Tag: Child Labor

Hellraisers Journal: Report from Children’s Bureau Describes Conditions for Children Working in Shrimp and Oyster Canneries

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 25, 1922
Report Describes Child Labor in Shrimp and Oyster Canning Industry

From the Pittston Gazette of May 23, 1922:

 

POOR CONDITION FOR CHILD WORKERS
IN FISH CANNERIES
———-

Lewis Hine Feb 1911, Three Little Girl Oyster Shuckers
Josie, six year old, Bertha, six years old, Sophie, 10 years old,
all shuck regularly at Maggioni Canning Co,
Port Royal, South Carolina. -by Lewis Hine, February 1911

A report made public today by the U. S. Department of Labor through the Children’s Bureau describes child labor in the oyster and shrimp-canning industry during the period between the first and second Federal child labor laws, when no Federal regulation of child labor existed. Special significance attaches to the report in view of the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court, rendered on May 15, which held the Federal Child Labor Tax Law unconstitutional and thus leaves the children again without the protection of a Federal law. The report, entitled “Child Labor and the Work of Mothers in Oyster and Shrimp canning communities on the Gulf Coast,” calls attention to the very young ages of many of the children employed, the detrimental conditions under which they worked, the poor school facilities, the marked retardation in school, and the employment of mothers of young children.

The work of both the children and their parents was subject to all the irregularities of the canning industry, the report states. Since the work depended on the catch, it began any time between 3 and 7 o’clock in the morning and lasted a few hours, a whole day, or sometimes on into the evening. Of the 544 working children under 16 years of age included in the study, more than three-fifths worked whenever the factory was open. The others worked only occasionally or before and after school and on Saturdays. The majority of the children-334 of the 544 who worked-were under the age of 14 years, the minimum fixed by both of the Federal laws. Some were as young as six years of age or under.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1902: Found Speaking in Streator, Illinois, at Celebration of Eight-Hour Work Day

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Elect Labor Reps, Streator IL Dly Prs p1, Apr 3, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 9, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1902
Found Speaking in Streator, Illinois, at Celebration of Eight-Hour Day

From the Streator Daily Free Press of April 2, 1902:

EIGHT-HOUR WORK DAY.
———-
Various Labor Unions Are Celebrating
Its Fifth Anniversary.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

The fifth anniversary of the establishment of the eight-hour work day in Streator is being celebrated here today, and an excellent program has been prepared for the occasion by the committee having the affair in charge. Owing to the very disagreeable weather the attendance from the surrounding towns is not as large as was hoped for, although there is a goodly sprinkling of visitors in the city, many of them coming in on the noon trains to hear the addresses in the opera house this afternoon by a number of distinguished speakers.

Among these are “Mother” Jones, of Pennsylvania, and she entertained a constant stream of callers at the Plumb House this morning…..

—————

[Photograph added]

From the Streator Daily Free Press of April 3, 1902:

CELEBRATION A SUCCESS.
———-
Large Audience Hear Addresses
by Good Speakers.
———-

Mr. Chipperfield Talks Against Convict Labor-“Mother” Jones Tells of Conditions in West Virginia, and What Must Be Done There-Secretary Ryan Says Illinois Miners Can Expect No Increase in Scale Until West Virginia is Brought Into Line.

———-

When our report of the celebration of the eight-hour day anniversary closed yesterday Mr. Chipperfield, of Canton Ill., was speaking. He said that great problems confronted the United Mine Workers organization. Among those were the Chinese and convict labor questions. The Chinese exclusion bills should receive the hearty support of the organization. and it should see that the congressmen from this state voted for them. Convict contract labor is also a menace to free labor, and the constitution is violated when such contracts are entered into…..

The speaker closed with a eulogy of the organization, and when the applause ceased the chairman introduced “Mother Jones, who was given a most cordial welcome. She is a gray-haired woman of probably fifty years of age, and is possessed of a fire and spirit which makes her a power among the men in whose cause she is a timeless worker.

“Mother” Jones said that there was one great problem to be settled today, and that was the labor problem. It was an old one, and efforts had been made in olden times to settle it. Labor had always made the advancing step to better conditions. It had lined up its army time and again, and although the arm of the government had been against it in many ways, labor had marched on and upward until the time had come to settle the question forever.

The declaration of independence was the opening wedge to labor. If any class is entitled to enjoy the luxuries of life, it is the laboring class, for it makes them all. If it was not for labor there would be no luxuries. She told of the awful condition prevailing in the mining districts in West Virginia. where men and children work ten, twelve and fourteen hours in the mines, and the scale was a low one. It was that field which made it impossible for the miners of other states to get the scale increased, as the operators there can sell coal so much cheaper than the operators of Illinois. Now, said the speaker, if you will furnish ammunition we will make the fight and bring the miners up with you.

