Show W hai A about A b B aut I 1 the efte iti flo F boners toners VW rs N L T tf anmer 1 j n M d i am c T I 1 TU T U k most artificial howers flowers are made by children in disease infested tenement houses under ve very ty bad working conditions efforts made to stop the evil 4 P F ALL the artificial flowers made in the united states 74 per cent are made maae in new york city says a government report Are aledort Dort df 0 t the consumers Consume re league of that city shows that a large proper proportion i ot of these flowers are made in tenement houses and that most of the workers are children whose ages aged range from eleven down to tour four it would be shocking to some to see with their own eyes how the tha beautiful flowers which adorn their hats bats are made Z by th the a tiny hands of young children some of them mere babies who work from early morning until late Z at night hight ande and earn arif from ten to fifteen cents a day yet the purpose of this article la is not to shock sensibilities but to lay bare facts and describe conditions as they are says israel bovin in the new naw york herald some ten or twelve years ago afew a few vom women woman were sitting inthe assembly room ot of a settlement bettl ement house listening to the talk of a charity investigator amr who among other things told a story of how on al B cold winter night a poor family were sitting huddled W together round a small stove and burning up a pack of old papers which the jobless head of the family q had dugue in some place that was ili the a only fuel they were fero able to get the investigator said the children were clapping clapp lna their hands with joy reeling feeling the warmth of the fames pon penetrating a brating their trail bodies suddenly oneff of the children a thoughtful little gi girl ri stopped for a moment and becoming serious asked her mother A mamma alamaa dear please tell me what do those poor abor children who have no old papers do on oil a ca cold id night like this the women land and raen men laughed they thought it was clever but there was Q 0 one 18 man who did not laugh all night the vision of 04 those pale emaciated chil dren sitting around the stove haunted him and tor for P a 1 long 1119 time he was tortured by the heartache hear ta c h a effect of the grim joke he is now one of the chief workers of the movement to abolish child labor it is not pleasant these facts relating to the work ot of children some of them almost challenge credibility for how could any mother allow her tiny ty 7 baby three or fourbears four years old who Is even to lor for the ina kindergarten to sit indoors all day long and work making imitations of flowers the child has never seen some startling cases and yet I 1 have seen children begin to learn to make artificial flowers when they were wera only two years old I 1 do not say that thai children ot of that age are compelled or coaxed by their bothern mothern to work but it is this way the baby sits sis in a chair by the table watching mother and the te other children work the baby stretches out its hands grabbing a petal or a leat leaf to satisfy his desire the mother gives the baby a few petals showing him how bow to pull them apart at three or four the child Is already an efficient worker able to earn about ten cents a day here aro are some of the facts A mother and two daughters living and working in ina a rear tenement so BO dark that tin an oil lamp must be kept burning all day daff in order that they may see sea to work make forget me not wrea wreaths they receive seven cents for one dozen wreaths and can earn every IB days abrail A trail 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 flat where three children have died of tuberculosis andazo and two others were suffering from it a mother and an eleven year old girl made artificial roses at la cents cenis a gross grosa in one home ion on a saturday morning tour four children ten nine six and four years old were found sitting by a table near the one window making cherries they had bad teen been there since alx in the morning and worked each day until eight at night J no child above four or five Is considered too to work the tee hours for all whether children young or adults are determined not by law not by physical welfare but by the amount of oe work the factory gives out to be done it there is IB an extra amount of work the whole family work from halt half until ten or eleven at past five in the morning and sometimes even until one or two night in the morning stopping only long enough to eat their I 1 a scanty canty meal ot of spaghetti dry bread and on which they seem to subsist Br breaking eaRing the labor law in the families studied by the investigator children were vere found league consumers for the cent of were fourteen more than IS 18 per something and were contributing and over years cent were five about 36 per family income to the in a and under too young to work though a years children orthis of this age were found helping few cases flowers out of the remaining 46 pr per cent the with who ho might be the ages of six bli and fourteen w between cent were busily antwork at work at 14 per found helping investigators call at least 14 per of the time the able abla to do this of the children who were cent then work were ivere vi violating glating the child labor lab law of new york otate could be included in this list it how many more mo ro impossible 0 to abc ascertain e rt a in many ta milles were was during the morning when the children visited were at school and it was only through the word were able to determine mother that we of the the flowers whether or not the children helped with school chool hours for the most part only utter after s cases of children who be were actually found at work