The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1898-02-18

Property A mouE New England WORKER
APropos Of the New England mill op-
eratives strike, here is a true story Of
their condition in one OF the cotton
manufacturing towns
The restitution and want existing
are great and volumes could be written
relating instances Of suffering that are
ssddening. The excess OF French who
speak only their own language makes
it difficult to get at the true condition
through out their midst, but individU-
al cases are plenty. In one little house
Of four rooms 10 people make a home.
In another little place there are two
rooms below and an attic 15x2O feet.
There is a family in each room and
they bunk in the attic, sleeping on the
floor, that is covered with a bedding OF
sea grass.
To illustrate the meagre sum earned
by many, take the case Of a girl of Is.
Her weekly wages as a spinner amount
ed to s115. There are scores Of men
who have grown gray in the mill ser
vice who are only paid 90 cents a day,
when 20 years ago they were earning
sI6O and over. Some who received
S1yO8 for certain work some years ago
now get 40 cents a day.
"They talk of the spinners in Eng
land" said an old mill hand, "as being
worse of than We are. 1t is not so.
A spinner there can earn AZ shillings,
counting a shilling as . cents, and
not do half the work We do. There is
no end Of poor girls here running five
looms to earn 90 cents q day, when in
EngIsnd q girl viii have only two. The
English loom will pick a little faster
than ours, but that is nothing. The
girls here do $50 per cent more work
for the same money than they do in
England. Our looms used to pick 125
minute, but now they are speeded up
to $50.
aThen, the machines. are gagged to
increase the cut from five to ten yards
making the help do that much more
work"
Here is the tiresome work Of an
sight-lOom weaver: On plain work be-
fore the reduction in wages, he receiv-
ed s7-35 a week. For this amount he
performed the following labor: Yarn
threads to look after per loom, 2,72O;
total for eight looms, 2, 100; number
Of spOOls TO put on a-week, $3.50; total
number of yards of filling a week, 30
30; total number Of yards Of cloth a
week Of 60 hours, 1910; number of
picks per week, 1882. This does not
apply to print looms, which run even
faster-2OO picks per minute.
The different lines Of work about the
mills may be classified as follows:
Picker men, carders and ring spinners,
who are mostly women and children;
mule spinners, men and boys; Wrappers,
mOmen; slashers, men; webb drawers,
women; weavers, mostly women; finish
ers, both sexes. The highest wages
earned are by picker men, who get at
the best, 81 to s12 a week. From this
the scale goes down to 10 cents q day
Of ten hours.
dren in the town is nearly 5000. There
are two parochial schools having about
600 children attending the two. The
attendance at the other schools is put
at about 5000 at the outside, leaving
1,4OO children Of school age to be &C
counted for.
The amount Of it is that many fam
lilies have to press their children into
work in order to live. People 60 with
out butter on their bread, and meat is
almost an unknown luxury. The in
terror Of some Of the homes shows an
utter lack Of the common comforts.
Soap boxes are used for seats, a board
along the wall serving as a table, and
IL broken down stoves wood and chips
picked up about the streets and along
the river banks are burned as the only
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