Year: 1872

In u recent speech at Great Falls,
N. H., Senator Henry Wilson, of
Massachusetts, referring to some
experience in his early life, said:
II feel that l have the right to
speak for toiling men and to toiling
men. ! was born here in your
county Of Stafford. I was born in
poverty; want sat by my cradle. I
know what it is to ask mother for
bread when she has none to give
left my mother at ten years Of age
and served an apprenticeship of
eleven years, receiving a months
schooling each year, and at the end
Of eleven years of hard work, yoke
of oxen and six sheep, which
brought me eighty-four dollars. A
dollar wonld cover every penny l
spent from the time l was born till
was twenty-one years old. know
what it is to travel weary miles and
ask my fellow men to give me leave
to toll. l remember that in Sep
tcmber, 1888, I walked into your
village from my native town, and
went through your mills, seeking
employment. If anybody had Of
fered me 80 or 50 a month, l should
have accepted it gladly. l went
down to Salmon Falls, l went to
Dover, l went to Newmarket, and
tried to gct-work, without success,
and I returned home weary but not
discouraged, and l put my pack on
my back and walked to the town
where l now live and learned me-
chanic's trade. l know the hard
lot that toiling men have to endure
in this world, and every pulsation
of my heart, every conviction of my
judgment, puts me on the side of
the toiling men of my country-aye,
Of all countries.


81 am glad the working men in
Europe are getting discontented
and want better wages. / thank
God that man in the United
States to-day can earn from three to
four dollars, in ten hours work,
easier than he could forty years
ago earn one dollar, working from
twelve to fifteen hours.


"rhe first month l worked after
was twcnty-one years of age, I
went into the woods, drove team,
cut mill logs, wood, rose in the
morning before daylight and work
ed hard until after dark at night,
and received for it the magnificent
sum of six dollars! And when I got
the money, those dollars looked as
large to me rs the moon looks to-
night. On the farm on which l
served an apprenticeship, have
seen the best men who ever put
scythc in the grass working for
from fifty cents to four shillings 4
day, in the longest days of summer.
Yesterday l visited that farm, l
asked the men who were there what
they paid men in haying time lest
summer, and they said from 5000
to $3.50 day. This was paid on
the same ground where men worked
forty years ago for from fifty cents
to four shillings, and took their pay
in farm products, not money. l
have seen some of the brightest wo-
men 60 into the farm house and
work from fifty cents to four shil-
lings a week, milking the cows, ma
king butter and cheese, washing,
spinning and weaving, doing all
kinds of hard work. l was told
yesterday that many young women
were earning, in the shops, 81 per
day. and that those who worked in
houses were getting from $3.50 a
week to $3.50.


To-day the laboring men and
women Of our country are earn
ing from three to four times as
much in day as they could earn
forty years ago, and days work
is shorter now than it was them
After had learned a trade in the
place where l live, / worked four
teen and fifteen hours day, month
after month, to earn about $40
n month. There are hundreds of
men there now who in ten hours can
earn one hundred dollars more
easily than could earn forty in fiji
teen hours. l am grateful to God
that this is so. | do not care any
thing about few men or corpora
tions piling up great amount of
moneys believe God meant this
world to grow good men and good
women, and not to pile up money.
That is my belief, and want to see
the men and women who bear the
burdens and do the work have a
full share of all they earn, and that
an honest days work shall always
have fair days pay"