of al
the operatives, comprising men, womei
and fewer children than now } working thr
teen hours u day were, in 1928, $500 pc
week the average wages Of all female op
eratiyes to day, working on similar fabric
ten hours "A day, under vastly better SAINT,
ry conditions, both in factory and dwellings
are 1901 per week. The contrast would b.
still more favorable If men and boys wer
added, as in the statement for 1928. Thi
has been accompanied by decrease in tn
price of cloth, and with the exception o
lumber and meat, no increase in the price o
food. Moreover, the present operatives ar
less intelligent then those of 1928, the Sam
class employed then being now engaged it
higher occupations, at wages OF $S or II
per week" This is surely good news.
Fourthly. The improved condition OF tn
laborers is evident from the gradually dc
creasng interest OF. capital. Ii capital get
less, it follows that labor gets more OF th,
fruits of production. The enormous in
crease In the consumption of the great sta
Piles Of life also proves that the workmen il
all civilized countries are better clothed ant
better fed than formerly.
80 much for the gain in material comforts
1t would be pleasant to dwell on the spread
OF education and morality among the son:
of toll, and to show how they have gained
in social position, but fear | have already
severely tried the patience OF the reader
Enough has been said, think, to prove tha
more people are now employed, and tina
they get more money and more commodi
ties for less labor than they did in forme
years.