The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-29

l that their wages were very mucn nisn' I CT than they were, in fact.
 Great numbers Of these families are consumptives. One girl of Is, comine
 from family of weavers. Is now sick
 in the hospital with the throat trou-
 ble. Sucking the shuttles in thread ing them, Is a terrible source of con tagion. the young girl often putting the shuttle to her mouth directly after consumptlve woman.
 No one knows all that these poor peo- l pie are suffering. They feel absolutely l sure that to accept the reduced wages which are offered them. would mean slow and inevitable suicide. They are not disorderly. 1t Is not question or unionism or non -unionism. It is d question of life and death. The most conservative and wisest of them feel that surely there must be injustice somewhere in conditiont of affairs which forces them into such a plight as this.
 Significance of the Strike. To one inauiring for the underly- ing causes and for the lesson of this
 strike. there Is much to be found
 which may we'll give the American na- tion pause. For example, the cot- ton mills of Fall River are far re-
 moved from the coal fields of Pennsyl-
 vania and West Virginia. The coal mines of Nova Scotia are nearest at hand. In the course of year the mills use 2S7.950 tons of coal. Yet up- on every pound of 1t tribute must be paid to the coal trust in addition to the increased freight. and yet the coal which Is near at hand remains un- available for use except at prohibitive prices.
 These mills use a very large amount of dyestuffs, cotton yarns, machinery, and various other articles which go into the production of cotton goods. Yet upon every one of these things the equivalent of the duty must be paid. which in the long run finds Its way, not to the Government, gut to some tariff protection trust which generally is l seeking to pay large dividends upon | "watered" stock.
 Granting that the manufacturers are right in saying that they are unable
 to pay more wages than those provided /, in the schedule which they now offer | to the. operatives. It Is perfectly evil
 dent that were 1t not for the tributes
 which must be paid by the mill own- | CTS to the trusts who are sheltered by
 the tariff. 1t would be possible to add | materially to the wages of the work CTS without further increasing expen- | ses.
 On the other hand, in the face of
 the constantly ascending prices which are being exacted under the shelter of l the tariff for the necessaries of life. 1t
 is no wonder that these operatives are unable to subsist upon the small scale
 of wages which they received few years ago.
 | William l.. Douglas, who Is running
 for Governor of Massachusetts on the Democratic State ticket. and who is
 himself a large manufacturer of shoes, l states that 1t would be a great benefit l to his business as well as a material | saving to consumers, if no tariff was | levied upon either hides or leather.
 This a typical instance The people here are unable to get beef shipped from Canada without paying a tribute
 to the trust in Chicago. They are un-
 able to buy cheap wooden goods. which might be shipped from England, with
 out paying tributes to the wooden | trust
 The condition here Is deplorable. No
 more striking argument is to be found
 on the American Continent in favor of an immediate revision of the tariff in
 behalf of the people instead of in be- half of protection's friends"