The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-03-08
LABOR NOTES OF
WIDE INTEREST

advantages over O hired caretaker.
When | first heard all this mothers
pension talk, like most of the careless
observers, | labeled il unwse charity
Then | began to think the matter over
and realized that under the present
unjust social system, when the parents
have been showed to the wall and the
power even to combat taken away, there
is still the child to consider. can't
bubble or argue about these babies all
over the country, brought into the world
without asking for such doubtful herl-
tage. They ought to be given chance.
They ought to be turned into citizens,
not wasted.
I've tried to think of some better
scheme, but / have not been able.
Therefore, / am heartily in favor OF
the mothers pension fund scheme, as
/, sisted by such institutions as Ju-
yenile Protective association, for the
benefit OF these deprived children.
We have come to think of the state
too much as of a remote machine that
does not touch our lives closely. Sure
ly the fundamental duty of every state
is to conserve the citizen, to build bet.
ter and better citizens all the time-bet-
ter, stronger bodies, broader, cleaner
minds. That is why all these activities
that the careless state formerly took
no interest in-play for the children,
vocational schools for the children, baths
for the children-are beginning TO be
looked upon, not as fads, but as ne
cessities for the building of better citi-
gems. | have begun to believe that with
these new laws, the states of the flu
ture are going to be personally respon.
sible for a chance to be given to every
child, "eyen the least OF these"
We hear the remark almost daily,
''How do some people live on the wages
they receiver" This applies more gen
orally to the poor unorganized workers
than to the organized. The union work
ers are protected sufficiently so they can
at least live, but how some of the I'M
organized non-union, sometimes called
free independent American workmen can
live on from 50 TO Sl2 per week and
support a family we do not know. The
omen workers who must support them
solves are about on the same basis as
the non union man. The records of in
vestigations show that the average wage
is fraction over 81 and how she can
pay $3.50 for room, 81 for meals, 81
for laundry and clothes herself on that
amount they themselves only know.
The Chicago woman who found that
many working girls OF her city received
only $3.50 a week has conducted an in
in other large cities in this
country and has the satisfaction OF
knowing that in this respect Chicago
il not the worst offender In Washing |
ton, she found girls who were receiv- |
ing only sl75 week. Does it ever en- |
ter the minds of employers who pay /
starvation wages that they are respon- |
sible for the many girls who fall?
II never had a chance. | only got as
far as the fifth grade in school and then
| went to work | worked in rubber
factory, and there isn't much chance
there I supposed when | grew up | 1
would get mans job" This state
nent was made by a l5-year-old boy
IN Feb. rs. who had pleaded guilty to a
,harge OF manslaughter for the killing
II a Is wear old companion. The judge
sentenced him to a reformatory as his
i mere is uU dutSlloh III
,ur minds that the real slayer was
rot the individual who fired the shot
rom which this death resulted, but the
ystem of society which compels chill
iren to enter the industrial ranks when i
hey should be in school, thus dwarfing ;
hem morally, mentally and physically.
Vice will never be eliminated by raids .,
nd arrests, Investigations and reports. :
We have reported and raided for the last !
900 wears. We are making the old, .
Id mistake of trying to get rid of ,
ad results without stopping detrimen-
al sources. We are striving to clean :,
he public river of morals at the mouth /,
lille allowing the wells and springs I,
'hich make the river, to remain pois- :
nous. y
Society can rid itself of nine-tenths OF /
IS vice If il will change fundamental .
Dcia conditions. Society cannot rid il. ?
alf of nincty-fve one hundreds of its
ice if we remain satisfied with dealing a
18th results instead OF causes. Reports
0 not reform and arrests do not stop. .
ociety is selfish and sordid at the bot :
I'm, and so vice creeps out at the top. e
top vice2 Where shall we start tive +,
fery girl who works a chance to sup =
1rt herself. Give every man of mature 4
re Il sufficient wage to enable him to n
AIRY. Clean up our sordid tenements, Il
it'll their overcrowding and lack of pri- h
lev. Eliminate child labor. Give the NJ
1ung people wholesome and sufficient a,
creation. See that Giving wage n,
paid for all work. SO that body and +,
nj NAV be well nourished.
We can build hundred rescue homes =
every city and vice will still be with
!. We can increase our reform schools
hundredfold but vice will be with us
It'll we remove the causes of vice. The
ain causes of vice are economic and
cial. Morality depends more on liv-
Q wage than on rescue homes.
"Our best friends are those who tell
our faults''-so runs the ancient prov Y
b; hut IL il Noticeable that they DO d,
I remain our friends long after they 70
We told us.
ow me the union label OF
And prove YOU'RE a union man. 81
mt adopt some ruse, with a lame ex- n,
cuse,
That's the artful dodgers plan Al
not be a sweatshop agent
An alias union man "
hen You're asked TO show the label, -
Get by" fairly. II you can.
49, - A. ,,-..- f,t,F