The Connecticut labor news., 1922-03-31
CENTURY OF FEUDAL REIGN IN NEW ENGLAND TEXTILE INDUSTRY
 IS CHALLENGED BY BIG STRIKE
Generation of Oppres- sion Back of Mill Workers WalkOut to Prevent Further Eff fort to Enslave Them.

Boston, Mar. 3I-The 10th week of the strike of New England textile work CTS opened with public sentiment almost solidly back of the workers. This was clearly demonstrated when the hard boiled" Senate of the Rhode Island Gen. eral Assembly adopted bill making it unlawful for women and children to be employed more than eight hours in any day. It's passage by the House is pre- diCted.
 Cotton mill employers are seeking to re-establish the 54-hour week, that be- ing, with the proposed wage cut, the background of the present stubborn con- fict. The object of the legislature Is to secure for the workers by law a right for which they are making a desperate and apparently winning fight.
 The mills have been unable to reopen notwithstanding the presence of large forces of guards and State militiamen. The strike is commanding national at tention because of its many unusual fea lures. The most significant IS that the WalkOut was a spontaneous revolt Ot un organized workers against intolerable conditions. Until the employers sought to enforce this last wage cut and increase working hours unioniSrn had not gained a foothold III the affected section of Rhode Island.
 The New York Globe sent Wesley w. Stout, a special writer, into the Paw tucket valley to study the situation there, and he found a most interesting situa tion.
 Century of Peonage.
 This writer says that for no years this valley did not have a labor union, a strike, or a lockout, except two highly localized affairs III recent years. To- day he found every mill in the valley si lent. The workers, skilled and unskilled, have joined a labor organization, and public sentiment is entirely with them.
 Then MT. Stout explains why.
 He declares that the mill owners rule with all the rigor and arrogance of leu and dominate them and their citizens as adjutants of their leigeship.
 Conditions in this backWash of civiliz ation, surrounded by fields and pastures, are worse than Ill the congested Slu1n districts of New ork, the Globe inveS- tigator reports.
 When cotton mills were established in Rhode Island more than a century ago the employer was put to the necessity of providing homes for his workers. The I8IO version of house was four walls and a roof ,and the version of a com munity was a group of such houses.
 
 hands, and a few of the weavers, the 1922 workers still live under 1870 conditions, MT. Stout declares, and adds:
 Homes in Sad Disrepair.
 'As the company houses do not ap- pear on the books as a profitable in- VeStment, the company pants, papers, and repairs them as seldom as possible. Az the COrnOaOieS own most of the OrOD- erty in each village, many ot the v1l- lageS have no sewage system, and only one or two a public water system.
 There Is no collection of garbage and rubbish The windows are without screens, and wells adjoin hideous out houses and stables. Oil lamps light these houses, the only change since 1910 hav- ing been from whale oil to kerosene. In the older houses-mOst of those OCCu- pied by the poorer paid workers ante date the Civil War and some date back a century-the roofs often leak, the tim berS are rotting, the walls ooze water, plaster is falling, and the cracks are stopped with soap or cotton waste"
 The textile industry has selected gov ernOrS, senators, congressman, and State lawmakers, says Mr. Stout and that ex plains many things in connection with industrial conditions there.
 A vicious system Ot espionage has been maintained, and an employe who grum- bled about conditions was not only fired from the mills but was also exiled from the village, and probably from the val ley.
 Bosses Are Feudal Overlords.
 The mill owners exercise feudal au- thority as complete as that of me dieval baron," says MT. Stout. This ,,,aIJ 1oiY vyhJ fbera were lahOr unions in the valley and no strikes.
 Absentee ownership IS ascribed by this r writer as the devastating evil of the textile industry The welfare of the workers IS completely subordinated to the demand for profits and still higher profits. To the body and soul-destroy ing envirOne1nent that IS enforced upon the workers the employers have sought to add the horrors of poverty. In De- cember, 1920, wages which at no time approxirnated a decent living standard, | were cut 221z per cent There was no explanation, no showing of cause, says MT. Stout. The notice was posted and the workers accepted 1t perfOrCe.
 In January last, another reduction ot 20 per cent. was announced, and the workers revolted. That revolt, MT. Stout believes marks the beginning of a new era in Rhode Island. The work CTS have solidly organized and are out for finish fight The reign of absentee owners has been challenged, and con- ditions can never be as they were, says MT Stout Public sentiment, quickened by the horror aroused by conscious ness of what has happened during the last century, will compel change, which already is manifest in the unex- pected intervention of the legislature with a mandatory eight-hour day for women and children, which will, MT. Stout believes, also become the standard for male workers. ApnRIrES 1MIM EcTION