were listed therefore the estimate is a very con serva tive lve one the tenement houses where moat of the flowers are made are of the worst typo type with dark and shaky stairways the crowded tenement houses of the congested east side of which watch so much has been said in print are pala palaces fies in comparison to those rickety old structures structure tur eb and in them the children of sunny italy ape spend 11 d their days and nights bights ostensibly it Is their inherent love tor for blowers that Is drawing them to this work it is not an easy matter bogot to eat the confidence ot of some ta V the women woman and to make them answer questions they ato always suspicious that visitors are froin the board ot of health with a mission to make trouble irl in some houses no amount 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 talland tal talk kand and to shed light on the situation they are not greedy but they are very ambitious I 1 and it Is their ambition that impels them to util utilized izez every possibility of malting making money average 8 a week thy are all honest hardworking hard working people the children are orderly arid 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 aud and from them they take work home the others are arc in mostly shoemakers bootblacks and add pushcart peddlers ono of oe the places where children were found at work after school hours had a restaurant and poolroom an the ground floor of the building in which the family lived when there are ab nb no diners in the restaurant the long dining table is cover covered ad with wreaths and bunches of cherries and forget me nots bots a mother and her children working diligently at them the proprietor of 0 this restaurant was also in the rag business in one place a young woman margarita Margarit ft 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 awill a willing and ambitious helper little glovanna three years old looked like a miniature of her mother golden haired and eyes of the color of violets 1 I donavant dont want vant her to help me the mother said but sho 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 meets here herd in the streets are all pretty but their beauty fades lades before maturity their physical development Is stunted by long hou hours rs of work and very little play their childhood docs does not last long A girl who la Is married I 1 at fourteen is no rare case here they make the step from childhood right to manhood and womanhood skipping overt over the be period of youth and maidenhood why tony sells flowers sucha such a child wao wali tony tny who at thirteen became the breadwinner for the family selling flowers real flowers by day and helping hta his mother mako make artificial flowers by night tony was never a boy lie never played in ane streets with other children I 1 never threw a ball in theair alie air tonys father kept a fruit standon stand on a corner where he ha also shined shoes and roasted peanuts you could see him at this stand in the early morning beford before people went to work and late at night after they returned home from the theater he was there in all kinds of weather Tand and be had been on the same spot tor for 15 16 years during this period his wife vita and later his bis children helped to swell his bank account by making artificial flowers when the war began there was a run on the bank where tonys father kept his savings the bank was closed and then the poor miens mans reason gave way he was wag taken to an insane asylum and tony not being able to keep up his fathers business took to selling flowers as his trade and tony lg Is not the only man at the early ago 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 family calls toi for these parts which she carries home in a huge pasteboard box when the flowers are do dono done no 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 tho the flowers are ready to be returned holthe to the factory duds are ladeby tying pieces of silk over a round ball of cotton the work though slow and te tedious alous is not hard and can be done with very little skill and practice whole families were found busily working vor king around a table in the kitchen or living room pasting gand 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 tor for the work is perhaps the lowest in any trade prices vary from two cents a gr gross oss for pasting leaves on sterna to a gross groes tor for mak making ng flower wreaths age girl of fifteen who had trouble with her spine was found at work putting berries on the ends ot of stems and receiving for the wo work wok k only one cent a gross she told the investigator vesti gator that she made usually ten cents a day but when my little sister helps me she addesi added ai 1 I can make fifteen cents a day it la Is thesa conditions that the consumers league is striving to abolish and the activities of the consumers league are not limited to the flower industry The embers of the league are working hard to improve conditions in other occupations in which whish women and young children are employed and have been doing great work in educating the peo people pleon on the dangers of woman and child labor under unsanitary conditions by po pointing lilling out the dangers to the consumer through pods goods made in dark and airless homes whore where scarlet fever and other contagious diseases were bound found to exist the leaders odthe league have hava already accomplished many good results dut but there id much work to be done few realize how closely connected are our own lives with the lives of 0 tho the workers along corta certain iii industrial lines it is not only oaly the health of the workers that la is often at stake but the conditions are a ito the consumers as well and the danger to society is great |