The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1913-12-12

Investigation at Milwaukee Disclosed
the Fact That Treadles of ironing
Machines Require an Enormous Ex-
pendture of Power.
JOSEPHINE GCLDMARk in Survey.
Innate in the most of us is the dis
like of waste 1t otfends us. Throw
ing food away. for instance. is ohnox-
ious to most persons normally inclin-
ed Worse than waste of matter is
waste of energy. waste of human eff
fort 1t does more than offend; it out
RACES.
The girls who operate laundry ma
shinery. bearing down with all their
weight upon the foot treadles of the
body ironers and presses" work
hard-how hard a tested scale show
ed in the latest government investiga-
tlon of women's work. For ten hours
day they expended about 100000
pounds foot pressure per hour. This
is not guesswork; it is arithmetic.
The scale showed at certain machines
100 pounds pressure at each tread of
the girl operators. They made sixteen
treads per minute.
The test was tried in Milwaukee,
where Miss Obenauer of the federal
bareau of labor statistics investigat
ed thirty-one power laundries in CO.
operation with the state industrial
commission of Wisconsin. Nor is this
an extreme statement. Conditions de-
scribed in Milwaukee can be found in
most towns and cities throughout the
country.
Eight physicians to whom the rec
ords of the cuff presses and body iron
ers were submitted were unanimous
in thinking the work detrimental to
health. A tendency to create pelvic
disorders or spinal curvature was the
danger emphasized.
Now. if The Milwaukee investigation
had done no more than record these
pressures accurately a service would
have been rendered. but it did more
Far more significant. far more arrest
ing, was the discovery that much of
this effort was unnecessary. This, too,
was simply proved The investigators
forced down the treadles of certain
machines until the garment in process
of being ironed received the finish
or gloss necessary to pass muster The
scale attached to the treadle showed
that unknown to the workers. UNI
known to the employers themselves, a
needless exertion of from twenty five
to thirty pounds was put forth at each
tread, amounting" says the report.
ito Il wasted eNertion of 2T0.000 to
28s,00o pounds in ten hour day.
Here we have an index III cold figures
of the wasted muscular effort of one
girl during one day
About quarter of the 354 women
individually interviewed in the Mil
waukee laundries were employed at
the foot treadle machines. Among the
$4,000 women laundry workers emu
merated in the census. thousands are
similarly employed throughout the
country For years since the first hot
cylinder presses and ironers replaced
the familiar flatiron. these thousands
of girls and women have thus day By
day been wasting their most precious
Industrial asset, their working capaci-
ties la a sport or match We deplore
the spectacle of the player who wastes
his strength in ignorance. We applaud
the player whose strength is focused,
whose every stroke tells. Batting av-
erages are familiarly discussed in deci-
mails. But these girls were not play
ing a game They were earning an
average of S5.45 per week at the cuff,
yoke and neckband presses and an
average OF SG.o4 per week at the body
and sleeve ironers. all foot treadle
machines says the report, Shown by
the records to make excessive occupa-
tional demands"
when the Individual is endeayor1ne
to labor in an atmosphere at higf
temperature and a high humidity,
said Professor #. S. Lee recently in 8
memorable address. ''he has to contend
not only with his normal fatigue sub
stances, but with the pathological sub
stances that result from the peculiar
conditions of his labor. Nor
nal and pathological fatigue sub
stances are here present in solution il
an overheated body. If they are toxic
at normal degrees of temperature thei
toxicity is more pronounced at highe
degrees. and in proportion as mechan
ical work is performed and interna
temperature rises the more is working
power lessened.
emphasize the writer's last words
for the realization that these thing
lessen working power the heat am
humidity. the excess pressure. the higl
treadles-is step toward their sup
preston.
But the essential thing is that neg
scrutiny of waste has been made-an
with the simplest appliances of science
scale, foot rule and thermometer. Oth
er valuable suggestions are brough
up In the report. such as the possibilit
of alternating or interchanging occu
pations. The hardest work In the MI
waukee laundries was found to be j
no way Differentiated from the easies
In bringing ont these facts dfspas
sionateIy the Milwaukee report Is Q
more than local or passing account