The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-06-26
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BRANCHES IN ALL THE PRINCIPAL CITIES
The Cry of the Children.
Some of the evidence given lately
before the New York State Factories
Commission is burdened with horror.
1t has to do with the ''sweat shops"
OF New York, and the women and
children who work in these "sweat
shops" and the things that are made
in those "sweat shops"
1t is an old story to district wis.,
tors and settlement workers; but it is
a new story to the public. And it
shows a condition that ought to be
done away with at once.
1t is cause in which there can be
no excuse for delay. And we do not
think that any court will cancel a
A06A5AdC4VS IS"Suy I'll IAO SAOuAu
that it takes away property without
due process of law"
Here are some of the cases brought
before the commission recently and
it is, unfortunately, quite safe to
take for granted that they represent
a condition general to the ''outside"
work in the tenement house dis
tricts.
There are more than $4,000 wom-
en- and children doing "sweat shop"
!. work in those tenement houses.
In one district where 1872 "sweat
shops were inspected there were peo-
pie in seventy-nine of those places
suffering from contagious diseases.
In some of those "sweat shops
there were women and children en-
gagged in making monogram Gig
arettes for "the high class trade" =,
In one two-room department"
nineteen men, women, and children
did their work, ate their food, and
slept when they were not working.
"a In the room of one tenement a
mother and four children were en-
gagged in running ribbons through
corset covers. In the same room the
father lay dying of tuberculosis.
In the room of another tenement
a number of women and children
were working on feathers. Four of
those trying to work were actually
suffering from typhoid fever.
"A young woman was found max
ing dolls clothing. She had to keep
at it sixteen hours a day to maintain
herself in Subsistence wages. In the
room in which she worked and slept
and took her food her father lay on
a cot dying of tuberculosis.
The case of Mrs. Madilina Vitriani
was put in evidence as being typical.
Mrs. Vitriani lives at 70 Sullivan
street, which is in the West Side dock
tenement district of New York. ~
She has five children. The young
est of them is five years old. They
all work eighteen hours a day. U.s.
ually their combined labors bring
them SO cents day. On rare oc-
easions they earn rs cents a day.
Once they earned 81. -.
I. The children in these Sweat
shops" often fall asleep from ex-
haustion. They are sometimes too
tired to work steadily. When they
are sleepy they are whipped to keep
them awake. When they are tired
they are whipped to "speed them up
The whippings are not punishment.
They are merely an incentive to la
Dor efficiency. =: >
It seems incredible, but it happens
to be true. 1t is true not only of
the cases cited here, but of an econ
omic condition that is general among
the women and children engaged on
""outside work" in the Sweat shops
of New York, and all outside work
Of this kind is sweat shop work.
And we think that the presenta-
ton Of the facts should produce an.