The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-01-30
WASTE OF ENERGY
How Much Muscle Power Does
Industry Squander?
WORK OF LAUNDRY GIRLS.

investigation at Milwaukee Disclosed
the Fact That TreadIes of Ironing
Machines Require an Enormous Elk
penditure OF Power.
JOSEPHINE GOLDMARK in Survey.
| Innate in the most of us is the dis
like of waste. 1t offends us. Throw
ing food away. for instance, is obnox-
ious to most persons normally incln-
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.
chinery. hearing down with all their
weight upon the foot treades of the
body ironers" and presses" work
hard how hard tested scale show
ed In the latest government investiga
ton of womeHs work. For ten hours
day they expended about 100000
pounds foot pressure per hour. This
IL not guesswork; 1t 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
bureau 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 service would
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, I'M
known to the employers themselves, a
needless exerton of from twenty-five
to thirty pounds was put forth at each
tread, amounting" says the report,
ito a wasted exertion of 100000 to
2SS,0OO pounds in a ten hour day."
Here we have an index in cold figures
of the wasted muscular effort of one
girl during one day.
About a quarter of the 554 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 fatiron, these thousands
Of girls and women have thus day by
day been wasting their most precious
industrial asset, their working capaci
ties. In 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 Familiarity discussed in deci-
mails. But these girls were not play
ing a game. They were earning an
average Of $5.45 per week at the cuff
yoke and neckband presses and an
average of $6.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 endeavoring
to labor in an atmosphere at high
temperature and high humidity"
said Professor F. S. Lee recently in a
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 in
an overheated body If they are toxic
at normal degrees of temperature their
toxicity is more pronounced at higher
degrees. and in proportion as mechan-
ica work is performed and internal
temperature rises the more Is working
power Iessened."
| emphasize the writer's last words
for the realization that these things
lessen working power-the heat and
humidity. the excess pressure, the high
treadles-is a step toward their sup
preston.
But the essential thing is that new
scrutiny of waste has been made-and
with the simplest appliances of science.
scale foot rule and thermometer. 9th
er valuable suggestions are brought
ND in the report. such as the possibility