The Topeka state journal., 1897-09-08
TANNER PAYS.
Illinois Glass Company Allowed
to Name Factory Inspector
AS a Reward for Carrying AL
ton for Republican Ticket.
INDIGNATION rs FELT
At the Evident Intention tC
Ignore the Law
Enacted to Prevent the EN-.
plOyment of Child Labor.

! a strong Republican organ and Presi-
dent McKinley's warmest supporter in
Chicago, says:
fst@Goyernor Tanner has bowed to the
didtation of the Illinois Glass company
| and has put enforcement of the child
/ labor law into the hands of its ene-
/ miles,
[ This cry went up from all aggressive
{ opponents of child labor when Mrs.
Florence Kelley was removed last week
from the office of state factory inspec-
/ tor and Louis Arlington of Alton was
| appointed in her stead. 1t found in
spiration in three sources:
+ Mrs Kelley was removed peremptOr-
| lily and not politely after she and
| friends of the child labor law had been
assured that she would not be disturb
| ed. The Illinois Glass company had
| been her most persistent opponent
| during her four years of struggle to
make the child labor law effective in
| Illinois, and Alton was practically solid
| on the side of the glass company. Her
successor is a citizen of Alton, a man
| who has been identified with the glass
| industry all his life and a former en-
ploye of the Illinois Glass company.
The governor, the glass company
| and the friends of both have replied
with denial and recrimination. Careful
investigation at the home of Mr.. Ar
/ ringtOn and close scrutiny of the infiu-
ences which secured him the appoint
ment lead to the inevitable conclusion
that the burden of proof still remains
with the governor and the glass COM
pany.
If the Illinois Glass company and the
politicians who look to it for favor had
no interest in getting a friendly In
diam appointed to Mrs. Kelley's place,
why was Arlington named?
This question has been thrust per-
SiStently at the men who claim re-
sponsibility for Arrington's appoint
ment and has elected not one unequiv-
ocal answer; On the other hand, these
facts have been established:
The Illinois Glass company is AL
toms largest industrial enterprise and
the paramount influence in the COM
munity. Alton asked and was promis-
ed the naming of the factory inspector
as it's reward for helping to elect John
r. Tanner governor. This promise was
made, possibly and probably as a prom
Use, While John r. Tanner was only
candidate. He gave it as specific
pledge as soon as he was elected. That
was months before anyone suggested
to him the advisa bility of retaining
Mrs. Kelley in office.
The city of Alton gave the Republi-
can ticket a majority last fall for the
work achieved this result in a commun-
, ity numbering 10000 people asked no
greater favor than the appointment of
a factory inspector-a paltry office, from
the politicians point of view, for the
salary is only 81 500 a year. While
continuing to assure the friends of Mrs.
Kelley that she would not be disturbed,
Governor Tanner was ready to name
an Alton man in her stead as soon as
the rival cliques in Alton could agree on
man.
OF two aspirants Arlington was IA
vored by the glass company and Ar
rington's chief champion was John J.
Brenholt, attorney for the glass COM
pany.
These facts have been established by
interviews with John J. Brenholt, with
Senator D. r. Sparks and with George
NJ. Lewis, secretary and general man
ager of the Illinois Glass company.
T5NTr11
wherefores of all the points at issue in
wolves consideration of several matters
seemingly only remotely related and
masked in infinite detail.
The bearing of child labor laws in
general upon the glass making indus
try.
The mutual relations between glass
manufactures and the state officials,
who are charged with the enforcement
of statutes against child labor.
The application of conclusions de-
duced from experience in other states to
Illinois and in particular to Alton and
the Illinois Glass company.
The manufacture of glass is an in
dustry peculiarly susceptible to the ef-
feet of statutes against child labor. For
certain kinds of work in glass factories,
such as attending to the mOlds and car
rying roughly blown bottles and the
like from the blower to the neck finish
er and from the finisher to the anneal-
ing ovens, small boys always have been
employed.
GLASS manufacturers nave always
said they could net get along without
boys. Glass factorY employees have al
ways sided with the employers They
are the only trades unionists who have
never taken any positive stand in oppo-
sition to child labor and for obvious
reasons.
Men would take up too much room
in the necessarily circumScribed space
around a glass furnace. They would
not be so quick and agile in movement
and would demand more pay than could
be afforded for this work. If the pay
of these helpers We're raised, that of
glass blowers would have to FJe cut.
Therefore boys have always been in de-
mand in every glassmaking town in
the country. AS soon as boy is old
enough to run and to climb tree he
is old enough to work in a glass facto-
ry. The minimum age limit, therefore,
where there has been no restriction on
the employment of children has been
about years.
The work is not hard in the sense
that there is heavy lifting to do, but it
is carried on in the midst of intense
heat The temperature at the door of
a glass furnace is 1,200 degrees Fahren-
heit, and all work is done within few
feet of that opening.
Boys who go into a glass factory at
tender years are naturally from poor
families. Usually they are insufficient
ly clad. Often they must work at night.
Then they go from the presence of a
blazing furnace into the freezing at
mOSphere of winter and make their
way over frozen ground and snow to
homes maybe miles away. II is a fact
that can be demonstrated by inquiry in
any glass town that glass workers are
short-liVed. Most of them die before
80. Pneumonia and consumption take
most of them. Add to this the fact
that boys find readiest employment in
glass factories just at the age when
they most need to go to school, and that
the moral and mental influences of
their environment at work are of the
worst, and it is obvious why earnest
enforcers of child labor laws, where
such exist, give good deal of atten-
ton to glass factories.
In conclusion, as to Governor Tan