Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-05-16
Makers of Glass,
Destroyers Of Boys

florence Kelly, in Charities-The
New Jersey child labor law of 1908
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 to
the glass house to work
Only orphan sons of blowers are
among the carriers, moulders and
gatherers in the glass bottle works.
Boys from certain orphan asylums
and refOrmatories in New York and
Philadelphia have long been imported
Unto New Jersey to supply the dearth
,feated by the cruel hardships attend
ing night work
An employment bureau in New
York has sent to Cumberland county
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 serl-
Gus illness among boys workingin the
glass trade. Rheumatism, nervous
dyspepsia and pneumonia running
into tuberculosis are the characteris-
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
knowing"
The total effect upon the glass
house work upon the human frame Is
indicate ! by the short trade life Of
the men. In response to the request
Of the writer that a foreman point
out the old men at work one was
shown Serving among the boys as a
carrier) who was said to be almost
fifty" And one very old blower
was singled out as probably the
oldest gIass-blower in the state" who
was approaching fifty-five.
The simple fact is that no 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-
pIoyed unskilled men to be had 10
do the work of the boys, but there
are on the market and in successful
use machines which supplant the
labor of boys. Is is expensive to in
stall these machines, and unenter
pricing employers in New Jersey
have preferred to use boys at 43
cents or SO cents a night, to employ
men at 81 to S125 a night, rather
than incur the initial expense Of In
stalling machines which enterprisfns
rivals in Ohio are already using with
satisfaction.
The introduction of machinery TO
do the work of boys has gone for
ward far more rapidly in Ohio and
Illinois where boys under the age or
sixteen years are not allowed to
work in manufacture Of any form al
ter O clock in the evening.
1t is not, however, necessary to go
to Ohio and Illinois for proof that It
is needless destruction Of boys to re
quire them to work at night The
best equipped glass factory in Cum
berland county, n. J., employs neither
boys nor men after five o'clock In