The labor-management conditions in Lowell’s textile/leather industries form the cornerstone of an on-line set of memoirs that I am preparing. For details, see website at: www.paulebolduc.com for details.
Hello,
My Dad, Uncle Albert and Aunt Florence all worked under the textile mill conditions, the rules and regulations of Lowell’s textile industry. Fortunately, they did not suffer any dismemberment while working there. But, this issue hits close to home for me.
So, after looking through the labor-management issues that made my hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts so rich for the industrialists, I, now, want to include this socioeconomic data in my set of memoirs covering the period from 1880 through the year 2000.
My basic question for you, if you can help, is the following: “How were industrial accidents including deaths, dismemberment, amputations, etc. handled in the past before OSHA?”
Did the Lowell Sun newspaper have a dedicated section of its newsprint on reports regarding industrial accidents in the mills of the city or of other cities such as Lawrence, Haverhill, etc.?
How did the public in general gain an appreciation and some knowledge of the textile and leather industries’ misdeeds, accidents and unfortunate happenings for more than one hundred years of operation? Who was guarding the corporate guards? Except for the writings of Reverend George Kenngott (see Record of a City, Macmillan Press), who was paying attention to the health and well-being of the people working under harsh, corporate conditions?
If a French-Canadian father (my ethnic background) of seven, young children lost an arm, an eye and a lower leg due to a bad machine malfunction during the Great American Depression ~ 1935, who paid his hospital bills, and who took care of his family? Could he hope to get his job back after a long period of recovery?
Was the guy simply SOL? Did he and his family receive any compensation? Did he lose his job because he was now a cripple?
Note: The Lowell Historical Society liked the question, but they claimed not to have any answers.
Thanks for any help,
Paul E. Bolduc, Ph.D.
