The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-20
WOMEN CIGARMAKERs.


d careful investigation for the Alliance
/ Employment Bureau Of the conditions
connected with cigarmaking as carried
/ IN in New York.
/ 'Cigarnlaking was formerly carried on
in tenement houses, where the whole
/ family-s0mestime including even
Z children seven and eight years old
! took part in the work" says DR.. Rob
bins. The tenement house manu-
! facture Of cigars has been largely done,
away with through the Introduction o.
! the suction table and the bunch making
machine, and we now find the cigar
makers at work in factories, some of
which are very large. and employ
several hundred or a thousand hands.
! The workers are BOhemians, Italians
and Russian Jews, and men, women and
girls are employed.
On the ground floor of most of the
| factories one finds the shippers and
bOokers at work, getting the tobacco
ready for the cigarmakers. They are
generally women and girls who have
not been long in the country; 'greeners''
they call themselves. There will be
found, perhaps, a hundred and fifty of
| them in one room. They are paid by
the day, and the work is carried OH
under needlessly bad conditions. The
law requires two hundred and fifty
cubic feet of air space for each worker.
This is far too little; five hundred cubic
feet would be none too much. To make
matters worse, the law says nothing as
to where this air space shall be, and as
it is convenient for the foreman who
oversees the work to have the girls
near together they are often crowded
into one end of the room, while the
cubic feet of air space required by law
are at the other end of the room which
is occupied by tobacco that emits a
rank, overpowering odor.
1T Is matter Of convenience to have
the tobacco near at hand, but con-
sideration Of the welfare Of the en-
polyes at once that the tobacco should
be stored in the cellar, and brought up
only when needed. The law should be
modified so as to require certain air
space around each worker, and so pre-
vent the budding together of the wom-
en-. The air of the room seems to the
casual visitor intolerably sitting. The
windows are generally not opened, very
little, both because the tobacco must not
be allowed to become dry, and because,
| if the windows are opened, some of the
workers are sure to object to the
| draught. There should be a law re-
! quiring artificial ventilation by means
! Of an exhaust fan. The present law
applies only to factories where there is
dust making machinery and it should
! be extended to include making employ
ments. In the rooms where the tobacco
is being stripped the air is so laden with
! tobacco dust that any one coming in
| from the outside air is obliged to cough
| almost constantly. Where the hygiene
! is SO bad the women naturally are pale
and appear to be in poor physical con-
dition. They are always spoken Of with
Pity by the girls esmplOyed at either
pity by the girls employed at either
work at 735 o'clock, and stop at G..
They are seldom paid more than IS or
| IS week. and their wages are some
| times as low as $s'a week. The strip
pers are not admitted to the cigar
makers union.
THE bunchmakers generally pay 81
to he taught their trade, and they are
from three to six weeks In learning it,
The cigarmakers pay $40. and they are
| also several weeks in learning. The
bunchmakers and cigarmakers are paid
| by the thousand cigars. The skill Of
the girls varies greatly. Some Of them
are able to earn only "a or IS a week
after years Of work, while others give,
as their weekly wages. So. $12 or even.
$15. One girl, who sometimes earned
! $40 a week. has been employed only
q year at the work. The first wage
! paid is sometimes as low as 81 a week.
while quicker girls are able TO earn 81
during their first week On the cheap
est grade Of work the girls work in
deppndently at the suction tables; on a
little better grade of work one bunch
maker, who gets the tobacco in shape
for the final covering put on by the
cigarmakers.
The first observation made in visit
ing the factories is that the girls In
their haste put the cigars into their
mouths to bite off the ends. They are
provided with knives, but a girl finds
it quicker to use her teeth than to stop
to pick up a knife. To make fair
wage the speed at which she works
must be very great, and as a result of
her haste she will often sit all day
with her mouth full Of bits Of tobacco.
This is not only a hardship to the girl,
but since she bites off the end the
smoker puts into his mouth the possible
danger to him from the hygienlC point
of view does not need comment.
1.-THE general condition of the cigar
factories could improved by pressure
brought to bear upon those employers
who do not of themselves feel inclined
to look after the best interests of their
employees The floors in some Of the
factories are extremely dirty and the
rooms are very dingy. In one factory
the inspector ordered that the walls be
Whitewashed, and one of the girls said
later that it was much easier to work
after the room had been made lighter
and more cheerful. On cloudy days in
some Of the factories it is necessary to
burn gas, and the heat from the gas
adds to the discomfort caused by the
smell of tobacco in the unventiated
rooms. There are no dressing rooms for
the employees; a small space where the
clothing is hung is simply partioned off
from the main room.
THE cigarmakers are allowed con-
siderable latitude as to hours At noon