Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1923-10-10

Many of the women who work per-
haps have a sick husband or a boy
cr girl whom they are trying to edu
Gaze. have talked with many Of
fns 1, and have yet TO find one who
does not want to work reasonable
nu her Of hours, and receive fer
1t nun Der of hours the highest
wage.
The women in industry know that
they cannot produce as much finished
product in the eight hours as'can be
produced in nine. They know that
under the conditions which exist in
the State OF Maine with reference to
the competition of the South and the
Middle West, nothing can be added to
the price of the finished product and
if there is reduction of IL per cent.
in the number ii hours worked that
IL per cent. will come out of the pay
envelope of the worker, In our cot
ton textile industry nearly 80 per
cent. of all of the workers are piece
workers. In our boot and shoe
industry more than 60 per cent. are
piece workers. They know that if
an hour is taken off a days work,
they will be getting just so much less
for the days work.
Mr.. Maddocks can talk about
Massachusetts all he sees fit, but the
facts are against him. Massachu-
sets industries are moving to the
South or are threatening to move. 1t
was only last week that the Cham
Der of Commerce in Haverhill adopt
ed a resolution urging the people OF
Haverhill to use every possible eff
fort to keep the shoe manufacturers
from moving from the city. If the
conditions under the 4S-hour law
had been ideal, the shoe manufacture
ers of Haverhill would not have got
ten into that frame of mind where 1t
was necessary for the citizens to urge
them to refrain from moving else
where The trend of industry is
away from New England. We shall
do we'll to keep what industries we
have.
Nobody with common sense viii
pretend that we can produce as many
goods on an eight-hour day as we can
upon a nine-hour day. | think we
can all agree that the workers in
Maine on a nine-hour day are not
receiving any more than they need
to support themselves and their fam
lilies. | think it will also be conceded
that the manufacturers in Maine are
paying as high a price for service as
the economics of the situation make
possible.
| ask the people of Maine to use
their own eyes and their own brains,
look about them, and see if they note
any i'll effects upon our workers oc-
casioned by the nine-hour day.
Never mind what the statistics of
some other state or some other coun-
try might indicate. Let us contine
our observations to our own COM
munities, where we can see and know
exactly what the conditions are. If
you find apparently no i'll effect upon
the health of our workers resulting
from a nine-hour day, then you have
right to consider what would be
the result of dropping off an hour
each day from the work which our
State is doing. That is 1 per cent
and you have a right, and it is your
duty, to ask yourself whether as
State we can afford it, and whether
the workers can afford it.
| have yet to hear from any group
of women workers who are asking.
for this change. | have talked witls
many individual woman workers who
resent the attempt upon the part of
the American Federation of Labor to
curtail their earning powers. | am
fully convinced that the women
workers of Maine know that they
will be much better off in every way
to leave the work week as it now is.
You then have a right to consider
the effect which the proposed change
would have upon our industries, be-
cause Maine without its industries
would be very seriously handicapped.
We have a little more than 100 900
workers in industry in the State,
with a population of 76S,000. This
means that one family in every three
families is directly dependent upon
industry for it's livelihood, This de
tendency leads out into the mer-
chants, the professional men, the
owners of rentable property, those
farmers who have produce to sell,
and every one of us who has the best
interests of the State at heart.
Our manufacturers are by no
means having an easy time. In the
textile business the South has passed
us, and is already threatening to
make us a secondary proposition in
the cotton textile business. In the
boot and shoe industry the ST. Louis
group has shifted the center from
New England to St. Louis; and our
shoe manufacturers are seriously
disturbed. 1t seems to me that we
ought not to ask Maine to accept any
handicaps beyond those which nature
has imposed.
However we may feel with refer
ence to the sympathetic side of the
4S-hour proposition, it does seem to
me that with Massachusetts the only
industrial State wherein men and
women work together upon a 49,
hour basis, Maine can we'll wait un-
til there is a genuine attempt to
create in every State 4S-hour week.
When that time comes and the uni