Part 5

While the leaders in sex hygiene are bound to have a difficult task on their hands in restraining unscientific and slap-dash agencies who assume to give public instruction, the fact remains that the larger and most difficult task of those leaders is still that of arousing the public, a general and wide-spread process of education both as to the things that should be known and as to the need for knowing them. The reason for this is that the old policies of reticence have failed—failed so far that not only has America contributed nothing to the solution of a world-old problem, but has imported new commercialized phases of it and let them become rampant, to bring destruction and disease to thousands.

At such a juncture THE SURVEY must give respectful hearing to those whose outlook is personal, but must draw its counsels rather from those who bring larger measure of social experience to the question—from superintendents of orphanages,[3] who know what the old policies of ignorance have cost in the lives of boys and girls; from neurologists, who see the after consequences of that same ignorance; from reformatory heads; from educators; from physicians.

Without the fact of commercialized vice such a searching piece of work as Miss Eberle’s would lack truth; without the added fact that such vice exists, not merely because of the greed and lust of men, but because of the inertia, the reticence, the acceptance of things as they are by people who, if they aroused themselves, could put an end to it, it would lack occasion.

If such conditions exist, then it has blazing truth and insistent occasion and like Nast’s cartoons it may well be looked back upon as a crashing social force breaking through the crusts of toleration and neglect.

If such conditions exist—if they exist because the public does not know, or knowing, does not act; if the public’s ignorance or inaction is due in whole or in part to the benumbing effects of these same policies on journalism, on the church, and on the other channels of enlightenment—then it is the part of THE SURVEY of all journals, standing as it does midway between the doctor, the social investigator, the criminologist and the general public, to bring out the truth and to bring it out in ways that will strike fire.

If under such promptings THE SURVEY uses the White Slave, then it should use it in such a way as to cleave through to the widest circle of its audience. Hence the cover. Probably in all his long pastorate, Henry Ward Beecher was never more criticized than when he emphasized the auction of two fugitive slave girls at the Broadway Tabernacle. Those who in his day were shocked at what they felt to be sensationalism and the desecration of God’s temple have given way in the passage of time to those who see that the desecration was mankind’s in the toleration of slavery itself.

Dr. Abbott in his life of Beecher says:

“He believed that thousands who would regard with apathy if not complacency the slave system at a distance, would regard with abhorrence the reform of an individual slave girl to a life of enforced sin and shame....

“He said: ‘The very men who give counsel and zeal and money _against_ the unseen slave of the South irresistibly pity the particular fugitive whom they may _see_ running through the North.’

“Had he been inclined to defend his method from those who criticized it as sensational, he might have referred them to the methods used by the Hebrew prophets, who taught so often and so effectually by dramatic object-lessons.”

New times bring new needs.

Miss Eberle has modeled the auction block of a new slavery.

In the Brooklyn _Eagle_ of April 21 appeared a powerful sermon by Dr. Hillis from Dr. Beecher’s old pulpit on social diseases and heredity, in which such strong language as the following was used in speaking of the “conspiracy of silence”: “It is a guilty, cruel, dastardly, damnable silence on the part of preacher, teacher and parent.”—Ed.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] See Rockefeller Report on Commercialized Vice. THE SURVEY, May 24, p. 257.

[3] See Post-graduates of the Hired Man, by R. R. Reeder, superintendent of New York Orphanage, Hastings on Hudson, who is the educator and foster father to 250 boys and girls. THE SURVEY, March 8, p. 816.

THE PATERSON STRIKE

TO THE EDITOR:

For a number of years I have been a reader and subscriber of THE SURVEY and it both shocks and pains me to find that THE SURVEY has apparently taken a biased view of the strike here in Paterson. I understand that several SURVEY investigators have been to Paterson before preparing the news items on pages 81-82 and 83 in your issue of April 19. These investigators did not call upon those in our city to whom it seems to me they should naturally have turned, the Charity Organization Society. If they had, they would not have made some of the glaring and ill-advised statements contained in your editorial.

