USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 41
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Not only in relation to wages, but also as to hours-the other great fundamental of working conditions-Massa- chusetts has shown her leadership in regulation of hours of work by its ten-hour law for children (1842). In our day
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PROTECTION OF LIFE AND HEALTH
this would hardly be pointed to as a progressive piece of legis- lation. Considered in relation to the time-a time when the textile supremacy of England was being built upon the toil of little children-it marked an advanced social conscious- ness.
This statute marked the initiation of a long struggle on the part of labor unions and reformers to shorten working hours. It was, of course, the purpose to reduce hours for both men and women.
A child leaving school now must first show evidence that he is at least fourteen years of age. After reaching sixteen, study may be given up entirely, provided the requirements of the sixth grade of grammar school have been met. Other- wise, the child must attend evening school. To leave at fourteen, continuation school courses must be taken four hours a week, which time is included in the forty-eight hours of work allowed. The continuation school work is supervised by the state, but handled directly by the individual cities and towns, certain fundamental subjects being prescribed, such as arithmetic, manual training and domestic science. But to the public at large the plight of women and minor workers laboring long hours made a particularly keen appeal. It often happened that favorable legislation secured through this sym- pathy for the weaker employees affected all employees. Thus the benefits of the 48-hour law passed in 1918 are also en- joyed in actual practice by the male workers in those industries where large numbers of women and minors are employed. Massachusetts, among the earliest to pass such a law for women and children, is one of the first States to add legis- lation favoring the men also.
PROTECTION OF LIFE AND HEALTH (1890-1930)
Legislation directed toward the health and safety of work- ers was also in many instances concerned with the safeguard- ing of women employees. By a law passed in 1890, applicable to manufacturing and mercantile establishments, Massachu- setts was the first to forbid night work for women. Other progressive laws protecting health with which this state came to the fore regulated conditions for workers in compressed
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LABOR MOVEMENT
air, and required twenty-four hours' rest twice a month for railroad workers directing movements of trains. The law for one day's rest in seven was passed in 1913, and many other acts safeguard health.
In the field of industrial safety, which has received con- stantly increasing attention in recent years, Massachusetts was the first to require the reporting of industrial accidents and is still the only state requiring guards in textile establishments to safeguard employees against injury from flying shuttles. As early as 1877 Massachusetts, in the first American law re- quiring factory safeguards, touched on nearly every point in- cluded in the most advanced accident-prevention statutes of today. The Massachusetts Board of Boiler Rules, established in 1907, by adopting standards and providing for inspection of stationary boilers, was (according to Commons and An- drews) "one of the earliest forerunners of the industrial commission plan of drafting and enforcing safety measures."
PROSPECTS FOR MASSACHUSETTS LABOR
Recently developed industrial conditions have helped to widen the industrial horizon for New England. The growth and enrichment of the newer sections of the country have im- mensely augmented the demand for Massachusetts staples, and has tremendously stimulated our facility in conceiving and in- augurating new industries. Massachusetts has begun to un- derstand that the great manufacturing asset of New England is brains-in part the brains of the men who have the money and the courage to install new industries, and particularly the brains of the skilled artisans who have been bred to expertness through several generations. This asset of brains will operate to maintain our manufacturing prestige so long as the asset of trained and productive labor is itself maintained.
This suggests one of the more important and interesting questions connected with industrial development everywhere- the training of specialized workmen through successive gen- erations. This development is not in harmony with the strict republicanism of America, and yet it is becoming one of our industrial assets. The specializing of industrial knowledge and skill, by handing craftsmanship down from one generation
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ADVANTAGES OF MASSACHUSETTS
to another, is one of the chief elements of strength in Ger- man and English industrial life, although in another sense one of the elements of social inertness in those countries. In America the influence of trade craftsmanship is at present amalgamated with social and socialistic interests in such fashion as to obscure judgment of it as an industrial asset.
PERMANENT ADVANTAGES OF MASSACHUSETTS
The tremendous progress which machinery has made during the past few years has a tendency to sweep into oblivion the skilled craftsman. A sturdy group of artisans of the old school, however, still remain in New England and continue to give to the industrial products of Massachusetts and the other New England states the superior quality and finish which no machine has yet been able to imitate. In other words, while mass production has shifted certain sections of industry, a supremacy of production remains secure within various sec- tions of the country. As time goes on there will doubtless come a fusion in New England of the machine and the skilled craftsman so that the best qualities of each may be put into the manufactured product.
