The Social Ideals Of Abraham Lincoln
Oneal, James
THE SOCIAL IDEALS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN "Emancipator" Based View of a Nation of Free Small Producers On Transitory Period Before Capital Ousted King Cotton By James Oneal EACH annual return of...
...Ths following passages from Tharpin's book show that he understood the economics and politics o fthe ruling class: By the aggressive usurpations of the planters, we had been doomed to a condition, as a class, but little, if any, above the Negroes themselves...
...Consequently, we call upon Mayor Walker and the Municipal Assembly to appropriate fund* to help finance a greatly extended free employment service...
...Superintendents of individual employment offices receive less than 12500 a year...
...Never once in the history of the industry have they shown a disposition toward peace...
...This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy 'them snd drive them to it without their consent...
...Tharpin proposed to follow the example of the planters by secret organization of the property-lees whites...
...Many of them save not received a raise of salary in years...
...The "Uprising of the Twenty Thousand" described before, made Impregnable the foundation of our International...
...The history of the International Ladies" Garment Workers' Union shows great achievements...
...In hard times, such ss the present, this situation becomes even worse...
...Again they face their employers with demands for higher wages, shorter hours and modern sanitary conditions, guaranteeing an American standard of living...
...Public opinion," said Lincoln, "is founded, to a great extent, on a property basis...
...The UmOtiU ideal of a democrat' ic social order was based upon a passing phase of the evolution of American society...
...It has gives union members time and opportunities for education, recreation and pleasure...
...Therein they expressed their determination to make the Dressmakers' strike no less a success than their own...
...In addition, the employers made a profit of 25 per cent on needles broken by workers, which the latter were compelled to replace, and a 20 per cent profit on the charge for electricity...
...THE SOCIAL IDEALS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN "Emancipator" Based View of a Nation of Free Small Producers On Transitory Period Before Capital Ousted King Cotton By James Oneal EACH annual return of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln brings a" number of books many magazine articles and editorials regarding bis life and work...
...it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves...
...Moreover he -read Southern newspapers and some of the books published in the South in support Df slave property...
...In I way, Lincoln recognized this appearance of fixed classes in the Blast because on another occasion lie wrote of his distrust of the industrial and financial magnates in his own party whose politicians he referred to as the "silk stocking Whigs...
...It belongs to an early stage La the development of capitalism when opportunities for advancement from a wage status to a "mixed class" were general...
...If the state bureaus had been alert, they would have obtained a good portion of this growth in business snd their placement figures would have shown an upward trend rather than a downward one The number of placements of the Canadian Bureaus Illustrate the effectiveness of...
...These makeshifts bring back the dread sweatshop of unsavory memory and threaten to swamp the whole industry...
...The greater number met death in the fire...
...Scarcely anyone believed, however...
...They lived by picking up odd jobs, hunting and fishing, and pilfering from the plantations...
...The manufacturers are well aware that they must yield on every point when the Union musters the strength of its combined forces...
...Although our contracts call for fixed and reasonable scales of pay, the vast majority of the workers are forced to work for arbitrary pay, and many thousands earn as little as S12.00 per week...
...In his message to Congress Of December 3, 1861, be contrasted the labor basis of Northern capitalism and Southern slavery...
...The history of the International is inspiring to those looking to it for help...
...It will have a permanent chairman whose decisions will be binding, and will be carried into effect with the wholehearted cooperation of the parties to the agreement...
...talon Institution* The union has provided health and dental centers where workers receive examinations and treatments from specialists at a minimum charge...
...The simple democratic relations baaed upon small producers today survive only in spots...
...The indolence of impreparedness weighed down the feeble kneee of the roultads, mad the only way to help ourselves was to organise, as our enemies bad done, to secret, I never envied the planters of Wetumpka...
...a boycott of merchants, lawyers, preachers and newspapers identified with slavery, and taxing each slave so heavily that ownership of slaves would become unprofitable...
...The recent resolution of the shop chairmen of the Cloakmakers' Union was not the usual sympathetic resolution passed on such occasions...
...Y% Extends Work Of Job Agencies (Continued tluBi Pm: r o»ei the present system of public employment offices are notoriously Inadequate...
...The salaries are not sufficient to attract first rate men to this highly technical profession...
...Nevertheless, the necessity for such a step becomes increasingly more evident...
...The ruling class was well aware of this and for this reason denied the poor whites an education...
...The scarcity of jobs and the intense desire of the unemployed for a chance to earn a living furnishes a very powerful incentive for obtaining a fee without procuring a job...
