The Washington herald., 1906-12-09
CHILD LABOR IN MILLS.
Twelve Hours at Night for 80 Cents,
and Mile Walk Home.

and MiIe Walk Home.
Prom the Philadelphia Public Ledger
by working two shifts day we
get our money for 8 per cent.
In these words T. silk manufacturer
In the hard coal regions summed up all
Of the reasons which result IN the bar
barisms Of the silk mill night shifts.
Throughout the hard coal field silk
mills have been set up in every little
town to take advantage OF the cheap
labor" and because children are so
very cheap and parents so very indif-
ferent the manufacturers work their
mills days and night, and by using the
machinery twice each day they get
their money for 8 per cent"
All night long children stand by the
frames and work-little children who
should be in bed with the sun. In 1902
the Anthracite Strike Commission
found Helen Sissack "a mite Of a-girl
who. for a year. had been working
might shifts" She gave her age as
eleven. For twelve hours she toiled in
this mill. then walked over a mile Of
barren fields to her home For this
labor she received 8 cents an hour.
A visitor to one of the mills reports
that many Of the children on the night
shift have to tie back their skirts 10
keep them from catching in the ma
chfnery when they lean over.
It is scarcely two months since the
writer stood al midnight near one Of
these silk mills and saw a girl, with
dresses to her knees. come out Of the
min and go off into the night with a
gang of coarse men and boys
The night work is very hard and try
ing
said one boy. u used to work in
the mill, but I went to- "a breaker last
summer The mills all right for a
while but yer back gets sore and yer
feet ache. and then sometimes you get
rotten silk. Amt so bad when you get
good silk. but when you get rotten silk
its tough.
One chilly morning IN the carly
spring when the wind was bowling and
the snow falling thickly. tiny girl
crept toward fhe Priceberg mill, on the
outskirts of Scranton. She had moth
ing over her fimsy dress except a little
shawl which served as a covering for
her head and shoulders. II was 6.15
and the night shift was still working:
therefore she stood by the wall Of t44e
mill and waited.
How old are your l asked
Fourteen
It seemed wrong. for she was such a
little thing.
How long have you been working
here?'
Three years and a half"
How old were you when you start
ed2'
Thirteen"
In the meantime the law has ad-
vanced the age one year. from thirteen
10 fourteen IF the mite Of humanity
has aged only one year in the last three
and a half calendar years, what viii
her progress be by 1903? After serv-
ing this hard apprenticeship Of three
and a half years her wages were $3.50
week. hut then she was compare
lively fortunate. for the beginners get
but s. a week
Then IL was $50 and time for the
night SHIFT 10 leave. but no whistle
sounded. and not until twenty minutes
later did the night shift begin 10 troop
out and mingie with those on the day
shift They had worked twenty min
utes over their allotted twelve hours 70
get up their ends"
on the night shift were number Of
boys for il is harder 10 get girls by
night than by day. TWO brothers were
particularly interesting. One looked
fully fifteen; he was strong and we'll
grown. The other was very small
not up 10 his brothers shoulders.
How old are you fellOwsZ"
sixteen"
Are YOU brothers?'
yep"
Twins
Nope"
Both sixteen"
yep"
When the day shift and the night
shift come together one was at a loss
to tell them apart. The might shift
ers' looked tired and wan after twelve
hours Of toll; but the day shifters"
looked tired and wan before their toll
was begun. 20 the factory owner they
differed only because one had an affi-
davit OF fourteen ana the other an affi-
davit Of sixteen years of age.
But in the early morning snow both
shifts left footprints that measured
seven and one-haf inches.