Show P hai ai ab about out the the flow floer on I 1 your bour T IV UT ummer miner ii ila d am most artificial flowers are made by children in disease infested tenement houses under very bad working conditions efforts made to stop the evil 4 F ALL the artificial flowers made in the united states 74 per cent are made in new york city says a government re port A report of 0 the consumers league of that city shows that a large proper tion of these flowers are made in tene ment houses and that most of the work ers are children whose ages range from eleven down to tour four it would be shocking to some to see with their own eyes how the beautiful flowers which adorn their hats are made by the tiny hands of young children some of them mere babies who work from early morning until late at night and earn from ten to fifteen cents a day yet the purpose of this article Is not to shock any one a sensibilities but to lay bare facts and describe conditions as they are says israel la in the new york herald some ten or twelve years ago a few men and worn wom en were sitting in the assembly room of a settlement house listening to the talk of a charity investigator who among other things told a story of bow how on a cold winter night a poor family were sitting huddled together round a small stove and burning up a pack of old papers which the jobless head of the family had dug up in some place that was the only fuel they were able to get the investigator said the children were clapping their hands with joy feeling the warmth of the flames penetrating their trail frail bodies suddenly one of the children a thoughtful little girl stopped for a moment and becoming serious asked her mother mamma dear please tell me what do those poor children who have no old papers do on a cold night like this the women and men laughed they thought it was clever but there was one man who did not laugh all night the vision ot of those pale emaciated chil dren sitting around the stove haunted him and for a long time he was tor aured by the heartache et ef feet of the grim joke he is now one ot of the chiet chief workers of the movement to abolish child labor it Is not pleasant these facts relating to the work of children some ot of them almost challenge ity for how could any mother allow her tiny baby three or tour four years old who is een too young tor for the kindergarten to sit olt indoors all day long and work making imitations of flowers the child has never see seen some startling cases and yet I 1 have seen children begin to learn to make artificial flowers when they were only two years old I 1 do not say that children of that age are compelled or 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 a leaf to satisfy his desire the mother gives the baby a few petis showing him how to pull them apart at three or four the child is already an efficient worker able to earn about ten cents a day here are some of the facts A mother and two daughters living and work ing in a 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 tor for one dozen wreaths and can earn 4 20 every 15 days A trail frail delicate mother of five children sits at a table in their two room flat from morning until late at night putting artificial berries on stems she earns from ten to fifteen cents a day in a four room fla where three children have died of tuberculosis and two others were suffering from it a mother and an eleven year old girl made artificial roses at 15 cents a gross in one home on a saturday morning tour four chil dren ten nine six and tour four years old were found sitting by a table near the one win winlow low making cherries they had been there since six 0 clock in the morning and worked each day until eight 0 clock at night no child above tour four or five Is considered too young to work the hours tor for all whether chil dren or adults are determined not by law not by physical welfare but by the amount of work the factory gives out to be done if there is an extra amount of work the whole family work from half past five in the he morning un until ill ten or eleven at night and sometimes even until one or two 0 clock in the morning mornin g stopping only long enough to eat their scanty meal of spaghetti dr dry y bread and cof tee fee on which they seem to subsist breaking the labor law in the families studied by the investigator tor for the consumers league children were found more than IS 18 per cent ot of these were fourteen years and over and were contributing something to the family income about 36 per cent were five years and under too young to work though in a few cases children of this age were nere found helping with the flowers out of the remaining 46 per cent between the ages of six and fourteen who might be found helping 14 per cent were busily at work at call at least 14 per the time ot of the investigator investigators s cent then of the children who were able to do this work were violating the child labor law of new york state how many more could be I 1 included in this list it was impossible to ascertain many families were visited during the morning when the children were at school and it was on only I 1 y through the word ot of the mother that we were able to determine whether or not the children helped with the flow ers after school hours for the most part only cases of children who were actually found at work were listed therefore the estimate is a very con serva lve tive one X T tf AJ I 1 J I 1 8 i N r 01 ir ad 6 av ty the tenement houses where most of the flowers are made are of the worst type with dark and shaky stairways the crowded tenement houses of the congested east side of which so much has been said in print are palaces in compari son to those rickety old structures and in them the children ot of sunny italy spend their days and nights ostensibly it Is their inherent love tor for flowers that Is drawing them to this thir work it Is not an easy matter to ge the confidence ot of some wt rf the women wo aneo and to make them answer questions they are always suspicious that vist tors are from