The 7 November 1845 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 1 No. 21).
To Our Friends and Readers.
After an absence of about three weeks, our Voice is again before you, but since our last visit, some important occurrences have taken place in the history of our humble, but fearless sheet. Instead of the picturesque hills, and white cottages of Fitchburg, we find ourselves among the massive walls and smoking factories of the "City of Spindles." But nevertheless, we are the same uncompromising foe to all the oppressions of the age—to all that tends to degrade the human character and prevent man from arriving to that degree of elevation his nature craves, and his untrammeled, unbribed and enlightened judgement dictates. For this reason, we have planted our free and independent press in the City of Lowell, the manufacturing emporium of America, where it will hereafter proclaim those great and vital truths which government and society have been less slow to profess than practically adopt, viz.: that "all men are born free and equal, and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuits of happiness," and that every government or system which tends to abrogate these natural and healthy principles must be anti-republican and anti-Christian, from the very nature of things, and that those people, who individually or collectively, through ignorance or grasping, misguided selfishness, violate them, lend their influence to encourage wrong, wickedness and oppression and cannot be, in a rational sense, true friends to their god and their race. The Voice has been removed to this city to extend its circulation, increase its support and augment its usefulness, and in this we trust we shall not be disappointed, indeed our prospects daily brighten, and we firmly believe the time near at hand when the working people of this country will not be satisfied with the brawling party, sectarian and time-serving presses of the day, whose patriotism and zeal is commensurate to the offices and emoluments received, or in prospect, or the depth of their devotional bigotry.
We are in Lowell because it is a favorable and central location, and because such a voice is here needed to demand and protect the rights of those whose toil has made this city what it is and raised New England to its present position in point of wealth and industrial importance. We have not come as a disaffected, personal railer to gratify a (too common) restless love of notoriety, which finds fault for no holier motive than to satiate an invidious constitutionality; nor are we the organ of that envious aspirancy which seeks to destroy what it cannot obtain; our aims are higher and nobler. We wish to trace and point out the seductive errors that have crept, serpent-like, into our society, which are rooting deeper and deeper in the social and political constitutions of our country and the world, and which are poisoning our philanthropy and republicanism and perverting and neutralizing all our Christianity and religion. Our motto is, "the greatest moral, mental and physical good of all men," and towards forwarding this great object, our humble efforts are freely pledged; therefore we shall speak frankly and earnestly on all subjects relating to the well-being of mankind, as they present themselves to our consideration. The restoring to man his natural rights, of which the selfishness, monopoly, false philosophy and religion of the age has robbed him, is a subject of no small moment to every philanthropist and Christian; yet how many, professedly so, either ignorantly or willfully embark in the popular delusions of the times, which generate wrong, strife and discord in society, instead of engaging in the humane cause of ennobling and dignifying useful, productive industry and elevating the family of man.
Is not this an enterprise, worthy the countenance and support of every lover of that equality and Christian justice which will not be satisfied with anything short of a happy reality? Then shall we have the cheerful cooperation of the honest toilers of Lowell and New England? Ours is your cause—for the workingman and woman we speak—we wish to warn you against the destructive and paralyzing tendencies of protected capital against defenseless, dependent and competing labor. Still we shall ever be watchful, not to interfere with the rights of the capitalist, and while we frankly and honestly assert, that we have no sympathy with the present avaricious organized monopolies, like the manufacturing system, as it now exists in this city, the result of which is to pour the wealth of the nation into the glutted treasury of the few, while the many live in poverty, and destitution; and want, vice, crime and ignorance daily increase in our land; yet we have as little sympathy with that eternal vague clamor which is prompted by no higher impulses than personal aggrandizement, or a desire to keep society in a fomentation and broil, merely to appease a jealous spleen, instead of a wish to reconcile and harmonize the antagonizing interests among men, and eradicate the causes from which they spring. We want a peaceful, industrial revolution—a revolution inspired by principle and love of right instead of passion and might, the result of which will ever ensure to the industrious, the fruits of their labor, and indemnify their rights against mercenary incendiarism and chance-lotteries now extant in the world. Again we say, shall we have the united support of the workingmen and women of New England in behalf of humanity's cause? that we may prosecute a successful warfare against all forms of oppression, and lead to the establishment of a democracy under which industry, virtue, religion and happiness shall flourish and increase and the people universally enjoy heaven's natural blessings.
We cordially invite...
We cordially invite the factory girls of Lowell, and the operatives and working people generally, whether they agree with us or not, to make the Voice a medium of communication; for it is your paper, through which you should be heard and command attention. The press has been too long monopolized by the capitalist non-producer, party demagogues and speculators, to the exclusion of the people, whose rights are as dear and valid.
"Factory Tracts."
