The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-16

l the State-cotton, silk metal corse4s
 and rubber mauufacture-earn 8, living wage
 This Is the fact announced in the
 report to the General Assembly of the
 commission appointed to investigate 1 the conditions of wage-earning women
 and minors in Connecticut, appointed
 by Governor Baldwin in 1911. The commission considers that "$7 Ca weekl 1 is barely a living wage for a girl, or | woman, who must pay for food, 1odg- l ing, clothing, laundry carfares and medical, or dental care out of this amount if she lives alone, or has to contribute her share of support to l those who may be dependent upon her.
 The report continues: "A close study
 shows that in the cotton industry,
 29 2s per cent of the women employ ed earned less than $7; in silk, 5S.15
 per cent. earned less than that; in
 metal the number falls to 48.98 per cent; in corsets to 5o14 per cent; in
 rubber to 49.48 per cent: while the
 employed in these industries tall be- low the $7 wage scale. It is therefore evident that practically one-half of the women employed in these factories earn less than a living wage-''
 The industries investigated by the commission are those that employ more women than any other indus tries. And to improve these conditions, the commission recommends:
 t1. That the hours of labor of wage earning women and minors be short ened and regulated.
 ..2 That provision for the effective reporting and recording of occupa- tional disease. and accidents, be l made.
 ..s. That the labor of women and minors in certain occupations be pro-
 A. That there be more stringent regulation of child labor, with especial reference to night work, to messenger | service and street trades, and to q l shorter working day.
 t'5. That more adequate provisions | be made for the comfort and health of ge-earning women and minors in factories.
 "6. That a minimum wage co1nmis sion be appointed"
 woAnAN,s WORK.
 The report comments thus on wo- man and her work:
 ttIt is a tr1te saying that wonan'sI work is never done, and after ten or more hours of factory work the ma Jority- of women have the burden of some household task to be performed. The strain is especially severe for the woman. If her hours in shop even higher a week, her home duties must be crowded into the hours na- ture demands for the upbuilding of the exhausted physical system. Within recent years the question of the num- ber of hours a woman should be em- p1oyed in a factory or shop has been studied from a scientific point of view, rather than sentimental one Fa~ tfgue is always warning that the muscular power and nerve forces are ] the limits of activity, and constant over-fatigIe Teakens and lowers vitality. Because of wornan's i weakness she Is less re- sistant to the fnroadS of fatigue than men,
 A TERRIBLE WARNING Ic
 A warning that the State is likely I to pay the penalty for it's poor laws regarding the employment Of married women, with weakened children, is given in the report. The foreign ideal 1f having married women work is blamed for the high percentage of married women employed; thus
 tHThe physical we11befng Of woman s essential if we are to have a strong and vigorous race, and when through overstrain and exhaustion vitality is lowered, her fit ness for motherhood may be destroy d, and her children will pay the pen alty with weakened or vitiated physi- l gal vigor. Therefore as potential I mother the State has right to pro- ;ect her against the overstrain of ex- ,essive hours Of labor. Connecticut las a large percentage of married ' women among it's wage-earning wom- ! m Of the women in the factories in a resttgated by the commission 20.39 per r .ent were married. This high per .entage is accounted for by the fact, | hat SO many foreigners are employed T n the metal and textile trades, and he foreign woman usually remains in 2 industry after marriage"
 The commission investigated as 4 arefuIIy as 1t could on it's 5000 ap- and faithfully records a arEe number of interesting statistics g adhered at the factories. It's report 4 women working overtime g particularly vital. In. violation of = he summer schedule, 229 women, in ess than twenty-five factories, work d s4s weeks overtime. In fourteen 4 actories, where statistics were gath red for 8,100 women 1t was found hat one woman worked eighty houra
 week. and s14 women in all, work d 1.261 hours overtime. which Is an veraEe of about four hours each per 7eek.
 HEALTH CONDITIONS The report discusses the factory edith conditions as follows:
 s.In cotton mills, conditions of un- eguIated humidity and excessive dust nd lint were found. The degree of x urity of the water used for humidi- ' ying was not standardized and the SC of suction shuttles which are reat epreaders of disease and have cen forbidden in Massachusetts, was V eneral A ssIn metal factories the commission ,und women in hazardous occupa- ons such az ename1ing, where there as danger of lead poisoning with no roy1stons made for their protection nd no precautions taken by them to rotect themselves Women were fur Ter exposed to the dangers of dust, 1mes and vapors which were made lately removed,
 Hours of labor in all factories were 70 long according to the standards of Lore advanced states. Ten and half : eleven hours a day Is far too long