Year: 1872

In recent speech at Great Falls, N.
H., Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachu-
sets referring to some experience in his
early life, said:


feel that 1 have the right to speak
for toiling men, and to toiling
men. l was born here in your
county of Stafford. l was born in pow
erty; want sat by my cradle. 1 know
what it is to ask mother for bread when
she has none to give. lett my home at
ten years of age and served an appren-
ticeship of eleven years, receiving
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 would
cover every penny / spent from the time
/ was born until | was twenty-one years
of age. | know what it is to travel
weary miles and ask my fellow-men to
give me leave to toll. 1 remember that
in September, 1888, / walked into your
village from my native town, and went
through your mills. seeking employment.
If anybody had offered me $S or 50 a
month, l should have accepted it gladly.
| went down to Salmon Falls, l went to
Dover, went to Newmarket, and tried
to get work, without success, and 1 re-
turned home weary but not discouraged,
and put my pack on my back and walk
ed to the town where / now live and
learned mechanics trade. I 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.


l am glad the workingmen in Europe
are getting discontented and want better
wages. l thank God that a 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. The first month 1 worked after l
was twenty-one years of age, l went into
the woods, drove team, cut mill logs,
wood, rose in the morning before daylight
and worked hard until after dark at night,
and | received for it the magnificent sum
of six dollars And when l got the money
those dollars looked as large to me as the
moon looked tonight. On the farm on
which served an apprenticeship, l have
seen the best men who ever put scythe
in grass working for from fifty cents to
one dollar day, in the longest days of
summer. Yesterday visited that farm !;
l asked the men who were there what
they paid mem in haying time last
oulIILASl, anu IuCJ SdlNi lIOul - W frS.OO
a day. This was paid on the same ground
where men worked forty years ago for
from fifty cents to one dollar, and took
their pay in farm products, not money.
l have seen some of the brightest women
go into the farm-houses and work for
from fifty cents to four shillings a week,
milking the cows, making butter and
cheese, washing, spinning and weaving,
doing all kinds of hard work. / was told
yesterday that many young women were
earning, in the shops, 81 a 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 earning 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 then. After |
had learned trade in the place where 1
live, l worked fourteen and fifteen hours
day, month after month, to earn about
$40 month. There are hundreds of men
there now who in ten hours can earn a
hundred dollars more easily than | could
earn forty in fifteen hours. am grateful
to God that this is so. do not care any
thing about few men or corporations
piling up great amount of money.
believe God meant this world to grow
good men and 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 full share
of all they earn, and that an honest days
work shall always have fair days pay.