The wageworker., 1905-12-22


system. because labor unions are simply an
incident or phase of our present industrial life.
We must recognize that the payment of
wages is very modern system i'll the worlds
development and that it is not necessarily
permanent one. The laborers have been under
three conditions first, slaves; second, serfs,
and now wage earncrs. Slavery lasted we'll
down to the Tenth century and the serfs of
Russia were freed in 1861, SO that we must
keep in mind that present factory system
and the payment of wages for labor devel-
opments of the last hundred years.
We cannot claim that this system is per-
feet, or that agitation and discussion will not
improve it. but we can claim that it is an I'M
provement over serfdom and slavery. The two
old systems passed away largely because they
were repugnarft to the deepest instincts and
highest ideals of the human race; and also be-
cause any system of bondage is uneconomic
and wasteful We must notice here that as
slave serf the laborer had at least minimum
of food, clothes and shelter until death. while
under our wage system he is not assured even
of this
AS the feudal system disintegrated, industry
passed to the free cities and the trade guilds
were organized. Under the guilds master and
workman labored togther generally in the mas
ters house, and every workman looked forward
to a shop OF his own The old time guilds did
in small way for industry what the labor un-
ions are trying to do now. They controlled
the trade and no man could work who was not
a member of that guild. They prevented con-
t1icts OF interests, guaranteed the quality of
goods, stimulated the organization and divs-
ion of labor, trained skilled workmen, regulated
apprenticeship, gave moral and educational
impetus to the workman, and were the great
benefit societies of the middle ages, lessening
papperism promoting thrift and cultivatng in
their members the qualities of good workman
ship and active citizenship"
The guild system differed from the present
i'll the one vital fact that under the guilds mas
ter and laborer were in the same organization
and their interests were considered mutual.
Within the hundred years of the wage and
factory system we have developed a highly
capitalized form of industry where few are
masters and many workers The vast ma
jority of workers must always be workers.. and
as John Mitchell says: The average wage earn
CIR has made up his mind that he must always
remain a wage Garner.
1t is folly to hold out to the worker that
thrift and industry and perseverance will place
him in the masters class. 1t cannot be. only for
the one i'll a million, and even now many of
the masters are dropping back among the wage
carners as industry is centralized and COM
bincd.
SO it is the class who were slaves in the
time of the Greeks and the Romans who
serfs in the middle ages, and who wage
carners today that we want to benefit by labor
unions.
With the advent of the wage and factory
system in the Nineteenth century came COM
petition, and as Ruskin well says, Competition
is death cooperation is life" In the competi-
ton between master and worker, the worker al
ways is i'll treated, underpaid and the vitality of
hi< life used up in the fewest possible number
OF years. The indentured servants of the Eigh-
tcenth century treated worse than ami
mails. The sick servant was neglected lest the
doctors charge should exceed the value of his
remaining service and one thrifty master in
Maryland required servant, sick of mortal
disease, to dig his own grave in advance in
der to save the other mems time. These were
harsh times. The master class has nothing to
be proud of in the history of the last hundred
years. 1t is marked by brutality and blood and
ever-readness to hold human life cheaper
than money.
quote from Walker: "'The beginning OF the
present century found children of FIVE and even
three years OF age, in England, working in fac
tories and brick wards: women working under
ground in mines, larnessed with mules to CARTS
drawing heavy loads found the hours of labor
whatever the avaricc of individual mill own
ers might exact, were it thirteen or fourteen or
fifteen: found guards about machinery to
protect life and limb; found the air of the
factory fouler than language describe,
could human ears bear to hear the story The
waste of human life in the manufactures to
which the children were consigned was simply
frightful. Day and night the machinery was
kept going one gang of children working it by
day and another set by night, while in, times of
pressure the same children were kept working
day and night by, remorseless taskmasters.
! simply quote so much of this record of the
masters to show why organized labor came in
to being, why it favors abolisling child labor,
and demands fair conditions for womens work.
The avarice of the southern mill owners of to-
day (who mostly residents of the north
crn states) has brought condition of child
labor into the cotton factories that has paral-
lei only in those of England one hundred years
ago. Children young six years work
ing twelve hours day. Only few years ago
Alabama repealed law which limited to 60
hoursa week the work OF children under
twelve years Of age. Virginia failed to pass a
law limiting the hours of women and children