The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-06-24
STARTLING
DISCLOSURE
Homes Commission
Reveals the Awful
Conditions.
CONTINUED from Last Week.)
Breaking Up the Home.

tndl 'NocHillSIll Woulu replace lhC lanl-
lily and home life by glorified state
| free lunch counter and state founding
asylum" He makes no effort to prove
this statement, citing no authorities
But the Roosevelt Homes commission
brings figures to show that capitalism
through employing women and children.
is destroying home life, and, instead of
supplying the tolers with a free lunch,
is leaving them to starve.
In the face of many adverse circum
stances" says the Roosevelt Homes com.
mission, under which labor is often
employed, it is but natural that the i'm
mature employees and females should
suffer. The former not infrequently in
herit weak constitution, or acquire it
| by unsanitary homes and deficient food.
and quite number are obliged to enter
upon active work before their bodies arc
sufficiently developed. Page "A.
During the census year of 1900 there
/ NNIN - io-'lci tlllNllt tll NllutI ~ Ntdl =
of age employed in gainfu occupations !;
of these over 10000 were employed in
the textile industry; ZIG in the glass
industry; about 25,000 in mines and
quarries; $1,000 in the manufacture of
tobacco and cigars; over 10000 in wood
industries; over 1000, mostly girls, were
anDlova1 IN 1,unJ,;ou. . O0n ;n I,al
les; 100000 as walters and servants !;
$4,000 boys as messengers, and 10000
boys and girls in stores. Mr. John
Spargo, in the Bitter Cry of the Chill
dren, on page 2ll, gives the result of
his investigation covering 2l3 cases of
child labor with a view of determining
the cause. He found that 52 children
were employed because their father
earned less than $40 a week; in Is in
stances the father was out of employ
mcnt; in 10 the father was sick; i'll II
the father had died; in the father had
deserted the family; in 1 other in
stances the father was incorporate. He
concludes that in these l05 cases the
primary cause was poverty Page 76
"Dr. Annie S. Daniel, in speaking of
her personal observations in New York
says that child three years old can
~traightcn out the leaves of tobacco and
can stick together the materials which
form the stems of artificial flowers; at
4 he can put the cover on paper boxes
between and 6 he can sew on but
tons and pull basting threads. y girl
from s to II can finish trousers as well
as her mother. After she is II, if she
is of good size, she can earn more money
in factory. The boys perform prac-
tically the same work as the girls, eX
cept that they leave home earlier tC
find work on the street. DR.. Daniel has
actually seen two children under 3 years
IF age working in the tenements of New
York. These children earn from so cents
to $3.50 per week. Page II.
As a result of this grinding profits
from the babes and from mothers who
are weakened by their work, recent
inspection of 1905 pupils in the publ,
schools shows that 1894 children ol
35.2 per cent of the total examined are
in need of medical or dental service. =
Page %.
In view of thees appalling conditions
due to Mr.. Roosevelt's system. how alb
slrd it is for that gentleman to tall
about socialism destroying the home
Killing the Inocents.
But the Roosevelt Homes commission
goes farther. 1t proceeds to show that
the wages system, in putting the moth
er to work, is slaughtcring the children
of the land. On page 70 of its report oc
ours the following;
Attention has been directed on an
other page to the high rate of infant
mortality in certain mill towns o
Massachusetts. This subject has receiv
ed careful attention especially in Eng
land. The investigations made by Sil
John Simon and his colleagues into tn,
sanitary condition of England between
} 1859 and 1865 showed that in proper
ton as adult women were taking part
in factory labor or in agriculture The
} mortality of their infants rapidly in
creased Among other causes, Simon at
tributes the excessive mortality of in
} fants under one year, which i'll som'
registration districts was from two ant
a quarter to nearly three times as higl
J as in standard districts TO occupationa
differences among inhabitants, there be
ing certain large towns where womel
are greatly engaged in branches of indus
try away from home, where, eonse
quently, these houses are i'll kept, wher
J the children are little looked after, AM
where infants who should be at tn
breast are improperly fed or starved, o
have their cries of hunger and distres
quieted by those various fatal opiate
which are in such request at the center
of our manufacturing industry.
"The mfantile mortality returns i
the United States also indicate that W