That those who labour with their hands may have no cause to menace society, those who labour with their brains shall strive to encompass.

Evils in any system American progress is sure to cure.  Shops such as the Plant shoe factory in Boston, with its eight-hour labour, ample provision for escape in case of fire, its model ventilating, lavish employment of new machinery—­tells on the great manufacturing world.

Reason, human sympathy, throughout history have been enemies to slavery or its likeness:  reason and sympathy suggest that time and place be given for the operative man and woman to rest, to benefit by physical culture, that the bowed figures might uplift the flabby muscles.  Time is securely past when the manufacturers’ greed may sweat the labourers’ souls through the bodies’ pores in order that more stuff may be turned out at cheaper cost.

The people through social corporations, through labour unions, have made their demands for shorter hours and better pay.

* * * * *

LYNN

Luxuries to me are what necessities are to another.  A boot too heavy, a dress ill-hung, a stocking too thick, are annoyances which to the self-indulgent woman of the world are absolute discomforts.  To omit the daily bath is a little less than a crime in the calendar; an odour bordering on the foul creates nausea to nostrils ultra-refined; undue noises are nerve exhausting.  If any three things are more unendurable to me than others, they are noises, bad smells and close air.

I am in no wise unique, but represent a class as real as the other class whose sweat, bone and fiber make up a vast human machine turning out necessities and luxuries for the market.

[Illustration:  A DELICATE TYPE OF BEAUTY—­At work in a Lynn shoe factory]

[Illustration:  ONE OF THE SWELLS OF THE FACTORY:  A very expert “vamper,” an Irish girl, earning from $10 to $14 a week]

The clothes I laid aside on December 18, 1901, were as follows: 

    Hat $ 40
    Sealskin coat 200
    Black cloth dress 150
    Silk underskirt 25
    Kid gloves 2
    Underwear 30
                         ——­
                        $ 447

The clothes I put on were as follows: 

    Small felt hat $ .25
    Woolen gloves .25
    Flannel shirt-waist 1.95
    Gray serge coat 3.00
    Black skirt 2.00
    Underwear 1.00
    Tippet 1.00
                         ——­
                        $9.45

* * * * *

When I outlined to my friends my scheme of presenting myself for work in a strange town with no introduction, however humble, and no friends to back me, I was assured that the chances were that I would in the end get nothing.  I was told that it would be impossible to disguise my class, my speech; that I would be suspected, arouse curiosity and mistrust.