They would have been better posted as to the type of looms which they have called multiple or automatic looms throughout the article. Both names so far as applied to silk are erroneous. All broad silk looms with few exceptions are supplied with either side or center filling stop motions. This stops the loom when the thread in the shuttle breaks. This has been common for years and does not constitute an automatic loom. Some looms have been equipped with warp stop motions, stopping the loom when a warp end breaks. This does not constitute an automatic loom. An automatic loom is one in which either the shuttle, which has already been filled with new thread, or quill or bobbin changes automatically. It would also very likely be equipped with both warp and filling stop motions. Such looms as last mentioned have never proven satisfactory on silk.

In the article you make certain statements but have not made them clearly. As your paper is read by many charitable and philanthropic people, it is hardly fair to the charitable and philanthropic people of Paterson to have such statements as you have made concerning Paterson go forth to the world without objections on our part. You have not made clear the meaning of the three and four loom system. The word system, as used here, has an arbitrary meaning and means one weaver to three or four looms. You state that Paterson is “importing” the four loom system. This is not true because there is nothing to import.

You further made a statement that competition between Pennsylvania and New Jersey is over. This is not so, it is just as keen today as ever. You further make a statement that great factories are equipped with automatic looms in Pennsylvania, four of these looms being operated by one boy or girl.[4] Can you name a single mill where this is so? I have been fifteen years calling on the silk mills and I have yet to learn of an automatic loom being used to weave silk or where four looms are operated by a boy or girl. You further make a statement that weavers are required to tend three looms. I think this is wrong. There is no question but that they could operate three to four looms of their own free will, but there is no compulsion about it.[5]

In quoting from the _Paterson Evening News_ you infer that an additional strain is placed on a weaver in taking care of three or four looms. If this is so, it remains to be proven. I have talked about this with a number of weavers and they state that they have not noticed this fact, if it is one. You further imply that it will change the character of work in Paterson if the three and four loom system is put in operation. I think this is a mis-apprehension because only about 40 per cent of the looms of Paterson, of which there are about 16,000 would be affected in any way by this so-called three and four loom system. As you quoted, in a statement made by the silk manufacturers, only a percentage of these would be affected because many plain looms have jacquards mounted over them and the manufacturers have never attempted to run more than two looms of this nature to one weaver, nor does the so-called three and four loom system reduce the wages. I know of one mill in this town that is in operation today despite the fact of the strike where sixteen looms are being operated by three weavers. One of these weavers in this particular mill has been operating four looms since last October and her earnings have averaged over $75 every two weeks.

Further along you say the multiple looms are large and equipped with automatic devices and can only be installed in large mills. This is absolutely incorrect. There is nothing to prevent a small mill from using any loom that is now manufactured. The smaller mill, in only a few cases, has so far taken over jacquard weaving which is the most intricate of all the weaving, and requires the most skill, and as intimated, is largely confined to the large factories. The smaller mills are mostly equipped with plain looms. Quite a few of these are mills running three to four looms to a weaver.

In making your contrast of the average wages paid in Paterson and the average paid in Pennsylvania, have you been fair? According to the reports which I have, the weavers of Paterson earn on an average about $12.55 a week and I am afraid in taking your Pennsylvania average you included all classes of textile workers, including the very low paid help in throwing mills, so cutting the average Pennsylvania wage down.[6]

The employers have not refused to confer with their employes except that they have rightly refused to treat with the Industrial Workers of the World agitators towards this settlement. You have not made clear the doctrines or propaganda of the Industrial Workers of the World whom you have called Industrial Socialists. The Socialists as you know have repudiated Haywood. Your statements in regard to the arrest of William D. Haywood and his subsequent release when arrested on March 30 are correct. I sincerely hope that you will immediately send other investigators to Paterson who will call on the Charity Organization Society and the ministers who formed the committee invited to the aldermanic meeting, Rev. A. H. Stein, Rev. D. S. Hamilton, Rev. W. C. Snodgrass, Rev. J. F. Shaw and Dr. Jones. I would also suggest some of the business men of the town whose stores you could enter along Main street or Market street. I would suggest William Wieda; John C. Mason, Quackenbush & Co.; A. P. Van Saun, Van Dyk Furniture Co.; Ex-Judge Francis Scott; Ex-Judge James Inglis; John W. Ferguson; H. H. Parmelee; Hamilton Trust Co.; Edward T. Bell, First National Bank; and Wm. H. Blauvelt, Second National Bank.

