The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-02-19
rLewiston Journal

Hon. J. R. Bodwell the early part OF this
week at his stock farm in Hallowell and had
a long conversation with him, touching mat
ters that are now engaging the public inter
est He found Mr.. Bodwell as usual busy
about his many enterprises, but ready to
give frank expression upon any subject. The
following conversation ensued
Mechanic-What are your views, Mr.. Bod
well, touching the question of a peremptory
ten-hour law?
Mr.. Bodwell-Well, when L was young
man I had to work twelve hours day, and
there never was day that | should not have
been glad to strike off two hours. MINIATURE
Judgment, both as laborer and an employer,
is that ten hours should be the limit of a
days work. Instead of leaving tbs question
open for dispute and bad feeling, think the
law-making power should step in and make
it absolute; so that for regular days wages
no man, woman or child should be compelled
to work over ten hours. That is not a recent
Judgment of mine, but is one upon which l
have long acted in my employment of men.
Mechanie-Would not the agents of our
large factories object to this?
Mr.. Bodwell-Possibly they might at first,
but in the end they would find that ten hours
one day carries over to the next man of
yigor for the next days work, which more
than compensates for the hour or the hour
and half that would be dropped in many of
the factories. There is nothing so hopeless
as to have man go to work this morning
still fatlgued with the work OF yesterday.
So that in month | am sure that man will
do more work at ten hours day than he
will at II or III hours. He might not do it
for single day, but you have got to look at
it by the month or the year.
Mechanic-DO you not think the factories
employ children at too tender an age for
work?
Mr.. Bodwell-Yes, 1 do. But the fact is
that the manufacturers are not so much to
blame in this matter as the parents are. Pa
rents and guardians solicit employment for
their children, and often misrepresent their
ages. | think no child should be received
into factory or permitted to work under Is
years of age. This gives them time to get
good amount of schooling and to grow
Strong and healthy If you put them in the
factory at eleven or twelve, or even as low
as ten, as / have known cases, you inevitably
ruin or seriously injure the health of the
children, and doom them to grow up in ignO-
rance think the law should be very firm
on this point and strictly enforced under Sc
we're penalties, and it should apply both to
parents and the factory agents.
What do you think of the present adminis-
tIdOlUu u tllG ldW Ill I0SdIu W IIuSL6c pro-
cess on wages?
Mr.. Bodwell-I think the trouble there
would be cured to a considerable extent if
the payment of wages were made weekly.
You pay man only once month, and be-
ing little behind he goes in debt for his liv-
ing; but if you pay him weekly, 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, and
it will be better for the trader and for the
WOTKmnn i nov ants
should be established the whole trustee pro-
cess upon wages of workingmen should be
abolished. The law should be repealed, and
wages should no longer be liable to attach
ment. Everything then would be on cash
basis, and great good would result to all par
ties. And right there / have another sug-
geSti0n to make. / would not have Saturday
for pay day. If there are any rumshops
around they are sure to. get hold Of the man
that is disposed to drink, on Saturday and
Sunday, and the weeks wages, instead of
going to his family, often get used up in a
spree. | think it would be far better to take
the middle of the week and pay them off on
Wednesday, at close of work. The families
would then get the benefit of their wages
Mechanic-Well, if you abolished attach
ment OF wages in this way, you would not
allow men to be imprisoned for debt.
Mr.. Bodwell-Well, think that is bar
barous anyway. No man should ever be
imprisoned for debt. If he has no property
the only way he is to pay his debt is to work
When you imprisoq him you say he shall bal net
debt. The whole thing is absurd and cruel
When you abolish the attachment on wages
and abolish imprisonment for debt, you are
going to force things on to a cash basis, and
to large extent break down the credit sys-
TEN, That will be great advantage. Ii
any man working for day wages would
keep account of the difference between pay
ing cash for everything he gets and running
up bills at stores, and would put that differ
ence in the savings bank every week, he
would be rich man in ten years The credit
system is regular pitfall for working men,
and keeps their noses to the grindst0ne all
their lives.
Mechanic-Do you think that women get
fair rate of wages for their work?
Mr.. B0dwell-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 man of full
strength In such case they could not. of
course, expect to get the wages of man.
But where man and a woman are doing
the same work it is unjust not to pay them
equally My opinion is that rate of wages
should not depend upon whether the laborer
is man or woman. The rule should be-
same work, same pay, But in general, of
course, men and women do not come into di-
rect competition, and the light work should
pc left to the women, with as good rate of
pay as Justice demands.
Mechanic-Whatd do you think of all the
labor troubles that are now occurring in the
country?
Mr.. Bodwell-Well, see nothing in them
! but what could and ought to be settled by
falr arbitration. My judgment is and my
experience has always been that fair confer
enCe between employer and employed brings
about an adjustment, and where the parties
cannot agree themselves 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.
Ihe factory needs labor as much as labor
needs wages, and the two must get along to-
gether. No wise friend of the laboring man
wants to make war on capital, and no capital
ist, if he has any sense, wants to do injustice
to a laboring man. They have got to work
together or both will be injured. But when
we speak of capital and labor we do not
mean two classes of the community, because
the man working for wages to-day will very
likely ten years hence be capitalist employ
ing other men to work. Capital and labor,
therefore, are not in the same hands, but are
continually shifting and exchanging places.
The rich man gets poor by mismanagement,
and the poor man gets rich by good manage
ment., 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.
Mechanic-Do you think the labor difficult
ties that are affecting so many enterprises
will cause trouble among your workmen?
Mr.. Bodwell-I do not, for | intend to pay
and always have paid the highest wages for
lueH uOlllS Ju6 Qlu6I6ub kluuS OI WOTk lOI
which l employ them. 1t is not my practice
to discharge men unless they should prove
to be incompetent OF unfaithful in the dis
charge of their duties, or unless 1 have no
work to offer them. Having been a laboring
man myself all my life, / can sympathize
with all the just demands that labor may
make
Mechanic-Do you think this labor ques-
tion likely to go in the political field?
Mr.. Bodwell.-NO, not as a distinct politi-
cal party. The fact is that if it were not for
a protective tariff the wages of American
w0rkmen would go right down ON the same
basis as European workmen, and all these
issues inside the tariff would not sustain the
American scale of wages for single month.
The protective tariff benefits both capital and
labor, but certainly it benefits labor even in
larger degree than it does capital. In con-
nection with the tariff discussion these labor
questions will of course come to the front,
and | think every intelligent workman in
this country should be able to see that if pro-
lection is abolished he is at once put in com
petition with the workmen of Europe; so
that after all the main question for wage
workers in the United States is the question
of protective tariff on products. But l
don't mean to imply that the benefits of the
protective tariff are limited to capitalists and
wase-workers. The value of farms in Maine