The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1911-10-21

Females Slave Ten Hours Each
Day at Heart Breaking, Soul
i Killing Work.
American Traditions Shattered
BY the Trusts Women Ex-
plotted for Profits.

WASHINGTON. Oct. 19.-American
traditions are being shattered and
American customs obliterated by the
trusts. In the state made famous by
the minute men and glorified by the
struggle on Bunker Hill women are
being slaughtered to provide dividends
for the corporations. Following the
dreadful revelations in the works of
the Blake-Knowles Pump company at
East Cambridge, Mass, comes another
exposure in Worcester, Mass, reveal
ing the horrible fact that frail wo-
men are employed in the wire mill of
the Billion Dollar Steel Trust and are
compelled to perform tasks that
would shorten the lives of strong
men. This is what the Boston
American has to say about it,
Lift 5000 Pounds Daily.
women lift as much as 5000
pounds of wire daily at the wire MAX
ing branch at the plant of the Billion
Dollar Steel Trust at Worcester.
1.-The women work at this killing
labor for ten hours a day:
"They have to stand all the time.
"The atmosphere in which they toll
is heavy with dust. This dust is part
dirt, part metal particles. 1t i'm
perils the health of the women
sues of the body.
"Outside of this peril the work is
dangerous in itself. The Swapping
or 'back-coiling' of wire in the SPOOL
ing and drawing rooms causes loss of
fingers, or even of an arm or leg at
times.
Condemned by All.
"Clergymen, physicians and others
condemn this terrible employment of
women in the Worcester Wire Works.
The women say: 1t is fearful. But
one must live.
Here is a brief quotation from one
woman's own description of her work:
This is what 1 do. work in the
spool room where the wire is wound
from can to a spool. These spools
weigh ten pounds each. I average
260 spools a day. I have to lift these
spools twice each and carry them
from one end of the room to the
other. You can figure out how much
lifting I have to do
Work Is Very Hard.
worcester is the second city in
Massachusetts. 1t boasts itself as the
Heart of the Commonwealth It's
manufactured goods go to all parts of
the world. 90 <,,:'-- =
1.-The biggest manufacturing plant
In Worcester is that of the American
Steel and Wire company. This is one
of the subsidiary corporations of the
United States Steel corporation.
''In the North Works are women,
widows and mothers, many of them,
who spend ten hours day in heart
breaking, soul killing, back-bending
toll. They toll and toll without hope.
They labor while they last. Then go
to their miserable homes to rest.
Sometimes they return to the. wire
| works to take up the burden of life
again. Sometimes they do not re-
! turn. Others fill their places"
Open Shop Example.
Worcester is one of the cities that
the opponents of the "open shop"
claim as their own. They have
boosted that they have killed off the
forces of organized labor, and intro
duced class of free and independent
| workmen." The steel trust is also an
| exponent of the "open shop" and en-
| ployes only free and independent
| workmen. The above terrible indict-
ment. not from organized labor, but
from an independent source shows
conclusively the necessity for the or
ganization of the workers if they
would preserve American traditions
and the spirit of American justice.