Woman Triumphant: The story of her struggles for freedom, education and political rights.: Dedicated to all noble-minded women by an appreciative member of the other sex.Cronau, Rudolf
History
Woman Triumphant: The story of her struggles for freedom, education and political rights.: Dedicated to all noble-minded women by an appreciative member of the other sex.
Cronau, Rudolf
Women -- History
Since the founding of this world’s union the movement has extended over
many countries and has branched out into a multitude of organizations.
Their influence has been widely felt in legislatures, and in all
elections in which laws have been voted upon for the regulation of the
production and sale of liquors.—
Another question in which women are deeply concerned is that of
=Child-labor=, the reckless exploitation of children in the interest of
industry. Evidences that in England the dreadful abuses, committed by
unscrupulous mine- and factory-owners, as described in a former chapter,
have continued to the present times, were submitted to the International
Women’s Congress, held in 1899 in London. It was reported that at that
time 144,026 children below the age of 12 years were employed in
workshops, mines, factories and warehouses. Of these children 131 had
not yet reached the age of 7 years; 1120 were under 8; 4211 under 9;
11,027 under 10, and 122,131 under 11 years of age. Miss Montessori, the
Italian delegate to the Congress, described the hard work of the
children employed in the sulphur mines of Sicily. As they have to carry
heavy loads on their shoulders through low gangways and over steep
ladders and stairways, they are compelled to walk in a stooped position,
and therefore in time become deformed and crippled.
In the United States the question of child-labor is likewise a matter of
deep concern to men as well as to women. As every State has its own
Legislature, there exists a varied assortment of child-labor laws. Ten
or fifteen years ago several states had none whatever. Others prohibited
the employment of children under ten years, while still others had an
age limit of twelve or fourteen years. The same diversity prevailed in
regard to the hours of labor. Some states had no legislation in this
direction, while others forbade any child to work longer than ten hours
daily.
During the year 1890 there was a total of 860,786 children between the
ages of ten and fifteen years at work in various occupations in the
United States. A report of the Bureau of Mines of Pennsylvania for 1901
stated 24,023 of the employees of the anthracite coal mines in
Pennsylvania were children.
In 1918 investigators of the children’s bureau of the Department of
Labor reported that the number of minors employed in factories, mines
and quarries has increased at a rapid rate since the U. S. Supreme
Court, on June 5th, 1918, nullified the child-labor act of 1916 as
unconstitutional. Not only are a greatly increased number of children
employed, but they are kept at work longer hours than before. Since the
future of such children as well as the future of the country depend to a
very great extent upon what legislators do in regard to children, it is
obvious that women are deeply concerned in this question.—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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