If I were to tell you of the indescribably vile conditions under which the workers of those days toiled and lived, you would find it difficult to believe that human beings could bear such burdens and survive. If you are interested in investigating this subject, there are books in the libraries that will tell you the story in all its damning details. And this is the perspective from which you should view life. It is, to say the least, “unscientific” to exaggerate the weak spots in present-day civilization to such an extent as to convey the impression that the evils criticized are the worst that have ever been known, when a few hours’ study of history would be sufficient to disclose the fact that circumstances are now infinitely less oppressive than they have been in the past. At the same time the knowledge that things are incalculably better than they were even half a century ago, and that they are steadily improving, must not blind us to the fact that there is still much to be done--more perhaps than has yet been accomplished--and that it is our duty as good citizens to do our part in remedying all our social defects. But what are we to do? Let history answer. Do you imagine that it was the individual capitalist--the “heartless and greedy sweater”--who was responsible for all the improvements that have occurred in our industrial conditions? No, it was the worker himself who secured all these reforms. The worker, chiefly through his own effort, has brought about the reformation that we witness to-day, and it is the worker who must carry on the campaign until all the abuses of which we complain have been eliminated. It is from the pages of history that we learn the story of the past; it is to the pages of history that we must turn for advice as to what we must do in the future. Let us see what history tells us. In the first place we learn that, despite all the legal prohibitions then existing, the workers organized new associations. In the beginning these organizations were merely “friendly societies,” ostensibly formed to provide aid for the men in time of sickness or other misfortune; but behind this purpose was the inception of the peaceful revolution that was to rescue labor from the mire of degradation into which it had been so pitilessly thrust.