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T , - J 1 i The Weekly Exammer; A.IT INDEPENDENT JOURKAL, devoted to the discussion of questions re bating to the Social and Industrial Advance ment of the peoole, and designed to speak Ihe truth regardless of creed, race or polit- Vcal party. TERMS IN ADVANCE. Or.a Year, $1.00. Six Months, 50 cents. Single Copies, 3 cents. Thr so Months, 2 5 cents. Entered kt the Hartford Post-Office .S3 Second-Class Matter. OFFICE: 45 Brown St. ROBERT PYNE, Managing Editor. - Subscribecs'rot receiving the paper when ( (v.c shoulcjf nOT us immediately by postal Non-Subscribers, We send out a large number ofample Copies pi this paper every week, and per sons receiving the same, iMn sympathy with our principles and efforts', are asked to manifest their interest and good will. by affording us their moraland material support- . SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1901. Although Mr. P.esident McKin- Jley isa gentleman with a record of , somcfimes changing his position, if - not his opinion, on important mat ters, yet it is to be supposed that he is in earnest this time in declining in advance to be a candidate for a third . term, so long as he has gone to the trouble of issuing a proclamation to ' that effect. ; The proverbial mountain in labor only to bring forth a puny mouse is once again illustrated by the action ;of our Connecticut legislature in passing the measure submitting to .the people the question as to whether or not the constitution needs remod eling, after, the plans and specifica tions of the statesmen of the little towns those who see nothing wrong in a little town of 100 citizens having double the representation of another town of more than ten times that , number. We would like to have some intel ligent citizen and defender of things political and judicial as we find them, write us in explanation of why .a sick iudge," retired and expected to render no service to the community, is entitled to $2,000 a year, while a jpbust com mpji 1 abor ert supposed . to render indispensable . service every working day in the year, isn't con sidered as deserving or over quarter this amount. The very fatherly care of which we read as bestowed by the Farrell Foundry Co. of Ansonia on their new found workmen, in providing for them "all the comforts of home" within the walls of the workshop and a guard of honor outside to save them from bodily harm at the hands of striking workmen, is an evidence that all our wealthy people are not opposed to the spirit of "paternal ism," if they are to the theory, as ap plied to state or national govern ment. This must be encouraging to our Socialist brethren, who at the farthest never contended for , the principle that the government should procure food and bed for its workers as well as work and wages. The Connecticut legislature ap pears to have a very novel as well as effective way of disposing of the use fulness of members indiscreet enough to give away any of the secret work of the order. This was very pleasantly illustrated the other day when the member from Vernon arose to express himself on the pro posed measure fpr the proposed con stitutional amendment, by a very animated outburst of applause, long continued until the good man was forced to resume his seat without be ing heard. Simply this because a little while before he had referred to the matter of bribery as practiced in that honorable body. The town of Vernon will doubtless be more care ful the next time in selection of its representative to the state capitol so as not to again incur the penalty of disfranchisement. And there seems to be nothing in this peculiar oper ation that calls for a line of editorial comment from the very bright and critical partisan press of the capitol city. Had it been a ''Populist" or 'Socialist" law making body, how the editorials would string out in con demnation of the corruption and rascality involved. The one conspicuous failure of Ameri can institutions is the government of Its great cities. Professor Bryce in American Commonwealth. BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND. We notice that some of the trade union leaders are around using the phrase of "Nine hours work with ten hour's pay." It is evident that these men know very little of the ethics of the labor movement. Their reading and study must have been along other lines perhaps those of the base ball game and the prize ring. Some intelligent workman who has a bit of the philosopher in him ought to get hold of the ear of those fel lows, one after the other, who essay to teach the uninitiated the advan tages of labor organization, and after giving the same a. few gentle twinges then whisper into it lpng and loud that there's no such thing known in the philosophy of the subject as an absolute "ten hours' pay' That when he- speaks of demanding ''ten hours' pay" for nine hours work he is placing himself in the position of demanding one hours' pay for noth ing, and as such is only a blind lead er of the blind, an ignorant pleader for a cause he doesn't understand, Why do not the big leaders of the movement call these men down for their blunders or have them called in from a display of their ignorance ? Or is it that the big leaders are no more intelligent than the little ones; and that all are merely actuated by the desire of getting all they can in the game regardless of whether it be more or less than that to which they are equitably entitled? It looks like it. A man properly fitted to go out in propagation of the cause of indus trial advancement for the wage work er would first undertake to settle the question of