Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-11-20
CHILD LABOR IN ILLINOIS.
A Shocking State of Affairs Reported
by Women's observation-disclosures the
Chief Offender

a Shocking State of Affairs Reported
by Women;s Federation-Chicago the
Chief Offender.
The Illinois factory child, trained
neither in the school room or the work
shop, promises in coming maturity to
be little more than an addition to the
mass of wretched, helpless unskilled
labor"
This salient sentence serves as the
text of the report on child labor made
10 the Illinois Federation of Women's
clubs by it's industrial committee. The
Icommitte, of which Mrs. Harriet Van
Der Naart, of Chicago, is the chairman,
reports a state of affairs which is not
much in advance of that of the child
labor factories in the south, and which
could probably be paralleled by cor
respondingly careful search in any of
the great manufacturing states. The
child laborers of Chicago, declares the
report, while losing the education of
schools, are not replacing it by the sys-
tematic training of an apprenticeship.
1.-The child who wraps caramels two
weeks before Christmas" says the re-
port, Carries uppers month in shoe
factory, delivers kilograms for sea-
son, or drifts to the stock yards for
few weeks, acquires no real trade, skill
or knowledge. Working in a half dozen
branches of industry in as many
months and this is by no means rare in
Chicago, the child is the worse for
every change because he is taught by
this experience that cheapness is the
one quality desired"
Many occupations are found to threat
en- mutilation and disease. In the cigar
factories the boys and girls became
saturated with nicotine, and during
some processes are obliged to stay in
rooms into which no fresh air can be
admitted. There are frequent accidents
among the children employed around
the dangerous machines used in paper
box making. In paint works, soap
works. chemical works. rubber works
and photograph shops, absorption OF
roison through the skin is unavoidable
Many young boys in sweatshops are
buttonholers, and everyone develops
curvature of the spine sooner or later.
Those who run foot power machines
develop tuberculosis of the lungs or in
testines. The little "hand girls" devel-
Oh crooked backs over their hemming,
telling and sewing on of buttons, or
tuberculosis or other disorders over the
footpower machines. Mutilations are
common in the stamping industry, in
which the fingers must be used to push
the tin under the descending die.
Children who work steadily in laun-
dries are reasonably sure Of lifelong
invalidism. The girl stands all day
with her back curved and her weight
thrown on her left foot while she starts
and stops the machine with her right
Mangle accidents are not uncommon
A peculiarly diabolical assortment OF
dangers is possible in the glass factor
| les, rising from flying particles OF bro
ken glass and the rapidly moving long
handles of the carriers. The proper
ttion of blind and partially blind child
rem is unusually large in glass factory
communities. Night work is custom
airy. The children are obliged to keep
on foot when staggering with sleep, ana
collisions are frequent, Children work
| in the excessive heat of the ovens all
night and go home half clad, tired, hun
CRY and sleepy in the winter dawn.
New York, Ohio and New Jersey all
have laws preventing the night work
| of children. Illinois also permits child
rem to work who cannot read In any
language, who have never attended any
school She demands no educational
tset before beginning work such as IS
demanded in twenty other states. Inc
number Of child laborers has doubled
since 1897. There are now twenty thou
sand children under fourteen working
in Illinois factories, mainly in Chicago.
Thus" says the report, lis Illinois
ieopardizing the health, the intelligence
and the welfare OF her future citizens
for the sake of the mere pittance that
the child receives And what Is this
pittance? At liberal estimate it
would average in Chicago $3.50 a week,
from which must be deducted go cents
a week for car fare. But what Oh lhe
loss of vigor resulting, in the factory
I child from the effort of human muscle
to keep pace with the relentless energy
| of the machine? This severe nervous
strain comes at the time of adolescence,
when not only physically, but spirit
ualIy and mentally, the child is awak-
ened to new and larger life. Ii his
powers are stunted at this time, dull,
ineffective life must follow.
What is the popular objection
brought against legislation which Inn
its child labor? 1t is that the family
or widowed mother needs the wage OF
the child. The factory inspectors and
the charitable agencies agree that this
necessity is very largely overestimated
and that the majority of the children
are nut to work merely to add to the
family income. But even Ii the neces-
sity exists, is it an intelligent and eco
nomic method of procedure for the
state to allow the sacrifice of so large a
number of it's future citizens for the
s,rpport of few needy families?
The committee has prepared a new
child labor bill, for which 1t asks the
federations endorsement. 1t is de-
signed to prevent the employment OF
children under fourteen, to prevent the
i night employment of children and 70
reduce illiteracy.
A MilIionaire's Conviction.