The herald., 1898-02-27
MOST YOUTHFUL LHBOR UNION IN y S,
Organized by Bright Boys and Girls Concerned in the Great
Cotton Mill Strike in New England=--One of Their
Leaders Expounds His Up-toDate Views

drawing out the feecy cotton into fine
strands which are reeled off to big
spools, ready for the looms. On the
looms these threads are unwound, and
are united by the swift moving shuttles
to form the fabrics which we see piled
up in the stores
both In the spinning and the weaving
rooms each operative attends to sew
erai machines and has one or two as
slstants, who are boys or girls. These
are, IN sense, apprentices; they are
learning the trade and in time are
llkeiy to become spinners and weavers
themselves. Like apprentices, too, they
90 great deal of work and receive
very small pay.
AS one old workman put it, "there's a
lot or leg work in a cotton mill" and
most OF this falls to the share of the
youngsters. They run for bobbins.
help watch the looms to see that the
yarn is unreeling properly, and in gen.
eral do everything that the workman
tells them to. They don't often get a
chance to try running the looms or
frames until they have been a long
time in the mill; for the operative is
wary of letting the ambitious young
ster touch his own part of the work
since any flaw in the cloth costs him
part of his wages.
The doffers, backboys, and heIners of
all kinds who work in the cotton mills
have no easy life. They are IN at six
In the morning and away to the mill
at $3.50. There they remain until six
at night. not even going outside the
q n trit
they happen to live near by. This is
their regular round every day but Sat
urday, when the mill closes at four, and
Sunday. when they do not work at all
For their fifty-eight hours of work they
receive $780, or possibly $3OO-about
four cents per hour.
They all come from poverty stricken
homes, where father, mother and chill
dren all work at the looms; and their
home life in the bare and dreary tene-
ments is scarcely more pleasant than
the hours they spend in the mill. Some
of their lives make very sad stories
The superintendent of schools in Fall
River told me of one such case. In
the night school, where the boys and
girls who work during the day have
chance to learn to read and write, a
composition was set, and the scholars
We're asked to write on the subject:
"The Happiest Day Of My Life, and
What Made 1t So." When the papers
were handed in it was found that one
boy had written under the title: IT can
not write on this subject, as I never
had happy day in my life" The
case was looked up. and the boys state
ment was found to be perfectly true.
He was cripple, the only support of
an invalid father; and both father and
son had to live on the pitiable wages
that the little cripple earned. am
glad to say that, as soon as the facts
became known, the boys cheerless life
was gladdened by at least one happy
day which he is likely to remember.
But in spite of the hopeless lot of a
few, most of the boys and girls who
work in the mills are ambitious and full
of fun, like others of their age. 1t is
amusing to an older person to note the
business-like ways which the boys
quickly take on. AS has been stated,
the backboys of Fall River-which is
the capital of the cotton spinning in
dustry in this country and contains
30 600 operatiyes-haye formed a Union