The Washington times., 1912-12-07
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN.

Some Of the evidence given lately before the
with horror.
1t has to do with the sweat shops" Of New
York, and the women and children who work in those
Sweat shops and the things that are made in those
Sweat shops"
1t is an old story to district visitors and settlement
workers; but it is new story to the public And il
shows a condition that ought to be done away with
at once.
1t is q cause in which there can be no excuse for
delay. And we do not think that any court will can.
eel legislative remedy on the ground that it takes
away. property without due process Of law
Here are some oftthe cases brought before the
commission last Monday and it is, unfortunately,
quite safe to take it for granted that they represent
a condition general to the outside" work in the
tenement house districts.
There are more than l25, 900 women and children
doing sweat shop" work in those tenement houses
In one district where 1872 sweat shops" were
inspected there were people in seventynine Of those
places suffering from contagious diseases.
In some Of those Sweat shops" there were
women and children engaged in making monogram
cigarettes for the high-class trade"
In one two-room apartment nineteen men,
women, and children did their work, ate their food
In the room Of one tenement mother and four
children were engaged in running ribbons throug,
corset covers. In the same room the father LAY
dying Of tuberculosis.
y In the room Of another tenement 4 number oi
women and children were working on feathers. -Four
Of those trying 70 work we're actually suffering from
tpnoid fever.
young woman was found making dolls cloth.
ing. She had to keep at it sixteen hours day ID
maintain herself in Subsistence wages" In the room
in which she worked and slept and took her food hel
father lay on cot dying Of tuberculosis.
The case Of Mrs. Madilina Vitriani was put ia
evidence as being TYPICAL
Mrs. Vtriani lives at 10 Sullivan street, which !.
in the West Side dock.fenement district Of New York
She has FIVE children. Tho youngest Of them /.
aged FIVE years. They all work eighteen hours day
Usually their combined labors bring them so cent
a day. On rare occasions they earn IS cents day
Once they earned ST.
The children in these Sweat shops" often fal
asleep from exhaustion. They are sometimes tos
tired to work steadily. When they are sleepy the,
are whipped to keep them awake. When they ar,
tired they are whipped to speed them up"
Tne whippings are not punishment They ar,
merely an incentive to labor efficiency
1t seems incredible, but it happens to be true.
is true not only Of the cases cited here, but Of al
economic condition that Is general among th
women and children engaged on outside work" /,
the sweat shops" Of New York, and all outsid
work Of this kind is sweat shop work.
| And we think that the presentation Of the fact
should produce an immediate remedy. Civilization
cannot afford to invoke the penalties that such
condition makes inevitable.
| The instance Of the women and children workin
in the midst Of contagion at the making Of mono
gram cigarettes for hgh-class trade" is impressive
But that is because it needs no imagination to realiz
its meaning
Thousands Of other cases may seem more remote
but they are actually just as intimate, and there is
good reason why civilization should keep compan
with such industrial squalor.
We should put an end to this whole shameir
traffic in helpless life.