1883-11-24tt

From the November 24, 1883 issue of the Palladium of Labor:

“There is much truth in the saying that ‘one half of the world does not know how the other half lives’ and there are many evidences of its truth in the city of Hamilton.

“The wealthy, professional man, who has two or three business hours each day, and rests the remainder of the time, or spends it at his palatial residence in the bosom of his happy family, knows little of the hardships and heartaches of the weary laborer, who leaves his family circle at six or seven in the morning to toil all day in a dusty shop and return home late at night worn out by toil and begrimed with dirt.

“The wife of the well-to-do citizen, who has her nurse, cooks, waiting maids and other servants, can sleep and take things easy, and wonder why folks can’t be content with their lot; but the wife of the laboring man must be up long before the mountain tops which o’er shadow our pretty city, are kissed by the rays of the morning sun. She must cook a warm breakfast for him who has no time to come home for dinner.

“The children of wealthy parents may sleep till school time in their comfortable beds, the little sons and daughters of the poor must leave their humble cots at an early hour and go to work, to continue long after the day is past and the lamps are lit again. This pernicious system that compels mere infants to labor twelve and thirteen hours a day is a curse to our land, and a denial to our claim to civilization.

“In this city, there are hundreds of young girls and children working from ten to fourteen hours a day. In the Ontario and the Hamilton Cotton Mills, children as nine and ten years of age are kept at work for twelve hours each day. In many cases, these infants are compelled to stand during the whole of that time. In order to be at work on time, they have to take their breakfast shortly after five o’clock in the morning, and from that time till twelve o’clock, they get neither rest nor food. And this a land of wealthy and plenty !

“Then again, there of the robbing system of ‘fining.’ For instance, all employees of the mills must commence work at six o’clock, but, if by any means, one of them is detained for half an hour, he or she is ‘fined’ a quarter of a dollar, and that amount is kept out of his or her wages. Boys working for $2 a week will have to be punctual and careful that, at the end of the week, they may not come out in their employer’s debt. All accidents to machinery, while in the hands of operatives, are charged to them. If a boy, getting 50 cents per day, steps away from his work a day, he not only loses his day’s wages, but is also ‘fined’ 50 cents.

“Such robbery is disgraceful to a Christian community. That these unfortunate creatures should be compelled to struggle so hard to earn their wages is bad enough, but when the money is extorted from them in this shameful manner, after they have clearly earned it, is a thousand times worse.

“The cotton companies have recently discharged a large number of hands, saying they had no work for them. Would it not have been more humane to have kept their full force on and shortened the day? There is no earthly reason why the cotton mills should not have the same hours of work as other factories.”¹

¹ “Slow Murder : Long Hours and Small Pay”

Palladium of Labor.  November  24, 1883