Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-07-07

indoors all day long and work making limitations
of flowers the child has never seen?
Some Startling Cases.
AND yet have seen children begin to learn to
make artificial flowers when they were only two
years old. do not say that children of that age
are compelled coaxed by their mothers to work.
but It is this way.
The baby sits in a chair by the table watching
mother and the other children work. The baby
stretches out its hands, grabbing a petal or leaf
To satisfy his desire the mother gives the baby
. few petals. showing him how to pull them apart
At three or four the child is already an efficient
worker. able to earn about ten cents q day.
Here are some of the facts:
A mother and two daughters living and work
ing In q rear tenement, SO dark that an oil lamp
must be kept burning all day in order that they
may see to work, make forget-me-not wreaths.
They receive seven cents for one dozen wreaths.
and can earn $4.20 every is days.
A frail delicate mother of five children sits at
table In their two-room fiat from morning until
late at night putting artificial berries on stems.
She earns from ten to fifteen cents day.
In a fourroom fat where three children have
died of tuberculosis and two others were suffering
from It, q mother and an eevenyear-old girl made
artificial roses at Is cents gross
In one home a Saturday morning four chill
dren ten nine. six and four years old, were found
sitting by a table near the one window making
cherries They had been there since six o'clock In
the morning and worked each day until eight
o'clock at night.
No child above four or five Is considered too
Young to work The hours for all. whether chill
dren or adults. are determined not by law. not by
nhvsical welfare but by the amount of work the
factory gives out to be DONE II there is an extra
amount of work the whole family work from half
mast five in the morning until ten or eleven at
night and sometimes even until one or two o CLOCK
in the morning, stopping only long enough to eat
their scanty meal of spaghetti dry bread and COZ
fee on which they seem to subsist
Breaking the Labor Law
In the 1875 families studied by the investigator
Co.. tho Consumers league COL children were found.
Mora than IS per cent Of these were fourteen
vaor. and over and were contributing something
to the family income; about SO per cent were fve
Years and under too young to work. though In
rsw cases children Of this age were found helping
,v,th the flowers Out of the remaining 46 per cent
hotwaen the ages of six and fourteen who might be
,ound helping IA per cent were busily at work at
.h time Of the investigators CALL At least IA per
cant then of the children who were able TO DO tnls
,~crr we're violating the child labor law of New
York state.
How MANY more could be included in this list II
w.. ,mnossible to ascertain. Many families were
,r,.,,ed during the morning, when the children
20 At school and 1t was only through the word
:, ,ha mother that we were able to determine
Shetber or not the children helped with the flow
ers after school hours. For the most part only
CSC. of children who were actually found at work
we're listed Therefore, the estimate is very con-
sentative one