f to escape factory labor. Windows were
often nailed down, and their raising forbidden even in the hottest
weather.

The most formidable and trustworthy arraignment of these conditions is
to be found in a pamphlet printed in 1834, the full title of which is as
follows: "An Address to the Working-men of New England, on the State of
Education, and on the Condition of the Producing Classes in Europe and
America."

The author of this pamphlet, a mechanic of some education, stirred to
the heart by the abuses he saw, made an exhaustive examination of the
New England mills; and he gives many details of the hours of labor, the
wages of employees, and the abuses of power which he found everywhere
among unscrupulous manufacturers. The principal value of his work lies
in this, and in his reprint of original documents like the "General
Rules of the Lowell Manufacturing Company," and "The Conditions on which
Help is hired by the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, Dover, N.H." These
conditions were so oppressive that in several cases revolt took
place,--usually unsuccessful, as no organization existed among the
women, and they were powerless to effect any marked change for the
better.

By 1835 chiefly the poorer order of workers filled the mills, but even
skilled labor made constant complaint of cruelties and injustices. Not
only were there distressing cases of cruelty to children, but outrage of
every kind had been found to exist among the women workers, whose wage
had been lowered till nearly at the point known to-day as the
subsistence point. Parents then, as now, gave false returns of age, and
caught greedily at the prospect of any earning by their children; and
any specific enactments as to schooling, etc., were still delayed.

These evils were not confined to New England, but existed at every point
where manufacturing was carried on. But New England was first to decide
on the necessity for some organized remonstrance and resistance, and
the first meeting to this end was held in February, 1831. Of this there
is no record; but the second, held in September, 1832, is given in the
first "Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor," issued in 1870.
Boston sent thirty delegates, and the workingmen of New York City
addressed a letter to the workers of the United States, showing that the
same causes of unrest and agitation existed at all points.

"These evils," they said, "arise from the moral obliquity of the
fastidious, and the cu