I would suggest that you call attention to the articles in The Survey of May 4, 1912 and April 6, 1912 telling about the Industrial Workers of the World. I am also enclosing an article written by Lincoln Steffens in the Globe and Commercial Advertiser of March 29, 1912.

Will you kindly publish this letter in fairness not only to Paterson but to the “things” THE SURVEY stands for, as your news items contain so many technical errors which have a vital bearing to a certain extent on this strike?

W. L. KINKEAD.

[Secretary Central Charities Committee.]

Paterson, N. J.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] See Note A below.

[5] See Note B below.

[6] See Note C below.

* * * * *

[THE SURVEY is more than willing to accept Mr. Kinkead’s corrections as to looms and textile processes, for his business is mill machinery. It does not quite agree with him, however, as to the importance of the matter, since the technical terms were incidental merely to the subject of the strike.

Three points in Mr. Kinkead’s letter should perhaps be footnoted:

A. The three and four loom systems are now in use in Pennsylvania. The federal report on the Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, says: “In Pennsylvania, where the broad silks manufactured are of the plainer grades, not requiring the skill, efficiency and attention given to the higher grades made in Paterson, woman and child weavers have the field practically to themselves.”

B. Mr. Kinkead would certainly not wish to maintain that, when the change is made from a two to a four loom system, the earnings of weavers, who preferred to stick to two looms, would not be cut. If you cut a chair caner’s wage from ten to eight cents a chair, there is no compulsion for him to make more chairs than before; but he does if he has a family hanging on his earnings. The silk manufacturer who, when he makes the change, pays a weaver more than before if he will work four looms instead of two, and less than before if he continues to work two is merely dodging if he claims there is no compulsion about it.

C. A more accurate analysis of the government figures would give the average wage of Paterson weavers as $11.80 instead of $11.69; that of the Pennsylvania weavers as $6.99 instead of $6.56. The error that Mr. Kinkead suggests was, however, not made.

As a matter of fact, such a staff inquiry as Mr. Kinkead suggests has been in progress and in the June magazine number THE SURVEY will publish an article by John A. Fitch.—Ed.]

JOTTINGS

DRAMATIZING THE PATERSON STRIKE

Seizing on the suggestion that some master of pageantry ought to give symbolic expression to the mass strike, a leader of the Paterson strike proposed that the silk workers should themselves present to the public the meaning of its chief incidents. Within a few days Madison Square Garden had been rented for June 7, and large committees, composed in no small degree of volunteers from the 10,000 silk strikers in New York city, were at work on the details of the arrangements.

A pageant of six episodes has been planned by John Reed, a magazine writer who was himself arrested on the Paterson picket line a few weeks ago.

The episodes, as interpreted by the pageant committee, divide themselves into two groups: the one representing the struggle of the strikers against economic and legal tyranny; the other, the democratic government of the strike by the workers.

Brief titles of the episodes are: The Mills Alive—The People Dead—The Strike; The Mills Dead—The People Alive—The Picket Line and Arrests; Forty Pickets before an Irresponsible Judge; The Strike Victim’s Funeral; The Striking Mothers Send their Children to Strike Mothers in New York; The Legislature of the Strikers in Helvetia Hall Passes the Eight Hour Law. The strike leaders, in this last scene, will give propaganda speeches addressed to the audience. Their speeches are to be the only monologues in the performance.

A thousand strikers will march from Paterson to New York to take part in the pageant. The music will be furnished by their mass singing and by their bands which now play at all large strike meetings. Both the actors and singers are being trained by John Reed.

CITY FATHERS TO FOREGATHER

At Binghamton on June 5-7 the mayors and other municipal officials of New York state are to hold their fourth annual conference. Each of the forty-eight mayors is to tell in five minutes what is the greatest problem of his city.

VACANT LOT GARDENING IN TORONTO

Toronto has joined the ranks of the cities in which there is an active vacant lot gardening movement. Over thirty parcels of vacant land in the business section of the city have been loaned to the Playgrounds Association and prepared for gardening by the Plowmen’s Association of York Township.

Early in this month the actual tilling began and the start of the new venture was celebrated by a dinner to the plowmen on the evening of that day. Seeds and implements have been promised so that the children will have everything necessary for successful gardening.

May 31, 1913