472 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



eil in favor of supporting General Butler, and 

 after the appointment of a State Committee of 

 Labor Reform, the principles of the party were 

 set forth in the following resolutions, which 

 were adopted : 



Whtreat, to the shame and disgrace of the Com- 

 monwealth of Massachusetts, and to the civilization 

 of the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of wom- 

 en and children are compelled by their poverty to 

 work among dangerous belting and machinery, in 

 overheated and badly-ventilated rooms, eleven, 

 twelve, and even fourteen hours per day, while in 

 England for more than a quarter of a century the ten- 

 hour system has ben in operation, and where no 

 child works more than five hours in any one day ; 

 and 



Whtreat, the Republican and Democratic parties, 

 through their conventions, their leading men, and 

 newspapers, have constantly and systematically ig- 

 nored, neglected, or sneered at, the claim of the fac- 

 tory operatives of Massachusetts for a ten-hour law ; 

 anu 



WTttreai, this measure is founded upon the wisest 

 principles of a true political economy as well as upon 

 the claims of justice and humanity its operation not 

 only tending to the improvement of the people 

 through better sanitary conditions, but acting as 

 such measures always have and will, upon the causes 

 that govern wages the purchasing power of wages 

 will be increased, and a better home market thus 

 opened for the varied products of our industry ; and 



Wktrtot, for the past twenty-five years hundreds 

 of petitions have been presented to the General 

 Court asking for effective legislation upon the subject 

 without avail : therefore 



Rttolced, That we, the factory operatives and their 

 friends in convention assembled, postponing all 

 other issues, do pledge ourselves 



1. To vote for no candidate for Governor, and no 

 candidate for Senator or Representative, who does 

 not stand pledged by his past acts, and free and ex- 

 plicit avowal of his purposes to vote for, and aid by 

 tiis voice and influence, a good and efficient ten-hour 

 law. 



2. To do our utmost to defeat or cause to bo de- 

 feated the nomination or election of those Senators 

 and Representatives who voted against the desired 

 legislation ; and we especially mark the Hon. Martin 

 Griffin, of Boston, chairman of the Labor Committee, 

 the Hon. Charles P. Stickney, of Fall Biter, and 

 Hon. N. W. Harmon, of Lawrence, who by their in- 

 fluence, treachery, and double-dealing, defeated the 

 bill, as unworthy the support or vote of any work- 

 ing-man, and we hereby call upon the working-men 

 of all parties to remember them and their colleagues, 



1 on. James Brown, of Bristol, Isaac H. Coe, of 

 New Bedford, Robert A. Fuller, of Cambridge, New- 

 ell Giles, of Essex, William II. Learned, of Boston, 

 Timothy F. Packard, of Hampden, George A. Tor- 

 roy, of Worcester, and Carroll D. Wright, of Read- 

 ing, as enemies and traitors to our cause. 



3. To return to the Senate and House of Represent- 

 atives those men, and those only, whose voice, 

 votes, and influence, have been given in behalf of 

 favorable labor legislation. 



4. To carry out these purposes, we call upon the 

 working-men to organize ten-hour leiurucs and lal>or- 

 clubs in every city and town in the Common" 



and to cause to be circulated copies of the ten-hour 

 hill, and the position of the several candidates upon 

 this question. 



Raolttd, That his Excellency the Governor, Win. 

 B. Washburn, in carefully ignoring the ten-hour 

 question, and m yielding to the demands of the cot- 

 ton lords, banking capitalists, tenement-house own- 

 ers; the removal of the officers of the Bureau of Sta- 

 tistics of Labor ; and the subsequent appointment 

 of a Senator who voted against the ten-hour Kill, 

 deserves the unqualified censure of all those Inter- 



ested in the measure, and of impartial labor investi- 

 gation. 



Jtaolrai, That the thanks of this convention arc 

 duo to the Hon. William Gray, Hon. Charles Cowlcy, 

 and Hon. H. K. Oliver, for their long-continued ad- 

 vocacy of our cause, and their gratuitous services 

 before the labor committee. 



SaolctJ, That we regard the recent changes made 

 by Governor Washburn in the Bureau of Labor. 

 his proposition to lift this department to n " I; 

 level," as a swindle upon labor investigations < 

 most atrocious and offensive character, mid IK 

 nomination by the Republican party, and the iudif- 

 of the Democratic organization to this crime 

 against labor, we shall regard as additional cvi 

 that we have nothing whatever to hope from either 

 of these two parties that they have been captured 

 by the capitalists as completely as the Whig and 

 Democratic organizations were controlled by South- 

 ern chattel slavery. 



1. That a hill for a ten-hour law be drawn up, such 

 as the intelligent factory-operatives desire to have 

 passed; that said bill 'be printed and circulated 

 throughout the State, so that if possible every adult 

 person in the State shall know what it is j that a 

 vigilance committee of from one to five in each city 

 and town in the State be appointed, whose duty it 

 shall be, first, to get an able and friendly lawyer to 

 draw up said bill, and to see that it u satisfactory to 

 the operatives aforesaid. 



>. To collect funds to pay the expenses of the ten- 

 hour campaign of 1878, and to see that said ten-hour 

 bill is thoroughly circulated. 



8. To fill vacancies, and to make sure that there is 

 one person at least in every city and town in the State 

 who is friendly to the movement, and who will faith- 

 fully attend to this business. 



4. That the chairman and executive of the Vijri- 

 lance Committee shall, bv letter or in person, place a 

 copy of said ten-hour bill before every candidate for 

 any State office, of whatever party, with the follow- 

 ing question, "Will you, if elected, sign (or sup- 

 port as mav be appropriated this bill, should it be 

 passed by the Massachusetts Legislature ? " and pub- 

 lish the result throughout the State. If no candidate 

 for Governor should answer in the affirm::!'.- 

 committee, or the executive committee, if one is ap- 

 pointed, should be instructed to call a State Conven- 

 tion to nominate an independent Labor ticket for 

 State officers. 



5. That the chairman of each city and town commit- 

 tee place said law before evcrv "candidate for State 

 Senator and Representative, with the following ques- 

 tion, " Will you, if elected, support and 



bill, without alteration or amendment?" and pub- 

 lish the result in all the local papers. If in any city 

 or town any one or more of the candidates for those 

 respective offices, or each and nil of the tickets, fail to 

 eivc an affirmative answer within a reasonable time, 

 let the committee sec to it that independent nomina- 

 tions are made, tickets printed and circulated at the 

 polls. 



If in any case nominations are likely to bo de- 

 layed till too late for the action above suggested, let 

 independent nominations bo modo, ticket* printed, 

 i-fc..'t;ikiiii_ f c.ire that persons be selected as candi- 

 dates, if practicable, from any of the p. 

 field, in preference towtrictly Labor men, so as to in- 

 duce the other parties to nominate and elect the same 

 men. 



The Pemoerntie Stnte Convention nrMiM<'d 

 in Worcester. September 8d, nnd was on-'im- 

 ized with John K. Tarbox, of Lawren. 

 lir.-Odent. The State ticket wns 

 by the nomination of Mayor William 

 of Roston, for Governor; William I,. Smith. <>f 

 Sprinorfield. fur T.ientonnnt-Governor : Hm.Ki- 

 min F. Mills, of Willinmetown, for Secretary 