Any appraisal of Massachusetts assets in terms of industrial possibilities must include an appreciation of the character of the workers in our Commonwealth-a character which has been developed out of the stern requirements of a region singu- larly lacking in natural resources to aid man's efforts. Massa- chusetts and all New England have been called the workshop of the nation. In fact, before the development of the country assumed coast-to-coast proportions, New England was engaged in the production of all kinds of manufactures that the rest of the country used.
Since then times and conditions have altered the advantages which were alone ours at first. We know that there is and must be a certain fitness of locality for the manufacture of certain goods. We realize today that machinery in which iron is a more important constituent than workmanship should be made nearer the supply of iron and coal than we are located; and that machinery and utensils used wholly outside New England must be made nearer to their place of sale and use.
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LABOR MOVEMENT
These truths have caused certain inevitable readjustments in the industrial life of the state and certain dislocations of labor occurred until the adjustments were made. For the future there are tremendous possibilities of growth of Massachusetts industries.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
BARNETT, GEORGE ERNEST, and MACCABE, DAVID ALOYSIUS .- Mediation, Investigation and Arbitration in Industrial Disputes (N. Y., Apple- ton, 1916)-A survey covering Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. Circular to the Mechanics of the City of Boston and Vicinity (Boston, Artisan Office, Feb. 11, 1834)-Proposes the formation of a general trades-union.
CLAPP, MARY ANTOINETTE, AND STRONG, MABEL A .- The School and the Working Child; Being the Study of the Administration of Certain Laws Pertaining to Children in Industry by Fifty School Depart- ments of Massachusetts (Boston, Mass. Child Labor Committee, 1928). COWLEY, CHARLES .- The Ten-hours Law (Lowell, 1871)-Argument be- fore the Joint Special Committee of the Legislature in behalf of a ten-hours law.
DICKINSON, MARQUIS FAYETTE, JR .- Shall We Legislate Upon the Hours of Labor? (Boston, 1871)-Argument before the Joint Special Com- mittee, in behalf of the remonstrants, March 15, 1871.
FULLER, RAYMOND GARFIELD, AND STRONG, MABEL AUGUSTA .- Child Labor in Massachusetts (Boston, 1926)-An inquiry under the auspices of the Massachusetts Child Labor Committee.
GLADDEN, WASHINGTON .- Working People and Their Employers (N. Y., Funk & Wagnalls, 1885).
GRAY, WILLIAM .- Argument on the Petition for the Ten-hour Law, Before the Committee on Labor, March 13, 1873 (Boston, 1873).
GUILD, CURTIS .- The Eight-hour Day for Children under Sixteen (Bos- ton, 1913)-An address.
HANSON, WILLIAM CLINTON .- "Attitude of Massachusetts Manufacturers toward the Health of their Employees" (U. S .: Bureau of Labor, Bulletins, Vol. XXIII, pp. 488-500, no. 96. Washington, D. C., 1911). HENDERSON, CHARLES RICHMOND .- Industrial Insurance in the United States (Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1909).
HEXTER, MAURICE BECK .- Juvenile Employment and Labor Mobility in the Business Cycle (Boston, Child Labor Committee, 1927).
HOPKINS, LEVI THOMAS .- The Intelligence of Continuation-School Chil- dren in Massachusetts (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1924).
KINGSBURY, SUSAN MYRA, editor .- Labor Laws and Their Enforcement, with Special Reference to Massachusetts (N. Y., Longmans, Green, 1911)-The history of factory legislation in Massachusetts through 1910.
LINTON, EDWARD D .- Headquarters Labor Movement in Massachusetts (Boston, 1873)-A circular.
LORD, EVERETT WILLIAM .- "Child Labor in the Textile Industries and Canneries of Massachusetts" (National Child Labor Committee, Proceedings, Chicago, 1909)-See pp. 73-78.
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
MACNEILL, GEORGE EDWIN .- Factory Children (Boston, 1875)-A report to the governor upon the schooling and hours of labor of children em- ployed.
MAHON, WILLIAM D., AND VAHEY, JAMES HENRY .- Brief on behalf of Divisions of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Rail- way Employees of America in Massachusetts against Senate Bill #682, before the Committee on Legal Affairs (Boston,. 1919)-Con- tains the text of an anti-strike bill.
MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN WORKERS .- What It Is, What It Does, and What You Can Do. The Work, the Methods, the Re- sults of Working Girls' Clubs (Boston, 1902).