the length of the work ing day what it should be in the ideal, and then under the conditions existing. This settled the subject of compensation - presents itself What ought to be a fair , day's wages for a fair day's work ? Each question should- be discussed and acted on apart on its own merits, and not mix them ' up as we have been having them in the present controversy. Who ever heard the employer when reducing the wages of the employe, talking of ten hours work for nine hours' pay ? No one. He knew hotter Jhari-to so exprcss-hiass&ifi - If there was never then a nine hours' pay for a ten hours' labor in the fact of being forced to work 10 hours to day for the same compensation as received. for only nine houra' work yesterday, how can there be a ten hours' pay for a nine hours' work when the matter becomes reversed ? We wish that some of our intelli gent Examiner readers would send a marked copy of this , paper to these blind leaders of the blind they may happen to hear or know of as out in the work of "spreading the light" and gathering the stray industrial sheep into the fold. ANOTHER $2,000 PAUPER IS IT ? We find the following in one of our Connecticut leading newspapers: The announcement this morning of the resignation of Chief Justice An drews is unquestionably correct and it will no doubt be communicated to the general assembly this morning by the governor , The first sentiment to'express itself will be one of regret that ill-health has compelled the chief justice to re tire nearly four years before the con stitutional limit of age has been reached. While unable to continue the arduous labors of his present office, he is still in what seems to the casual observer to be reasonably good condition,' and it will be only the customary and natural course to make him state referee, as has been done for each supreme court judge who has retired on account of age since the referee's office was created. To those of our readers who may not be aware of just what the duties of a "state referee" are, we, beg to in form them that it is a position estab lished by law for the purpose of giv ing certain favored individuals an opportunity of drawing $2,000 a'year from the state treasury in return for the labor and service of signing the receipt therefor. The institution is about as useful as would be the fifth wheel to an empty wagon. What was it instituted for, then ? you ask. Why, simply to throw .dust in the eyes of the people that they might not see that their superan nuated judges were retired on a pen sion. An effort was made outright to call it by this name, but it was considered dangerous by the discreet ones, who saw that if the policy of pensioning the retiring judges was to be inaugurated there was no telling where it would stop ; and that thdse on whom the line was drawn would then work for the abolition of the measure or use it to show the com mon people how they were wronged and discriminated against taxed to ensure the best of living to a few men who did nothing in return for what they received, while the great mass 0f humanity were obliged to dig and delve for a scanty living while, able, without the hope of a dollar when old age came on and they were thrown - outside the active circle of exchange, a charge on friends, or oh the whole community through the poor-house program. So the name of "state referee" was improvised to cover up the scheme, realizing that under such a name the easily be fooled people would never come to know what it stood for. Now as a matter of principle no humane man or woman can oppose the policy of a pension to our super annuated people whose necessities of life call for it. If they are entitled to life at the hands of the commu nity while unable to provide for themselves, it logically -follows that they are entitled to that by which life is to be sustained. What must be objected to is this giving or taking of life's sustenance under false pre- tencesj and especially allowing it to one' who. needs it not at all, or at least not nearly so much as those en tirely debarred from the bounty. Yet, here are those superannuated gentlemen who for years have lived in the enjoyment of a munificent sal ary, drawn from the public purse, and who are naturally suspected of having a goodly reserve stowed away for the rainy day in the autumn of life, receiving an annual pension of $2,000, while the poor hard-working man, whose daily compensation for indispensable services never covered more than the bare necessaries of life, and consequently with no re serve to fall back on, isn't considered as deserving of such recognition, Or any recognition at all. Here is where a strike of the disinherited. unprovided-for and aiscrimmatea-against wonting man would indicate much more sagacity and accomplish far more enduring iTCSiilts than a. strike in the -work shop ' against industrial ... conditions born largely of his own indifference or direct making. Yet here is where that strike is most unlikely to happen ' OLD AGE PENSIONS. Another Step of the Civilization , TXiat .Creeps Along SloTvly. In Germany a system of pensions for old workingmen is in practical opera tion. In France the system is discussed by the legislators, and it will undoubtedly be adopted. The idea is to compel ev ery workingman to pay 1 or 2 cents per day, according to his wages, the em ployer and the state each contributing the same amount. This amount will be invested and kept as a fund for the payment of pensions to workmen more than 65 years of age, their pension be ing proportioned to the number of days of labor during which they have con tributed to the fund. It is really pathetic to