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We Never Forget: Mother’s Day 2022: “Suffer the Little Children”-Mother Jones on the Evils of Child Labor in America

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones on the Evils of Child Labor in America

From the Social Democratic Herald of March 9, 1901

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

From Pennsylvania’s Carbondale Leader of November 30, 1900:

Quote Mother Jones Children Suffer PA Silk Mills, Cdale Ldr p6, Nov 30, 1900

From the International Socialist Review of March 1901:

Quote Mother Jones re Child Labor AL 1896, ISR p539, Mar 1901

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of May 11, 1901:

Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation: Photograph by Lewis Hine of Young Spinner Shows “Toiling Childhood”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 6, 1912
Photograph by Lewis Hine of Young Spinner: “Toiling Childhood”

From The Coming Nation of May 4, 1912:

Toiling Childhood, Girl Spinner, Cmg Ntn Cv, May 4, 1912

November 1908, Vivian Cotton Mills, Cherryville, North Carolina
Young Spinner by Lewis Hine for National Child Labor Committee:

Young Girl Spinner, Cherryville NC by Lewis Hine, Nov 1908

“Spinner in Vivian Cotton Mills, Cherryville, N.C. Been at it 2 years. Where will her good looks be in ten years?”

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Hellraisers Journal: Children Working in the Textile Mills of Lawrence, Mass., Must Pay the Bosses for a Drink of Water

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 31, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Child Workers Must Pay Boss for Drink of Water

From The Coming Nation of March 30, 1912:

CRTN Lawrence MA Child Textile Worker Pays for Water, Cmg Ntn p16, Mar 30, 1912

“Do you have to pay for drinking water in the mills?”
“Yes. Every two weeks I pay ten cents.”
(Excerpt from the statement of a child worker in the mills at Lawrence before the House Committee on Rules in Washington.) – Kansas City Post.

———-

[Detail:]

CRTN Detail Lawrence MA Child Textile Worker Pays for Water, Cmg Ntn p16, Mar 30, 1912

“Drop a nickel in the slot for a drink water.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood with Child Strikers of Lawrence, Mass: Joseph Stefanck, James George and James Marzur

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote BBH Dream of One Big Union, Bst Glb p4, Jan 24, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 30, 1912
Child Strikers of Lawrence, Massachusetts, with Big Bill Haywood

From the Waxahachie Daily Light (Texas) of March 23, 1912:

BBH w Child Strikers of Lawrence, Waxahachie Dly Lt p6, Mar 23, 1912—–

In furtherance of the plans by which money is raised for the benefit of the striking textile workers of Lawrence, Mass, mass meetings are being held in various cities. These gatherings are addressed by representatives of the strikers, and delegations of the younger operatives also participate. The figure at the right in the illustration is William D. Haywood, who is acting in an advisory capacity to the strikers. The boys, mill workers who appeared before the congressional investigatory at Washington as well as at New York and other mass meetings, are, from left to right Joseph Stefanck, James George and James Marzur.

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Hellraisers Journal: Child Strikers at Washington, D. C.; Harvard University Sends Bayonets to Crush Lawrence Strike

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journals – Sunday March 24, 1912
Lawrence Child Strikers at Washington; Harvard Bayonets at Lawrence

From The Coming Nation of March 23, 1912:

Lawrence Child Strikers at WDC, Cmg Ntn p16, Mar 23, 1912

—–

Harvard Bayonets v Strikers by R Walker, Cmg Ntn p15, Mar 23, 1912

“Higher Education” by Ryan Walker

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Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Go to Washington to Tell Their Stories before House Rules Committee

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 8, 1912
Children of Lawrence Strikers Appear before House Committee at Washington

From The Washington Times of March 2, 1912:

Lawrence Strikes bf Hse Com Liss Sanger Teoli, WDC Tx p1, Mar 2, 1912
[Inset: Miss Tema Camitta, Philadelphia Sunday School Teacher.]

From the Washington Evening Star of March 2, 1912:

Child Tells Her Story.

There was Camello [Camella] Teoli, a little Italian girl, who stood up when she was told and who said she was sixteen years old, although she didn’t look it. She started to work in the spinning room of one of the American Woolen Company’s mills in Lawrence two years ago and three weeks later had her hair caught in a shafting and her scalp torn off, just as did Miss Houghton, at the census office, more than twelve months ago. But little Camello Teoli was the oldest of seven children and, with her father, the support of the family.

She earned several dollars a week when “speeded up,” and her father, when he was lucky, made seven. She is still under treatment as a result of the horrible accident of which she was a victim, but lately has been working just the same, she said, for her father has been on “slack time” and has been making $2.80 a week.

There were other children there, too, who, while they showed no scars, looked even to the untrained eye as if they had been “speeded up” beyond the limit of juvenile endurance.