MASSACHUSETTS-BOARD OF CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION .- Report, to- gether with the Decisions Rendered by the Board (Boston, 1887 and later).
MASSACHUSETTS-BUREAU OF STATISTICS .- Annual Reports on the Statis- tics of Labor (Boston, 1869-1920)-This bureau has been absorbed by the State Department of Labor.
MASSACHUSETTS-BUREAU OF STATISTICS OF LABOR .- Sixteenth Annual Re- port (Boston, 1885)-See Part III, "Comparative Wages and Prices : 1860-1883, Massachusetts and Great Britain"; and Part IV, "His- torical Review of Wages and Prices: 1752-1860."
MASSACHUSETTS-BUREAU OF STATISTICS OF LABOR .- Annual Report of Labor Statistics for 1889 (Boston, 1889)-See especially pp. 207-229, dealing with competition between industries.
MASSACHUSETTS CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE .- Annual Reports (Boston, 1910 and later).
MASSACHUSETTS CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE .- The Continuation Schools of Massachusetts (Boston, 1923).
MASSACHUSETTS-COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE THE INSPECTION OF FAC- TORIES, WORKSHOPS, MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENTS AND OTHER BUILD- INGS .- Report (Boston, 1911)-Report rendered January, 1911.
MASSACHUSETTS-COMMISSION ON HOURS OF LABOR, 1866 .- Report (House document no. 44, Boston, 1887)-A report on the hours of labor and the conditions and prospects of the industrial classes.
MASSACHUSETTS-COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS BETWEEN EMPLOYER AND EM- PLOYEE .- Report (Boston, 1904)-Deals with laws concerning legal relations of employer and employee.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES .- Annual Re- port on the Statistics of Labor (Boston, 1921 and later )-Succeeding reports of the Bureau of Statistics.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES .- Issues monthly releases of statistics of wages and employment in various industries, obtainable on application.
MASSACHUSETTS-DISTRICT POLICE (Formerly the State Detective Force). -Reports of the Chief (Boston, 1878 and later)-Including the re- ports of inspection of factories and public buildings.
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL COURT .- Evidence submitted to the Mass. Legis- lature in favor of the enactment of a ten-hour law. (Lawrence, Bower, 1870).
MASSACHUSETTS-GENERAL COURT: JOINT COMMITTEE ON PROBATE AND CHANCERY .- Assignment of Unearned Wages (Boston, 1903)-State- ments in favor of legislation to regulate assignment.
MASSACHUSETTS-STATE DETECTIVE FORCE (Succeeded by the District Po- lice) .- Reports of the Chief (Boston, 1876-1877)-The result of the inspection of factories and public buildings is included.
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LABOR MOVEMENT
MICHELBACHER, GUSTAV FREDERICK, AND NIAL, THOMAS M .- Workmen's Compensation Insurance, Including Employers' Liability Insurance (N. Y., McGraw-Hill, 1925)-Discusses the Massachusetts law.
PIDGIN, CHARLES FELTON .- History of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor in Massachusetts and of Labor Legislation in that State from 1833 to 1876 (Boston, 1876).
ROBBINS, HAYES .- Lucius Tuttle; an Appreciation (Boston, Butterfield, 1915)-Much of the book relates to labor troubles in Massachusetts. UNITED STATES-BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS .- Time and Labor Costs in Manufacturing 100 Pairs of Shoes, 1923 (Bulletin No. 360, Washing- ton, 1924)-U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
WHITTELSEY, SARAH SCOVILL .- Massachusetts Labor Legislation: an His- torical and Critical Study (Phila., 1900)-Supplement to Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1901. An historical and critical study.
WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION-DEPARTMENT OF RE- SEARCH .- The Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts as a Voca- tion for Women (United States, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin no. 180, Washington, 1915)-An investigation directed by Susan M. Kingsbury.
WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION-DEPARTMENT OF RE- SEARCH .- Studies in Economic Relations of Women (1910 and later). WOODBURY, MRS. HELEN LAURA SUMNER .- The Working Children of Bos- ton (United States : Children's Bureau, Publications, no. 89, Wash- ington, 1922)-A study of child labor under a modern system of legal regulation.
