The Workingman and the Synagogue (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from The Workingman and the Synagogue

The difficulty of determining the limitations of the subject soon presented itself, for it was found that men who might properly be recorded as workingmen one day would be raised from a low estate and transformed over night into merchant princes and great manufacturers. Because it was impossible to differentiate between the body of permanent workers and thelarger body of workers, many of whom are in the transitional stage of preparation for positions as merchants and professional men, it seemed best to follow a good Old Jewish practice of leaving indefinite what can not be defined.

The study of the Jewish workingman disclosed the further fact that the workingmen are almost exclusively recruited from the recent immigrants, for with an almost negligible exception, it is stated that the Jewish immigrants of a past generation are themselves employers of labor, a fact which is not a fruit less cause of much bitterness on the part of the employe, who in the native town in Russia was recognized as far superior to the man who, by the change of fortune, is the employer in America.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Workingman and the Synagogue

In this district are to be found some of the largest industrial plants in the country, which explains the presence of an enormous laboring class. Almost every conceivable object is manufactured in this section, and all kinds of labor can be secured, from the skilled diamond cutter and steel engraver to "the hewer of wood and the drawer of water." Here men, women and children early and late hear the busy whirr of the machines as they earn their daily bread, or long to hear it, when loss of employment or a slack season make them feel more keenly the pinch of poverty. On the East Side all the glory and the grandeur of an industrial age are to be seen; the almost human sensitiveness and efficiency of machinery; the organization and equipment of great factories; the nice calculations of human and machine capacity; the great buildings for mercantile, industrial, educational and philanthropic purposes, the fruits of the splendid risks and bold adventures of progressive capitalists.

Here also flourish and multiply all the degradation and vice of an industrial age. Here are exhibited on all sides the remnants of spiritual beings turned to tools. Machines answer the anguish and sorrow of the workmen with a meaningless roar, and reply to their cry for sympathy and help with an incessant, unremitting cruel clamor. The diseases of occupation are here taken from the realm of the theoretical into that of such accurate prediction as to make it possible for the scientist to compute by age and number the percentage of deaths in the various trades. Here we see youths lashed to machines when society should have guaranteed them sunshine and play. Also "immorality is in the streets, now in the broad places and lieth in wait at every corner." (Prov. vii, 12.) On the one hand men and women are forced to live in homes which, because of the congestion, are like hovels. Loss of honor and self-respect are not unknown guests. Lack of leisure prevents the pursuit of self-culture through study and reflection.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.