Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03

MS burning lnVectVe he portrayed the cruelties of
system which worked the poor slave from daylight
until dark all the months of the year. when the crops
needed attention, and let him sit around the rest
of the time, and all on such scanty food as pork
and greens, and corn bread and moasses and
cabbage and turnips and possum and sweet pota-
toes and rabbit stew and watermelon. Brtons,
who Never never shall be slavesl" sat there and
dribbed at the mouth for they worked from six
in the morning until ten at night all the year
round, and lived on bread and tea When Beecher
saw that their chns were wet, but not their cheeks
he, beng smart man, cut out that part of his
lecture.
Child Labor Then and Now
TT has been long time since l read Uncle Toms
i Cabin, SO am not very clear to whether the
little black piccaninnies worked all night and had
to be soused with cold water to keen them awake
in those critical hours between two AM and six
AM while they worked at machines which have a
chance to take off finger four times minute; but
l think not. They long ago abolished child labor
at night in England; but learned Judge in New
York decided only the other day that legislation
which took away from women and children their
lnallenable right to work all night was unconsti-
tutional.
Whether the employer buys his laborers, or
whether they hang about his door and bother the
HE out OF HIM asking for job, he has to pay for
their board and keep before he can make any
money out of them. He has to let them have
enough on Saturday night SO that they will be able
to work all next week without keeling over from
hunger and when the system is that of wages the
aborer is the judge of what is enough He can take
it or leave it. But since it has to be enough only
to keep him going all next week, but enough to
supply more of his kind when he is gone, l am in
chned to think that the amount in the pay envelop
has been cut just shade too fine. When old Uncle
Ned laid down the shovel and the hoe, there were
plenty OF little black piccannnies frolcking around
with nothing but flour sack, and having the
dic':ens of a good time
But if you will look around in your neighborhood,
you will find mighty few English speaking families
with four children 1t needs at least four insure
that the parents will be replaced And there are
not four Our President has called this deficit race
suicide" / don't think it's that; it looks to me as
if the strike for more in the pay enveop
on a Saturday night.
No Good as Sa1able Article
NOW, when you buy a man for less than is
" necessary to keep him going, how much is he
worth! think the court award of cents was lust
six cents too much. The average man is worthless as
salabe article-he that makes all salable articles
And it doesn't make any difference whether he is
Just plain worklngman professional working
man. In either case he costs his keep and no more;
but the expense OF putting professional on
the market IS higher, and his board is dearer lust
as race horse costs to keep than that old bag
of bones that hauls the junk wagon l know a
medical man, specialist, who, l think, is the best
in his line in this country. He works like horse;
more indeed for you can't keep horse going for
twenty hours the stretch, and this man often
does that. He gets big fees. He ought to be rich.
But whereas Uncle Tom made his living before he
made money for Legree, this man has to make
fifteen thousand dollars year for his masters before
he can make living. And when he gets old and
helpless, he must look out for himself His masters
have responsibility
l don't know what you think about it, but when
the way We live now is such that the who puts
together all that civilization consists of isn't worth
quite his keep and the man who doesn't do a useful
hands turn from years end to another is so rich
he can't sperd his money think it is about time we
began to think up some other way to live.