the board of health with a mission to make trouble in some houses no amount ot of arguing or coaxing will bring results not even the assurance of the children who return from school and are appealed to however there are some who are quite willing to talk and to shed light on the situation they are not greedy but they are very ambi bious and it is their ambition that impels them to util utilized izez every possibility of making money average 8 a week thy are all honest hardworking hard working people the children are orderly and respectful and there was a world of love in the mothers eyes on seeing them return from school and resume their work separating petals and pasting leaves on stems the earnings of heads of the families were found to average eight dollars a week which according to the standard of living in that locality Is a fair income A good many of the men work in flower factories and from them they take work home the others are mostly shoemakers bootblacks and pushcart peddlers wed one of the places where children we found at work after school hours had a restaurant and pool room on the ground floor of the building in which the family lived when there are no diners in the restaurant the long dining table Is covered with wreaths and bunches of cherries and forget me nots bots a mother and her children working diligently at them the proprietor ot of this restaurant was also in the rag business in one place a young woman margarita Margarlt a who looked quite different from the general type she being blonde and having blue eyes was at work with her little girl who seemed to be a will ing and ambitious helper little giovanna glovanna three years old looked like a miniature ot of her mother golden haired and ey eyes es of the color of violets I 1 don t want her to help me he mother no ther said but she insists on doing that and she accentuated her words by bending over the child and kissing her with all the fondness of a mother the children one in meets beets here in the streets are all pretty but their beauty fades before maturity their physical development is stunted by long hours ot of work and very little play their child hood does not last long A girl who is married at fourteen Is no rare case here they make the step frota childhood right to manhood and woman hood skipping over the period of youth and maid why tony sells flowers such a child was ton tony y who at thirteen became becam 0 the brea breadwinner dInner for the family selling flowers real flowers by day and helping his mother make artificial flowers by night tony was never a boy he never played in the streets with other children never threw a ball in the air tony s father kept a fruit stand on a corner where here he also shined shoes and roasted peanuts you c could see him at th before people went wen t to morning stand in the early work and late at night after they returned home from the theater he was there in all kinds ot of weather and he had been on the same 8 spot pot tor for 15 years during this period his wife and later his children helped to swell his bank account by male mak ing artificial flowers when the war began there ere was a run on the bank 4 here tony a father kept his savings the bank was closed and then the taken to an he lie was poor man s reason gave way insane asylum and tony not being able to keep took to selling flowers as up his father s business his trade and tony is not the only man at the early age of thirteen owners of flower factories find it more profitable to have work done in the tenements by women and children the flower factories give out parts of flowers petals leaves and stems to be made up into whole flowers and wreaths by the workers in their homes usually the oldest child in the tarn fara ily calls for these parts which she carries home in a huge pasteboard box when the flowers are done she brings them back to the factory and the boss pays her tor for the work the petals which usually come from the factory in bunches must be separated and then pasted together with the leaves and stems sometimes there are as many as nine pieces which must be joined before the flowers are ready to be returned to the factory buds are made by tying pieces of silk over a round ball of cotton the work though slow and tedious is not hard and can be done with very little skill and practice whole families were found busily working around a table in the ditc kitchen hen or living hying room pasting and twisting and bunching the gayly colored flowers which sometimes give the only bright note to an otherwise desperately dingy home worst paid work the price paid for the work Is perhaps the low est in any trade prices vary from two cents a gross for pasting leaves on sterna stems to 1 40 a gross for making flower wreaths one girl ot of fifteen who had trouble with her spine was found a at t work putting berries on the ends of stems and receiving tor for the wo k only one cent a gross she told the in vesti gator that she made usually ten cents a day but when my little sister helps me sh she e added I 1 can make fifteen cents a day it Is these conditions that the consumers league is striving to abolish and the activities of the consumers league are not limited limit ed to the flower floer in austry the members of the league are working hard to improve conditions in other occupations in which women and young children are employed and have been doing grea great t work in educating the people on the dangers of woman and child labor under unsanitary conditions by pointing out the dangers to the consumer gh goods made in dark and airless homes where scarlet fever and other oth er contagious diseases were found to exist the leaders of the league have already accomplished many good results but there Is much work to be done few realize how closely connected are our own lives with the lives ot of the workers along certain industrial lines it Is not only the health of the workers that is often at stake but the conditions are a menace to the consumers as its well and the danger to society is great 6 0 t |