Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-03
INDUSTRIAL INQUIRY
Information in Regard to Sweatshops
in Chicago.
mrs. FLORENCE KELLEY TESTIFIES
Sad Condition of Women and
Children Employees.
r E 4 0 r M S n E Z D Z D
5. FLORENCE KELLEY TESTIFlES
r e + OF MS NEE Ed Z D

The industrial commission resumed the
taking OF testimony this morning in the
rooms at the Bliss building, opposite the
Capitol. During the next two weeks the
commission will take testimony daily on
miscellaneous subjects.
Mrs Florence Kelley, formerly for four
years chief factory Inspector of the state
of Illinois. under the Altgeld administra ton.
was the first to appear. Mrs. Kelley Is a
daughter of the late Representative Kelley
Of Pennsylvania, known as Pig Iron kel-
ley on account of his prominence in con-
necton with that industry.
SweatshOps In Chicago.
Mrs. Kelley testified concerning condi-
tons IN Chicago, first speaking of the
sweatshops in that city. She said that of
the 100000 factory workers in Illinois 49,
600 are in Cook county. She had found
nine nationalties represented in the sweat
shops German and Russian Jews, Bohe-
mians and Poles predominated IN numbers
and each of those nationalities were in
about equal proportions.
She had never found native Americans
in the sweatshops, though some of this
class We're engaged in manufacturing
clothing in their own homes and We're diff
cult to locate, although they formed the
most dangerous class of garment workers
Il
all the clothing sold in Chicago, she said,
was made in sweatshops there. There
was no other set of people who Were so
poor in Chicago as the garment workers.
Women in the sweatshops did not support
themselves by their work. Some of them
were married women and others widows
who received aid from charitable societies.
They had prosecuted many cases under
the law which forbade Children working
in the sweatshoDs without certificate
showing n
but children could get these certificates
at any age, so that today a thousand little
girls are working in the sweatshops there
The dream of the sweatshop worker was
that man, wife and four children might
make $40 the year round. but it was safe
t. say that among the Jewish and Italian
workers none of them ever secured so much
pay. Children frequently work for six
months without pay, with q promise that
they will at the end of that time get 81 a
week and later 50 or 81.
The workers in the sweatshop work about
three months at a stretch, with an equal
amount of idle time.
Iu-HeaIth of Women and Children.
Mrs. Kelley has for seven years resided
in the midst of the very poorest section Of
Chicago, where the sweatshops are located,
She has resided there in the Hull House,
where attempts have been made to organ
ize the sweatshop workers in unions, but it
lieved that law should be passed forbid
ding the manufacture Of clothing in tene-
ments the result of which, she thought.
would be that the clothing would be manu-
featured in factories under vastly better
conditions. At the end of season in the
clothing trade the children and women who
worked foot-power machinery showed a de-
plorable condition of health. She believed
the employment of children was increasing
law in illinois except that which requires
the protection of threshing machines. Even
fire escapes are not enforced by law. There
was fire escape law which was lately re-
pealed because 1t was said that 1t was so
worded that all fire escapes had TO be pur-
chased from the state senator who intro
duced and had the bill passed through the
Legislature.
In reply to questions Mrs. Kelley de-
scrihed the work being done in the Hull
House, where twenty-five people live, hav-
ing gone there to carry a work among
the workers in the sweating district with
the especial purpose to secure educational
facilities for the children. They had in
seven years been enabled to get only one
school for 1000 children and now have a
promise to get another school for 900
more children.
She approved the Sulzer bill in Congress
providing that the clothing trade be placed
under the jurisdiction Of the Treasury De-
partment as the cigar trade Is.
Mrs. Kelley recommended the New York
factory law as desirable one to secure
enacted in the various states. She hoped
to see the day when children would be
kept in schools and away from the factories
until they are sixteen years of age She
also believed in the eight-hour law. She
thought the public schools of Chicago were
very deficient in numbers. In one ward
there was no place in the schools for s 600
children, and in another for 5000. She had
known children in stores to be kept at
work from a. m. until midnight
hnr Id.
afternoon.