The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-07-01
women TO make. WAR
ON CHILD LABOR EVIL
=
Reports Show that There Are
Nearly Two Million Child
Toilers in the Land.
Terrible Conditions Surround
Infant Workers in Their
Employment.

ing of the Federal Societies of Ply
mouth church in this city yesterday
the feature of the program was an ad-
dress by Miss Margaret F. Dreier on
Child Labor" Miss Dreier is the pres
ident Of the New York Association for
Household Research, chairman of the
legislative committee of>the Woman's
Municipal league of New York and
lately assumed the presidency of the
Woman's Trade league of New York.
Miss Dreier calle dthe attention of
those present to the difference between
fifty years ago to the factory conditions
existing today and briefly reviewed the
system Of apprenticeship in the work.
shops before the introduction of ma
chinery. Because of the introduction
Of machinery, steam and electricity it
was possible to employ children to
tend the machinery and thus cd the
work which in former years had to
be accomplished by the skilled ex-
perience of the workingman.
Referring specifically to child labor,
she said in part:
If we were to make the statement to
some men knowing nothing of our land
and country that We had 100000
children working for us, surely the
answer would be, how poverty stricken
must be your land! With what rugged
elements of nature are you struggling
that it is necessary to call upon a
million and half children to do your
work? And what is that We, mean
by child labor? We mean little child
rem of ten and eleven years of age
working in factories for ten, eleven
and twelve hours a day, for eight and
ten hours a night; working in tenement
houses as many hours and as long as
their physical strength permits. And
what is it that they do?
''They tend machines, which means
that two movements of the hands a
second constitutes their work. We
kno wthe conditions of the canning
factories We know the condition Of the
the glass factories. where little boys
who carry the blown glass from the
hot eyens toAsthe cooling refTigerators
4afe Ess Know ths con
ditions Of the cotton mills in the south,
nor must We forget that many Of them
are run with northern capital, but all
this may seem far removed from
Brooklyn, and yet within twelve
blocks Of this house there is a fac
tory employing little girls of ten years
for twelve hours day for a dollar a
week: Very near there is anothere fac
tory where the boys are kept in water
nearly halfway up to their knees, and
farther out In Brooklyn there is a mill
where little girls Of eleven and twelve
years are found working, running in
their bare feet in water half an inch
in depth, because at a certain stage OF
manufacture the material has to be
kept moist.
"And what else do they do? They
are pulling basting threads in the tene-
cheap garments; they are arranging
the petals of artificial flowers; they are
sorting beads; they are pasting boxes,
They cd more than that. know Of a
room where dozen or more little
children are seated on the floor, sur
rounded by barrels, and in those bar
rels is found human hair; matted, tan
gled and blood stained-you can ina
gine the condition, for it is not my
hair or yours that is cut off in the
hour Of death.
ITO many of us women all this ques-
ton Of child labor has seemed to be-
long to the question Of economics. We
have been told that there is a great
law of supply and demand to which
We are to bow down and sell our souls
But If We stop and think, it is the
moral law that is being violated wrere
we deprive little children to grow to
manhood and womanhood. We know
that the only lasting basis for econom-
ic law is the moral law. on which it
must rest. We have pledged our al
the law of eternal Righteousness.
"How are these million and half of
children who live daily in the sight of
the greed of man ever to understand
the love Of God, and. If We, could bring
credentials? The cheap garments
that message to them. what are our
which we wear and which we have
bought at the cost Of their lives. Some
of you, perhaps. remember the story
told by Mr.. Rils of the little girl who
was hungry and i'll clad and who was
asked what she wanted most and an
swered, "A pair Of red Shoes and she
got those red shoes, an dwhy? Be-
cause those red shoes were the only
intelligent language into which we
could translate Gods message of love
to that little girl. And what other
meaning has life but that We are here
to interpret his love, to translate 1t
into a thousand dialects and to learn
to speak it so that another may UNDER
stand" .- :. 49,. IL
Miss Dreier offered the suggestion
that only goods bearing a union label
be bought, as these labels alone guar
anteed that the work was ont done
by child labor. .rsssz Z u j. .sstsee g..
ORE MOVES FREELY.
! CLEVELAND. June 2s The freight
market Is In good shape all around and &
uhnxvsT ~ indies finn nfs a. chan % 81 Ore