learn that this feeble attempt to meet the problem of poverty stricken old age is opposed as socialistic even in France, where smug plutocracy has received so many hard knocks. The assessment of a few cents per day on very small wages and a very small pension, just enough to buy bread, at the age of 65 is certainly not a deliriously -cheerful outlook for the pampered workingman. But even the admission that some thing ought to be done to protect the old age of a man who has worked hard for 50 years is a step forward. Here and there governments are gradually feeling that they ought to, do for their old workmen what the average' kind hearted man will do for his old horse, give him a chance to die peaceably on a slim diet. 1 This attempt to organize pensions for old workmen is one of the little wrig glings of society. It is one in a million of the millions of efforts which are des tined ultimately to. bring about society decently organized. - In time the destiny of the working man will be very different from that Just now discussed by those who advo cate a small pension for men who are about to die, worn out with hard work. When a few more centuries shall have rolled around, all men will be workingmen, and all work will be hon ored and attractive. Men -will do their work wUlin&ly and cheerfully and thoroughly, because they will take an interest in it and be cause they will work under pleasant conditions. ' They will be well provided for while they are working and perfectly pro vided for when their working days are done. The class which accumulates and ab sorbs what it does not need and de lights in grinding the unfortunate will have disappeared. We shall then have reached the be ginning of genuine civilization. New .York Evening Journal. THE INFANT TOILERS CHILD LABOR IN THE COTTON FAC TORIES OF THE SOUTH. Twelve Hundred of Them In the State of Alabama What Irene Ah- hy Saw on Her Investigation of Labor Conditions In Southern Mills. Miss Irene M. Ashby, the young Eng lish, woman -who has a reputation as a labor statistician and lecturer, sajs of her recent investigation In parts of the south; "Four months ago I accepted a commission from Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, to agitate the subject of child labor with a view to getting the law limiting the eYil through the legislature of Alabama. Although I return with the news of present defeat, I believe that my mission has helped to give an other blow to that 'slowly dying cause' of building commercial success on the ruin of little children. "There is no question more vital to 1 the interests of workers throughout America at the present time tjar that of the employment of young children in the so called lighter factory Industries of the south. The unorganised male worker is the first instruments whereby the corporation keeps down wages. A. corporation, - being just a machine for making money, works automaticauy, without respect to the present or future good of the human element in that wealth making or of the community wherein they dwell. Still more effective as an aid in this direction is the wom an, for even when organized there are reasons, social and physical, why she Is a less certain quantity than the man and therefore more easily underpaid. Deadliest of all Is the child. "Wherever an industry appears in which It Is possible for a child to work the grown people are made subsidiary and the child and young person are used at cheap rates; giving for the mo ment an enormous incentive to the in vestment of capital, which will receive quick returns from the purchase of la bor at a low rate. The cheapening of labor in one part of the market in the long run causes a cut down in wages everywhere in that particular trade. The reduced spending power on the part of one great section of workers re coils on other trades. "Briefly, the general situation is as follows: The manufacture of cotton goods is recent throughout the entire south. It is almost new in Alabama. There are sbme 43 mills in the state, where there has been a regular boom in cotton mills during the last few years. When a city gets prosperous, the in habitants clamor for one, and in sever al places they are going up as quickly as they can be built. "While in many places the mills are hailed with delight by the people, there are already mutterings that they are creating misery and wretchedness on the one side as quickly as they, are making: big -dividends on the other.Jand some business men are actually saying that the trade of a city is injured rath er than helped by the vicinity of a mill. "The human material for the indus try is as raw as the cotton. Families come in from the little isolated farms and cabins, very poor and very prolific. A few cents seem to them a fortune. Where'they come from they have sel dom seen money, and their" next year's cotton bales are often mortgaged ahead for this year's food. Entirely ignorant of industrial life, they are willing to take low wages for what sounds like light work without consideration of the novel demands of rent, food, fire, lights and clothes in a village or a city. "In the 25 mills of which I have sta tistics there are C,t25 operatives, about 400 being children under 12 years of age. On the same basis of calculation there are about 900 in the state, an esti mate below rather than above the actu al number, as I only corrected the man agers' statements in cases where I was able to count personally a larger num ber than they told me. To these must be added the children who come in to help tbeir elder brothers and sisters who are not counted or paid as work ers, although they often do a full day's