Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-05-01

labor. might b chained ana beaten.
and we 70 be FED on bread ana water
or such refuse as hls master might
think fit.
If be ran away he WAS 10 be marked
either en- the forehead or the cheek
with the letter $50 and condemned 10
sAavery for life. If be again ran away
ne WAS 10 be punishea with death. A
vsgabono's child might bo fsrmed out
untl manhood or womanhooo, ana
running away wss followed by slavery
for life. A slave might BE placed N
irons, and If be resisted correction hs
WAS 10 be executed as q felon. he
could be devised by will and sold as
other goods and chattsls. Tins dis
graceful statute MSS repealed three
years after.
EiiEAseth,s Labor ststats.
The statute, S Elizabeth, l5ss, also
commonly known As '.tne Statute Of
Laborers.' repealed. or amended ana
consolidated all former laws relating
10 LABOR. IL regulated the terms OF en-
ployment and the hours OF labor and
provided q new scale Of wages. Minute
regulations were made in reference 10
the rights and obligations of both ser
want and master. Ne person leaving
one master could serve another with
out showing q testimonial frsm the
former. If he failed To produce the
testimonial he WAS 10 be imprisoned,
and at the end of twenty-one DAYS be
Was to be whipped.
The first parliament or James j at
tempted To enforce the rating of wages
as directed in the previous statute. The
act recites that former laws have not
been duly put into application accord
ing to the true meaning thereof and ex-
pressly extends the assessing Of wages
ito laborers, weayers, spinters or work
men whatsoever. either working by the
day, week, month, year or taking any
other work 1T any other persons hand
whatsoever" To take more or less de-
clared to be an efense.
Cessation of Interfsrenes.
We may now pass on TO the time of
GeorgelI III. for the lntervening legislation
ism behalf Of particular trades, or reIst-
ed rather to the poor laws than 10 the
subject under discussion. After the
middle of the eighteenth century the
legislature IS content TO leave matters
pertaining to labor 10 be settled by
mutual agreement between those most
interested, and to concern itself only
with the regulation of summary jurls-
dichon in cases of dispute between en-
ployers and employed.
The statute 20, George H., C. 10,
passed in l746, provides that all dis
putes between masters ana iaborers IN
husbandry, Or arising between masters
and artificers are 10 be determined by
one or more justices. and that IN the
case of a master who shall fail to make
payment of any judgment, the came IL
to be secured by levy and distress Of
his goods. The law, however, was far
from placing servant and master on a
footing of equality. The servant might
be fined, or ne might be punished by
being sent to prison, there to be cor
rected, by what is meant, there to be
whipped. The statute a George ~ C.
34l, the next general statute, deprived
Tic magistrate Of the power TO infiict
corporal punishment, and treated
breaches of contract or misconduct as
punishable by imprisonment, or by loss
Of part or the whole Of wages already
earned.
Equality IT Last.
This remained the law until 1857.
when q committee of the house of
commons WAS appointed TO enquire
into the state of law relating 20 labor.
and report on the expediency OF
amending it. The law of 1867. known
as the master and servant act, some
times called Lord Elcho's act. was
framed upon the report of the COM
mittee. Ir marks n great advance in
the position of workmen towards an
equality before the law. II required
but one step more thoroughly 10
emancipate the laborer, aud place him
on the same level before the law as his
employer. This was taken in the en-
ployers and workmen bill Of 1875. A
few weeks after the passage Of the bill
the prime minister of Great Britain
said that, by the passing of the act of
that year, for the FIRST time In the his
tory of the country the employer and
the employed sat under equal laws.
Thus did 1t take the English workman
more than half . thousand years to
unfold the letters with which parlia-
ment had bound HIM.
The American Workman.
Before speaking of the labor laws OF
the various states of the American
union, LET us look ut the American me-
chanic and laborer at the close of the
last century and the beginning Of this.
Mr.. McMaster save "that q man who
performed what would now bc con-
sidered unskllled labor, who sawed
wood. dug di:ches, mended roads.
mixed mortar, who carried boards to
the carpenter, or bricks 10 the mason,
or helped to cut hay in the harvest
time, uaually received ss the fruit Of
his daily toll two shillings. Somstimes
when the laborers were few he was
paid more, and became the envy of his
fellows if, at the end of the week, he
took home to HE family fifteen sbil-
lings. . sum now greatly exceeded by
-. Yet all authorities agree that IN
1854 the hire of the workman was twice
as great ~ in IVA.
strict Eeesemy Required.
"On such pittance il was only by the
strictest economy that q mechanic kept
his children from starvation and HIM
self from Jail. In the low and dingy
rooms which he called his home were
wanting many articles of sderDment
and of use, new to be found IN the
poorest OF his class. Sand sprinkled on
the floor did duty SIS a carpet. There
was 30 glass on his table, there wss ne
china in his cupboard, there wss ne
prints On his wall. What stove vas
he did not know, coal ne hsd never
seen, matches ne had never hesrd Of
Over fire of fragments 81 boxes and
barrels, which De lit with the sparks
struck from flint, or w1tn the live
coais breaght from neithbor sbearth,
bis wife cooked up a rude r8enl and
serves il IN pewter dishes. Hs rarely