Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-24

the surrounding districts near Birmingham,
Manchester and other midland manufac-
turing towns. From time to time several
determined efforts have been made to or
ganize these women into trades union, so
as to afford them some protection against
the terrible sweating system under which
they labor; but usually the women have
proved too poor or too timid to assert their
rights The consequence has been that,
particularly in modern years, their condi-
ton has gone from bad to worse. and today
manys women over seventy years of age
stand at the forge from 6 in the morning
until IL o'clock at night pounding out tons
of nails and miles of enthusiastically forg-
ing their own letters.
Here are a few. particulars of these occu-
patons. CLEANED during recent visit to the
district:
One of these women when asked what
time she had in which to do her own house
work, replied:
I'VE do our 'ousework when we ought to
be sleepin ~
1t is really difficult to realize that these
conditions prevail in one of the richest
countries in the word. Tender young girls,
just entering on their thirteenth or four
teenth year. are apprenticed to the chain
making trade. and for several weeks they
are not given any wages. After this time,
If they prove skillful. they can earn from
81 to $1.2J per week. and they are kept at
this wage until able to do the full work OF
skilled la6orerS.
1t needs only a few months at these
MISUNDERSTANDING tasks before the bloom
and freshness of youth disappear from
their faces, which become from the fumes
of the fires sallow and dead-1ooking; their
figures become bent and "fat-chested,' and
the attainment of mature womanhood is
simply out of the question 49, rs-
80
1t is possible for these young girls after
two or three years steady work to attain
to the princeiy wage of 81 to $3.50 per
week. but 1t usually means working from 6
am. to pm, and then doing overtime"
up to midnight. There Is factory act"
of parliament in England against employ
ment for such long hours, but in the chain
making district factory acts are seldom re-
garded The inducement of little more
money to be earned by overtime employ
ment and the willingness Of employers to
take the risk of facing the law make par
liamentary regulations at Cradley Heath
more honored in the breach than the OBJ
servance.
The condition of women chainmakers.
however wretched it may be, is not looked
upon as half so bad as that of women en-
gagged in the trade of making nails. This
is probably one of the worst occupations in
the world for women. In addition to stand
ing-long hours over the forge, these women
are compelled to work by means of
treadle a huge sledge hammer called an
-"Oliver," which is employed to fatten the
heads of uais after their completion.
One old woman at Bromsgrove is still
engaged in the trade though she is over
seventy years of age. She has been at
work sixty-two years, having begun when
eight years old. She has been making on
an average of 1000 nails day and her
earning capacity is now 80 per week, out
of which she has to pay 80 cents week
for ''breeze"-that is, the small coal Tor the
forge. This old woman makes hobnails at
IL cents per thousand, thousand nails be-
ing reckoned at 1,1JO for good measure.
1t is seldom that women at this trade are