...private employment agencies from the municipality to the State Department of Labor...
...Like a cancerous growth, the sweatshop has spread throughout the industry...
...that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor...
...The great bulk are contractors working for "Jobbers" and "sub-Jobbers...
...To accomplish that end, their motto was "Recognition of Our Union," for they knew ail the employer*' promises would avail them nothing: males they were protected by the power of organization...
...7.—Responsibility of jobbers for the conditions in the contractors' shops...
...He Ur still in constant fear of losing his Job...
...Except for one valuable book by Herman Bchluter, "Lincoln, Labor and Slavery," Socialists have contributed little to an understanding of the Emancipator and his times...
...The ruling class recognised that its power and riches depended upon keeping this poor white class m ignorance and preventing it from «niHT»g for its own interests...
...The property basis will have its weight...
...The recent riot in the Reliable Agency, a private fee-charging employment agency, reveals a situation which is chronic among the feecharging employment agencies —the defraudaig of the unfortunats unemployed...
...They hated the Negro with a consuming hate...
...If the professional apologists of our modern ruling classes present Lincoln as a saint our Communists have presented him as an arch hypocrite and conscious agent of the old slave-holding oligarchy...
...As the Virginia and Maryland staple declined in relative Importance political power passed from the politicians of the upper South into the hands of the cotton mafmate3 of the lower South, especially of South Carolina • » • Lincoln once told his law partner that there were not accidents in his philosophy...
...This can only be done If the state provides this service gratis...
...Abraham Lincoln grew to manhood in a region of small farmers and mechanics where the masses feared the extension of slavery with its system of large plantations...
...These chaotic conditions bring suffering and misery in their wake, the brunt of which falls upon the workers and the public...
...Through Its efforts, wages hare been greatly increased These are not high enough to meet the present cost of living, but they an a forward step...
...Not a single gain was ever obtained unless the union tore it from them by bitter strugg l e Only when decisively beaten on the picket line, with production crippled, have the employers seen the wisdom of compromise...
...What lessens the value of property is opposed...
...The solution for this problem is simple...
...IV...
...This court will be open at all times to all parties...
...Lincoln went on to say that there is no such Axed relation, which was true of the West, a region which he knew well, but class rtratification had already appeared in New England, New York and manufacturing Pennsylvania...
...They know also the pressure of public opinion in support of the dressmakersThe International Union, its Joint Board and its local unions are charged again with the holy mission of keeping aloft the flag of industrial progress...
...The Civil War approaching, secret terrorist committees were formed by the planters, and their intellectual sycophants were hunting out radicals...
...But one reason was that experience had taught the plantation magnates that the rise of a capitalist class in the South would force a struggle between that class and the magnates for control of the Southern states...
...Other works had appeared is the South expounding: the same philosophy, beginning in the early thirties when the full possibilities of the cotton gin became apparent...
...The evil of home work and the disgraceful padrone system are again creeping into the industry...
...He went on in his message to say that "Capital is only the fruit jf labor, sad could never have existed if labor had not first existed...
...Here, in the Bus Ridge Mountains, a union member may find rest and recreation at minimum cost...
...This, they were determined to abolish...
...Near the close of the slave oligarchy he read George Fitzhugh's "Sociology for She South...
...This groap rapidly pushed the old anti-slavery jcitsj...
...When the fire broke out, some 150 women, shirtwaist makers, could find no means of escape...
...what enhances its value is favored...
...There were no abolitionists in the South...
...This outrage precipitated the strike of the shirtwaist makers in 1913 which permanently established the Dressmakers' Union...
...Strike Can Be Short The Dressmakers demand: 1.— The observance of the five-day, forty-hour week...
...8.—Abolition of the sweatshop...
...He has no voice in control of shop conditions...
...Unity House is the most significant of ths accomplishments eUong this line...
...That these poor whites were a dangerous class for the ruling planters became evident during the Civil War when misery became widespread...
...The Srtikers Demands If the industry is to be saved from chronic snd destructive chaos, and if the workers are to be assured decent wages and working conditions, approximating at least the most modest American standard of living, all factors in the Industry must join forces in aa honest and intelligent effort to reorganize it on a basis of reason and decency...
...New York City with 1200 private employment agencies has only 4 public employment agencies to compete against this tremendous number of private agencies which increase enormously every year...
...In the possibility of organizing: such a mixed group of girls, many of whom were in their teens...
...He considered this process of cause and effect an "endless chain stretching from the Infinite to the finite...
