IV—WOMEN WORKERS IN MILLS
Work in the factory is the problem which follows next. The sweatshop work is of great importance. Note how many women are away from home all day; how there is a season of overwork and a dull season without pay; the steady use of the sewing machine, with or without power; the poor ventilation and sanitation of the shops; the dim light, causing loss of eyesight; the fines; the effect of noise and confusion on the nerves of the women; all these are of deep interest. Read from the reports of the National Consumers' League, to be obtained by writing to Mrs. Florence Kelley, 106 East Nineteenth Street, New York, and let the club women decide to insist on the use of the white label on the garments they buy.
The work of manufactories and mills may be divided into as many papers as there is time; there is the work of women in the canneries with its hours of labor and often with night work; the work in mills, the danger from machinery, and the impaired health of employees. Read from "Woman and the Trades" by Elizabeth B. Butler, published by the Russell Sage Foundation, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York. Discuss the condition of women workers in mills and manufactories, and the strength of their children. Where mills are near at hand clubs may find out if the machinery is protected, if there is accident insurance or an employers' liability, and whether there are pensions.
There may be a paper, to close the subject, on strikes of women workers and how much they have accomplished. Read from "Fatigue and Efficiency," by Josephine Goldmark.
V—THE PROBLEM OF CHILD LABOR
The problem of child labor properly comes under the problems of women, for the mother is responsible for the child's health and development. The first topic is that of the child at home who must take the mother's place, do the housework, care for the children, assume the responsibility. What of her health and schooling?
Then there is the child who does paid work at home, extracts nut meats, makes artificial flowers and the like. What of its pay? Is it a fair one? What of the effect of long hours of confinement?
Street occupations come next; these are largely taken by boys, and the work of the newspaper seller, the district messenger, the boot-black, the errand boy, should all be studied. Is their health impaired? Are their morals endangered? Are the boys educated?
The work of children in mills and factories is often most distressing. Conditions in glass factories, mines, canneries, silk mills, in the shrimp industry, and in the Southern cotton mills are all to be studied. Note the great numbers of children so employed: in Pennsylvania in 1914, 33,000; in Massachusetts, 12,000; in North Carolina, 10,000, and in other States large numbers. Discuss the future of such children. Compare the work of bound-out children on farms and in the country generally. Read Mrs. Browning's "Cry of the Children" and E. K. Coulter's "Children in the Shadow."
One meeting should take up the laws of the State on child labor. See "Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation," by Mrs. Florence Kelley, which gives valuable material on this point, and a pamphlet by Josephine Goldmark, called "Child Labor Legislation," published by the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia. The Child Labor Committee at 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York, will send pamphlets free of charge.