Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-07-31
he man. woman and child.

the man. woman and child.
One hundred and forty-six thousand.
i've hundred coal miners have struck
In the anthracite coal region of Penn
sylvania. In 1870 these men We're
laveraging So day In 1901 they are
averaging rs cents a day. If there is
a mal who is entitled to all the com
forts and Injuries of life. it is the
miner HIS life is constituted very
largely OF continuous round of pr-
walton and self-denial. He is way
own in the interior of the earth
have taken time to pay him visit
never sit before a fire, feeling myself
entirely comfortable, without thinking
of the miner, who made that fire pos
sible. While his labor provides COM
forts for other people. his own family
is suffering from cold. have seen
him working in three-foot vein. lying
on his back. picking away His pick
sounded like a mufiled drum leading
to the grave. He is a convict serving
a life sentence. He lives and dies in
| poverty. In the evening. after work
ing ten hours, he goes not to his own
home, but to miserable hovel owned
by the employer who owns him.
| hrows himself down on a couch and
sleeps to enable him to work the next
day. until death touches his heart and
frees him When he goes home
he finds his wife trying to
make ten-cent piece do the
work OF a dollar. She is ll-humored,
her life is lived in abject poverty
There are no carpets in the cottage. no
pictures. no strains of music. Hag-
card. poverty and want are every
where. and in this atmosphere, child
ren are reared under conditions that
make it morally certain that they will
become paupers or criminals, or
both. The strike in Pennsylvania at
the present day is not against en-
blowers. but against hunger paugs
All the powers of the government are
against the laborer When he is made
desperate by starvation. If the law
will not restrain him. soldiers are
called out to draw the hearts blood of
those whose labor has built up this
union.
In New England the machinery is
arTel" run by women and children
II the middle states the average wage
is so cents a day. In the south there
is individual white slavery. In one
Of the southern states there was
law prohibiting child labor. New
England was invited to locate her
manufacturing concerns there. but de-
manded cheap labor The law was re-
pealed, and now there is not state
in the entire south where child labor
is prohibited 1t is no longer a ques-
ton of black or white. man or woman
or child. 1t is simply question of
cheap labor.
The individual is the product of his
environments There are capitalists
who are humane men, who would be
generous, but in the present system of
competition each must get the better
of his fellow in order to save himself.
In this system life has no value, liber-
ty is impossible.
\ few days ago in Park City, Utah,
there was an appalling calamity. re
sutins in the death of thirty-seven
miners. High explosives were placed
in the mine. where the men at work.
in thoughtless moment might easily
ignite them. This was what happen
ed and the little city is in mourning
as a result. There is not family that
has not lost father. husband, brother
or friend How much would ii have
cost to have placed that powder at
safe distance? 1t was little cheap
er, a little more convenient to store
1t in the mine. There was differ
ence of few dollars and these rep
resented the lives of thirty-seven citi-
Zens in the present industrial system.
On my way here stopped at Wash
ington to visit the great shingle mills,
and there saw hundreds of men feed
ing that marvellous machinery. The
hands of most of the men were multi
ated and their fingers MANNED. These
operators have fraction or instant in
which to thrust their hands between
the rapidly revolving knives. With
the expenditure of little money ap-
pliances might be added which would
save This mutilation of hands, But it
is necessary to have cheap labor, so
fingers are sacrificed. 1t is so in every
uepal tHlenI OF industry. Inc cannl-
balls of the South Sea islands devour
the bodies of their fellow creatures
We shudder at the thought, but Our
capitalists are doing the same thing.
The cannibals are more humane than
they in that they destroy more quick
ly. Shop made garments are sold
Cheaply on account of the competition.
The next suit you buy, take magni-
Tying glass and examine it, and You
will find amid the stitches the flesh
and blood of children.
| know place where IS young girls
are employed in the cellar of a tene-
ment with little light, no ventilation,
enveloped with filth; 75 young girls
at work with their needles in their
hands. These young girls are being
devoured. Sunken cheeks. heavy
eyes, pale, bloodless complexions and
emaciated bodies bear testimony to
the barbarty of the industrial system
in which we live today.
| am not pessimist | do not look
upon the dark side of things Society
is like the individuals which compose
it. One state of society follows an
other and when a society has fulfilled