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Show H TARIFF NOT THE ISSUE. H Hoping to hold the Republicans in the Taft camp, the managers "331 tne reactionary campaign are beating the tom-toms of tariff and IH making a great noise over the serf-labor of Europe, which, they de- H- clare would destroy all industry in the United States, if the tariff Hj wall did not stand mountain high to keep out the products of under- H paid labor. H Having read one of these tariff wails, the editor Baw a heading H over a telegraph item, dated Washington, July 8, which read: ' H "Labor Commissioner Neill finds low wages in Lawrence, Mass., H woolen mills. Average pay of 22,000 mill employes is but $8.76 a H week. Many fathers unable to earn enough to maintain families." H Here, we said, is an unanswerable reply to the Taft tariff noise- H makers, and reading into the body of the article we found our fore- H cast borne out by the facts. H While Commissioner Neill makes few comments on the situation H which led to the Lawrence strike of the operatives in the mills owned j and operated by the United Woolen company, the facts he discloses H leave no doubt as to the horror of conditions in Lawrenoe. 1 The report shows that the highest wages paid the ordinary op- H eratives when the mills run at full time seldom go over $12 a week, 1 while one family of a father, mother and three children were forced j to live on the father's earnings alone, which were $5.10 a week. The H average wages are given for a week late in 1911, when the mills were HI running full time, as $8.76 per family. The figures given by Com- H missioner Neill are based on a study of the payrplls of 21,922 op- Hl eratives. 1 The facts ho disclosed tell their own story of how mothers have 1 to farm their children out during the day in order that husband and wife may earn enough to keep the family in the bare necessaries of life. The children usually start to work at U years of age. Of the employes studied, 5.0 per cent were males, and 44.G per cent were females, showing thc high percentage of women. After describing the demands of the operatives, which were that they should receive the same pay for the fifty-four-hour week, going into effect on January 1 under the Massachusetts law, that they had received for the fifty-six-hour week, the report continues: "Xo adequate conception of the meaning and permanent social consequence of the doctrines promulgated during the period of bitter struggle can be had without some comprehension of the spirit and sentiment that animated the leaders and part of the strikers. The circulars and posters widely distributed during thc strike indicate (he spirit lhat lay behind the struggle." Most of thc strikers, thc report points out, were non-English speaking, who .have been without any method of dealing with their employers. The unskilled laborers were unorganized and had no way to voice their protests. "It naturally followed," writes Commissioner Neill, "thnt when they broke out in a hastily planned and more or less violent protest against a reduction of their wages, they were ready to follow any leadership that- gave them efficient direction and furnished them financial resources for thc struggle." Commissioner Neill and his associates found that one-half of the population of Lawrence 14 years old and over were employed in the mills or depended upon them. Lawrence has a population of 85,892, and there are 60,000 persons dependent upon the mills. When nifMi, women and children dependent on one of the most highly protected industries m thc United States arc kept on the brink of starvation, even when every member of the family is working, work-ing, what becomes of the tariff issue? In no place in Europe can worse conditions be found among the working people. The issue this year is not tariff, but common honesty, and the champion of that cause, Theodore Roosevelt, is destined to win. |