...Today we have corporate asd merger capi talis . possessing power that TJnrtnirt never dreamed of...
...no political alliance with any slave party or politician...
...Unless it is promptly uprooted, it will destroy the industry, the fair employers, the union, the workera, and every Institution intc which has gone the lite blood of countless workers and fighters...
...Experience all over the world indicates that enforcing the law regulating the profit-seeking employment agency is aa difficult as enforcing the Volstead Act, The cheating of the unemployed seems to be inherent in the commercial agency...
...The chief danger to the ruling class was> organization of the white proletariat...
...Lincoln can only be understood in the light of what he said and wrote and in relation to the society in which he lived, the political struggles of his time, and ths character of the two social orders that came into conflict when he rose to eminence in politics...
...The one way of accomplishing this end and of preventing a prolonged struggle with all the hardships it entails, is to make the dressmakers' union a powerful working instrument...
...The slave-holders were already engaged in a struggle with the owners of Northern capital for mastery at Washington...
...It seems even less conceivable that they should be called out on a general strike, least of all on a lasting one...
...a complete system of public employment exchanges as opposed to an incomplete one like that of New York State...
...If not above, labor in the structure of the government...
...On the day of the tragedy, these exits, contrary to all fire regulations, were locked as usual...
...Later as a member of the Legislature and of Congress he came into conflict with the slave politicians and slave owners because Johnson always stressed the Interests of the "mixed class" be represented...
...Industry could not develop in the South for many reasons that cannot be enumerated in this article...
...With the support of the American Federation of Labor, ths Union has emancipated the workers from peonage and slavery...
...The dominant class, possessing unshared legislative sway, easily excluded these, the people of the South—under the insulting . epithet of "poor white trash"—from educational and social advantages, until the mere mechanical operation of choosing which slave-holder, or cotton planter, should misrepresent us, was all that was left us...
...Competition between employers hsa become so keen and so reckless that it imperils business existence...
...There is an Increased responsibility placed upon the management...
...Furthermore, no effort has been made to develop a capable personnel for the public employment service...
...Its object shall be the elimination of sub-standard and sweatshop conditions and the enforcement of uniformly good, sanitary conditions of work in the industry...
...They are so many tombstones that beer mute witness to an old order thai, has been buried...
...Furthermore, we believe that the municipality should help finance this service...
...They have been content to quote a few sentences from Lincoln's addresses and writings...
...Its main theme was that various types of property had appeared in all ages and that its owners constituted a ruling class...
...Appealing- to this white proletariat to organize against the ruling class, he had to flee to the North where he also published a book dedicated to "The Non-Slaveholding Whites of the South...
...The present struggle is another shining example that the workers can maintain hard won gains snd go forward to new advantages, only by their own strength and organized power...
...Two instances may be mentioned...
...exclusion of any owner of slaves from membership in the party...
...These young women wanted shorter hours and higher pay in order to live in decent surroundings, and to enjoy the necessary conveniences of life offered by modern civilization...
...The dressmakers in 1930 follow the example of the cloakmakers in 1929...
...Canada with a population less than that of New York State, provides 69 public employment agencies for its workers while New York only has 11...
...Local 25, which called the strike, had barely 100 members and a mere $400 in its treasury...
...Communists have painted a grotesque portrait of him...
...The bosses have repeated their folly of previous years...
...In less than twenty years, the workers have come out of the dark holes Into the light The union has replaced back-breaking toil of sixty and more hours a week by the forty-hour week...
...Probably more than 5,000 contractors in the city, few of whom own fairsized shops, bid for the patronage of these Jobbers...
...The combined effect of these two strikes perfected the foundation of our International Union and assured its continued existence, its growth and influence as a progressive force in the labor movement and in the community...
...This is a fight against the sweatshop, under whatever name it may be called...
...Because of the widespread illiteracy of this ragged proletariat they were unable to reason their way out of bondage...
...Out of 3,500 employers less than five hundred are manufacturers in the true sense of the term...
...Cat ton displaced tobacco as a leading staple in the South...
...These workers and the small free farmers constituted the overwhelming majority of the Southern white population...
...Her topic is "A Message to American Youth...
...This catastrophe was caused directly by the intolerable conditions that prevailed in the dress industry at that time...
...The results Of the starvation of the public employment service are to be seen clearly In the statistics of placement 1924 to 1928 witnessed a steady decrease in the number of placements by the state employment exchanges...
...This general strike can he made short and effective if the workers are determined to make it so...
