Child Labor Plagues Factories
A look behind the closed doors of today's factories
A World We've Never Known
The factories here now in 1902 are the greatest part of were we get our domestic products, mills were we get our clothing, mines were we get coal to power our trains, and the streets were we find the news. Though these seemingly simple places have no dark secrets, there is one, many of those factories employ children, children as young as 7. They work for long hours many from six in the morning to seven in the night, eleven hours, all for pay as little as 48 cents. Children working in mills trying not to slip and fall on the dirty floor, children so small they have to climb up onto the machines to repair broken needles, risking there small lives to change a bobbin, choking on the dust filled air. Young boys going down in to depths of mines just to achieve meager pay, risking their lives in dark mines were the sun itself cannot reach, coming our with faces caked with coal dust. The boys on the street who sell the day's news, probably who you got this paper from, that is their only way to help support their families. Young boys work in factories breathing the saw dust and mold growing them, risking cutting their finger off to make chair, stuck in filthy places were rats swarm on the floor, all for something as little and 50 cents. This is not right, it shall never be right to endanger a child's life in order to get the things we need. This must stop and it can, if we just push for it, no child should have to risk their lives in factory,mill, or mine, nor send long days in the freezing cold, pouring rain, or immense heat to sell a news paper.
" Just Happened in "
A small girl who " just happened in" to the factory
Back in again
Michael, 8, just recovered from his second attack of pneumonia back again selling papers
Driver Boy
A driver boy, driving one year, face caked with coal dust