CHAPTER XV
RELIGIOUS FORCES (1889-1929)
BY RT. REV. CHARLES LEWIS SLATTERY, D.D. Bishop of Massachusetts
MAGNITUDE OF THE SUBJECT
The last forty years have been in Massachusetts years of the advancing penetration of religion. The home of schools and colleges, the old Commonwealth has led in the printing of religious articles in papers and magazines. The young, though perhaps not as interested as their fathers in the or- ganized Church, are eager to discuss among themselves and with religious teachers the deeper issues of life, and are as restless in their search as the ancient Athenians who wor- shipped an unknown God. Institutions abound, such as the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations; the Federation of Churches, organized for the whole Com- monwealth and for certain cities; the hospitals and the merci- ful homes for the care of the unfortunate. All are witnesses to the power of religion. As one goes in and out among the cities, towns, and villages the beauty of the new churches bears testimony to the value which the citizens of Massachu- setts put upon the worship of God and the desire to honour Him. It is evident, even to the casual observer who thinks at all, that religion is steadily growing in influence and power in the lives of the people.
The fruit of true religion is character. There have been gains and losses ; but for the most part, we may believe, there is a higher standard in business, stricter honour in the keeping of the law, a more alert willingness to make sacrifices for great causes (as was shown in the World War), and a larger spirit of brotherhood and loving-kindness, of practical everyday religion.
To assess the religious forces in the Commonwealth is difficult because the units are varied. Therefore, in this brief
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RELIGIOUS FORCES
summary of the religious forces from 1889 to 1929, it will be necessary to glance at some of the salient facts in each of the various religious organizations which stand for the cul- tivation of character in the service of God.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS
Massachusetts is the hearthstone of Congregationalism in this country. . Though each local church is a separate self- governing entity, it has for half a century been found neces- sary to establish a central council for all Congregational Churches. The function of this council was considered purely advisory till 1913, when it assumed, with common approval, wide practical power. The only permanent officer is the gen- eral secretary, the moderator being chosen for a term of only two years. The office of this council was fixed in Boston, until it was removed to New York in 1919. The dignified Congregational House, with its large hall and its bookshop, at 14 Beacon Street, Boston, bears eloquent witness to the strength of Congregationalism in Massachusetts.
The famous American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, established in 1812, continues to be supported largely by Massachusetts, though not exclusively, and its offices are in Boston. The Board maintains a distinguished policy in education and medicine as well as in evangelism. It strives more than ever to build up national churches in the countries it serves. China, Turkey, and India have especial reason for gratitude to its missions. The president of this beneficent organization since 1914 has been Dr. Edward C. Moore, who, in addition to this service, has been for twenty- three years the chairman of the Board of Preachers of Har- vard University, building up the religious services of Apple- ton Chapel.
CONGREGATIONAL SEMINARIES
Many eminent Congregational preachers and pastors have come forward in the strong churches of Massachusetts, among whom may be mentioned Dr. A. Z. Conrad, the conservative pastor of the old Park Street Church in Boston, familiarly known as "Brimstone Corner"; Dr. Wickes, of Holyoke; Dr.
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THE METHODISTS
Gilkey, of Springfield ; and Dr. George A. Gordon, of the New Old South Church in Boston. Dr. Gordon resisted all invita- tions to turn aside to lesser things, and devoted himself to the end of his life to the work of a Christian preacher, giving forth such books as The Christ of Today, Aspects of the Infi- nite Mystery, and Revelation and the Ideal. He gave leader- ship to the Congregational pulpit throughout the land.
The education of the ministry of the denomination in Massachusetts was for many decades centered in Andover Theological Seminary, which since 1889 has passed through several crises. In 1892 the appeal of Dr. Egbert Smyth against the authority of the Visitors to determine the theological con- ditions of the faculty was sustained by the courts; and after 1889 the Visitors themselves became more liberal. Neverthe- less the school dwindled. To save its life a special meeting of the Board of Trustees voted in 1908 to remove it from Andover to Cambridge, where it became affiliated with Har- vard Divinity School, the faculties of the two schools remain- ing distinct. In 1922, however, the faculties were united, under the name of the Theological School in Harvard Univer- sity. In the same year the restless Visitors of Andover brought action in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachu- setts to set aside this affiliation ; and in 1925, the court decided that the teaching was not in accordance with the creed, and sustained the contention of the Visitors. All the Andover professors resigned, but Dean Sperry and Professor Arnold were taken over by Harvard University. Andover now offers no teaching, and rents its building to the University. The dean now adds to his duties in Harvard Divinity School the leadership of the religious work in the whole university, as chairman of the Board of Preachers.
