Denver labor bulletin., 1915-09-04
TWO-THIRDS NATIONS WORKERS
RECEIVE LESS THAN LIVING WAGE
Bitterness Bred of Need. and Fortunes Representing
Zero in Service Are Chief Cause of Labors I'm
rest, Says Frank P Walsh in Special Report
Summing Up Two-year Investigation

on scaffoldings, and by the sides of whir
ring mhehines, are demanding that they,
too. and their children, shall enjoy all of
the blessings that justify and make
beautiiul this life.
The unrest of the wage-earners has
been augmented by recent changes and
deyelopmcnts in industry. Chief of these
are the rapid and universal introduction
and extension of machinery of produc-
tion, b. which unskilled workers may be
substituted for the skilled, and on equal
ly rape development OF means of rapid
transportation and communication, by
which private capital has been enabled to
organize in great corporations, possessing
enormous economic power. This ten
dency toward huge factories has been
furthered by the necessity of employing
large sums of capital i'll order to pur-
chase and install expensive machinery,
the use of which is practicable, only,
when production is conducted on a large
scale
Work formerly done at home or in
small neighborhood shops has been trans
ferred TO great factories where the indi-
vidual worker becomes an impersonal
element. under the control OF impersonal
corporations. without voice in determin-
ing the conditions under which he works.
and largely without interest in the sue
cess OF the enterprise or the disposal
of ths products Women in increasing
number have followed their work from
the home to the factory. and even chill
dren have been enlisted.
Profits Are Centralized
Nov. more than ever, the profits of
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troll pour into the Golfers of stockhold-
ers and directors who have never so
much al. visited the plants, and who per
form 10 service in return.
And while vast inherited fortunes rep
resenting zero in social service to the
credit of their possessors. automatically
treble and multiply in volume, two
thirds Of those who toll from eight to
twelve hours a day receive less than
enough to support themselves and their
families in deceney and comfort. From
childhood to the grave, they dwell in the
shadow Of fear that their only resource
their opportunity to toil-shall be
taken away from them, thru accident,
illness, the caprice of a foreman, OF the
fortunes of the industry. The lives Of
their babies are snuffed out by bad air
in cheap lodgings, and the lack of nour-
ishment and care which they cannot
buy. Fathers and husbands die or are
MANNED in accidents and their families
receive q pittauce, or succumb IN mid
life and they receive nothing
How Tyranny Rules.
And when these unfortunates seek by
the only means within reach, to better
their lot, by organization to lift them
selves from helplessness to some measure
of collective power, with which to wiring
living wages from their employers, they
find too often arrayed against them not
only the massed power of capital. But
EVERY ARM OF THE GOVERNMENT
THAT WAS CREATED TO ENFORCE
GUARANTEES OF EQUALITY AND
JUSTICE.
We find that many entire communi-
ties exist under the arbitrary economic
control OF corporations officials, charged
with the management of an industry or
group of industries, and we find that in
such communities political liberty does
not exist, and its forms are hollow mock
cries. Give to the employer power to
discharge without cause, to grant or
Withhold to thousands the opportunity to
earn bread, and the liberties of such a
community lie in the hollow of the en-
ployers hand. Free speech, free assem-
bly,, and free press may be denied, as
they have been denied time and again,
and The employers agents may be placed
in public office to do his bidding.