The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-23
FINDS. WOMEN DRIVEN
 BY HARVESTER TRUST
ALL NIGHT WORK FOR THEM AND HEALTH DESTROYED BY
 DUST AND LABOR IN AUBURN MILLS.
HIGHEST PAY $7 A WEEK
Senator Wagner Condemns Abuses .e : Perkins, a Director, Charges It s-rse All to Treatment of ss+ ss's"> Al" Corporations.

It become known Wednesday that the State Factory Investigating Com mittee of New York had been inquir- ing into labor conditions in the mills of the Osborne Twine Company No. 8, at Auburn. N. Y, owned by the Inter- national Harvester Company, of which George w. Perkins, financial packer of the Bull Moose. Party, is a Director, and; had found conditions affecting the workers there, particularly the women workers, distressingly bad.
 Abuses in these tWine mills were first brought to the attention of Senator Robert F. Wagner, the Chairman of the Investigating Committee, by pr. George NJ. Price, the State Directory of FactoFy-aInvestigation.. According lss zoR <.Atigss IA, Senator Wagner, Miss Mary E. -Dfefef, Assemblyman Phillips, and Assemblyman Jackson of the com- mittee, and Abram l. Elkus, the coun- sel for the committee, went to Auburn and held a hearing at the mill. They carefully questioned women workers and the Superintendent of the com pany. The result of their inquiry will be formally reported to the State Leg islature at its next session and in the meantime, violations of the present la bor law. according to Senator Wagner
 
 hands of the authorities.
 ''The appearance of the women workers in this plant" said Senator Wagner yesterday, was very dis heartening. They were worn and pale and their clothes, faces and hands were covered with oil and hemp Scioth.if Many of these women, so-call- ed, are only children in age, and they shase to:lug huge piles of hemp, weigh ling 150 pounds each, across the floor, afl7e load in some cases being bigger than the women themselves.
 "In the spinning room, where women are. employed alone, to the. exclusion of men, who would have to receive higher wages, the chatter of machinery is so frightful that a voice below a shrielz cannot be heard. The rooms are dark, though for no necessary cause, and no attempt is made to re- move the dust, which is kept in con- stant motion by the line shaftings, despite the requirements of the law. This dust is breathed continuously by the women, many of whom complain lef chronic coughs and colds. The dust Eand dirt is so thick upon the clothes of the girls that at noon hour-which in many cases consists of but few cf11fnutes-and at the close of the day s Or nights labor, the girls have to Sweep each other clean with brooms.
 WOMEN WORK ALL NIGHT. ;, The investigators learned that many of the women received only $5 a week and that S7 was about as high wage as they could attain. The girls were paid almost entirely by piecework with the result that they had to work overtime to make enough to support themselves.
 One woman whom the committee questioned Lizzie Simiai, 42 years old worked all night for an average of $1 a week. She had to support four children and a husband who had be- come capacitated for work.
 M The custom of working the women all night, it was learned, was perTna- nent Married women were selected and for their Iabors, which started al sundown and lasted until 6:30 o'clock in the morning, they received never more than S7 week. In many fam lilies the husband was employed, at an average wage of about $S during the day.
 This, woman testified that she could not work during the day because of her chilaFen.S When asked when she arranged to sleep. she explained that she stole a few hours rest in the -snaArning g. whi1e her 1Iei ighbors cared for her children
 William NJ Greig, Superintendent of the Harvester Trusts twine mills, was closely questioned by MT. Elkus. Mr.