The Voice of Industry (Vol. 1 No. 39 - 13 March 1846)

The Rights of Man

Arise, Man, arise! and stretch forth thy arm,
Shake off oppression, and sound the alarm;
Let tyrants know that your rights you demand,
And not submit to their base command.

Be firm as the hills, unmoved by dismay,
Which yield not to tempests that sweep o'er the bay;
In your strength and your pride undauntedly stand,
And be not slaves for a corporate band.

Fear not the hardships that you must endure,
Press forth and onward, the prize will be sure;
Our forefathers fought, their rights they maintained,
And gave to posterity the freedom obtained.

Then cheer up, brave hearts, with patriot fire,
Be not a traitor to the cause we admire;
But stand for your rights—our motto shall be,
"No slavery bequeathed to the brave and the free."

Yes, cheer up, brave hearts, the battle's begun;
No peace for your foes, till victory is won;—
But stand for your rights—our motto shall be,
"No slavery bequeathed to the brave and the free. "

- J. W.

The Voice of Industry in the wilderness of sin...1

"The Voice of Industry in the wilderness of sin" is the precise language used by the editor of the Lowell Courier. Does Mr. Schouler [William Schouler] mean to say the wants, sufferings, oppressions and unequal relation of capital and labor, as now existing in Lowell, is to be thus flippantly disposed of? We accept most cheerfully, the proposition of our neighbor to sink the personal in the general cause, and all matters appertaining to the differences of opinion between us. Friend S., without bandying epithets, we will be first to cease and ask you in all candor to aid us agreeably to your expressed "desire to do what you can to lessen wrong and increase the right."

It is a subject of comment and general complaint, among the operatives, that while they tend three or four looms, where they used to tend but two, making nearly twice the number of yards of cloth, the pay is not increased to them, while the increase to the owners is very great. Is this just? Twenty-five cents per week for each girl [of] additional pay would not increase the cost of the cloth, one mill a yard; no, not the half of a mill. Will you, friend S., join us in urging this increase of wages? Think what joy it would give Mr. Lawrence's "eight thousand females."

Now while I am penning this paragraph, a young lady enters the office with "Oh dear! Jane, I am sick and what shall I do? I have worked for three years and never gave out before. I stuck to my work until I fainted at my loom. The doctor says I must quit work and run about and amuse myself; but I have nowhere to go, and do not know what to do with myself." I have given the language as it struck my ear; the conversation going on behind me. It is but the type—the feelings of a thousand homeless, suffering females, this moment chanting "the Voice of Industry in this wilderness of sin."

Ten hours for steady, persevering industry, to benefit our employers—is it, in your judgement, all capital can justly demand of labor? Will you aid us before the Legislature in the passing [of] a bill that ten hours of labor shall constitute a day's work?

You are worried about the loss of the head waters of Concord river—we are equally desirous for the just protection of capitalists in their privileges. But our sympathies reach the laboring mass also. For them, too, would we urge attention and action before the Legislature. You are mistaken in supposing we see nothing but the wrong; what we complain of, for labor, is not that we can't see the fat as well as the lean; our complaint is we only get the lean, and are not permitted even a smell of the fat.

Come up to the scratch friend S., for Labor Reform. The propositions we put are plain ones—lend us a hand and be to us as you promise, a guiding star "in this wilderness of sin." Have we not fairly accepted your propositions and left out all quarrels of others, all personalities, and pointed out some of the reforms that may be made? We have a host of new propositions of urgent necessity for the safety of the laboring mass, in view of the rapid strides capital is making in the concentration of power. Even now, the great mass of surplus wealth of the country is represented by acts of incorporation. Among other propositions we intend to call the attention of the people and the Legislature to is the utility of a sinking fund of all profits, upon capital, manufacturing in this place, over and above six percent for the benefit of such as may lose their health by working in the mills, or be disabled by accident in the employment of the companies. What say you friend S. to this?

- One of the "vast array of the Publishing Committee"

A fellow from N. York...

A fellow from N. York, who appears "head and heels" in love with the Lowell factories, has recently paid this city a visit, and on his return, gives vent through the [New York] Tribune to his unbounded admiration of a system which is reducing the free sons and daughters of N. England to the condition of English drudges. He speaks eloquently of the horrors of war, but cannot discover the warfare this system of factory oppression is prosecuting against the health, virtue and intelligence of the operatives. What seems strange to us is that he does not come to Lowell and serve two or three years at the "picker" or at "stripping cards"—probably by that time his muse would be inclined to sing a different song. Among other wonders, he had the pleasure of an interview with "Col. Schouler, the able [able because on our side—note from the text] Editor of the Lowell Courier," who honored him with a copy of that valuable document, "our report on the Ten Hour Petition before the Legislature," from which he obtained the important fact, that it was unnecessary to legislate upon the subject, as capital would take good care of labor. Next time he comes this way to pay his fulsome devotion to the "genius of free industry," we hope he will give us a call, as we have the report of five or six thousand workingmen and operatives, who think Legislation is necessary, and whose experience is far better, than our neighbor's of the Courier. It is amusing indeed, to see men who probably never did a day's work in their lives, come to Lowell, visit a few agents and superintendants, and a corporation editor, and then go away and declare to the world that the factory system is one of the most glorious institutions that a free people can boast of—and this all greedily swallowed, while the opinions of thousands who have spent years in and about the factories, who are well acquainted with the operations of the system, are passed by and unnoticed. Verily, "this is a great country."

We regret to learn that...

We regret to learn that the new and commodious building nearly completed at Brook Farm,2 for the use of the Association, has been destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at ten thousand dollars, without any insurance. What loss the Association will directly sustain, we do not know; but their affairs must be very much disarranged, and their prospects for the season greatly blighted. We look upon the philanthropic band at Brook Farm with interest and hope; and in any adversity they may meet with, they should receive the aid and sympathy of all true reformers.

Note: spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified.

• 1This piece is a response to a critical article in the Lowell Courier from 2 March 1846, entitled "The Voice of Industry in the Wilderness of Sin."
• 2Brook Farm was a cooperative community based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was partly inspired by the ideas of transcendentalism and then later by Fourierism, especially Fourier's idea of a Phalanstery. The Brook Farmers also published the reform-minded magazine The Harbinger starting in 1845, which the Voice occasionally reprinted articles from.