The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-10-03

A Demand for the Intervention OF the
Health Board

A Demand for the Intervention Of the
Health Board
Msesins Of the Workfnsmea Disease Breeding
Homes Of the Poor Cigar Makers The Ruin Of the
Trade.
From the New York Sun.
The following notice in English, Ger
man and Bohemian is being extensively
circulated among the %, 900 and more per
sons who IN this city are dependent upon
cigar making for their daily bread
THE CIGAR MAKERS Of the city are invited To At
u tend meeting of citizens TO be held on Sunday,
Sept 81, 1874, At4 O'Clock p. NJ in the Germania
sembly Room, 29l and 28S Bowery, to give a helping
hand BY their presence abolish the breeding places
for contagious diseases created chiefly by the manu-
tactunng VI cigars n tenement houses The means for
remedy shall he memorial 10 the Board Of Health,
with an illustration Of the evil Able speakers will
tend. THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS.
Under the Internal Revenue laws there
are registered as cigarmakers e. e., tech
nically, the bunch makers), employed at
licensed and registered manufactures,
about j, 1000 adult persons. With the ex-
ceptlon Of nationality to be hereafter
mentioned, women and children, though
employed III several branches of the bust
ness, are not registered rs operatives by
the United States officials That excep-
ton, and 1t may be worth while for the
womens rights agitators to take note Of it,
is In the case of the Bohemian women,
who from the skill acquired in the factories
at home, where their sex is almost wholly
employed at this business, have been the
chief workers, the Sculvic men being
only helpers. There are about 900 Bo-
hemian women registered as operative
cigarmakers, and between 1900 and 3, 200
men of the same stock. About 1000
German women are also employed. OF
the remaining half Of those registered over
5000 are Germans or German Poles.
There about 200 Americans, and perhaps
600 Cubans and Spaniards employed
There Is scarcely an Irishman III the trade
Besides the IA, 900 registered operatives
there are at least 10000 others, mainly
women and children, engaged in this oc-
cupation.
The hours of labor in the factories are
nine day, or ffty-fOur a week. The
prices paid range from So to S2l per thou
sand, according t. the quali-y and care re
qulred. In the factory, distinguished
from the tenement, the employer pays for
stripping the leaf The price of this
ranges from 81 to IS per thousand The
average may be fairly set down at Sl.5O.
He also employees a case" an average
Of one for every fifty Of the cigarmakers
proper. Such man will get about Sl2
week. The rental of building fit for
manufacturing purposes ranges from S3, 900
to 30, 900 year. The large majority are
in the nelghborhood Of Chatham square
and the lower Bowery.
THE BOHEMIAN QUARTER
of New York is on the east side, mainly
between Third avenue and Avenue ID, and
from First to Sixth street, as well as in
cluding parts Of Pitt, Christie, Ridge,
Lewis and Sheriff streets The cigar
makers tenements are mostly within those
limits, though there are five in Elizabeth
street, ON the west side of the Bowery,
and one up town as far as Seventy fifth
street, between First avenue and Avenue
A. In all there are ABOUT forty tenement
factories registered on theinternal revenue
books.
The tenement factories are all ON the
same plan, four stories above the base
ments, each containing four tenements,
invariably Of two rooms, opening into one
another, and a dark bedroom. These
houses are usually twenty-five feet by fifty.
and 30 the lighted rooms are as a rule ten
by ten feet in area. The dark room,
ventilated only from a small window in
the passage, is barely six feet square at
the utmost This gives sixteen tenements,
or thirty-two lighted and sixty-six dark
rooms, which with two back basement
tenements, generally with two rooms each,
make total of ifty-two rooms, excluding
the front Easements, which are commonly
used for lager beer saloon or a grocery
In these houses, when full, as they usually
are, will be found at least 100 workers.
Reference is had of course 10 the manu-
factories Of cigars.
WHERE DISEASE Is BRED.
Entering the narrow hail. into which the
stese stairs project close to the street door,
the olfactories are at once startled by
pungent odOr, so strong i'll some instances
as to make a sensitive person sneeze on
sight, or rather ON smell" This is, Of
course, from the tobacco. Ascending flight
after flight the guide stops at different
doors and inquiries for persons who live OF
are employed there. He leaves the door
OPcI 81 bA0t buC Ow1CA NCA VIM
accompanies him can take in the general
aspect Of the rooms without afousing sus-
picions OF intruding unduly on the cour-
tesy due the humblest, In all cases there
were young children and women at work;
in some of these we're also one or more
male adults. 1t was said by the veteran
operative who guided The S'tn reporters
tour, that in cold weather the odor was so
overpowering and pugnent, doors and win
dows being closed, that persons unaccus
toned thereto we're compelled to shut their
eyes in pain. Yet about four Thousand
persons eat, cook, and sleep, as well as
work, in these places. Young children fall
asleep from the narcotic effects of the per-
vading odor Women suffer greatly from
it, especially in diseases peculiar to the
sex. 1t is also prolific source Of eye di-
sease
A number of the principal cigar manu-
faeturers have taken to hiring these tene-
ments and subletting them to their en-
ployes, who are therefore compelled to live
in the same place and atmosphere as that
in which they work.
The occupation of tenements for this
purpose began about three years ago, but
until this year there were not over half
dozen 50 occupied. The system is grow
ing rapidly. With employers merely gov
erned by avarice, this is no wonder, when
the profits are considered.
THE EMPLOYERS PROFITS
Take them in order. In the first place,
the operatsve is, under this atrocious sys-
tenn, compelled to pay the employers fac
tory rent and furnish a profit thereon.
The shrewd manufacturer leases his tene-
ment, rents it to his own employees and
their families, charging for the tenements
described an average rent Of $l2 per
month, and % for the back basement. One
tenement is usually occupied for Office and