Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-05-22
Makers of Glass,
Destroyers of Boys

florence Kelly, in Charites.-The
New Jersey child labor law of 1905
prohibited the employment of boys
under the age OF fourteen years In
manufacture. 1t did not, however.
prohibit work at night for boys who
had reached this age
The writer has recently visited
several glass-manufacturing towns
in Cumberland county for the purpose
Of observing the effects of the new
law in relation to the glass bottle in
dustry, in which work at night has al
ways been common, if not formerly
actually universal
For boys between fourteen and
sixteen yearse OF age, as for all the
adult employees, the working hours
are from $50 in the evening until 2
or O'Clock in the morning, the clos
ing time varying in different works.
Night work, heat, speed, and pres.
sure are terribly wearing for growing
boys fourteen years of age. The men
by whose side the boys work com
plain OF fatigue, exhaustion and per-
mainly impaired heartily by reason OF
the strain of night work So fully do
they appreciate the dangers attending
it that no blower sends his son 10
the glass house to work.
Only orphan sons of blowers are
among the carriers, moulders and
CATERERS in the glass bottle works.
Boys from certain orphan asylums
and reformatories in New York and
Philadelphia have long been imported
into New Jersey to supply the deartn
.feated by the cruel hardships attend
ing night work
An employment bureau in New
York has sent to Cumberland county
numbers of boys whose board in la
borer's families is guaranteed by the
company and deducted from the boys
wages. These imported boys are
under no restraint by day or by night
The heat, strain, speed and night
work are accountable for much seri-
Gus lness among boys workingin the
glass trade. rheumatism. nervous
dyspepsia and pneumonia running
into tuberculosis are the characters.
tic disorders from which glass-blow
ers of all ages suffer.
The moral effects of night work up
on the boys are everywhere deplored
by the men with whom they work,
Said one blower: A glass-house at
night amt a place where any boys
hears any good The boys at the
works know things that men twenty
five years old would be better for not
showing"
The total effect upon the glass
house work upon the human frame Il
indicated by the short trade life or
the men. In response to the request
of the writer hat a foreman point
out the Gu men at work one was
shown Serving among the boys as
carrier) who was said to be almost
fifty" And one very old blower
was singled out as probably the
Oldest glassblower in the state" who
was approaching ffty-five.
The simple fact IS that 40 boy
should ever be employed at night n
any glass works. There is no indus
trial need for boys so employed. Not
only are abundant supplies Of unem.
ployed unskflled men to be had 20
do the work of the boys. but there
are on the market and in successful
use machines which supRlant the
labor Of boys Is is expensive to in
stan these machines, and unenter
Pricing employers in New jersey
have preferred TO use BOYS at 45
cents or CO cents night 10 employ
men at 81 to 1875 a night rather
than incur the initial expense Of in.
stalling machines which enterpr.sIne
rivals in Ohit are already using with
satisfaction
The Introduction cf machinery 10
do the work of boz 5 has gone for
ward far more rapidly in Ohio and
illinois where boys under the age or
sixteen years ar. not allowed TO
work in manufacture Of any form AZ
ter Z O'Clock in the evening
II is not, however, necessary to 90
to Ohio and Illinois for proof that II
is needless destruction Of boys to re
duire them to work at night The
best equipped glass factory In Cu1r
oerland county. y j. employs neither
boys nor men after five O'Clock IN