...To realize the shocking inadequacy of these earnings, it must be remembered that the industry is highly seasonable and that the average work periods do not exceed twenty five to thirty weeks in the year...
...By a series of revolutionary measures unknown ta the Constitution Kins...
...They know full well, the strength of its present picket line, and the power the union has shown in its former strikes...
...Joint boards of sanitary control, unemployment insurance funds, impartial chairmen, fact-finding commissions, boards of arbitration, tabor research and education, labor hanking, shop democracy, the Sanitary label—these were new names and new institutions to conjure with in industry, until the International made them models of Industrial conduct for other industries to emulate...
...The Chief of the Division of Employment receives only $4,250 annually...
...If the abases of the private employment agency are to be eliminated, it must be supplanted by an efficient system of free public employment agencies...
...Pioneers in every notable advance of labor in this country—in the vanguard of the movement for the 40 hour, five-day week and other progressive measures, it is again called to duty...
...Collective democracy is to be the successor of ths individvnlist democracy of Lincoln Our powers of production and distribution must become socially owned if a new philosophy of servitude is to be checked and destroyed...
...He did not disagree with Fitzhugh and other defenders of the Southern oligarchy that property was the basis of each social order although he reached conclusions from this premise that differed from the conclusions of his opponents...
...jrroup In Congress...
...Yet he added that "Capital has its rights, which must be protected...
...Having proceeded so far...
...Under the latter system, a worker tat a shop, is permitted to subcontract his work to "helpers" who are thus exposed to the triple exploitation by the padrone, the contractor and the jobber...
...THE ISSUES IN THE NEW YORK DRESS STRIKE Workers Seek to Re Establish Union Control in An Industry Grown Chaotic Trough Irresponsibility of Employers STORE than 45,000 workers in l\X the New York dress Industry, are once more testing: their strength...
...5.—Settlement of piece prices with the management by a price committee elected by the workers of the shop...
...Then he added this profound observation: "The love of property and a consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization which often make a man's course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle...
...a a • It is evident that Lincoln's ideal of a "mixed class" of oligarchy of slsrc yearn is that ths two social m-tsa no longer lira under ths goviii iisssnt...
...The Union also proposes the establishment of a commission, patterned after the model of the commission now functioning in the Cloak and Suit industry, and composed of representatives of the employers' association, the Union, and the public...
...He contended that the existence of these small farmers, mechanics, and craftsmen in household and shop industries proved that wage labor was not fixed for any considerable portion of workers...
...The relationship between the agency and the applicant for work is usually not a continuous one and the unscrupulous manager is not to the same degree as in most business compelled to preserve the good will of his customers...
...It has also provided facilities for workers' education, recreation and social functions, in charge of a permanent educational department...
...The employers as managers of the industry are responsible for this disorganized state of affairs...
...These demands the dressmakers can and must get through their loyalty to the union...
...Be declared that there was an attempt to place capital on an equal footing with...
...Prt>vailing Conditions The manufacture of dresses is one of New York's leading industries, with an annual turnover of more than $350,000,000...
...Helper's program included independent political action of this class...
...In the Industrial field, the International inaugurated far-reaching reforms...
...In the face of the sneering, Impertinent attitude of the employers, the union in the spirit of justice and fair play, in the spirit of compromise, has attempted to bring order out of chaos...
...This lower stage of free economic opportunity with its democracy of political equals was the social Ideal of Lincoln., I t is significant that in the upland regions of the South with unfertile lands where slavery was not profitable there was a similar "mixed class" which shared Lincoln's social ideal...
...Several attempts were made to organize this class, to educate it for common action, but the individuals who attempted this were driven from the South...
...It introduced such democratic principles as mediation by the public, and brought rotable men and women from their privAe and business Ufa into the world and life of labor...
...Emerson, Volney, the Bible and Paine...
...They were irritated by the petty persecutions of the management, charges for needles, leather belts for power, for the use of their lockers and chairs...
...3.—Guarantee of a living wage to every worker...
...They believed that the slave was the cause of their miserable condition and the political and religious retainers of the wsegnsres cultivated this hatred...
...Local 22...
...Placement work is Just as important as any of the local social services which the municipality provides...
...a a Rinton Rowan Helper had a similar experience in North Carolina...
...lata Into ths background toe* possession of the Republican Party, and became ths ruling...
...The union is determined to take the Initiative in that direction...
...In the forties he scribbled on a piece of paper that "inasmuch as all good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labor produced them...