Cheeks sallow, lips pinched and eyes that seemed to have looked upon all the misery of the world, the children sat unmoved throughout the hearing, presented by Mr. Berger as an exhibit of what “one of the most highly protected industries in America does to the human life by which it is served,” as he declared.

The children, with several adult strikers as guardians, and accompanied by George W. Roewer, the Boston attorney, who has defended in court the strikers arrested in Lawrence, reached Washington last night several hours behind schedule time, and were met at the Union station were escorted to the accommodations that had been provided for them by a big crowd of local socialists and labor sympathizers. All of the Lawrence delegation wore little cards, bearing the inscription “Don’t be a scab,” and although weary from their journey, marched to their lower Pennsylvania avenue hotel singing and cheering.

Today they marched to the Capitol in the same way, and outside of the House building had to run the fire of a battery of cameras and moving picture machines stationed right outside of the entrance.

[Note: Camella Teoli was introduced to the Committee on March 2nd. She made her full statement before the Committee on March 4th.]

[Emphasis added.]

———-

Lawrence Strikers Children, WDC Eve Str p2, Mar 2, 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones on Preachers and Miners; Arrives in Wise County, Virginia, to Death Threat

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Mine Supe Bulldog of Capitalism—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 3, 1902
Mother Jones Describes Conditions for Coal Miners in Old Virginia

From The International Socialist Review of February 1902:

Coal Miners of The Old Dominion.
———-

[-by Mother Jones]

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

A FEW Sundays ago I attended church in a place called McDonald, on Loop Creek, in West Virginia. In the course of his sermon the preacher gave the following as a conversation that had recently taken place between him and a miner.

“I met a man last week,” said the preacher, “who used to be a very good church member. When I asked him what he was doing at the present time he said that he was organizing his fellow craftsmen of the mines.”

Then according to the preacher the following discussion took place:

“What is the object of such a union?” asked the preacher.
“To better our condition,” replied the miner.
“But the miners are in a prosperous condition now.”
“There is where we differ.”
“Do you think you will succeed?”
“I am going to try.”

Commenting on this conversation to his congregation the preacher said: “Now I question if such a man can meet with any success. If he were only a college graduate he might be able to teach these miners something and in this way give them light, but as the miners of this creek are in a prosperous condition at the present time I do not see what such a man can do for them.”

Yet this man was professing to preach the doctrines of the Carpenter of Nazareth.

Let us compare his condition with that of the “prosperous” miners and perhaps we can see why he talked as he did.

At this same service he read his report for the previous six months. For his share of the wealth these miners had produced during that time he had received $847.67, of which $45 had been given for missionary purposes.

Besides receiving this money he had been frequently wined and dined by the mine operators and probably had a free pass on the railroad.

What had he done for the miners during this time. He had spoken to them twenty-six times, for which he received $32.41 a talk, and if they were all like the one I heard he was at no expense either in time, brains or money to prepare them.

During all this time the “prosperous” miners were working ten hours a day beneath the ground amid poisonous gases and crumbling rocks. If they were fortunate enough to be allowed to toil every working day throughout the year they would have received in return for 3,080 hours of most exhausting toil less than $400.

Jesus, whose doctrines this man claimed to be preaching, took twelve men from among the laborers of his time (no college graduates among them) and with them founded an organization that revolutionized the society amid which it rose. Just so in our day the organization of the workers must be the first step to the overthrow of capitalism.

    *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Then my mind turns to the thousands of “trap boys,” with no sunshine ever coming into their lives. These children of the miners put in 14 hours a day beneath the ground for sixty cents, keeping their lone watch in the tombs of the earth with never a human soul to speak to them. The only sign of life around them is when the mules come down with coal. Then as they open the trap doors to let the mules out a gush of cold air rushes in chilling their little bodies to the bone. Standing in the wet mud up to their knees there are times when they are almost frozen and when at last late at night they are permitted to come out into God’s fresh air they are sometimes so exhausted that they have to be carried to the corporation shack they call a home.

The parents of these boys have known no other life than that of endless toil. Now those who have robbed and plundered the parents are beginning the same story with the present generation. These boys are sometimes not more than 9 or 10 years of age. Yet in the interests of distant bond and stockholders these babes must be imprisoned through the long, beautiful daylight in the dark and dismal caverns of the earth.

Savage cannibals at least put their victim out of his misery before beginning their terrible meal, but the cannibals of to-day feast their poodle dogs at the seashore upon the life blood of these helpless children of the mines. A portion of this bloodstained plunder goes to the support of educational incubators called universities, that hatch out just such ministerial fowls as the one referred to.

The very miner with whom this minister had been talking had been blacklisted up and down the creek for daring to ask for a chance to let his boy go to school instead of into the mines. This miner could have told the minister more about the great industrial tragedy in the midst of which he was living, in five minutes than all his college training had taught him.

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