"Factory Tracts."—It is pretty generally known that the Female Labor Reform Association, of this city, are publishing a series of tracts, the object of which is to give a true exposition of the factory system and its effects upon the health and happiness of the operatives. The articles are nearly all written by those who are, or have been, employed in the mills, and reflect much credit upon the authors. The second number will be ready for distribution and sale in a few days. Let our friends in various sections of the country use their efforts to give them circulation. Orders addressed to the Female Labor Reform Association will meet with immediate attention.
The Strike—Our Course.1
We have been asked whether we do not intend to give up the effort to introduce the ten-hour system, since the operatives have returned to work on the old terms. Certainly not. We see not why we should even hesitate one moment. True it has been proven, as we feared from the first, that the rich manufacturer, even in this great country of ours, can compel his poor operatives to work just as many hours as he pleases, or starve, if the community will countenance and aid him in doing so; but we do not believe that the infamous means employed to array the community against the operatives and their friends will succeed again. We believe in the omnipotence of a good cause; we believe that every mechanic and laboring man is interested, and can be made to see it, in the establishment of the system; that the humane of all classes will yet join with us in endeavoring to introduce it; and that we shall not always be regarded as a demagogue and meddler for endeavors to secure justice to woman. Men who look only to interest—who think it is of more importance that trade shall flourish than that justice be done—may be swayed by the selfish appeals which for a time have checked this movement, but the wise and good of all classes have been led to think, and we are satisfied that the apparent defeat will be found a victory for our cause.
Woman is wronged in every occupation and condition of life. She labors but for a pittance in the workshop, or as a domestic servant. She is debarred from every means of righting her own wrongs, by her present social position. She must have others to plead for her, and if the high and mighty and talented will not speak in her behalf, we shall face calumny and misrepresentation to do what we can for her.
Though professing Christians denounce us—though a Christian preacher of this city says we should not meddle with the world, 'tis a bad world, and we should get along as comfortably as possible till we are ready to leave it for heaven! (we wonder what he preaches for?)—we think it our duty to do all we can to improve the condition of man. For that reason we are a temperance man, an antislavery man, and an advocate of social reform. We have no more interest than others have in any of these movements—we have not been a drunkard, nor slave, nor a factory operative—but because fellow beings have been, are, and more may be, we feel bound to warn them—to meliorate their condition. It does not appear to us that any right of refusal to act against evil is left—we must do what we can, or be criminal. Perhaps we might become habituated to that king of non-committalism which always looks to make a safe leap for popularity, and we dislike to be frowned on by old friends, but conscience would ever and anon be reminding us that we had shaken hands with the devil only to learn to despise ourself; and neither he nor the world can tempt us to that folly.
We labor not only in hope, but in confidence of ultimate triumph in the ten-hour movement. We have made arrangements for continuing the warfare by meetings, associations, &c.; a correspondence will be opened with the operatives eastward [in New England]; a publication devoted to the cause is projected; and we have received the first number of a monthly tract commenced by the Lowell operatives, since the strike took place here. They are blind who do not see that we have every reason to stand fast, and be confident of triumph. The manufacturers will not risk another five weeks' suspension for a slight consideration. They have lost three hundred and forty hours by the suspension—more than half a year's loss, at two hours per day.—Pittsburgh Spirit of Liberty
The Summons.2
Ye children of New England!
The summons is to you!
Come from the workshop and the field,
With steadfast hearts and true.
Come, fling your banner to the breeze,
For liberty and light;
Come, like the rolling of the seas—
The tempest in its might.
Aye, with a voice of thunder come;
And swear 'fore tyranny,
Thy vows are registered on high,
To perish or be free.
Hear ye the groans from foreign lands,
Ruled by despotic powers?
From Spain's bright shores, from Gallia's strand,
And England's stately towers?
In costly, splendid luxury
Each royal board is spread;
While thousands in their streets may die
For lack of daily bread.
And turn to our own boasted clime,—
What scenes before us lie?
Aye, want and woe and care and crime,
Still greet the tearful eye.
'Tis mockery in the sight of God,
To say that land is blest
Where millions bow beneath the rod
Of tyranny oppressed.
For bread, where famished children cry,
And none their want supplies—
Where toiling thousands live and die
In ignorance and vice.
Then in the name of God come forth,
To battle with the foe;
Nor stay ye till your hands have laid
Each proud oppressor low.
Aye, come, and blessed shalt thou be,
By millions yet unborn,
Whom thou hast saved from misery,
From insult and from scorn.
Yea, be thou strong—there yet remains
A promise sure to thee,
That God will break the oppressor's chains,
And set the prisoner free.
That righteousness and truth shall reign,
Through all the peopled earth,
And heaven repeat the exulting strain,
Which hailed creation's birth.
- Amelia
Note: spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified.
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