...But the main evil was the sub-contracting system, where men workers employed from three to eight girl assistants...
...All reasonable industrial standards are swept away and the fair-minded manufacturer finds it more and more difficult to compete with these unscrupulous rivals...
...The slave system, based aa it was on the expansion of large estates worked by regiments of Negro slaves, pushed small farmers into the less fertile lands...
...4.—Right to the job...
...And further, it is assumed that whoever Is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life...
...Labor is superior to capital, and deserved much the higher consideration...
...The Canadian system annually places three times as many people as that of New York State...
...The reasons are not hard to find...
...The trade union chiefs have done even less...
...Fitzhugh concluded that servitude was the natural bads of civilization and that wage labor in the North fundamentally did not differ from the chattel labor of the South...
...Such agencies deal with the weakest members of the community who either through lack of understanding of their rights under the law or because of their urgent need of jobs, are no match for the unscrupulous agency manager...
...Alleges Defrauding Is Chronic "There is yet another very important reason for strengthening the public employment service...
...It will devote its whole energy and resources to ths accomplishment of this vital object and the total sweating system With this purpose in view, it is prosecuting an active campaign among the workers to strengthen their organization and to prepare and equip them for any struggle that may be accessary for their self-preservation...
...The present Dressmakers' strike is more than a repetition of the Cloakmakers' strike—it is an improvement upon it Previous Struggles The year 1909, in labor and proressive circles, is noted for the "Uprising of the Twenty Thousand...
...It has substituted a five-day week for the six and seven-day week of former days...
...The provisions of the old agreements which safeguarded the rights and interests of the workers have become a dead letter...
...in deed, of any part of ths Sooth...
...Aa the strike progressed, this fact was more and more deeply impressed upon them The Triangle Tragedy On March 25, 1911, 146 workers perished in "The Triangle Fire...
...Robert S. Tharln was a poor lawyer In Alabama who tried to organize this class and proposed to establish a weekly paper, "The Non-Slaveholder," to represent the interests of this class...
...What the union has In mind particularly, is a series of collective agreements between the Vnton end the organized groups of employers of all types...
...It has the Job of winning power ia the legislative bodies and expanding economic organization throughout all industries...
...The strike of these women who spoke different languages, who were recent immigrants, resulted in the "Revolt" of the cloakmakers on July 7, 1910...
...They swarmed out of the hills and lowlands in thousands at one period of distress like the Paris mobs on the march to Versailles In the French Revolution...
...Capital sue*: cceded King Cotton...
...The Union was destined to became a progressive force in the labor movement...
...A general strike, resulting in hardships to loyal union men and women, is repugnant...
...The profit-motive must be taken out of placement work...
...The bedroom sweatshop is not the only form of sweatshop existing today...
...He then turned to a consideration of what he called a "mixed class" with which he was especially familiar in the West where capitalist production was rare...
...Hcrwrver, bafer* assassin's pistol had seat Mat his grave Lincoln realiaed that t— "silk stocking" sectlco of North, am capital was obtaining coatrol of his party...
...This industry has become sadly disorganized and has lapsed into a condition of utter chaos, ruinous alike to workers and employers...
...But one alternative was left the employer—to settle with the union and consider the Just demands of the workers...
...The chief characteristic of the measure, however, is that it shifts the licensing- and the enforcement of the law regulating...
...But there was this difference between Lincoln and men of the type of Johnson in the South, Where Tfiwrrihn bated slavery and opposed its extension beyond its frontiers, the Johnson type as a rule objected not so much to slavery as to the monopoly of power held by a few thousand wealthy slave-holders...
...The modern building, Itself, may be a sweatshop for the worker...
...This ruling class had so beggared millions of white workers that they lived from hand to mouth...
...North and South capitalism is supreme and labor has one interest throughout the Republic...
...February 7 Jessie Stephen, British Socialist, writer and lecturer, who is here now for a short tour, wtn deliver her first talk on Friday evening, Feb...
...Jessie Stephen's First Appearance on Friday Evening...
...Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln as President, lived In such a region in eastern Tennessee...
...The dress industry of New York employs some 45,000 workers, 80 per cent of whom are women...
...They lack incentive for performing their tasks well since they receive no material recognition for faithful service...
...Now, two decades later, the cloakmakers repay their debt...
...We fail to see why this change in jurisdiction will markedly improve conditions...
...During the same period the private employment agencies increased their number very rapidly, Indicating a growing demand for placement service...
