Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1891-03-07

enough to break away from the wage
system, As We're some Of the CoIored to
break their visible chains. But they are
few. Oppressive indoor labor for ten
hours day on prison diet has produced
physical and moral anamia throughout
the manufacturing population of Massa-
chuselts. Those who know his state Of
things VIII see what an here II lean work
the Socialists of Massachusetts have be-
fore them. Only for the courage Of
Socialist convictions who co aid face IL
Francis Cabot Lowell, nltrchaut of
Massachusetts,, while in England pri,-
oner of war on parole, III he war Of
1872, studied the English fact CRY system
and about 1914 planted seed from it on
the banks of the Charles River in Waltz.
am. The dreadful features of wife and
child lab appeared in the American
OiiohOot and are inherited to this day,
except in 80 far as they have been aIeyi
ated by the efforts of sue h men as
Horace Mann. Robert Rlntoul, Wendell
Phillips and Il few others
Mr.. Lowell sought and found in the
American Congress ample prot eCtl0n for
his English bantllng. His mills and his
dividends have quadruped and SEX
tuped. His posterity and that Of his
coadJmtors III his schemes have thrved
tothe third and fourth generation on the
profits, The houses of the wa ge workers
have not expanded by one foot in sev-
enty five years, nor has their clothing
and food increased in richness or risen
in the least above the control of the
iron law Of wages. This is literally
true They are living in little HOUSES
built by the corporation for the workers
seventy years ago. The factory system
has propagated seItishness W hrreyer it
has touched. 1t has Stitied the spirit
of justice and personal indie pendence.
Many score of secret societies have
arisen in the growth of the factory town
of Waltham, but no open society has
ever had any thing like an existence
there, which has spoken the truth about
this wage system. A captalistic, golden
seal uuZ2!es the local press. with some
honorable exceptions, The LabOr Leatler
of Jan. 81 prints without comment
affirmative evidence of these charges in
its report of the hearing on January
81, 1891, before the Labor COMMITTEE
of Massachusetts, legislature. John
Powers testifee: Have formerly worked
in Waltham cotton mills. The weavers
were fined for imperfect cloth and not
permitted to see the defects. William
Reeshaw, of Lowell-the town of Waltz
am named in honor Mr.. Lowell -lesti
fled that though there had been few
labor troubles in Lowell, it w as for the
reason that the operatives had been so
kept under the screws, He thought q
moral force bill 2c0S needed IN the North,
50 that the mall operatives nL1ght haze
freedom to tell their story"
Words will not express my admiration
and sympathy for these men and their
comrades VINO dared the relent less spirit
OF corporations
] present Waltham merely as the
parent and pattern of the mercal
and manufacturing spirit which rules
in the State that Mr. Foster puts for,
ward as a school teacher to the county,
The corporate power of Mass aChuset,s
might truly have said at any time in the
last 70 years, Il etat c'est moi Her
legislators are the paid nurs of capital.
ism Whatever she possesses for the
common good of all, as her schools,
Libraries, roads, and water sup plies, are
but spots of Socialism-the first riffs Of
a system that is to place thu. mOnop-
ollstlc system planted on her soil eight
generations ago.
MARY CUNNING,
PS-The LABOR Leuder of Feb. IA pub
fishes, without comment, the fact that
William Seeshaw and John Pow ers have
been discharged-aS no one doubted
they would be. NJ. Il
CHICAGO, Feb. %, 1891.