Evening star., 1897-03-20
RAISING FAMILIES FOR PROFIT.
How Connecticut Mill Operatives Pro-
vide for Their Old Age.

Slue LOT Ine1r Old Age.
Putnam. Conn, Corr. New York Times
The cable dispatches telling of the pro-
posal of the French government to offer
premiums for large families, hoping by this
inducement to restore the native population
10 ITS size of quarter of a century ago
merely broach, as something novel, a sys-
tenn which has for reasons not of state
craft. but merely personal. long been in
operation in eastern Connecticut
In the mills, which are to be found wher-
ever in this hilly portion of the state there
is a water power, the workers are French
canadians. Big mills, with their hundreds
ana even thousands of operatives, are nu-
merous, ard little mills, each EMPLOYING
from twenty or thirty to 100 or 300 workers
OF poth sexes, are tucked down between
the nils in all sorts of possible and Seem
1ngly impossible spots
In the large mills is to be found a
sp1lhkllng OF women of other nationalities
out fully nirety per cent are French In
the smaller mills there are practically none
but French workmen
WHAT surprises the visitor who has come
out OF New England city like Hartford
or New Haven to see how cotton and wool
en- goods are made is the number of chill
dren in the factories. Should this visitor
ask the superintendent of a small mill to
point out the children of one family he VIII
name nalf a dozen in the room in which no
happens to be; indicate another on the
stairs and four or five more in the yarious
worsrOOm
The father and mother may or NAV not
be workers in the factory If the family is
large enough the mother is the housekcep-
er, and the onerouS duty of the father is TO
escort his offspring to and from work He
goes to the mill with them in the morning
and knows that they are all inside the gate
before the hour for starting the ma chinery
AT noon ne conveys them home to dinner
ana back to the factory. AT night he may
an imperative duty. On pay day he comes
to the factory and draws the wages of all
of them
A mile from Dayville, and about five
miles from this city, Is a factory from
which man, who can neither read nor
write, draws $40 a month for the
labor of his children. The size of his fam
lily Is indicated by an extract from the
factory books showing that the children
earn from 81 to $3.50 a week
This Freachman is merely one of many
who have found profit in a large family
He is now making hay while the sun
Shines and iE few years he will retire
to farm in Canada with from $1,000 to
$2.0OD In his canvas bag. There he vii,
live. nabob among his people, the re-
mainder of his life.
This child farming is but one act of the
drama of French factory life. The years
during which all the children work and
the father draws the wages are necessarily
few. The fund for life of ease must be
fourteen is the source of greatest profit is
ready to marry one of her own class at
sixteen. and she does so promptly. The
new husband and wife will work on in the
mill for the next five years. with occasional
Interruptions when there are additions to
the family, and then they vanish. They
have gathered their savings and gone to
Canada to raise family They make
fuss about the matter 1t is the regular
thing. Ten years later, or even sooner,
they will be back with a big string of boys
and girls to earn money for them: they will
gather the profits and retire for life to the
Canadian farm, Their fathers and moth
ers did.
1t is noticeable OF late years that the
operatives are more in haste to be rich
than formerly. They rush back to the fac
tories with smaller families than were
common twenty years ago. Indeed, it is
rarely now that families of more than thir-
teen are found, and few in the factory tene-
ments exceed ten IN number.