The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-01
Elizabeth shepley Sergeant in July Nj
oi.

Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant in July Nc
Clures.
|TNHE center of Manhattan Island in
| the region below Fourteenth street
| i is it's most important manufacture
ing district Here nearly half of the
total number of factory workers (and
many more of our poorest Immigrants
are trying to exist on land the assessed
| value of which sometimes exceeds thai
In the ''millionaire" residential quarters
of the city.
| In the most densely populated portions
of the Eastside there are 1000 to the acre
Such a terrific figure can be reached only
by the means of high, six-story tene'
uent houses The usual living apartment
In such tenement houses has two or threa
small rooms; into these are packed fam
lilies with as many as eight or nine chill
dren. and often several dodgers besides
For italians frequently take dodgers; and
Poles and Lithuanians do so haoitualiy
It is estimated that S5 per cent OF tho
Immigrant families live more than three
in a room, while six people In one room
is not an uncommon situation. Only
one room in four In these tenements has
adequate sunlight, and, in spite OF the
new tenement house law there are still
100000 tenement rooms In New York with
no window oven into an airshaft or an
adjoining room.
But tenement rooms are used not mere
" for living and sleeping; they are.
in thousands of cases, employed as work.
rooms also. The husband often earns
too little to support his family unaided
In any case, as the wife and children
of his forefathers have always WORKED
in the fields, and as the habit or famllis,i
labor is ingrained in his race and creed
the custom persists In spite of changed
surroundings and conditions. The Tor
e;gn-born women accept and approve the
tradition, and, still keeping to their homes
as the center of existence, labor there
with their children for many hours each
day Usually they do not know even the
name of the factory from which they
get their work; Its geographic relation
to their home Is the only point that in
terests them and they go blindly back ana
forth with their heavy bundles and boxes
Of work, accepting without question what
yer pay the boss gives them.
If the women of the tenements are de-
uendent on the factories for their daily
breadf many manufacturers rely equally
on this tenement labor force, which is
practically unlimited, completely unor-
ganized, and which they can employ at
their own terms. 1t is the manufacturer
of seasonal or contract goods-gooas
that are manufactured at fixed seasons,
or in response to a sudden demand on
the part of the consumer-who sends most
of the work into the tenements.
When a manufacturer invests capital
in such product, he Is faced with the
same problem of high rentals and land
values that confronts the immigrant. The
''home work" system enables him to
avoid the heavy burden of maintaining
throughout the year an establishment
large enough to accommodate all the
workers demanded by his business in the
rush season. BY drawing on the great
reserve army of tenement workers he
supplements his own work rooms, and
| Is saved the expenses of higher wages,
rent, heat, light and machinery. More
over he is unhampered by the legal re-
sponsibilities entailed by factory. work.
The laws of New York state, which pro-
hibit the employment of children under
X years of age, and regulate the hours
Of work Of women and minors in fac
tories. do not apply to tenement work.
New York city is the largest producing
anc distributing center Of tenement-made
goods in the United States. Yet no ade-
quate Official or. unofficial enumeration
10 obtainable Of the thousands Of people