New-York tribune., 1902-11-16
CHILD. LABOR IN ILLINOIS.
A SHOCKING STATE OF AFFAIRS REPORTED
BY WON1EN'S OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
THE CHIEF OFFENDER.

The Illinois factory child. trained neither in the
schoolroom the workshop. promises in com
ing maturity TO hc little more than addition
10 the mass of wrctched helpless. unskiled labor.
This salient sentence the text of the
report on child labor made the Illinois Fedora
tion Of women's Clubs by its industrial commit
tee. The committee. Of which Mrs. Harriet Van
Der Vaart. Of Chicago. is the chairman. reports a
state Of affairs which is not much in advance OF
that in the child labor factories in the South, and
which could probably be paraIeIed by a corre-
spOndingy careful search in any Of the great man
ufacturing States. The child Iaborers of Chicago.
declares the report. while losing the education of
schools. not replacing il by the systematic
training of apprenticeship.
The child who wraps caramels for two weeks
before Christmas says the report, carries uppers
a month in a shoe factory delivers telegrams a
season drifts the stockyards for n few weeks.
acquires real trade skill or knowledge. Work
ing In half dozen branches of industry in many
months and this is by no means rare in Chicago,
the child is the worse for every change. because
hA is taught by this experience that cheapness is
the quality desired.
Many occupations are found to threaten -mutia-
ton and disease In cigar factories the boys and
girls employed become saturated with nicotine, and
during some processes Obliged to stay in rooms
into which fresh air can be admitted There
are frequent accidents among the children en-
ployed around the dangerous machines used in
paper box making In paint works, soap works.
chemical works rubber works and photograph
shops absorption of poison through the skin Is
unavoidable Many young boys in swentshops are
buttonholers. and every develops curvature
OF the spine later. Those who run foot
power machines develop tuberculosis of the lungs
or intestines. The little hand girls develop
crooked backs their hemming. telling and
sewing on of buttons tuberculosis or other dis
orders over the foorpOwer machines. MutilatiOns
common In the stamping industry, in which
the fingers must be used to push the tim under
the descending die
children who work steadily in laundries are rea-
sOnably of lifelong invalidism. The girl stands
all day with her back curved and her weight
thrown her left foot while she starts and stops
the machine with her right Mangle accidents are
not uncommon. \ peculiarly diabOlical assOrt-
ment of dangers Is possible in the glass factories
rising from fiying particles of broken glass and
the rapidly moving long handles OF the carriers
The proportion of blind and partially blind children
is unusually large in glass factory communities
Night work is customary. The children are
/ obliged to keep foot when staggering with
sleep, and collisions are frequent Children work
In the excessive heat of the all night ant
home half clad tired. hungry and sleepy In thC
winter dawn. New-YOFk Ohio and NeW-,Jersey
I all have laws preventing the night work OF chill
, dren. Illinois also permits children to work wnC
cannot read In any language. who have never
attended any school She demands educatOna
test before beginning work. such as is demanded
In twenty other states The number Of child la
borers has doubled since 1897 There are nov
twenty thousand children under fourteen wurkins
IN Illinois factories. mainly In Chicago.
Thus, says the report, lis Illinois ieopardizins