To the Congress of the United States: Your petitioners would respectfully represent that they are operatives and employ(s of the Standard Mills Bagging Company of the city of St. Louis. Mo.. that the provisions of the Mills tariff bill reported from the Committee on Ways and Means. and now pending in the House of Representatives. reducing the tariff on jute bagging to 15 per cent. ad valorem and placing burlaps on the freelist. will compel all the manufacturers of these fabrics in the United States to permanently shut down their factories. or will compel us. your petitioners. to work for the low wages paid to the operatives of Dundee. and after a short time the still lower wages paid to the pauper labor of Calcuttain the former case less than onehalf and in the latter case less than onefifth the wages we receive. Your petitioners would respectfully solicit your attention to the official report of Consul Wells to the State Department on the condition of jute laborers of Dundee (Consular Reports on Foreign Labor. volume 1. page 86. and volume 2. page 954). wherein it appears that the average weekly wages of females are but S2.50. that 23.670 persons live in 8.620 single rooms-" hovels "-with nothing to lie on but the bare floor. and no covering but coarse burlap cloth. and that only occasionally. that 74.374 men. women. and children occupy 16.187 tworoom houses. and that thus. from extreme poverty. overcrowding in "these vile dens." filth. and neglect. they are subjected to all kinds of wretchedness. infectious diseases. and immorality. with hardly a chance to raise themselves to the level of a decent manhood and womanhood. Your petitioners respectfully suggest that provisions of law which subject us as wageworkers to the alternative of such unhappy conditions as are shown in these official reports can not be in accordance with the wisdom of your honorable body. and humbly pray relief therefrom.
Keywords matched
pauper labor