"without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts? " -confucius

what is the meaning of this quote?

What Confucius is trying to get across is, without basic human respect for other people, we're nothing but animals, and people must be civil towards each other to get anything done.

That's my two cents, I'm no expert however.

a. competition with other nations.

workers of lowell mills were greatly benefited for the waltham type of work which was more a paternalist kind, trying to protect the integrity of this little girls coming from small farmers and providing an adequate place of work, this in an effort to avoid the issues of bad place conditions and immorality that the people in bigger industrialized cities of great britain were experimenting.