Six big factories in all, some on one side of the state line and some on the other, daily breathed in their live current of operatives and exhaled them again to fill the litter of flimsy shanties.

The Hardwick mill to which they now came consisted of a number of large, red brick buildings, joined by covered passage-ways, abutting on one of those sullen pools Johnnie had noted the night before, the yard enclosed by a tight board fence, so high that the operatives in the first-and second-floor rooms could not see the street.

But the necessity of keeping dust out of the machinery, the inconvenience of having flying ends carried toward it, closed every window in the big factory, and the operatives gasped in the early heat, the odour of oil, the exhausted air.

Perspiration dripped from white faces as the operatives stood listlessly at their looms, or the children straggled back and forth in the narrow lanes between the frames, tending the endlessly turning spools.

The houses of the operatives were set up haphazard and the village was denied all beauty.

It was not yet time for the mill operatives to be out; but as he glanced eagerly in the direction of the buildings, the gates opened and the loom-fixers streamed forth.

The operatives sweated under their tasks and left the rooms, with their temperature of eighty-five, to come, drenched with perspiration, into the chill outside air.

There were three or four millowners in the company, and, when the conversation turned upon the state of trade, one of them said, "I admit that there is a great deal of distress, but we are not so badly off yet as to drive the operatives to work for reasonable wages.

I spent an interesting half-hour with the secretary, after which I went to see the factory operatives at work upon Preston Moor.

Unlike the factory operatives around them, these men clashed, and kneaded, and sliced among the clay, as if they were working for a wager.

A few minutes' slow walk brought us to the spot, where some twenty of the hardier sort of operatives were at work in a damp clay cutting.

I should have been glad to stay longer with him, but my time was up; so I came away from the town, thus ending my last ramble amongst the unemployed operatives of Wigan.

In The Times of April 14, 1862, appeared the first of a series of letters, pleading the cause of the distressed operatives.

And thus originated the first general subscription for the cotton operatives, and which, before it closed, reached the magnificent sum of 528 pounds,336, 9s.

Then you have the shopkeeping class descending to the rank of the operatives.

With immense energy small industries were begun all over western China, often organized as co-operatives; roads and railways were builtbut with such resources would it ever be possible to throw the Japanese into the sea?

It was a standing mystery to the train-master, and to the rank and file, why Receiver Guilford had elected to ignore the fact that he was within three hours of a strike which promised to include at least four-fifths of his operatives; had taken no steps for defense, and had not confided, as it appeared, in the members of his own official staff.

Except for their foremen, each of these was run by slave operatives exclusively; and in the latter case, at least, all the slaves were owned by the company.

When J. Graves came from New England in 1848 to assume the management of this mill he found several negroes among the operatives, all of whom were on hire.

His first impulse was to replace all the negroes with whites; but before this was accomplished the newcomer was quite converted by their "activity and promptness," and he recommended that the number of black operatives be increased instead of diminished.

At the height of this régime, in 1851, the slave operatives numbered 158.

Likewise when the rope walk of Smith, Dorsey and Co. at New Orleans was offered for sale in 1820, fourteen slave operatives were included without mention of their families.

What reward shall we give unto the Lord for all the benefits He hath conferred upon us?God in His mercy prosper the work, and grant that these operatives may receive the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord!"

Even men whom on general grounds he disliked and despisedsuch as Lord Beaconsfield and Bishop Wilberforcefound a saving clause in his judgment if he could truthfully say, "He helped me with the chimney-sweeps," or, "He felt for the wretched operatives.

Some provision either of voluntary private or of public agencies to mediate between the parties in labor disputes and to facilitate voluntary arbitration has been made of late in most communities of the civilized world, including 32 of our states, and the nation as a whole particularly in respect to disputes between railroads and train operatives engaged in interstate commerce.