The labor world. [volume], November 07, 1896, Image 7

About The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
LABOR'S HARD LOT.
"MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN MAKES
COUNTLESS MILLIONS MOURN."
lettered Leaves From the Lives of Those
Who, Unrequited, Toil and Without
Hope—Arrogant Wealth Is Beginning to
Throw Off Its Mask.
fSpecial Correspondence.]
One can learn more economics listen­
ing to the practical talk of intelligent
workingmen for one hoar than in read­
ing all the magazine articles written by
learned professors of political economy
in a year. I have had a lesson and a
treat in hearing an intelligent railroad
Bian and a bright young miner discuss­
ing labor conditions and their experi­
ences generally. If I had one lurking
idea that labor is recognized as dignified
and righteous by the employing classes
generally, I am abused of it now. The
whole scheme and purpose is to get all
the results of labor possible for as little
return as can be contrived, without one
consideration of the laborer as a human
being possessing feelings, faculties and
needs.
We boast as a nation of our great
achievements. But, oh, when we think
what they have cost, what injustice and
robbery have entered into these great
Vorks, we have more reason to be
shamed and sorrowful than proud 1 Our
railroads—wonderful accomplishments
of human energy and intelligence—are
built—at what price of suffering and
wrong? First, the surveying, done
through great hardships, but by work
ingmen who can as yet make nearly
their own terms. Then comes the hard
•toil—the digging, grading, hauling of
dirt, etc. Workers are obtained from the
cities, where advertisement for laborers
is kept standing. Every man engaged
has to pay $2 for his job. This money
is divided between the agent and con­
tractor and is a profitable source of in­
come. Once on the ground, usually a
lonely, dreary place, where the rudest of
accommodations are furnished, the men
are set to work with shovels, picks and
wheelbarrows, driven, sworn at, har­
assed, as brutal men drive oxen. Many
of the men employed are students, book­
keepers', clerks, who have been forced to
grasp this opportunity to earn a living.
A
week is the longest most of them oan
endure the strain. They are sent adrift,
moneyless and friendless, in a strange
land. They tramp or commit suicide,
and in either case they are spoiled as de­
cent, self respecting, men.
Some remain in spite of conditions.
Hard toil, work in cold, rain or intense
heat, poor shelter and worse food kill
them in time. They fall sick by scores
and receive no care. New men are con­
stantly coming to fill the vacant places,
for the oftener changes are made the
greater the reward of contractors and
agents.
The coal, iron, marble, gold and sil­
ver, which go to make the greatest works
of civilization, are wrested from the
d*Ttbs of the earth at such expense of
THE LABOR WORLD
hard toil, endurance and risk as few un­
derstand who have not gone through it
all. Men who do this mighty work
should be rewarded by the best the
world has to offer. Yet, but for their
desperate struggles in the past and their
strong organization, their condition
would be most deplorable. Owners, con­
tractors and bosses have shown every
disposition to encroach to the last en­
durable limit.
The colored workers, wherever they
are numerous, are used as badly as hu­
man powers can endure. Whatever the
nature of their labor, they are employed
in gangs by contractors, paid at truck
stores and driven worse than men drive
beast3 of burden. It is seldom that any
of them ever receive a cent of money.
Their account at the truck store, with
fines, charges, etc., is kept balanced
with their meager wages. An abomina­
ble system of fines and imprisonments
is in vogue. If a worker bids fair to
have a considerable balance in money
coming to him he is arrested on some
trivial charge and thrown into jail.
Sometimes he is given the farce of a
trial, sometimes not. When the boss is
ready, he gets him out and charges it
up to his miserable victim, so that no
money is overdue him. The young min­
er told of seeing a white man on
horseback driving a negro on foot by a
rope securely tied about his arms into
town to have him arrested and thrown
into jail. He had trotted his horse six
miles, forcing the poor wretch to keep
up with him. He was panting, sweating
at every pore and seemed in great dis­
tress. The white man, ripping out an
oath at every other word, informed the
bystanders that- the darky had been
swearing in the presence of women.
The method of hiring workers on in­
definite lerms and then treating them
so abominably that they are forced to
leave without receiving any pay is not
new or uncommon. Many "respectable"
people in the cities contrive to get their
work done in this way. Domestics are
engaged and compelled to work so hard
under such degrading conditions tha^
they cannot endure it, leave without
giving the usual warning, and so re­
ceive not a cent for what they have
done. Fashionable dressmakers as well
as 'sweaters'' advertise for girls and
women, keep them at work as long as
possible without stating terms and final­
ly offer so little that it cannot possibly
be accepted, when they are sent off with
nothing.
Unorganized workers simply have no
chance for justice whatever. The
strength there is in united numbers can
force the employing classes to recognize
in some degree labor's rights, but alone
and at their mercy the conditions ac­
corded them are simply inhuman.
Yet, through the changes and chances
of a hot political campaign, we have
learned that the money kings are to give
the working people plainly to under­
stand they must not expect to be as well
off as in the past, and that they must
resign themselves contentedly to a more
subservient position.. Here are some of
the things they have said:
"If they cannot get a dollar a day,
they refuse to work, while they ought
to take 75 or even 50 cents a day in or­
der that we may keep them at work.
You ought to teach them that $1 a day
on a gold basis is enormous pay in this
country."
"They live extravagantly they buy
meat four or five times a week they
even indulge in pie, which is no kind of
food for working people and does them
no good. They eat wheat bread when
rye is more suitable. Tariff and
financial questions should be taken out
of their hands, not bothering those
engaged in agriculture or manufactur­
ing or exciting them by frequent elec­
tions, as is now the case. He thinks
the lower classes have too many holi­
days and excursions, where they meet
and exchange exciting converse on sub­
jects referred to and which they are not
capable of understanding. Besides this,
they should be at work."
"There is danger to trusts and corpo­
rations if the people gain more power.
We are sworn to protect them."
a
bill will at once be intro­
duced into congress to increase the
standing army to at least 250,000 men,
and the laboring classes, with their
anions and strikes, will no longer play
any part in American politics."
"I solemnly assure you that when
Mr. Hanna gets control strikes will
soon be disposed of.
The quotations are from letters writ­
ten by Francis J. Forsythe and Samuel
O. Pressly.
Here it is, stated plainly: The work­
ing classes are to be degraded to a state
of absolute serfdom. They are no lon­
ger to be allowed even a semblance of
power to help themselves. The moneyed
men have now stated their intentions
and the view they take of workingmen
with brutal frankness, and the workers
must act accordingly.
In reality there is no change of opin­
ion on the part of this class. They have
long believed that workers ought to oc­
cupy precisely the position they outline,
but it has heretofore been policy to hide
their views, especially before elections,
and allow the masses to hug their delu­
sions of equality and independence. For
this reason the line between the money­
ed and working classes has never been
distinctly drawn in this country. The
rich dared not make it as vivid as they
believed it should be the workers would
not admit it existed, or, if it did, that it
could not keep them from crossing over to
the other side if they tried hard enough.
Thus reforms which can only be forward­
ed by the united action of working people
against the exclusive interests of the
ruling classes have been remarkably
slow in comparison with the advance­
ments made in the old monarchical
countries.
Perhaps this will be a useful lesson.
The working people will know better
what they have to contend against and
will learn how and where to work. An
open foe on an open field is better than
an enemy in ambush or an enemy mask­
ing as a friend.
LIZZIE M. HOLMES.
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