Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying CheapRoss, J. Elliot (John Elliot)
Philosophy
Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying Cheap
Ross, J. Elliot (John Elliot)
Consumers -- United States; Wages; Wages -- United States
Elsewhere, the process of manufacture often vitiates the air, as the
"blow-over" in bottle shops. "In some factories, at times the air is so
full of this floating glass that the hair is whitened by merely passing
through the room. It sticks to the perspiration on the face and arms of
the boys and men and becomes a source of considerable irritation.
Getting into the eyes it is especially troublesome" (l. c., p. 66).
Something similar occurs in etching glass by a sand-blast. Unless a
hood and exhaust are provided, a pressure of from fifty to ninety pounds
scatters fine sand and glass dust through the air and is breathed in by
the operator (l. c., p. 440). Even worse, however, is the acid etching,
as the fumes of hydrochloric acid cause severe irritation to the throat
and lungs (l. c., p. 442).
Even when there is no such irritant in the air as just mentioned,
extreme differences in temperature between the work-room and the
outside, or between various parts of the shop, may be a source of
serious danger to health. In the glass industry, many persons have to
work in temperatures ranging from ninety to one hundred and forty
degrees, and as high as fifty degrees above the outside air (l. c., p.
75). Industries where an artificial humidity is required, such as silk,
cotton and flax spinning, are likely to induce rheumatism, pleurisy,
etc. After working ten hours in a room filled with live steam to prevent
breaking of threads, to pass into a New England blizzard is apt to
produce serious results. The boys in bottle-making shops are obliged to
pass continually from a temperature of 140 degrees at the "glory-hole"
to one of 90 degrees or less in other parts (l. c., pp. 49ff.).
And even if conditions of atmosphere and ventilation are good, the mere
fact of continuing work for thirteen hours seven days a week tells
seriously upon the physical endurance of the strongest.[68] When night
work is required in addition to the day's labor, as in the glass
industry, the consequences are likely to be worse, especially where
children are concerned.[69] Night work frequently means a presence in
the factory of at least twenty hours out of the twenty-four. "During the
course of the investigation there were found two cases of recent death,
both children, which could be directly attributed to exhaustion due to
double-shift work in the furnace room" (l. c., p. 122).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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