work for the fun of it. .This would bring the number nearer 1,200. "No difference is made between hours by night or by day of the children and grown up people. These hours are from 12 to 12y2 a day, averaging 66 a week, with but one half hour or 40 minutes' break for meals. Mills which run at night generally work 12 hours, some times with no break at all. . "One's indignation at such a wrong to childhood rises to fever heat when we learn that these 1,200 little white slaves, worse off than the negro child in days of slavery, who, being wftrth some hundreds of dollars, was allowed to develop into- a healthy animal, are sacrificed to commercial superstition and not even to a real or fancied ne cessity of the industry. Huge fortunes were made in England and the north at the beginning of the trade by the employment of children, and it is the superstition that this can be done again which is responsible for the employ ment of these children. "Out of 11 practical superintendents to whom I talked, several being from Massachusetts or Pennsylvania, ten confessed that doing away with the la bor of children under 12 years of age would benefit rather than harm the in dustry. They are wasteful workers, need much supervision and moreover are spoiled as operatives for the future by the destruction of their health. "I saw a bay of 4 helping to unwind bobbins. I asked one tiny girl, 'What do you do when you're tired?' 'I cry,' she answered. " 'And then what happens? " 'The superintendent tells me to go on with my work.' " Miss Ashby told of factory children taken into the country who "didn't know how to play." She blamed north ern capitalists, proprietors of southern mills, for child labor. Hartford Advertisements BROWN, THOMSON & CO I V it HARTFORD'S SHOPPING CENTER. M Coats and Raglans at Half Price, They are for Misses and Children from 4 to 16 years old, and are made of the newest materials in. the best colorings and latest styles. And which to clear before inventory and make quick going, prices have ken cut just in half. . . ., . $ 5.00 ones now 2.50. . $ 6.50 ones now $3.25. 7.50 ones now 3.75. 8 50 ones now 4r.25. 10.00 ones now 5.C0. 12.50 ones now 6.25. While those originally $15.00 are now - $7.50 each. j. - ' ; . a ' -' - Annual June Underwear Sale. All ladies, who have participated in this special seljing, which began Tuesday morning, are enthusiastic in their praise of the qual ity, the style, and the make-up of the dainty Muslin Undergarments we are offering during this annual June selling. They are far above the average, and wide-awake buyers are quick ta avail themselves of the great bargains offered. - . . . ..' . . '. See the Night Dresses we are offering for 39c, 49c, 69c, 89c. to 1.15 each. Regular price 50c, 59c, 75c, $1.00 up to $1.39. Note the Skirts, priced 45c, 69c, 89c, 98c to $1.59. ' Regular price 59c, 75c, $1.Q0, $1.25 to 2.00 each. Examine the Drawers at 23c, 35c, 45c, 69c. and 89c. pair. Regular .price 29c.,-50c., 59c.,f75anjd, $1.00 a pair. Corset Coyers, good ones, lVci&c, 45c, 69c. and 89c. each. Regular price 25c, 29c,59c, 75c and $1.00. There are others, lots of them, in. all of the above garments, on and up in price to the finest, all specially marked for this June selling. ; " . Choice Specials in Groceries. ' Wives and prudent housekeepers will surely take advantage of them, for Saturday night ends the mark-downs in this department, everything then going back to regular price. ; y 200 cases Maine Sweet Corn, 9c. grade, 6c. can. 150 cases 10c. Maine Succotash (80c. doz.), 7c. can. Vermicelli, Spaghetti, Letters, etc., for soup, 9c. package. 14c. Cook's Flaked Rice 10c 10c. White Wax Beans 7c. 10c. Lima Beans 8c 10c. Beets 8c 19c. French Peas 15c .M 13c. Canned Salmon 12c 17c. Pineapple 15c . This is the way prices range on everything until Saturday night ff throughout this department. . ,jl Do Not Fail to Talk With Mrs. Nettleton. I She is the manufacturer of the Egyptian Complexion Special- ft ties, and is just now demonstrating her Preparations at our Toilet Department. She guarantees them the equal of, and in many re- & spects superior to any of the $1.00and 11.50 kinds on the market Absoluiely-purelyivegetable and A Trinity of you are coraiaiiy invited to can upon her at our Drug Department." V Man's most important trinity of needs in the summer time is made up of a Flannel Suit, a Neglige Shirt and Straw Hat. Aside from Shoes, other articles of wear ing apparel bother him but little. We provide this trinity in the latest styles and at decidedly popular prices. Lines are most varied in these goods; every, taste or desire can be gratified. Stylish Shoes. Have said but little about our Shoes, but we have a stock that comes from some of the best makers. That is, makers who charge only for the quality and not for i their name. Blacks and Russets in the latest lasts and especially built for summer foot comfort. Union made Shoes. HARTFORD ONE-PRICE CLOTHING CO, Outfitters for Men and Boys, 114-116 Asylum Street, - Hartford. fTTTTTvTTTTTTTTTTTTTVTTVTT I Yan Name & Go J I COAL I 278 Asylum Street, Hartford, Conn. r-n i t nam xeiepnone ozi. When You Patronize THE lew York Laundry YOU ARE ASSURED OF FIRST-CLASS WORK ONLY. Iiooney Sisters, Props 85 ChubchSt. I i I i i free 4m"a.lHrrruTr0urnn Needs. AAAAiAAAAAAAAAAAAAiiAAAAAi P. F. BUTLER. i FIRE INSURANCE and REAL ESTATE. Boom 16, BaUerstein B'ld'g. Hartford, Conn. M 1C0TART PUBLIC The settlement of M estates will receive my careful atten- M tion...... Telephone 217-6. Tv-TTfTTTTT'T'TTTTyi fTTT f f TT GREAT BARGAINS IN - - '; ' - .' Refrigerators, : Oil Stoves, Trunks Bags, J LOOK HERE BEFORE YOU BUY