Ohio Glass Factories Indenture Child Labor

OHIO OBJECTS

To Filling Her Factories With

Brooklyn Children.

The State Inspector Says the St. John's

Asylum Orphans Are Learning Nothing

in the Glass Houses and Are Lodged in

Filthy Rooms.

ALBANY, N. Y., January 5.

The Factory Inspector has received the annual report of Inspector of Workshops Dorn, of Ohio, which is of especial interest this year because of the portions in it devoted to the importation of orphan children from Brooklyn asylums to work in the glass factories of Findlay and Fostoria, O. Mr. Dorn in his report says in an addendum to his report on child labor:

"I have been diligently employed in making additional investigations in the matter of the wholesale shipment of children of a tender age from an orphan asylum in Brooklyn, N. Y., to Ohio to work in glass factories. The demands for child labor in the vicinity of Findlay and Fostoria have absorbed about all the little ones in the district, and the operators of these factories found themselves obliged to hire women to do work which might be performed by boys could they be obtained. Not being able to make suitable terms with individuals or institutions in this State they went to Brooklyn and contracted with the authorities of St. John's Orphan Asylum. Thirty boys were first obtained and brought to Fostoria, where I have been informed, they were housed in a body and taken charge of by a couple of women said to be members of the religious order which controlled the asylum from whence the boys came."

After quoting the letter on this subject from Assistant Factory Inspector of New York John Franey (published in November last) and citing extracts from New York and Brooklyn papers containing interviews with the asylum officials, Inspector Dorn continues:

"From the facts contained in the foregoing it became evident that this State might become the dumping ground of the juvenile institutions of neighboring commonwealths if the experiment started by those factories be successful. I believe that this is neither desired nor likely to be beneficial to the State nor to the children concerned, and the only beneficiaries would be the glass factory owners. Further comment is unnecessary, but the fame of Ohio will be forever tarnished if prompt legislation does not in the future prohibit the establishment of pens of bondage for the waifs of the world. The pretense that the children learn trades in the glass factories is unworthy of credence. The children brought to Fostoria and Findlay could not learn the business of glass-blowing if the proprietors so desired, which they do not. The glassworkers' organization controls the internal government of these shops, and by its rules prohibits any but the sons of glass-blowers from learning the trade, and even limits the number of apprentices. They knock off the rough edges of bottles while heated and carry them to trimming tables. Those boys, as fast as they grow up, will be turned loose without the first rudiments of a trade and younger ones put in their places."

After the issue of his report Inspector Dorn make a personal visit to the glass factories of Findlay and Fostoria. Of the results of his inspection he says that the children brought from Brooklyn are puny and delicate and in his opinion many are under 12 years of age. When questioned all said they were 14 or over, although without exception they were unable to state the year of their birth. This in connection with the statement of interested parties made, that the children were educated and intelligent, led Mr. Dorn to suspect that they had been drilled in the matter of answering age questions. These boys are worked in two shifts of ten hours each. The thirty-one boys working in the Nickel Plate Glass Company's Works at Fostoria are housed in two small cottages just back of the factory. The cottages are new, "but," says Mr. Dorn, "the interior is unclean and unwholesome. The floors are filthy and the sleeping accommodations inadequate. In one room 12 x 14 feet there are four beds occupied by eight boys. Another room 10 x 12 accommodates three beds and six boys." The conditions under which the children serve are their board and clothes for the first six months and $1 per week for the last six months of the year. The money, however, is not paid to the children, and Mr. Dorn was unable to ascertain who gets the proceeds of their labor.

At Findlay the boys were found enjoying better accommodations, although here the sleeping rooms were overcrowded. It is probable that the New York Legislature will be asked to take cognizance of this evil and devise a remedy. The Ohio Legislature has been asked to enact a law to prevent the importation of child labor.