ILLUSTRATIONS
| These workers are the servants of civilization | [Frontispiece] |
| PAGE | |
| The work which men do inevitably groups them together | [10] |
| Not many of us stop to consider the man who made possible the white bread that we eat | [18] |
| The worker in these mills is a worker and little or nothing else | [42] |
| The workers on the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue | [50] |
| We forget the men who are toiling underground | [66] |
| The New U. S. Bureau of Mines Rescue Car | [74] |
| Commerce and transportation are dependent upon the steel workers | [82] |
| The church must preach from the text “A man is more precious than a bar of steel” | [90] |
| Living upon the canal-boats and barges are the families of the workers | [106] |
| The cigarmakers carry no moral enthusiasm into their trade | [122] |
| The casual workers are the true servants of humanity | [146] |
| In the army of laborers the girl and the woman are drafted | [162] |
| Thousands of children in America are doing work which they ought not to do | [186] |
| A Russian Forum in session in the Church of All Nations, Boston | [194] |
| The Church of All Nations provided a sleeping place for the unemployed | [202] |
“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.”
FOREWORD
A friend said to me this last week, “There are two things that I instinctively distrust, one is prophecy, the other is statistics. Now that the war has lengthened into the fourth year and America has taken her place by the side of the Allies, I find my gorge rising every time any one attempts a prophecy and quotes statistics. All prophecies have proved false and statistics are utterly unreliable. Even the clocks have been made to lie by official decree.”
Granted that my friend is pessimistic, at the same time we must all sympathize with him in this feeling. In writing this book, I have tried to keep out of the realm of prophecy and have used just as few statistics as possible. Most of the facts were secured by investigations made prior to August, 1914. I have endeavored to check up every statement with all the reports I could secure from the Department of Labor at Washington, through the Survey and the New Republic, and through other sources. I feel reasonably certain that all the statements concerning conditions will bear investigation and are substantially correct. If there are discrepancies, it will be found after making due allowance for the judgment of others, that they are due to changes brought about by unusual conditions in industry. The principles are unchanged and it is upon these that I have attempted to place the most emphasis. Concrete facts are but illustrative of the principle involved. Conditions affect cases but leave principles undisturbed.
I am greatly indebted to the help in research given me by Miss Lucy Gardner, of Salem, Massachusetts. As far as possible I have given credit to the proper authorities for material used. If I have failed to do so I take this opportunity of acknowledging my indebtedness to all unknown authors and authorities who have contributed in any way.