Nowhere on this planet is infant mortality
so great, so appalling. And why? Because
the mothers are stretched from dawn to dark
on the inexorable rack of Labor. The babe is
held at a fevered, famished breast, and never
knows what it is to be fondled and nurtured
with the infinite tenderness of maternal af
fection. The poor little he]pless creature has
to be left in the squalid tenement —too hot in
summer, too cold in winter—with no one to
care for it. excepting other children who are
not yet old enough to be crucified on the cross
of Christian Commercialism.
The official reports, made under oath, by
these manufacturers of Massachusetts and
Maine reveal the astounding fact that all of
them declare huge dividends, and that some
of them earn net profits of more than 165
per cent! When their dividends show a
tendency to decline, they mercilessly shut
down their mills, throw their work-people
into the street, and leave it to Charity to
rescue the women and children from starva
tion.
A few years ago, it was the Salvation Army
that mitigated the horrors of such a lock-out.
Vby do white men. white women, white
children work under tjiose circumstances?
son camiQt. for one>uioment. believe that
their servitude is. voluntary. You cannot be
lieve that mothers would leave their babes to
wail alone, and perish for want of motherly
attenfioii, if they could do otherwise. Surely
you-don't need argument to con vice you that
men and women who are in their right minds,
would not willingly endure the miseries
which are so universal in the “Protected In
dustries." The wages are pitifully small; the
tenements shockingly foul and crowded; the
sanitary conditions frightful: the morals,
(continued on page eight.)
Price, Five Cents.
