The representative., 1900-09-13
THE WHITE SLAVES
THE COTTON NpPsTRr Is STILL
PRODUCTIVE OF SLAVERY.
The White Wonea Of New England
Work Under Geaditions Worse
Than Cattle slavery.
(Populist ,gournal.)


The women OF New Bedford will sup
ply chapter rather interesting to
America when the time comes for writ
ing truthful history. "Once," the his
torian will write, I'VE used in America
to whip black women in the South
They were employed to pick cotton
They received no wages, so the plan to
get work out Of them was to whip them
when they we're careless. A severe
whipping was found efiicacious," says
the New York Journal.
'The negroes at first would show
sulkiness. When the time for whip
ping came she knelt and begged for
mercy. During the whipping she
screamed. After the whipping she was
much more valuable slave. She did
her work carefully, and other negresses
observing her punishment avoided her
bad example.
Nothing apparently could have been
more satisfactory. But the people of
the North, though entirely ignorant of
the needs of cotton growing, interfered.
The screams of those negresses so
worked on their nerves, particularly
in New England, that they fought for
four years to stop slavery. And they
were pleased with the result, although
it cost millions of lives and thousands
of millions of dollars
'The American nation talked a good
deal after that about American treat
ment of women, and much of this talk
came from New England:
Great surprise, therefore, when in
1898, an attempt was made to reduce to
starvation wages by 10 per cent re-
vealed similar system of women
treatment in New Bedford.
again the cotton industry was in
vOlved. White workers were the women
in this case. Great competition among
cotton manufacturers, and mills pay
ing about 10 per cent profits. A sys-
tenn discovered far better and cheaper
than slavery.
Instead Of owning the worker, feed
ing her and taking care of her as val
liable chattle, she was hired. She fed
herself. Her sickness or death meant
no loss. Invariably she sacrificed her.
self to her children, supplying workers
to take her place at the loom when she
should take her place in the grave
yard. The mill OWNERS. by agreement,
paid as little as would let the workers
live and breed more mill hands.
ut was IDEAL The slavery system
was costly extravaganza compared to
il -H Wsfs
"And the getting of the most work
was not difficult. The whip, Of course,
had been laid aside After the grand
national howl about the screaming ne
gress the whip could not be thought-of.
In the first place the mill owners were
too refined to think of using it, and in
the second place they would have been
lynched if they had tried.
But something, of course, had to be
done. The tired women, watching
eight looms, working hard all day with
an aching back, with tired eyes and
brain and heart, would get careless.
Her wages, 81 or $5 a week, seemed to
inspire little ambition in her. What
should keep every particle Of energy in
that white woman centered in the mill
owners interest? That was the great
problem. A genius solved it very sim
ply by the system of fines. It worked
thus:
"The white woman at the loom, aged
from Is to 60, was watched by over
seers. These made note of her con-
duct. If she looked up at the wrong
moment, if through fatigue or unskill-
fulness she injured piece of the prec-
ious merchandise passing through her
hands, there was a ready lash that cut
deeper than the old-fashioned black
snake.
Going for her pay she received in
stead of 81, perhaps $342 'Fifty-eight
cents deducted for fines the clerk
would tell her. No explanation; please
pass along
"The white woman, whipped in this
modern, civilized fashion, acted alto
gether differently from the black wo-
man of the South. She said nothing to
anybody. She scraped up the pennies
and the $3 paid by the mill for that
wnpk 0f hor 1jfo ond u,o-t hovco vxyhox,
she got there she thought hard about it.
The thing had happened before, but it
was problem how to live for week
on little less than cost of living. The
problem solved-a little less to eat,
or little less to wear-she put her
head on her arm to weep and think
until the time came to go to bed and
get strength to work at the mill again.
"No screaming as the negress
It was rarely necessary for
a good many weeks to fine that same
white woman again.
The above chapter of history, as the
future will write it, is not imaginary.
Every man knows that The New Bed
ford strike has brought out the fight
of the mill women against the system
of fines. 'sC
What do you think Of the system?
What do you think Of the man whose
pocket holds the fines taken from that
woman?
We think the white slaves Of our 10
Cal cotton mills will furnish a para
graph for this history when posterity