During the last forty years the most distinguished mem- bers of the faculty have been Professor Lyon, authority in the Semitic culture; Professor Toy, a great Hebraist; and Professor George Foote Moore, Arabist, generally called the most learned theologian in the country, whose books are the tools of Biblical scholars everywhere.
THE METHODISTS
The years from 1889 to 1928 have been fruitful for the
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RELIGIOUS FORCES
Methodist Church in Massachusetts. Under the leadership of Bishop. Mallilieu, Bishop Hughes, and Bishop Anderson the church has manifested originality and steady advance.
A very beneficent work under the auspices of the Method- ist Church in Massachusetts is the New England Deaconess Hospital, which was opened to patients in 1896. In 1927 the Palmer Memorial Hospital for cancer and other chronic cases was removed to a site in the same neighborhood; and the Deaconess Association has also a Health Home for Children in Natick, a Home for Aged Women in Concord, and a Nurses' Training School in Boston.
In 1912 the Methodist Church acquired a valuable site in Copley Square and there erected the Wesleyan Building, using several floors for the Methodist organizations. Here the Methodist Book Concern, the Ministers' Relief Insurance and Trust Association, the Methodist Historical Society, the Women's Missionary Societies, and Zion's Herald have their offices. In the basement is a convenient hall for ministers' meetings. This building is the business centre of the Method- ist Church in Massachusetts, resembling the Congregational House.
The institution of which the Methodist Church in Massa- chusetts is justly most proud is Boston University. During the last forty years it has had the leadership of four wise and skilful presidents, William F. Warren, William E. Hunt- ington, Lemuel H. Murlin, and Daniel L. Marsh. The Uni- versity now cares each year for 14,000 students who come from many countries and go away with sound learning. Of the various departments of the university, the School of Religious Education and Social Service is in many ways unique. Under the guidance of Walter S. Athearn, the school has been a pioneer. The Methodist Theological Seminary on Mt. Vernon Street in Boston continues to be the chief source of an effective ministry in Massachusetts. There are now 398 students enrolled in the seminary.
MORGAN MEMORIAL
One of the most picturesque and valuable works of the Methodist Church in this period was the establishment of the
Courtesy of the Halliday Photograph Co.
TEMPLE ISRAEL, BOSTON
-
Courtesy of the Halliday Photograph Co.
MORGAN MEMORIAL, BOSTON
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MORGAN MEMORIAL
Good Will Industries, commonly called the Morgan Memorial, in the South End of Boston. A church edifice was about to be abandoned, because, though a gracious work had been ac- complished in it by Mr. Morgan, the surrounding population had become foreign and alien to the ways of the Methodist Church. It was a time of unemployment. The neighbourhood never had needed Christianity so much, but the old methods could not lift it out of its misery and degradation.
Then the plan of the Good Will Industries was born. The old buildings were used at the initiation of the project, and other buildings have been added as people who could help were inspired to give aid. In general this is the plan. Bags are distributed among households in Boston and elsewhere into which may be put anything that can be made useful, till trucks are sent to collect them. The collector often finds broken furniture, stoves, and other large objects awaiting him. These trucks return to the Morgan Memorial in due time; and their loads are put in the great storeroom, where the articles are sorted. The shoes are sent to the cobblers' room; the clothes, to the tailors'; the furniture, to the carpenters', and so forth. In each room is an expert to teach men and women to work. Then two or three pairs of shoes are made into one sound and durable pair. Old clothes are cleaned and mended, and made presentable. Furniture is made whole and attractive. At last all these things find their way to the shop, where the needy can buy them for a small sum, for they get better values here than if they purchased new articles in regular shops.
Most of these workers are called "unemployable" be- cause they are often too weak to do more than a few hours work a day, or because they are untrained. They can work here for as short a time as they like and receive pay for exactly what they do. The weekly payroll is about $5,200. At the same time they are taught how to work, so that at length they know how to do something well, and are able to do a full day's work elsewhere.
Every year over five thousand needy men and women are helped through the Good Will Industries; and the help is not merely material. Informal Christian services are held in the early morning and at noon for those who will come; and
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RELIGIOUS FORCES
there are wise friends always at hand to give sympathy and counsel. Religion is the motive of this benevolence, and the people who bless God for it must know that it is His inspira- tion which has brought it about. Central in this movement as its inspiration is an organization called the Church of All Nations, which offers Christian faith and worship to peoples of many races in their own languages.
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