...He became a refugee in the North where he published a book dedicated to the "Poor White Trash" of the South and the "Mudsills" of the North...
...As his ideas matured be read Locke, Kant, Spencer...
...7, at 8:30 p. m, under the auspices of the Bronx Young Circle League, at their center, 2075 Osmtsts Ave., Bronx near 180th Street...
...OouaUsea public-spirited Americans testified to the union's historical concern with industrial democracy, aside from its speclsi aspirations, la the present struggle Americans will again recognise that the Union is not only working to gain its own immediate ends, but for the test of the community...
...This refers to the great general strike of the 20,000 waistmakers, then members of our Local 25, the forerunner of the present Dressmakers' Union...
...It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital...
...The union will fight to the end until we hurl the sweatshop once and for all into the deep hell of oblivion...
...This class consisted of those who '''work tor themselves on their farms, in ABRAHAM LINCOLN their houses, and 'in their shops, taking- the whole product to themselves...
...Employing slaves as carpenters, blacksmiths, painters and other trades, the planters left no room for white workers...
...This book was a masterly defense of slave property and a brilliant criticism of capitalist property in the North...
...My dislike to them arose front their eonCQntcmptSbte meaimeas, their ntter disregard to common decency, their supercilious arrogance, and their daily usurpation of powers and privileges at variance with my rights, and the rights of my class...
...As a tailor he became a labor alderman, then mayor...
...The courage and idealism displayed in 1909, inspired the Cloakmakers* strike of 1910...
...Every forward step, every gain from the simple union principle of collective bargaining to the glorious achievements above described, has been fought for, step by step...
...Standing alone, they are defenceless against this most unscrupulous exploitation by petty contractors...
...But what was unknown, undreamed of was the faith, the determination of these young women, their confidence in the righteousness of their cause, and their willingness to sacrifice all, to fight to the last for their rights...
...The union lacked both experience and prestige...
...The past is the cause of the present and the present will be the cause of the future...
...Here are a few facts which indicate the situation...
...The Uprising of the Twenty Thousand" inspired the revolt of the cloakmakers...
...They were fined for various reasons...
...Veteran dressmakers will recognise that, in the present struggle, the Union is seeking to root out an old evil...
...Ths greater majority of them are "fly-by-night" enterprises, conducted by irresponsible employers under disgraceful labor conditions...
...These will provide uniform standards of wages, hours of labor and working conditions, and will establish an adequate functioning machine for the bona fide enforcement of such provisions, namely a voluntary court for the adjustment of all disputes and grievances between employers and employees...
...Therefore, we call upon the Governor and the Legislature of the State of New York to take immediate steps to give us aa effective system of public employment agencies...
...For decades the two had shared in running thai government at Washington Henceforth the owners of capital were to make the powers of the govern., meat their privets property sad with the consent of working cli voters...
...Wall ventilates and hygienic shops have replaced to some extent, the dark, filthy, airless prisons prevalent before The union took creatures beater down by poverty and despair end made men of them...
...Many were stifled in the mad rush for safety, many more were mangled, maimed and killed in their leap for life...
...2.—Minimum scale of wages...
...Although the contract calls for a work week of five days, a six day week day is the rule rather than the exception...
...This 19SO sweatshop with all its attendant evils must go with the old...
...A resident minority had obtained the mastery...
...This condition is so well recognized, that there has been introduced into the present legislature a bill »•''"»'"?• to make more effective the regulation of the private employment agency...
...6.—Unemployment insurance...
...They resolved to work wholeheartedly with the dressmakers, to give their loyal and effective support...
...This is particularly true of New York City where 90% of the private employment agency business of the state is transacted...
...Last year the report of the N. Y. State Industrial Survey Commission stated that they had very grave doubts as to the ability of Richard A. Flinn, the present incumbent of that office...
...They pillaged plantations and raided the countryside, but this rising in the heart of the old slave system had no intelligent organisation or direction, most of ths poor devils attacked the helpless Negroes, many of whom were killed and this revolt expired in futile rage...
...Degrading standards outrage his human dignity...
...The employer in this factory used to bolt the doors in order to prevent the workers from leaving...
...It costume a number of very important provisions, same of which are to be Indorsed...
...The hours of work are often unregulated and practically unlimited...
...The Cloakmakers' strike, declared last July, lasted a mere two weeks and achieved all it set out to da Tens of thousands of cloakmakers came back to the fold of the International Ladles' Garment Workers' Union, and as one man arose and paralyzed the entire industry...
Vol. 10 • February 1930 • No. 1
