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White Slaves; or, the Oppression of the Worthy Poor by Banks, Louis Albert
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A word from our supporters: File extension MDF | It is impossible to turn these incidents aside as exaggerations. They are horrible, I know; but the most horrible thing about them is, that they are true. You will say perhaps, as some have said during the past few weeks of my exposure of the sweat-shops, "What good will it all do, this harrowing of people's minds with these cruel stories?" I do not know how much good will be done. I only know that I could not retain my self-respect and keep silent. Nothing is more foolish than for us to keep still, hoping that in some way these wrongs will remedy themselves. Shall we look to the sweater, the chattel-mortgage shark, the lecherous merchant, to reform themselves? They do not care how long, nor at what a pittance, men and women work, or to what fearful extremities they are driven. Reforms will never come from the gold-box of Mammon. We must cry aloud and spare not until these devilish cruelties and unblushing crimes are impossible in our fair city. The words of the Christ, as interpreted by James Russell Lowell, are ringing in my ears:-- Ye have fenced my sheep from their father's fold. I have heard the dropping of their tears In heaven these eighteen hundred years." Then if we reply with the selfish assurance of some of these pharisaical political economists who are criticising me to-day:-- We build but as our fathers built; Behold Thine images, how they stand, Sovereign and sole, through all the land." How his answer will put us to shame and confusion:-- A low-browed, stunted, haggard man, And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin, Pushed from her faintly want and sin. And as they drew back their garment-hem, For fear of defilement, 'Lo here,' said He, 'The IMAGES ye have made of Me!'" VI.THE WAGES AND TEMPTATIONS OF WORKING-PEOPLE.Since she drew her baby breath, Were it strange to find her knocking At the cruel door of death? Were it strange if she should parley With the great arch fiend of sin?" --ALICE CARY: _The Edge of Doom._ I have been asked to give a reason for the faith that is in me in regard to certain painful charges made by me in a recent sermon on Wages and Morals--to the effect that the persons high in authority in some respectable Boston stores regard favorably immoral relations on the part of the employees, in order to make it possible for them to live on the slender wages paid them. Without repeating here any of the cases mentioned in my sermon, which has had considerable publicity through the daily press, permit me to quote Mr. Henry Chase, agent of the Society for the Prevention of Crime. He says that in conversation with a leading Boston merchant, the merchant said plainly that he had every reason to believe that some of the men working in his store paid the room-rent and a trifling sum besides to working-girls, and lived with them regularly. Another Boston merchant said to Mr. Chase that he regarded that kind of life on the part of his clerks favorably; that the wages these young men received made it impossible for them to marry and support a wife. |